Chatting with Alexandra Roxo and Natalia Leite, the girls behind the comedy web series Be Here Nowish, about sex scenes and spirituality. Season 2 premiers this week! Words by Lucie Allouche. Photos by Anny Lutwak. Styling by Maggie Dunlap.
Alexandra Roxo and Natalia Leite are the type of girls you wish were in your #squad. They’s writers, producers, directors and actors (often all in the same production,) they speak multiple languages, they have their own production company called Purple Milk, they carry out daily spiritual practices, and they’re just generally kick-ass people.
I started watching Be Here Nowish, their comedy web series about two New York girls who move to LA in search of a spiritual awakening, when Karley first posted the episodes on Slutever last August. Most episodes of the web series are filled with absurd sex scenes and spiritual workshops (usually at the same time). Since the first season of Be Here Nowish, this filmmaking duo released Bare, written and directed by Natalia and co-produced with Alexandra, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year.
I recently chilled with the girls at Alexandra’s apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. When I walked in, I couldn’t help but notice the spiritual, other-worldly paraphernalia embellishing almost every tabletop in the apartment: crystal lamps, tarot cards, incense, and…nipple clamps. A perfect summation of their real lives and of Be Here Nowish.
Season two of Be Here Nowish premieres on Nov 12th and can be found on Vimeo (and it will be posted here, too). So, what should we be expecting in the season? Alexandra, Natalia and I talk guest stars, new relationships, a fisting scene, some poly-vibed twister and group masturbation. Sounds well-rounded to me.
Season 2 trailer:
Lucie: In your show, you approach spirituality and new age practices with a mix of irony and sincerity. How you guys find that right balance of the two?
Natalia: For us it’s really important to be sincere but also funny. In the show we delve into many different new age and spiritual practices and health trends, and for us spirituality is such a big part of our lives; it’s who we are. We wake up and meditate every morning together, and we are very much believers in these things, yet we find the humor in it, too. For us it’s important to laugh at it as well, you know?
Totally—to be self-aware.
Natalia: We wanted to create a show that was accessible to people, so even if they didn’t have such a strong spiritual practice they would still watch it and find it hilarious. Especially since these new age things are starting to become mainstream.
Alexandra: And not only with the spiritual stuff, but also with the dating and sex, because modern dating and sex can be hilarious. There’s a really great, funny scene that I’m excited about for Season two with Karley’s character Aurora and Natalia’s character Nina—it’s a really fun sex scene.
Do you consider Be Here Nowish a queer show?
Alexandra: We like the word queer because it describes the community that we are a part of in real life and that our show exists in, where people can be open to their own individual interpretation of their sexuality and gender. The show is queer in the sense that our characters are exploring spaces that don’t fit into the heterosexual norm.
Natalia: We love that we have different types of characters on the show—people in different places on the gender spectrum, people that are in open relationships, people exploring different types of sexual experiences. Our characters are queer regardless of whether or not they are dating same-sex partners.
Can you tell me about a scene from the first season that you drew on from your real lives?
Natalia: There were many. In the middle of the season our characters do an Ayahuasca ceremony—that’s something we’ve practiced several times. In real life, when we started working on the show, we decided to relocate to LA, just kind of on a whim, and the week we got there we did a plant medicine ceremony. So it’s very much like “life imitates art,” and vise versa. One of the ceremonies that we did was in a really nice apartment in Hollywood and everyone had fancy coconut water. It’s hard to not find humor in that.
In season one, Nina ends up in a threesome and in a body bag, Sam does a couples colonic and explores tantric sex. What do you think the biggest difference is between the first and second season as a whole?
Alexandra: Season two we scripted out rather than improvising dialogue, which we did a lot in season 1. We really thought out the character’s arcs and stories. We wanted Sam, Nina, and Aurora to have really clear struggles (like we do IRL) and for people to be able to follow them from start to finish.
Natalia: Season two is more focused on them trying to figure out their careers and love lives and get their shit together in LA.
Do you have any special guests that’ll come on?
Natalia: Lottttts. Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear), Niki Takesh, Baron Vaughn (Grace and Frankie, Comedy Bang Bang), Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards), Lindsay Burdge (A Teacher), David Call (Gossip Girl, Smash)…
Alexandra: And also Mel Shimkovitz (Transparent, Funny or Die), Tom Lipinski (The Knick, Labor Day), and Ashlie Atkinson (Wolf of Wall Street, Inside Man), and of course Karley!
Will we see more of the old cast? Like Adam Carpenter (<33)?
Natalia: Yes! He leads a “Spiritual Speed Dating” workshop.
What’s it like filming sex scenes? Is it a scary for you guys?
Alexandra: Slightly terrifying! Somehow I ended up having to shoot without any panties on in a room full of people in episode one as part of this group orgasm scene. Our editor was like “Um when you stood up in the scene I could… well… see everything!”
Natalia: Karley and I had a naked sex scene that Alexandra directed and we had to hide the sound guy in a bathroom stall. I think Nina has a lot of sex in bathrooms, which is funny because I never do that in real life. Maybe in the shower, occasionally.
Alexandra: Natalia directed a sex scene where I had to lose my underwear and we tried to make a “privacy patch” and taped a pair or ripped underwear over my crotch that kept falling off when I got sweaty. When my scene partner, David Call, had to “go down on me” I was like “Please close your eyes down there!” It’s a real quick way to get to know someone!
Natalia: And in episode one we have like eight women with their legs butterflied open laying on the floor of a yoga studio. It was really funny to see all these different women in a room faking an orgasm together.
lol, thanks guys!!
P.S. If you’re in New York, you should come to the Be Here Nowish season 2 premier party at the Jane Hotel tomorrow, November 11th! Or if you’re in LA, come to the LA premier on the 17th at the Ace hotel :)
Alexandra and Natalia wear clothes by : American Apparel and Veda. Lingerie by Lonely. Jewelry by Bing Bang. Additional pieces, model’s own and stylists own.