Adina Porter and Jason Mantzoukas Talk ‘Paper Girls’ [Interview]

Prime Video’s upcoming show Paper Girls, based on the best-selling graphic novels written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang, tells the story of four 12-year-old girls who must work together to find their way back home after being transported to another time. 

Making that task more difficult is a militant faction of time-travelers known as the Old Watch, who have outlawed time travel so that they can stay in power. On the show, Adina Porter plays Prioress and Jason Mantzoukas plays Grandfather. 

I recently spoke with Porter and Mantzoukas during a press junket to learn more about their time-traveling characters and what drew them to the story. (You can watch the full interview below.)

For Mantzoukas, it was sharing the Paper Girls comic with a friend that led to him being involved.

“When they started to put the show together, I had given the books to my friend Ali Wong, who’s another comedian who’s also in the show,” Mantzoukas said. “She was like, ‘they’re talking to me about doing Paper Girls, I think I’m going to do it.’”

Then Wong told Mantzoukas he should play Grandfather (the actor and character have an uncanny resemblance). Mantzoukas reached out to his agent about seeing if the show would be interested and ended up getting the part. 

Porter, on the other hand, was not familiar with the story beforehand and said she tried to not do too much research before the audition so she didn’t get nervous about matching the source material. 

Watch the interview with Adina Porter and Jason Mantzoukas about Paper Girls:

After getting the part she allowed herself to dive into the comics and the character’s story.

“Once I found out all the different twists and turns she gets to play, I was excited and thrilled for the challenge.”

Porter shared she even went to a comic book store in Los Angeles to buy the comic to do her due diligence.

Although the characters are at odds with the girls in the story, there is more to them than meets the eye.

“I think even though, certainly, Grandfather is framed as an antagonist, I loved in all the scenes with the Paper Girls he’s trying to get along with them and befriend them and talk to them as equals and human beings.”

“And there’s something really wonderful about an antagonist who isn’t just like a mustache-twirling villain,” Mantzoukas added. 

Porter explained that Prioress’s complexity is something the character has in common with her previous roles. 

“You think you know one thing about her and then you’re surprised, which is what I always try to do with the characters that I play.”

Even with the time travel elements, Paper Girls is a relatable coming-of-age story. 

“It’s also set in the backdrop of this kind of incredible epic time-travel war between warring factions to control the timeline. And all this hard sci-fi backdrop for what is ostensibly a story about growing up and leaving behind childhood,” Mantzoukas said. “I think the human story inside of it is what I’m excited for people to watch.”

—

Paper Girls premieres on Prime Video on July 29.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!