Simone Finch reveals the part Norm Macdonald played in getting the series made.
Samantha Fink (Sofia Black-D’Elia) is about to experience a major reality check.
EW spoke with Finch about her journey to get the show made.
Sofia Black-D’Elia on ‘Single Drunk Female’.Freeform/Elizabeth Sisson
How far back does this go?
SIMONE FINCH:Yeah.
And she gave me the assignment.
She said, “You have to write if you’re going to have this job.”
Because I wasn’t writing, I was drinking, obviously.
And so I wrote this half-hour piece of garbage, but the character’s name was Samantha.
And so that’s where it started, is from this pile of crap.
And then I made it an hour because I got really inspired byOrange is the New BlackandShameless.
I wanted that tone.
Then I just started rewriting it.
And it was after I did the draft with his notes that Freeform bought it.
So I thanked him.
Yeah, this story’s been through many iterations and many, many drafts.
You mentioned when you first wrote it, you were drinking.
So how did the story evolve as you got sober?
Originally, she was a hot mess.
And remember when hot mess wasthething?
There were a lot of hot messes going around.
And then I put it down for a while.
you’re gonna wanna rewrite this, but it’s not what it is yet."
I didn’t understand what he meant.
So I rewrote it.
He helped me a lot getting the draft into manageable shape where we could start taking it out.
For about two years, we tried doing a lot of things and it didn’t work.
But yeah, I think, I wasn’t in acceptance of my alcoholism and my writing reflected that.
So once I got sober, I was able to finish it.
Each episode says, to the day, where we’re at in Samantha’s journey with sobriety.
What made you want to take that super specific approach?
And I actually think what we’ve done is we’ve included people along her journey.
I had journals when I got sober, especially in the early days.
Rereading those journals can be really tough, but I’m glad I had those.
When you’re newly sober, everything is new, everything is exciting or horrible in some ways.
Because being new is really hard.
Staying sober is easier than getting sober.
My mom and I aren’t in that place anymore and I’m really grateful for that.
[Laughs] you’ve got the option to print that.
But it was hard.
I cried on set a couple times.
Speaking of Sofia, what was the casting process like for you?
Was it difficult to find Samantha?
I was probably harder on people than I meant to be.
And then Sofia showed up.
And Sofia and I come from similar backgrounds.
We just got each other right away.
I don’t have to give her a note because she already knows what the note is.
She’s that kind of actor and it took a while to find her.
And then the second that we did, that was it.
But we saw a lot of Samanthas.
And I was like, “Am I terrible at writing?
Should I give up?
Should I quit?”
It all turned out great.
I can’t speak highly enough of her.
She’s just wonderful.
This is so funny."
But laughing at ourselves is great medicine.
Were you at all worried about how a young alcoholic would be received?
No, I mean, this is just my experience.
I think there’s a lot of young people getting sober.
I just knew that this is something that’s happening.
I’ve seen it.
A lot of the stories about addiction are men, too.
And I think it’s really important to show that women can have addiction just the same as men.
I was more worried about her not being likable than her being a young alcoholic.
People want them to be likable.
It definitely was discussed and there have been many drafts of this.
Some drafts she was a little bitier.
I still think she has a bite and I think Sofia brings it to the table as well.
But I think [producer]Jenni Konnerreally helped me make her more vulnerable.
Jenni said that I didn’t forgive my former drunk self.
And I had to learn how to do that with this piece, in a way.
I think we could go into greater depth, yeah.
In every season 1, you learn things.
And I think not having your story be always about relapsing is really important.
My goal is to show sobriety.
And to me, sobriety is so much more interesting than the loop of addiction.
I don’t care about the loop of addiction.
I lived it for 12 years.
I don’t need to do it on the page again.
That’s my opinion.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Single Drunk Femalepremieres at 10 p.m. ET/PT Thursday, Jan. 20 on Freeform.
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