One of the most unsurprising social digressions that emerged when the world was forced to go into quarantine last year (and still continues to do so), is our reliance on television to give us a sense of subjective freedom when it felt like the entire globe was erupting in flames around us. While streaming services were already ascending to complete pop culture dominance, 2020 was the year when they became the official tastemakers and the most direct avenue to indoor solace – terrific for TV, but a death knell for another major online trend; The Influencer.
As influencers found themselves experimenting and subverting their online presences to mixed results, Mike Heslin’s latest television series, The Influencers, takes aim at its titular trendsetters at a time when “brand exercises” seems to be at its most frivoulous. The show follows six eclectic social media “stars” habituating as they compete in a series of creative challenges for an exclusive brand deal with the latest millennial juice craze: Jücytox. As cameras capture each influencer in real life, the manicured versions they present to the world online implode before our eyes.
Now that The Influencers is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, I had the chance to talk with Mike Heslin, who created, wrote, directed, and performs in the show, about the inception of his series, how 2020 affected the world of influencers, the difficulties of starring, directing and writing your own project and the future of his production company, Well-Versed Entertainment.
Alex Lines for Film Inquiry: How did The Influencers begin as a project for you?
Mike Heslin: I was freelancing as a Creative Director and Social Media Director between gigs and spent most of my time interacting, casting, and contracting influencers. While there are so many influencers out there who are incredibly smart and business savvy, I happened to interact with a few individuals who, while beautiful and kind, didn’t have much of a real skillset. I started to wonder how those individuals would fare if they had to prove themselves in an unfiltered forum and thus, the idea for The Influencers was born.
This was also at a time where social media was really at the forefront: a reality show called The Circle was #1 on Netflix, Fyre Festival documentaries were all the rage, etc. I started to realize that our social media culture hadn’t been explored much in a scripted narrative and started to develop the idea while pulling inspiration from the format of reality TV shows like Big Brother and The Real Housewives with the style/depth of character from mockumentaries such as The Comeback and Best in Show.
What type of research did you do when writing the show was there any particular influencers that you happen to zone in on as the show came together?
Mike Heslin: I had a lot of experience as a Creative Director/Social Media director as well as just being a daily participant in our current social media culture through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. There are so many different kinds of influencers (macro, micro, niche categories, etc.) so I decided to start with the most popular archetypes that are more universally recognized. My real-life partner, Nicolas Wilson, who also plays my on-camera partner Tyler in the show, is even more versed in this world than I am and gave me several crash courses re: YouTubers and YouTuber scandals/drama. From there I developed the six influencers in our show and honed in on making them as specific, but recognizable as possible.
Again, I’m by no means knocking influencers or coming for anyone’s hustle. But I do think that social media makes it even easier for people to compare themselves to others and can generate feelings of inadequacy, especially in our youth. The show is merely a reminder to us all that what you see online, is rarely what you get in real life and that we all should be able to laugh at ourselves at the end of the day and not give anything too much power over our lives.
With 2020 being such a difficult year for most people, did you notice any noticeable changes in how influencers were portraying themselves as this year went on?
Mike Heslin: Yes! I think we saw many using their platform for good and taking the responsibility of being a prominent figure and having such a large following very seriously. So many used their social media pages, as a means to help spread awareness and education about COVID, Black Lives Matter, and the election. Then of course there were some who came across as tone-deaf and inauthentic, posting either insensitive things or using these hot-button issues to gain more notoriety, which of course came off as very opportunistic and superficial.
What was the most difficult aspect of writing, directing and co-starring in this series?
Mike Heslin: Wearing so many hats on set was definitely the most challenging part of the series! I had never directed and performed in something at the same time before. I personally thrive when I’m busy and have a lot on my plate, but it was a lot to compartmentalize and a challenge to be present as an actor when your subconscious is thinking about shot composition, what is or isn’t working, what you want to try or do next, etc. It was exciting but also gave me a new respect and deeper admiration for multi-hyphenates such as Dan Levy and Bradley Cooper.
With your background in theatrical acting, do you ever feel that there is a noticeable difference between acting on stage versus acting in front of the camera?
Mike Heslin: Oh yes. At the end of the day, truth is truth and the truth of a moment either comes across or it doesn’t. But that being said, there is a vast difference between how you perform a moment for a theatre of two thousand people versus how you perform it for a close-up. You have to adjust vocally and physically depending on the medium or it will come across as being too big and unbelievable (if you’re performing on camera as you would a Broadway theatre), or bland and vanilla (if you perform on a stage as you would for a close-up). Just my humble opinion.
How has Well-Versed Entertainment been able to handle the trials and tribulations of 2020?
Mike Heslin: My business partner Noam Ash and I have been very fortunate, but that being said, we’ll see how 2021 fares for us depending on the pandemic. This year, we were really lucky to already be in post-production for our two most recent projects. We were able to complete post-production on The Influencers and go into distribution remotely while also being able to release our comedy pilot Boy•Friends online to an opening month of over 1 million views.
We also had a feature commissioned as well as a stage to screen adaptation and a few series, so the development and writing processes were able to be done remotely for those too. That being said, we’ll see what the new year has in store for us. We’re about ready to go into pre-production for most everything on our docket, so we’ll see what happens with COVID and the vaccine and what is actually possible. We were incredibly lucky in 2020 but 2021 may prove to be a bit trickier for us. Stay tuned!
Film Inquiry thanks Mike Heslin for taking the time to talk with us.
The Influencers is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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