Spoilers ahead.
At a time when a person can be incredibly famous to some and absolutely unknown to others, Dasha Nekrasova is an emblematic icon, an indie film actress and host of the lightning rod podcast “Red Scare” who also went viral in 2018 when she told off an Infowars reporter who accosted her over her leftist beliefs at South by Southwest. Over the past year, however, Nekrasova, 30, is crossing over into the territory of “known to all,” as she prepares to release a horror film she directed and starred in, The Scary of Sixty-First, about two girls who move into Jeffrey Epstien’s old mansion (which is already winning laurels on the festival circuit), and takes on a role in Succession’s third season. Nekrasova plays Comfry, a thirty-something crisis public relations rep tasked with helping her high-powered boss Berry craft Kendall’s impulsive whistleblower meltdown into a campaign that will win him control of Waystar Royco. “There is a bit of a power struggle,” Nekrasova says, “in that the things that he wants are probably not advisable from a PR standpoint, you know?”
“The Disruption” episode three of Succession’s third season, is Nekrasova’s breakout. Kendall is mocked on a late-night satirical-news talk show hosted by Ziwe Fumudoh (literally, though she plays an absurdist version of herself), and, ever deluded about how his stunts are received, decides to embrace the controversy by appearing on the show. Just as he is about to go on, his sister, Shiv, releases an embarrassing statement casting doubt on his mental health and foregrounding his addiction issues. Nekrasova discusses the episode–including whether she herself has played “Good Tweet, Bad Tweet,” the game Kendall creates in which his minions take turns reading tweets from supporters and haters–plus her own political reputation, whether she’d have Kendall on “Red Scare,” and acting with her fellow downtown celebrity Nicholas Braun.
GQ: Let’s start specifically with this third episode, which I feel in a funny way is one of the many roles you were born to play. How would you have advised Kendall through this?
I mean, I think I wouldn’t be a great publicist. I’m not really great at answering emails, and I think Comfry takes her job really seriously. She’s doing her best, but she’s probably a little out of her depth, you know? She’s the assistant to Berry Schneider, who is Kendall’s point person and actual publicist. I think I would have advised Kendall similarly, were I pursuing a career in public relations. I think Comfry has good instincts.
It seems like she does: it seemed like she definitely didn’t want him to go on Ziwe’s show.
In light of the letter, that’s good counsel. With Kendall and his PR team throughout the show, there is a bit of a power struggle in that the things that he wants are probably not advisable from a PR standpoint, you know?
It is interesting how so many characters sort of struggle to speak to him, in part because he’s so delusional. When you show him the statement from his sister, there’s a bit of a sense of, “I don’t even know how to explain this to you.” Delusional rich men are, I would say, a passion of yours–
Interesting. Yeah. Probably.
And seeing Comfry say, here’s how this situation is playing out, and I wouldn’t go on Ziwe’s talk show, I wouldn’t make those kinds of jokes–and Kendall defying her in this very headstrong way, that felt very accurate. This kind of guy has a total misread of what the world thinks of him, even as he’s literally reading the tweets.
Right: he’s playing “Good Tweet, Bad Tweet.”
Have you played “Good Tweet, Bad Tweet”?
Actually, I didn’t realize that that’s what I was doing, but I was hanging out with Nick [Braun] and Justine [Lupe, who plays Willa] once when we were filming and I was like, name-searching. And Nick was like, “Oh, you’re doing Good Tweet, Bad Tweet!’” You’re tuning in, to see how the reception is going.
It really is this radical interpretation of “there’s no such thing as bad press.” Did that seem true to life to you, for the kind of person who is powerful in that way?
I think Kendall really wants to be liked, and he’s high off of the initial rush of undermining his father’s legacy. But then I think it’s hard for him to interpret what is happening as backlash because he wants so badly to be liked and to seem like he is savvy. And that’s why being his publicist is a hard job because he is a client that you want to please, but pleasing him is directly at odds with what is actually going to be positive or useful.
It really does highlight, too, how much of the show–how much of the world, really–is just PR. Even the concurrent storyline about Kendall’s siblings deciding whether or not to do a TV interview and then arguing over this statement, it seems like so much of everyone’s concern is trying to say the right thing to please this system that is not the stock market, but rather a parallel system of public opinion.
Yeah, there’s a really great line from Logan in this episode, where Shiv mentions the leverage of the law, and [Logan] says the law is people, and people is politics. And to expand on that, people is public relations, and public relations is constructing reality as people interpret it. And in that way it is immensely, immensely powerful.
Maybe this is too fan fictional a question, but would you have Kendall on “Red Scare”?
I think so. That’d be an interesting crossover.
I wonder how he would have heard about it. Maybe a tweet from you would come up in the “Bad Tweet” category.
Yeah, I think he would be endeared to the girls of the Red Scare pod.
How aware was the show of your celebrity or reputation?
That’s a good question. I don’t know. I know some of the writers do listen to the show, but I was talking with one of them, and I alluded to the Sailor Socialism thing and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s actually interesting casting, ‘cause I was like, besieged by this right wing media outlet, and now I’m on this show,’ and he had no idea what I was talking about. I don’t know how conscious the casting [was], because I just taped for it the way that I would have for any audition.
You’ve had a number of things happen to you that could be part of the show–the Sailor Socialism episode, but also outlets Jezebel writing really negative pieces about Red Scare. Did that help you shape or develop your character?
I have an intuitive understanding of PR in my personal life, I suppose. But one of my first days on set, back in December, I was incredibly nervous, and there were all sorts of COVID protocols, so you’re also a little bit alienated. I had just started working on the show and I was subject to a social media pile-on about our Red Scare merchandise, for our ISIS T-shirts, and so in between my breaks, I would go and look at my phone and it was like, blowing up. And I was like, You made it to HBO, and you’re like, a walking PR crisis.
And it was getting picked up by British tabloids, like The Sun and stuff, and there were photos of me. The headline was like, “Influencer Slammed In Sickening Stunt!” [Editor’s note: the headline read, “Influencers slammed for selling ‘disgusting’ ISIS-themed T-shirts promoting their podcast.”] And I was like, What would Comfry do? I was like, on my breaks, writing out a statement to The New Arab, trying to defend myself, trying to do PR for myself in my downtime. That is an interesting meta-interplay, I think.
With this film coming out, which has been very well received, and being on this huge HBO show, do you feel any pressure to moderate Red Scare, or hold back your politics?
Um…. No. Um, I don’t know. No, because I feel like, certainly being a provocateur or whatever you want to call it has hindered my career in certain ways, but it’s also gotten me to where I am. So it would feel disingenuous and ill-advised to attempt to course correct now. I actually think the Overton window of my politics is shifting, and a lot of the things that Anna and I were saying on the podcast, I feel very vindicated by [now]. And some of those themes, particularly around like #MeToo, are elucidated very interestingly on this season, like the “woke” mediating of a scandal.
I don’t know how strategic this has been for you in building your career, but I think a lot of times, when a celebrity is criticized for their politics, it’s because we are finding out after they are famous what their politics are. Dave Chappelle is maybe an interesting example, although he had had some of that controversial content in his sets for years.
Part of it is also that what is or isn’t acceptable discourse changes. It’s a moving target, so even if your politics are consistent, you’ll fall in and out of favor at any particular moment, I feel.
And I think you already have everything laid out. It’s not like you’re going to launch a newsletter and interview Steve Bannon–you’ve already interviewed Steve Bannon. It’s already out there.
Yeah. There’s no going back now. But it is an interesting position to be in as an actress. It wasn’t really strategic in building my career because I think when I started the podcast, I really had this feeling like I had nothing to lose. I didn’t have a career. And I guess, yeah, sometimes I wish I had the luxury of being discreet about my politics, but I don’t. So it is what it is.
I guess that’s the same problem that every corporation in America has. What was it like acting with Nicholas Braun? You guys had great chemistry in this episode, and he’s a bit of a downtown celebrity, too.
It was great. I love working with Nick. Episode three was where we really started getting into our scenes together. The COVID of it all really made it so nice to play in this world where COVID didn’t exist, and to act as if we hadn’t been in a locked down period recently. So it was just really nice to even have chemistry with a person and have that feel very easy and accessible.
[That party scene] was the first time I had been in a room with that many people, probably in like six months. It was really like, psychedelic, actually.
Have you been to Ray’s Bar?
I have not actually. But there’s an episode of “Red Scare” where I mentioned seeing him on Raya and him not matching with me. I brought it up to him. He was like, I probably wasn’t even on Raya then, and I was like, Well, get back on and match me back so we can close the loop!
Have you started to get recognized more?
Not more than usual, but I get recognized a fair amount already. But I’ve only really been in the first episode so far. And I think if you weren’t already conscious of me, I wouldn’t pick me out of a crowd.
Did you have a pantheon of power publicists for developing her look or character?
I did read Kelly Cutrone’s memoir, If you Have To Cry, Go Outside, about how she came up in fashion PR. Which is different from crisis publicity, but that gave me some insights into the PR girl mentality. And I moved into Kaitlin Phillips’s old apartment, where I now live. So in a way you could say we’re really, really method.