Benito Skinner is digging deep for his starring TV debut.
The actor and comedian recently opened up about Overcompensating, his upcoming Prime Video series in which he plays “a version of myself in the closet” during his college years.
“I’m so excited. I just got back,” said Skinner while appearing on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast. “It was a really, truly unbelievable experience. I feel like I learned so much about myself and the way I make things, and I was so inspired by working with the cast.
“I just dissociated so many times because I would be like, ‘I wrote this scene four and half years ago and now I’m seeing an actor that I have respected my whole life doing it, and I’m kind of me but not really me and Mary Beth [Barone] kind of looks like my sister but it’s not really her,’” he added.
Created by Skinner, Overcompensating is a college-set ensemble comedy about the wild, chaotic journey of Benny (Skinner), a closeted former football player and homecoming king, as he becomes fast friends with Carmen, a high school outsider on a mission to fit in at all costs. With guidance from Benny’s older sister and her campus-legend boyfriend, Benny and Carmen juggle horrible hookups, flavored vodka and fake IDs. Deeply funny and personal, the show explores the lengths to which we all overcompensate while on the path to finding out who we really are.
Skinner explained, “I was inspired by the feelings and what happened in college to me. And then from there — I feel like it’s not that interesting to write a character that is someone exactly like you. They don’t really jump off the page. And it’s not as fun, it’s more fun to think of like, ‘Well, here’s this new vessel of an idea you want or a feeling you want or a relationship you want. Build a character out of that.’ So, it’s inspired by a lot of things.”
“I think it’s also the OCD thing of trying to be perfect, and I thought ‘perfect’ meant ‘straight,’” he added. “So I would do anything to remain in the closet. Like, I did everything to do it, and then I just kind of ran out of ideas because I fell in love with a guy.”
In addition to Skinner and his Ride podcast co-host Barone, the series also stars Connie Britton, Kyle MacLachlan, Adam DiMarco, Owen Thiele, Charli XCX and Kaia Gerber. After first entering development in 2022, Amazon gave a series order to the show from A24 and Jonah Hill’s Strong Baby Productions with Charli to produce original music.
