Gillian Jacobs Talks 'Girls,' the Future of 'Community,' and Why Likability Is Overrated

Generally, agents are the first to know what an actor’s next role is going to be. In the case of Gillian Jacobs’s arc on Girls this past year — a bold, prickly performance that deserves an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series — the Community star was aware that she’d be appearing as oh-so-hip Brooklyn artist, Mimi-Rose Howard, before her representative reached out with the good news.

“I was walking down the street in New York, and I saw a film crew shooting in a restaurant,” Jacobs recalls. “In the back of my head, I thought, ‘Maybe that’s Girls.’” It turned out that it was a crew working on Lena Dunham’s acclaimed and Emmy-nominated HBO series and, since she knew several people associated with the series, including executive producer Jennifer Konner, Jacobs stopped in to say hello. Then Konner dropped a critical piece of intel. “She said, ‘Did they talk to you about the part?’ I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ Then, as I was leaving the set, I got a call from my agent, who said, ‘Girls wants to talk to you about a part’ and I went, ‘Oh, I know already!’”

What Jacobs couldn’t have known at the time was how memorable the role would turn out to be. Introduced as a new girlfriend for Adam (Adam Driver) — one he kept hidden from Hannah (Dunham) during her Iowa sojourn — Mimi-Rose is not at all plagued by the nagging self-doubt that drags Hannah down. Eventually, over the course of one long night that begins with a taxi accident and ends at a laundromat, Hannah and Mimi-Rose discover common ground…although the artist continues to be the bigger success story. “The work of hers that’s seen in the show is terrible,” says Jacobs of Mimi-Rose’s art. “But she didn’t try that hard. I’d like to see [the work] where she’s trying. But sometimes being popular and being good don’t have a lot of correlation.”

Jacobs also isn’t especially concerned with whether or not people find Mimi-Rose “likable” — a question that’s been raised about most of the characters on Girls. “I have a lot of sympathy for characters who are viewed as unlikable; I give them all a pass,” says Jacobs. “Britta was seen as a similar character within the world of Community. For a long time, I was [fans’] least favorite part of their favorite show!” Over Community’s six-season run, though, Britta went on to establish herself as a vital voice in the ensemble, without Jacobs having to artificially sweeten her. “I’ve tried to release myself from the whole ‘being likable’ thing, which is something a lot of actresses really struggle with. Women are required to be much more likable then men as film and TV characters. Some people are just never going to like Mimi-Rose, but it doesn’t do the writing or the character any kind of service by me half-assing it.”

Post-Mimi-Rose, Jacobs will continue to put her likability on the line for her next role as Mickey in Netflix’s upcoming series, Love, co-created by Judd Apatow. (Apatow is also, of course, an executive producer on Girls, and Jacobs says that Love happened after she’d been cast as Mimi-Rose, but before she started shooting.) “She’s someone who doesn’t have her life together and is making bad choices, but also has a lot of vulnerability and wants to do better. That seems to be my wheelhouse right now!”

Netflix committed to two seasons of Love, the first of which premieres in 2016, and she’s also eager to return to Girls next season, although she says that no decision has been made about Mimi-Rose’s future just yet. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for another semester at Greendale, but according to Jacobs, more Community isn’t in the cards right now anyway. “Our contracts are up and no one has reached out to me about anything definitive. I think the whole cast would like to do the movie, but Dan [Harmon] has to write the script first.”

Season 4 of Girls can be streamed on HBO Go or HBO NOW.