Mika Abdalla on her friendship with Stephen Kalyn via Hunger Magazine
“Before filming, Stephen was scared of me,” she says, laughing. “He literally wouldn’t talk to me or look me in the eye.” Eventually, she had to break the ice: “I was like, ‘Hey, man, I want to be your friend’, and he thought I hated him because I apparently look scary. I have a severe case of resting bitch face.”
But once they cleared the air, the pair quickly became close friends and, with that, came a sense of trust. “We’re very similar creatively,” Abdalla says. “We understand each other’s fears, insecurities and self-doubts. We are in tune with what each other needs and we’re very supportive of each other. He’s fantastic.”
That emotional attentiveness proved especially important in the show’s more intimate scenes. Abdalla speaks candidly about intimacy coordinators on set, describing the experience as unexpectedly freeing. “They really make it as choreographed and unsexy as possible,” she says. “It breaks all the tension and it makes it formulaic, which is honestly great.”https://t.co/OlwvIQsH0V