An Exclusive Look At Stephanie Hsu's "F*cked Up Rom-Com" Laid
The sex is actually killer in Peacock's new dark comedy.
What do you get when you mix a romantic comedy, a true crime podcast, and a ton of sexual regrets? The answer is Peacock’s new original series Laid.
The dark comedy stars Stephanie Hsu as Ruby, who is a party planner just looking for love. Unfortunately, all her former partners are dying in the order she slept with them. With the help from her roomie AJ, played by Girls’ Zosia Mamet, the two BFFs try to figure out what’s really going on.
“It is a f*cked up rom-com,” co-showrunner and executive producer Nahnatchka Khan tells Elite Daily at the Los Angeles premiere. “I don't think it's going to go the way people are expecting it to go, and I'm excited for the fans to see it.” Laid takes a twisted turn right away, and fans will be able to follow Ruby’s dark journey with all eight episodes dropping Dec. 19 on Peacock.
Something else that’s a surprise in Laid are the celebrity guest stars, including FINNEAS, Twisters’ Brandon Perea, and Barbie’s Alexandra Shipp. “It felt like such an opportunity for a great guest cast and people to come in and not to do just a cameo, but come in and play a role,” says co-showrunner Sally Bradford.
Hsu, who wears an executive producer hat for Laid as well as starring in it, helped to get some of those celeb stars. She tells Elite Daily, “Laid is truly such a wild ride and so silly, but also big-hearted. I just want people to laugh and have fun.”
The Everything Everywhere All at Once actor was brought in early to take the lead. “When we were talking about who could play Ruby, which is a difficult character to cast — she makes some bad choices — Stephanie was it,” Khan says.
“Ruby does f*cked-up stuff, and she's a selfish character. We wanted to preserve that, and have her be relatable in that way,” says Bradford. “When Stephanie's name came up, everyone knew she would be incredible.”
Even though there’s a lethal mystery at the center of Laid’s story, the real heart and comedy comes from Ruby and AJ’s friendship. It’s AJ’s interest in Ruby’s fallen exes that starts their investigation. Mamet describes her character as someone who is “weird, quirky, and kind of otherworldly in her murder obsession.”
In an exclusive clip, below, AJ shares her research into Ruby’s relationship timeline, which includes a surprising new find, a “sex cluster.”
All episodes of Laid are available to stream on Peacock now.
