Executive producer Simone Finch (The Conners) drew on her personal battle with alcoholism when creating the new comedy Single Drunk Female, debuting on Freeform on January 20, 2022. The half-hour comedy follows Samantha (Sofia Black-D’Elia), a 20-something with a drinking problem and a life that’s falling apart. Samantha’s just lost her job at a New York media company as the series kicks off, and that’s just the beginning of her problems. She’s forced to move back in with her mom (Ally Sheedy) and her new job at a grocery store is definitely not as glamourous as writing quizzes for a popular media outlet.
During Freeform’s 2022 virtual Television Critics Association (TCA) panel, creator/executive producer Finch said she began writing Single Drunk Female in 2012 before she got sober. “And then I got sober, and then I realized it was about a girl getting sober,” explained Finch. “So, I feel like this is a…I call it a kind of a living script. It sort of evolved as I got more sober, and that’s really how it started.”
Cast members Sofia Black-D’Elia and Ally Sheedy also took part in the virtual panel along with executive producer Jenni Konner and executive producer Daisy Gardner.
Black-D’Elia recently starred in the comedy series The Mick opposite Kaitlin Olson who played her character’s out of control, hard-partying aunt. Asked if she picked up any tips from Olson about playing drunk, Black-D’Elia replied, “I am not the smartest person in the world, but I am smart enough to know that there is only one Kaitlin Olson and trying to do anything that she does is a losing battle.”
Discussing how she approached her character, Black-D’Elia said, “I just played the truth and honesty in all of it. And sometimes it felt really sad and dark, and sometimes it felt really funny and weird and bizarre. I think that’s because Simone really grounded this story in her own experiences and in truth. So, yeah, I don’t know that I was really going for, like, the funny version of sobriety or anything like that. I just wanted it to feel real.”
The dysfunctional relationship between Samantha and her mother is exacerbated when she loses her New York apartment and has to return to her mom’s house while attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and working on getting sober. Black-D’Elia said she loves the relationship between Sam and her mom and enjoys working with Ally Sheedy.
“To me, [their relationship] is the heart of the series. It’s complicated and funny and weird and nuanced in a way that I think any girl with a mother can understand and relate to,” said Black-D’Elia. “It’s really fun doing it with Ally.”
“It’s very fluid and messy, which is what I love. I love Sofia. So, going to work every day was an absolute joy, and this was an easy relationship for us to mess around with,” said Sheedy. “I just like that it’s messy and that Sam is going to come back and live in the house with me, but I don’t want this AA on me. Do you know what I mean? I don’t want it to be I can’t have wine in the house – I can’t drink my wine. She’s not going to come change my life and my habits. That’s where my head is with that.”
Ally Sheedy says how Carol handles Samantha’s problems and the dynamic of having her daughter move back in is interesting to play. “I think, if a family member or anybody that you are really close to makes an enormous change in their life, it’s going to affect you, right? So, as Carol, I don’t know that I trust any of this. She’s come back. She’s a disaster. I just got my house back to myself. I don’t want to take care of anybody anymore. Here she is, and the whole thing is, yeah, I think it does put me back on my heels, and everything about her does make me have to look at myself. But the fun thing about playing with Carol is I also fight against that. It bothers me that that process is part of the process. I didn’t ask for it. So, there’s, an inner kind of conflict going on with that,” explained Sheedy.
Although Single Drunk Female is a comedy, Black-D’Elia said that as the season goes on, Samantha will take her AA meetings and journey toward sobriety more seriously.
“I think she tries to, especially as the series goes on and she starts to rebuild her life and it starts working for her. I think Sam is the kind of person that probably has a hard time taking a lot of things seriously. So, I think that in and of itself is a huge side of growth for her. But within the AA world, there’s also a lot of comedy, mostly just because our cast is really funny, I think,” said Black-D’Elia.
And speaking of taking things seriously, executive producer Daisy Gardner said they strive to be respectful of AA and alcoholism. “I would say, first and foremost, we are trying to tell the story of one amazing character through the lens and the voice that Simone gave us, and everything comes from a real experience and comes from that authenticity. We have checks in place. Every script goes through an alcohol consultant, a sobriety consultant, and we have discussions about it,” revealed Gardner.
Gardner continued: “And [Simone] had the gratitude and the responsibility that people feel towards a program that helps them. We are incredibly respectful. There’s a center to it and everything else can be funny, but we want to respect sobriety.”
The sobriety consultant provided input into specific topics, including dating and romance while battling alcoholism.
“There’s nothing written about the first year not dating. It’s kind of an unwritten rule, and a lot of people take it really seriously. And so, there was some back and forth about that,” explained Finch, crediting AA with saving her life and calling it the most important thing she’s ever done.
“A lot of times people recommend that you are sober for a year and a day before you launch into things, and so that became a thing that we examined in the show,” added Gardner.
