Kasia Szarek Stars in Social Thriller ‘The Influencer’

Last month, Breaking Glass Pictures released the comedy thriller The Influencer, a satirical tale that examines the life of a vain social media star from first-time director Meghan Weinstein.

Aiming to provide commentary on the obsession we all have with social media, the film stars real-life influencer Kasia Szarek, who naturally gained an online following with her comedic personality and glamorous pin-up style. The Influencer diverts from glamorizing the lifestyle and instead takes a critical view on consumerism and questions: what if someone could use their online influence to do something bigger than just sell products?

OFM had the opportunity to catch up with Szarek and talk more about the film, why the topic of social media influence is timely and relevant, how she initially gained a mass following, and promoting body positivity and self-love on her platform.

Without too many spoilers, what can you tell us about The Influencer and your character?
Oh, my goodness! Well, first of all, you should watch it and find out yourself. Number two, this is a really, really fun character. We have all kinds of fun, fashionable looks with amazing outfits, hair, makeup—everything is super styled. We had an incredible team that put me together. It was not me; it was literally Zachry Smith and Eliana Mullins. Hair and makeup to the gods. This is also a really timely project. You might look at it and think it’s making fun of influencers, but there is a lot more to it than that. I am a person who does some influencer work myself, so obviously, it was a project that meant a lot.

This is Meghan Weinstein’s directorial debut, and she also said that The Influencer is a timely and relevant project. That it reflects real life in ways she didn’t expect.
Yes, absolutely. Going into it, you think the whole message of the film is one thing, but it actually has a lot more heart and feeling than you would expect. Abbie is a very over-the-top character, and I think it’s easy at the beginning to think she’s annoying, we don’t like, or whatever, but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. So, take a watch, watch till the end, and I think you will be surprised that it’s something that makes you think.

Ultimately, what do you hope audiences take away from the film?
Here’s the thing about Abbie. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but like I was kind of saying previously, you think it’s going to go one way, and you think that the tone and message is one thing, but as you sort of unwrap the character of Abbie, you learn that there is a lot more than meets the eye. People always want to make fun of influencers. You’re scrolling through Instagram, and you see these people just taking photos or whatever, but one of the things you will notice about Abbie is that, as the movie unfolds, this wasn’t anything she expected or wanted to get into. It was an opportunity.

Because she is such a hard worker, she was able to take the opportunity and run. In that moment where you kind of find out a little bit more about her backstory, you realize that this is a very human situation. This is something that a lot of people on the internet have probably experienced, and it’s an opportunity. There are perks; there are pros, and there are also a lot of cons, just like any other career. She put in a lot of work to get where she is.

Personally, what have you taken away from this experience?
Shooting this movie was an absolute dream come true. From the moment I read the script, I was like, I have to play this character. I just love the script. Meghan did an incredible job. Immediately, probably after two pages in, I was like, “Wow, yes, oh my God, let’s be friends.” From a filmmaker’s side, it wasn’t the biggest budget project in the world, but I think we were able to make something really fun and enjoyable for our audience. We all just loved being there, and we put so much passion into it. It is very stylized, and I think it is fun for people to watch.

Having fun and truly enjoying the experience is one of the most important parts to any project.
Exactly! We had such an amazing crew, and most of them were women and queer-identifying, which was very cool. They were such an amazing group of people to work with, and we all truly enjoyed the time that we had together. I think you can see the love that we had for each other and for the project on screen.

Have you always had a passion for acting?
I have. I knew that I wanted to be an actress from the time I was around 3 years old. I distinctly remember my first time watching Mrs. Doubtfire, in particular. I wanted to be Robin Williams. I was so inspired by him. I have watched all his movies, and I remember when Patch Adams came out when I was a kid, and that actually inspired me to start growing my hair, cutting it, and donating it for Locks of Love. I just always knew that acting was something I was very passionate about and that I wanted to do with my life and career.

Do you currently have any projects in the works right now?
There is always a little something going on. Living the life of an actor, one of my reps could call me in an hour, and I could have a series regular role audition today. Then in a couple weeks, I might have that job. I’m not going to say which show, but there is a show that just came out, I believe, on one of the major networks, and I auditioned for a series regular role. I didn’t get it, but that’s the life of an actor! You think about the things that could have been and didn’t go your way, but all you have to remember is, there is going to be that thing that does.

There will always be more opportunities.
Exactly. Like I said, in the middle of this interview, a rep might call me and have something for me to audition for. But yes, there is a new show coming out on Hulu called Pam & Tommy, and you can see me in a little scene in that.

Do you think scripted narratives focusing on social media influencers are becoming more prevalent?
Absolutely. It’s a huge topic, and there are a lot of people that have made this their career. If not their career, it is something that they are passionate about, and I think it’s such a weird, new Wild West. It has been around for a good couple years now, but it takes time for people to write a script and to make a movie. I feel like the timing was really interesting for our film, and I am sure there are going to be so many more like this in the next couple years. I just think it’s a topic that people are interested in, especially people who don’t do this kind of work because it’s kind of like, what is this all about? What is an influencer? Why are there influencers? It’s just something fun to watch for people outside, and then for people inside that really get the joke.

Like you mentioned earlier, you are an influencer yourself, and you have gained a mass following. How did you initially fall into this crazy work? What is it truly like to be an influencer?
It’s funny because I was taking a break from working on camera. I came to L.A. when I was 17 to pursue acting, and immediately, I had some crazy success. The WB had launched a couple web series, which were, like, the first network web series. I booked this job a month or two months after moving to L.A. It was crazy. I got the address for this audition, I showed up, and I was like, and I supposed to be at the Warner Brothers Ranch? My mind was blown, and I ended up booking that job. So, immediately, I kind of hit the ground running after moving to L.A., but then some things happened where I veered off course for a while. I was reevaluating what I wanted to do.

I was in my young 20s, and I got into sort of working on the other side of things for a while. I discovered a passion for photography, so I started shooting these people that were kind of known as influencers. The influencer world was just starting to happen back then. Instagram was just starting to pop up, so I was actually shooting all these people that were emerging as the first types of social media influencers. I started to gain a following because I was shooting all these people and taking these fun, conceptual, weird, and very colorful photos. Then I started doing a lot of shots of me. I would set up my tripod and do very similarly curated shots of myself, and I was getting a lot of traction from those photos. Everything was very stylized, very me, and people seemed to like those photos.

So, that is how I started to gain a following online. Then I realized, “h, man, I am supposed to be working in front of the camera.” It is fun and fulfilling to do stuff behind the camera as well, and I enjoy that, but it was time to get back in front because that fulfills me in a whole different way.

How did the glamorous pinup style become part of your aesthetic?
That is a great question. I had terrible, terrible style for many years. Like, I was in my young teens when the whole scene phase was going on, and I was all about it. I was already extreme back then, but in a different way. I have always been kind of a weirdo and out there, and I was very passionate about standing out and having a very dial-in style no matter what it was or how tasteless it might have been, which it was back in the day.

I think I just kind of wrangled it. I discovered my love for lipsticks. Not nude lipstick, I love bold colors, and I think that steered me in that direction. People started to say, “Oh, you have such a classic kind of look,” and that kind of what wrangled me over there to the vintage side. I think my style has really evolved, and I like to mix modern with a 90s twist. My absolute favorite movie is Cry-Baby, and it is basically the 50s rockabilly world in the 90s. It’s the best mish mash, and Traci Lords in that movie, she’s a style icon!

I love how you promote loving yourself and having fun no matter your size. How does it feel to see messages from followers saying how you inspire them to embrace themselves and their curves?
Oh my God, literally, nothing could be a bigger compliment. I have a lot of struggles with this myself, and I was actually a very skinny kid growing up. Like, insanely thin. I used to get made fun of for being too skinny. Then, I don’t know what happened. I guess I just had an insane glow-up [laughs]. Being a young adult and trying to live with a new body and size, especially in that time period when a lot of celebrities were having super serious eating disorder issues and everyone was very, very, very, very thin in the media, I had a lot of my own struggles. I was anorexic; I was an overeater; I had a lot of issues and eating disorders. It was very difficult to overcome that, body dysmorphic disorder as well.

A lot of things were going. When I started posting these photos of myself, I used to Photoshop my photos quite a lot as I was discovering my style and body. I look back at some of these photos and I’m like, “Oh my God, these are so obviously edited, and just, why?” I think once I started doing it less and seeing the reaction of people really appreciating my style and shape, that’s what made me realize, “Wait a sec, this is OK, and you look bomb!” So, I stopped with all the crazy editing. My waist doesn’t need to be 24 inches. Like, we’re good. Honestly, the people of Instagram inspired me first to be comfortable with myself and with my body. Then from there, I was able to start loving that and loving myself. I was able to then bring that back.

It is such an incredible compliment when people say that I’ve inspired them to feel more confident about wearing the pencil skirt, wearing the crop top, whatever it is that maybe you thought a curvier person wasn’t allowed or supposed to wear. Fuck that! One thing that really drew me to this project in particular is that there is absolutely no mention of Abbie being plus size or anything different than being an influencer. I thought that was so neat because a lot of the projects that I audition for, not all of them, but a lot of them will have some sort of mention of the character being a weight that is like other or she’s confident and curvy despite the fact, whatever.

It was not like that for this. Abbie is confident, she’s colorful, and she’s a badass. There was nothing about weight, and that is kind of a new movement online for the body positive and body neutrality community, which I think is actually even more powerful in a way. It’s like, yes, this is my body. We all have a body. Who cares? It’s not like, I’m confident, even though I am curvy and maybe larger than what’s expected.

You are also known as the Hollywood Hotdog on social media. What’s the story behind that?
Back when I was doing the photography thing, figuring out my life, taking a pause from working as much in front of the camera, and working more behind the camera, I was working at a production company managing commercials and stuff. We had a shoot going on, and we had to go to the storage area because there was something in the storage area that we needed for the shoot the next day. My boss came out of the storage area, and he had this hot dog costume in a little plastic bag. He was like, “I found this hot dog costume,” and I just thought it was so funny. I put it on, and now I keep it in my car.

Typically, two days are very long. We work for 12 hours, sometimes even more, and everyone gets really tired because, obviously, it’s hard work. So, my thing is, I would pull out this hot dog suit at the end of the day when everyone was getting tired, but we still had a good couple of hours left, and I would just run back onto set wearing this hot dog just to boost everyone’s morale. It kind of became my weird, little fun thing. I would just casually wear the hot dog costume once in a while, and people love it. It’s so goofy and fun. I mean, who is sad when they are seeing a hot dog?

What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform?
For me, the goal is to be a series regular on a TV show. One hundred percent, one billion percent, that is what I want more than anything in this world. On a good show, I might add. I mean, I’ll take anything, but ideally, something good. Maybe something with Meghan. That would be great.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?
Honestly, check out my TikTok. I started it not too long ago, so let’s get that going! Also, follow Meghan because she is incredible, as well as all the other actors in the film. Seriously, everyone is so awesome, and they are doing great things. I cannot wait to see Meghan’s next movie. I don’t know much about it, but she is shooting it right now and it’s going to be amazing.

Stay up-to-date and connect with Szarek by following her on Instagram and TikTok. The Influencer is now available for streaming and on DVD.

Photos courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures