Meg Stalter On ‘Cora Bora’, ‘Hacks’ & Characters “Losing Their Minds”

From social media to the big screen, Meg Stalter is peeling back her many layers as she marks her first starring role in Cora Bora.

The Ohio-born actress recently opened up about her “sweet and rewarding” part in writer Rhianon Jones and director Hannah Pearl Utt‘s new comedy-drama, which premiered at SXSW last year, as well as her journey from social media phenom to Hacks breakout and beyond.

“I think my comedy translates well to this movie because it’s a character who’s kind of losing their mind but trying to pretend like they’re not,” Stalter tells Deadline. “And that’s like a lot of the people I like to play outside of the movie. So, it kind of works.”

She stars as the titular Cora, a struggling musician who puts her career on hold to return home and win back her girlfriend Justine (Jojo T. Gibbs), who has fallen for another woman amid their open relationship. Meanwhile, Cora has to reckon with her past mistakes and the person she wants to be.

After coming up in the Chicago improv scene, Stalter’s bold and awkward sense of comedy quickly drew an online following during the pandemic. Fans of her social media videos continue to greet each other every Pride Month with a “hi gay” in reference to one of her most beloved sketches.

Stalter has since found her breakout role as the hilariously inappropriate, yet loyal manager’s assistant Kayla on Max’s Emmy and Golden Globe-winning comedy series Hacks. Audiences have watched the character grow and continue to serve laughs with an endearing human side, alongside co-star Paul W. Downs (who co-created the show with partner Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky).

“Everyone on the show is just so amazing that it always feels like summer camp when we’re there,” she muses. “Some of the emotional stuff with those characters, it’s so funny because they’re so wacky and crazy, but I actually feel really emotional about them and their friendship.”

In addition to Hacks, Stalter has been busy with roles in the recent Queer as Folk reboot, as well as movies like Problemista, First Time Female Director, Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain and Sometimes I Think About Dying.

Following the premiere of Cora Bora, Deadline spoke with Stalter about the movie and her journey from social media sensation to leading lady.

DEADLINE: Tell me about your journey from improv to online videos to TV and now your first starring movie role.

MEGAN STALTER: I always loved performing, so I always was making home videos and stuff, and I always was trying to be in the school play. I took an improv class in Ohio and was like, “I really want to perform.” … And it was all for me to get back into it after going to community college for different weird stuff. I moved to Chicago and spent probably seven years there learning to do improv and doing stand-up and performing as much as possible. And then I moved to New York for a little bit and I think around right before I moved from Chicago, I started putting some stuff online. I have this fake talk show called The Megan Stalter Show that I filmed in Chicago that I put online, which I think helped me get a manager. And then when I was in New York, I was performing every other night. And I think that’s around the time I started doing the front-facing videos. There were a couple that took off a little bit and a clip of me onstage took off a little bit and I was like, “Oh, we could just put stuff online.” And everyone was doing that and then the pandemic [happened]. And then I actually did audition for Hacks, I think it was pre-pandemic. It was in New York, it was a self-tape. It was really badly shot. Like, it was really blurry, bad video. I’m not good at audition videos. I could perform the performance but I’m not good at filming them. I think I’ve gotten better now but I was bad at the time of filming the video. My brother was filming it, dogs were barking, I had a weird outfit on. But then I met Paul at a stand-up show and we hit it off, and I think that helped me a bit. Hacks was my first TV job. I think Hannah, the director of Cora, she emailed me a really beautiful letter to do the movie and I just loved her. I think she just saw my stuff online and from Hacks and I just fell so in love with her.

You’re so good at improvising these awkward situations in your videos which I noticed a bit of that in the movie as well. How did you translate your form of comedy to this character?

I think I’ve been really lucky to be able to improv in a lot of my jobs. I don’t think I’ve been in anything where they were, like, “Please don’t at all!” And I think when I came onto Hacks, them being so open to me improving with Paul has made me really confident to do that in other spaces. I think before I was like, “Oh, I love to improv. I wonder if they do this when they film.” I always wondered if this is improv when I’m watching TV. … And I just got lucky being able to do that on my first job. So now I’m confident to go into a job. … And I’m lucky to get such amazing scripts that I don’t need to improvise. It’s just fun when you get to do both, and Hannah right away was so down for us to improv. The script was so funny and good, and there’s so many awkward moments already in the script that it was a smooth transition into improv-ing some of those beats, and everyone that we worked with was so good at it. I think my comedy translates well to this movie because it’s a character who’s kind of losing their mind but trying to pretend like they’re not. And that’s like a lot of the people I like to play outside of the movie. So, it kind of works.

And you also get to do some drama. What was that like for you to get to explore that kind of performance?

I always wanted to be an actor when I was little. So, it was really cool to be able to do something more serious combined with the comedy. I’m very sensitive and dramatic, so I think it was fun, but also you do feel kind of weird the rest of the day when you do a heavier scene. I mean, I think now I’m probably better at brushing it off, but I think you still kind of get in weird moods sometimes but it’s because it’s coming from somewhere. And I thought it was really fun to be able to explore that and especially with this, I think it was fun to do such a crazy bratty character being more vulnerable. And it also, I think allowed forgiveness for some of the mean stuff she does, to have those sweeter scenes. I love this character so much, and we always say, “Somebody has a Cora or they are a Cora.” And so it was easy to love this character, and then to be able to play the vulnerable stuff was really sweet and rewarding.

I also loved the Riot Grrrl inspo. What was the prep like for the musical aspect of the role?

You know, I’m kind of a nervous singer, unless I’m singing on stage as a joke, like karaoke. So I was a little bit nervous. And Miya Folick did all the music and she’s just so amazing and she helped me so much. We had to go back and sing over some of the stuff and she was showing me how to — she’s a really good music teacher, as well as a musician. She’s incredible. I also took some guitar lessons and I’ve always wanted to play an instrument. When I was growing up, I would ask for a new instrument every Christmas and then never play, [I was] not musically inclined. But it was really exciting to finally get to actually learn something on the guitar. But it was also really nerve wracking, and in the last scene that you see, I cried that day because there were so many extras that were just probably bored waiting, and then I’m so used to live performing getting a reaction that I was like, “Oh my gosh, I think they’re bored out there and I can’t get the song.” It’s a really hard song on the guitar. And Hannah’s like, “It’s ok. They’re fine. Everyone’s fine. No one’s bored and it doesn’t matter, everyone’s just hanging out.” And I just feel so sensitive, like it’s nerve-wracking to sing in front of extras that, they’re not bored, but they’ve been there a long time. And it makes sense, they’re not like waiting to see a show. They’re acting. So, I had to play the guitar and that one was really hard, and so they of course, had to play over my hands, but I needed to move my hand. So it looked like I was playing. I am playing the notes, they just don’t sound amazing. That’s what they had to play over. But I knew technically how to do it.

Also, I loved getting to see Kayla on Hacks this season just really spread her wings. How has it been growing with that character over the past few seasons?

I love Paul and Lucia and Jen and Hannah [Einbinder]. And everyone on the show is just so amazing that it always feels like summer camp when we’re there. Some of the emotional stuff with those characters, it’s so funny because they’re so wacky and crazy, but I actually feel really emotional about them and their friendship. It’s really easy to cry with Paul in that elevator scene because they love each other. So she loves Jimmy so much and she just wants to be told that she’s doing a good job and I think it’s interesting to start off as a character that’s very just slapstick, really funny, like hard comedy, and see more layers to her every season. I feel like by the third season, there was so much there that I didn’t even realize, emotionally, because she is just so funny and crazy. But I feel like when you’ve done multiple seasons, and especially when a lot of your storyline is this deep friendship or needing something from this person that he is kind of annoyed by you, there was so much there for those sentimental scenes. And it really makes me like cry. … it’s really interesting to feel so many feelings for someone that’s just such a bad manager’s assistant. 

Hacks is such a great representation of Hollywood and the comedy industry. Have you noticed anything from that show to be particularly true about your experience in the industry?

That’s such a good question. I always think what to me rings so true about the show is that what it really is about is people and friendship. And as much as this stuff feels so intense and so important, what’s real to me is people and your friendship and your family, and none of the other stuff matters. So that’s what rings true to me. I do always get emotional over Jean [Smart’s] speech in the first season where she’s talking about how you have to claw your way to the top. I think it makes me emotional because… it takes a lot of you believing in yourself. That’s what makes me emotional and ring true. But it’s interesting that the show sort of explores what somebody would give up to make it and what you give up by putting yourself first at times. I think that I have seen that ring true for people, you’re sacrificing so much. But for me, what I know to really care about and I just will never change is that people and my friends and my family and God, are the only things that really matter to me, and everything else is just fun. I’m so lucky to get to perform and I’ll always be performing either online or in my room or doing plays. But I think during the pandemic, I was like, “Oh yeah, even if I’m just at home alone, I’m still gonna perform. It’s so fun.” So, I was really just doing that for me cause I just like doing it. So I think that a lot of people sacrifice a lot and they forget that. It’s not important with this industry.

And I know Pride Month is over, but I just have to ask, how does it feel seeing “Hi, Gay” come back every year like this LGBTQ rallying call?

It is so crazy because at first, it feels like, “Oh yeah, that’s from the video.” And now, it almost feels like a different thing in a cool way of like, it’s everybody. If I see it on a shirt or something, I don’t always think about the video but then I’m like, “Oh right. It came from that video.” It’s really crazy and it’s interesting to see it change every year. I think last year, there were so many videos of that same joke, about different stores and stuff. And this year, it feels like the stores aren’t even doing it. It feels like Target took a different take on pride merch this year. It’s just really interesting how it changes but whenever I hear it, it’s so crazy to me.