Note: The following story contains spoilers from “The Sex Lives of College Girls” Season 3, Episode 3.
After a bittersweet goodbye to Reneé Rapp’s Leighton Murray in “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” the now-trio is introduced to their new roommate, Kacey, played by Gracie Lawrence.
Despite rooming with the girls — Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), Bela (Amrit Kaur) and Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) — Kacey’s interest in getting to know her roommates is “nonexistent,” according to Lawrence, given Kacey’s goal to “spend as much time with her boyfriend as possible” after transferring to Essex College to be with him.
“The idea of making friends is totally irrelevant to her — it’s not even on her radar — [her boyfriend] is the center of her universe, and she doesn’t really have much interest in anything outside of him, socially,” Lawrence told TheWrap. “It’s a fun place to meet a character, because inevitably, when things get upended, watching their whole worldview be forced to change is really fun … her whole life is about to change.”
Kacey’s world does, in fact, get “upended” when Kacey discovers — with the help of the girls — that her boyfriend has been cheating on her, and promptly breaks up with him, plunging her into a “terrifying … and a completely new world.”
“She’s about to enter into a whole new world that she’s kind of never even considered having to be a part of,” Lawrence said. “She had her life very much mapped out, and it was about dating this one guy until they got married, and then living her life with him. When that changes, I think she gets to change or question her life up until that point.”
Below, Lawrence draws similarities between Kacey, Elle Woods and Cher Horowitz, and teases Kacey journey of self-confidence for the rest of the season.
TheWrap: What parts of Kacey did you first like or connect with?
Gracie Lawrence: I was very amused by her. It was very endearing to watch a character who means so well execute that so poorly — she can be insulting, but it comes from such an earnest place where she thinks she’s being helpful. I think so much of her self-worth is predicated on appearance and some things that maybe are slightly more superficial, and I found that kind of endearing, too, because I was interested in where that came from, and as the season goes on, the ways in which that’s a part of her life and a dominant part of her life, sometimes in a negative way, I found really sweet, too. In the midst of this character who’s like a pageant girl, who’s maybe saying the wrong thing, sometimes thinking that her opinion is gospel, there was a there was a lot beneath that that I was inferring. They gave so much insecurity and vulnerability to her, in a way that was so sweet.
Do you think her boyfriend’s infidelity came as a complete shock to her?
I like to believe that it was really a shock to her, or even if she had a sense of it, that she was in such deep denial. She changed her whole life to be with Calvin and there were no red flags to her. It’s really a shocking situation for her and I believe she came there with the full intention of this person being her entire life, and that nothing was going to get in the way of that. Then she is ultimately, even at the end of the first episode that she’s in, choosing herself by being like, ‘this is not okay with me’ and having people that are not yet her friends reinforce that decision for her is probably really helpful. It gives her permission to feel like she can leave that situation and have her people there beside her.
How does the situation bring her closer to the girls?
It’s such a sweet thing about this show that ultimately, you see how these female friendships are so important to each of these women’s lives and the role that they play, even when the characters are out in their own world or in their own storyline. So much of what they depend on is the wisdom and the camaraderie of their girlfriends. That’s a new concept to Kasey — she’s not a girl who necessarily grew up with that foundation, and if anything, her, like, identity is very much wrapped up in the idea of her being her boyfriend’s girlfriend. When that goes away, what do you have left? is a really important question that she’s confronting for the first time. What she discovers is what she has left are her friendships and herself, and she really needs to work on her relationship with both of those things.
What area of the friend group does Kacey hold down with the other girls?
Kacey is obsessed with fun and frivolity … she loves a cute outfit. She loves putting her hair extensions in. She is the person in the group that is perhaps, for lack of a less sophisticated term, very girly. I think there’s a place for that in in every friendship and every friend group. In many ways, she brings fun and a playfulness to that friend group, because she’s so different than them — I think that there’s always something to be gained from a new perspective.
What characters did you take inspiration from for Kacey?
I think about these iconic characters from movies that her wardrobe, in some ways, I feel, like, leans into, like Elle Woods, or Cher Horowitz from “Clueless.” She’s different than them in a number of ways — Sometimes her acerbic (attitude), which comes out in moments accidentally, is different than them, too — but I think that it it follows the similarities that I’ve always loved (about) those kinds of characters — the people who epitomize what we think of when we think of the word, “girly.” It defies this notion that being girly doesn’t mean you’re not also deep, and that you’re not also extremely sensitive and smart, and I think it falls in the tradition of proving that.
You have a budding music career as well. Why was this the right time to turn to acting?
I’ve always loved acting, and I’ve definitely spent the past 10 years very much being more in the music world, and that’s still a huge part of my life, and will always be. But it was really cool to be able to bring that into this show, and I think that was a really compelling factor. I also love the show, and I care about comedy, and so it was a perfect opportunity and way to combine all of the things I’m interested in. The opportunity came up and I jumped at it.
What can you tease about Kacey’s journey for the rest of the season?
Kacey’s story is very much about self-confidence and what it really means to be confident, because she is so outwardly confident and presents as this person who is perfect, and doesn’t have any insecurity. I think that usually that person is the person who has a lot of insecurity, but is hiding it. As the season goes on, those hidden insecurities come into play more, and we learn more about them and as the audience learns about them. Kacey is also forced to confront them and figure out what it really means to be confident, and that part of confidence is embracing your insecurities, too.
Ideally how long would you want to be involved with the series?
In an ideal world, till I’m 45 … it’s such a great character — I can imagine all the places that I’d hope she’d go, and the things that she’s constantly going to be on the journey of trying to figure out about herself.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of Season 3 drop every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET on Max.
