In the spirit of the new ABC comedy Selfie, we give you a guide to finding Karen Gillan, John Cho and the rest of the creative team on social media platforms!
Selfie is a new sitcom on ABC, which stars Karen Gillan as the social media obsessed Eliza Dooley (a modern-day version of My Fair Lady‘s Eliza Doolittle), with John Cho as Henry, the man who helps her “re-brand” herself after a personal scandal.
Using the language and concepts of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the show promises to be equal parts #totesadorbs and #awkwardturtle. Is there an app for that?
But despite its controversial name and overuse of online slang that should never be uttered out loud, Selfie actually has real cultural value.
For better or worse, it represents a prominent part of the population, and through Eliza, we might actually find ourselves confronting our own social media obsessions.
Because oh yeah, we googled you, Karen Gillan.
…Sorry.
The publicity team promoting Selfie tried to engage viewers in a campaign to disconnect from social media – a both brilliant and terrible strategy considering they’re trying to make people talk about the show online!
Let’s do the exact opposite of that: stalk as many members of the Selfie cast and crew as we possibly can! Here’s your guide to the Selfie stars on social media:
Karen Gillan (Eliza)
Karen Gillan, already a pro at this thing called fandom due to her work on Doctor Who, frequently interacts with viewers on her Twitter account @KarenGillan2.
Trying to engage viewers of her new show she’s been retweeting fans’ selfies, but she also talks about other things. Recently, she (sort of) voiced her opinion on the Scottish Independence Vote:
Whatever happens tonight, I am proud to be Scottish.
— Karen Gillan (@KarenGillan2) September 19, 2014
And shared pictures from the short film she is directing, Rose McIver’s Coward:
So excited to have officially finished all the post on my short film 'COWARD'. Will post a link soon!!! pic.twitter.com/NkXuOR1M0H
— Karen Gillan (@KarenGillan2) September 16, 2014
Gillan is also on Instagram, interacting with her fans by sharing fan art like this amazing sketch:
Gillan seems like Selfie‘s resident social media enthusiast, and we’re hoping that she’ll share lots of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and pictures with us! After all, she did promise…
Overwhelmed by how many have watched the SELFIE pilot online! Tune in on Tuesday and watch again with me and we shall get our tweet on.
— Karen Gillan (@KarenGillan2) September 27, 2014
We’re going to hold you to that, Karen!
John Cho (Henry)
John Cho is a self-confessed social media skeptic, but has nonetheless followed Gillan’s advice and become a bit more active on Twitter (don’t expect him on Facebook any time ever, though!).
His handle is @JohnTheCho, and he uses it to promote the show… er, sort of:
OG selfie. pic.twitter.com/eCIzjwx5uV
— John Cho (@JohnTheCho) September 25, 2014
He also shares the occasional picture from the set:
Monday morning with @KarenGillan2 pic.twitter.com/rmnDNRp8KF
— John Cho (@JohnTheCho) September 8, 2014
Cho seems to share his character’s feelings about social media, but luckily for us he’s recognising it as a good way of interacting with fans and promoting the show.
Emily Kapnek (creator)
True Selfie fans will want to keep up with series creator Emily Kapnek, who obviously lives and breathes the show right now. Case in point:
#apparently it is friday night on set with @karengillan2 @davinejoy #selfieabc http://t.co/KS7T8cTjxf
— Emily Kapnek (@EmilyKapnek) August 30, 2014
#TBT to that time Henry went through an emo phase @JohnTheCho @SelfieABC #SelfieABC pic.twitter.com/fqvWrMnJtj
— Emily Kapnek (@EmilyKapnek) August 21, 2014
More like this, please and thank you!
David Harewood (Sam Saperstein)
One of Selfie’s co-stars, David Harewood plays boss Sam Saperstein. He clearly loves his new job:
'Selfie' premiers next week. Hope it does well I'm really enjoying this gig, the cast and crew are great. Yes, I could have a bit of this.
— David Harewood (@DavidHarewood) September 24, 2014
His Twitter account is full of great quotes about acting, like this gem:
'Acting provides the fulfilment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be so there's always hope."
Glenda Jackson
— David Harewood (@DavidHarewood) September 21, 2014
Harewood is also on Instagram! He does cool stuff like this:
…Our lives will never be that awesome.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Charmonique)
Friendly receptionist Charmonique is possibly our favourite character on Selfie so far, and we hope this tweet is a clue that we’ll get to see much more of her in future episodes!
Yall episode 4 is gonna be epic! Just saying…. #SelfieABC #hypedtoshare
— Da'Vine Joy Randolph (@DaVineJoy) August 28, 2014
She also joined in on Selfie‘s social media challenge:
Can you go an entire day without social media? Try it – Tomorrow! Pass the word around #SelfieSocialCleanse http://t.co/DgU0Nv2jEx
— Da'Vine Joy Randolph (@DaVineJoy) September 15, 2014
Did you give it a go?
Allyn Rachel (Bryn)
Zooey, is that you? Nope, it’s Selfie‘s little in-joke that New Girl‘s Jess apparently lives across the hall (fun fact: Allyn Rachel has, in fact, appeared on New Girl).
Rachel is on Twitter, and guess what, she’s active in fandom!
http://t.co/d4xD4bBAis How well do #fangirls handle #spoilers? Amy learns the hard way. With special guest @allynrachel !
— Leigh Lahav (@leighlahav) September 16, 2014
…And we think she’s an Android fan:
Question for those of you who got the iPhone 6 plus: do you feel like you're carrying around an ice cream sandwich?
— allyn rachel (@allynrachel) September 26, 2014
Go ahead and follow all of these wonderful people for more great behind-the-scenes shenanigans from the set of Selfie! It looks like they’re all having a blast making the show – hopefully you’ll enjoy watching it just as much.
Selfie premieres next Tuesday at 8/7c on ABC!
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