Starstruck is a refreshing riff on Notting Hill and Hollywood stardom

Vanity Fair

Rose Matafeo's new HBO Max comedy, which she created and stars in, is 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," says Cassie Da Costa. "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." ALSO: Rose Matafeo is excited to see the romcom genre break out of its "deeply white, heteronormative genre."