Alison Brie has spoken about how her work on Netflix wrestling drama GLOW changed her career.
Speaking to Consequence, the actress – who previously starred in Mad Men and Community, and contributed voice acting to BoJack Horseman and The Lego Movie – said her experience on the show proved hugely inspirational, not least the opportunity to witness “so many women working in so many different creative capacities” on set.
“One of the great joys of working with [co-creators] Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, who I got to work with on GLOW, is getting to be really steeped in feminism at all times, and looking at things through that lens to a degree that I hadn’t before, or maybe don’t all the time. And it’s really fun,” Brie explained.
“I think that it’s been really empowering, the experience of working with them, and I so admire their commitment to telling stories like this and to making them insanely entertaining.”
The 39-year-old praised the stories on the show for being both feminist and “incredibly fun”.
“They’re funny,” she said. “There’s a lot of magical realism at play. There’s all different genres. There’s horror. I think that they’re just so good at finding ways to suck an audience in and then hit them over the head with that feminist punch right there at the end.
“But it certainly is constantly broadening my own perspective on my experiences as a woman. And I hope that that people take that away from this show.”
Brie also spoke about how the experience affected the way she approached her own projects.
“The way that I build a crew and surround myself with more women on the other side of the camera – it just emboldened me as a person,” she added. “The experience of shooting GLOW was really empowering and inspiring, to watch so many women working in so many different creative capacities.”
The actress had previously shared her hopes for a GLOW movie to wrap up the show’s story, though admitted it may be unlikely.
GLOW was cancelled by Netflix in 2020, with the streaming service citing the coronavirus crisis for their decision.
Brie is set to star in new Apple TV+ series Roar, which will see her reunited with Flahive and Mensch, as she leads one episode of the anthology series they created based on Cecelia Ahern’s book.
