An old Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue interview with the irresistibly charming Julia Roberts and George Clooney has been circulating online over the last few weeks. “Stars,” the general commentary goes, “they just don’t make them like that anymore!” And in many ways, that’s true: the wit, glamour, and sense of ease projected by Hollywood A-Listers seems to have largely come to a halt in the mid-to-late aughts. Celebrity now means a mix of Instagram influencers-turned-actors, children of stars turned stars, Disney Channel converts, and British thespians on dramatic miniseries. Where is the lighthearted fun and beauty of the Clooneys and Robertses, Denzels and Angelinas, Hugh Grants and Emma Thompsons? Has an industry so committed to exclusion somehow dug its own grave when it comes to genuine starpower?
Enter comedian Rose Matafeo, the 29-year-old star and creator of Starstruck—a show that both examines the absence of wit in big-budget Hollywood and makes an undeniable argument for the elusive, ineffable charm that dazzles onscreen. Matafeo plays Jessie, a tall, irreverent, and obstinate Kiwi expat working two annoying jobs, at a cinema and as a nanny, in London. On New Year’s Eve, she goes home with a very wry and attractive young Englishman, who turns out to be the terribly famous—and professionally unsatisfied—actor Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel). A riff on the beloved film Notting Hill, the show, which premiered in the U.S. on HBO Max on June 10 (and has already been renewed for a second season), insists on the power of a shared sense of humor to carry the romcom into fresh emotional territory.
As Jessie, Matafeo is both hilarious and unknowable. Rather than taking on the extremely confessional mode of recent prestige comedy series like Fleabag or Ramy, Starstruck’s first season leaves plenty unsaid. As a viewer, you are wooed, wanting to know more about the characters while simultaneously developing a strong allegiance to them. Jessie’s outrageously emphatic best friend and roommate Kate (Emma Sidi) provides endless high energy entertainment, unable to contain her excitement about Tom’s presence (however indirectly) in her life. She gives what Jessie—who leads a somewhat aimless existence in a country she’s not from—withholds. Minnie Driver makes a thrilling cameo as Tom’s flagrantly money-hungry agent, who warns him against dating a “civilian”—not because he’s too good for it, but because the celebrity life is unbearable for, ahem, normal people. What ensues is a series of missed connections between Jessie and Tom, punctuated by an indefatigable giddiness and sense of longing. Will they or won’t they?
Starstruck shows us that the kind of charm we’re craving from Hollywood doesn’t necessarily have to come in familiar modes, nor does it need to cleverly break every rule in the book. Matafeo makes a joke of her ordinariness as well as her particularity. Before we even meet Tom, we understand why someone “like him” (chiseled, rich) would be interested in someone “like her” (eats bread, broke). Jessie has the kind of doesn’t-need-to-be-explained magnetism of an exciting person; she’s fully present in her body and running laps around her own mind. Tom’s drawn to someone not made of the movies, but more compellingly and immediately, of life. In fact, the bigger question of Starstruck is this: why would Jessie date this absurdly famous actor?
She doesn’t seem wholly convinced by the lure of his lifestyle, though their chemistry is undeniable. Jessie is used to sleeping with men who are unfunny or servile, while she is anything but. Tom has a quietly sharp sense of humor and, by definition, independence. To take on this love affair, Jessie would have to believe she is worthy not merely of attention, but of mutuality. It’s a question that permeates her life—how long can she stay at a slightly ironic remove from everything and everyone? When will she have to begin showing up fully as herself?
It’s the kind of high-wire act we demand of popular actors, who need to play a fantasy while embodying authenticity. Starstruck shows us how the workings of the movie biz can deny a working actor of real intimacy, while a sense of whimsy, or illogic, might reward those of us who think we know how every story’s going to turn out. It’s both the romcom we asked for, and the one we deserve.
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