Awkwafina and Sandra Oh are unhinged sisters in the 20th Century and Hulu comedy “Quiz Lady,” from the producers of “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.”
“Quiz Lady” follows Anne (Awkwafina) as she and her sister Jenny (Oh) devise a way to pay their mother’s gambling debts. How does one come up with $80,000 quick? Enter a “Jeopardy”-like game show with Anne’s innate talent for remembering odd facts. After Jenny’s dog is taken by gangsters as collateral to pay off the debts, the duo embark on a cross-country road trip to make Anne a game show celebrity contestant.
Will Ferrell, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, and Tony Hale also star in the film directed by “This Is Us” helmer Jessica Yu. “Quiz Lady” premieres at TIFF and is among IndieWire’s top fall releases to look out for.
Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, Maggie Haskins, Itay Reiss, D’Angelo, Awkwafina, and Oh produce the film, with Alex Brown and Erika Hampson serving as executive producers.
Earlier this year, Awkwafina encouraged “angsty teenagers” to watch indie films that are racially diverse. The “Nora From Queens” star told IndieWire’s Kate Erbland that casting her is “forward-thinking.”
“Hiring me is always a risk, a little bit,” Awkwafina said. “There will always be roles where you need to be [a certain ethnicity], like it’s relevant to being Asian, it’s relevant to the culture. There are also roles that, when you’re reading a script, ‘Wow, I really can’t be that role because it says that she’s not Asian.’ Now we’re getting into a time where you can read a role that may not even have a gender. I don’t think that that’s a tool of trickery, I think it’s a tool of like, let’s see everyone.”
The “Farewell” star added, “People have to understand that what ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ showed is that there is an audience where you wouldn’t expect there to be. When you give something that you think doesn’t sell because it doesn’t exist or whatever, when you finally give it to an audience, a hungry audience, they will show up.”
“Quiz Lady” premieres November 3 on Hulu. Check out the trailer below.
