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It wouldn't be a Big Mouth gathering if someone from the Netflix animated series didn't offer up an embarrassing sexual factoid from their own adolescent history. And it was Ayo Edebiri who took the prize during a post-screening Q&A session at the Egyptian Theatre for the show's eighth and final season, revealing a roster of surprisingly eclectic childhood celebrity crushes.
Edebiri, who began as a writer on the show in its fourth season before taking over the role of Missy — and later becoming a breakout star as a writer, producer, and Emmy-winning actress on The Bear — rattled off a string of TV favorites that had captured her young fancy.
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There was Tony Danza ("I used to have a big crush on him [from] Who's the Boss reruns"), Tony Shalhoub (Monk-era, "for sure!"), and The Famous Jett Jackson star Lee Thompson Young ("age-appropriate"). "And I liked John Ritter," she added, before calling out another crush-worthy Three's Company costar: "Don Knotts! I liked that guy!"
But her hands-down favorite? "Harry Anderson from the original Night Court," Edebiri enthused. "He does magic and he wore a fedora, and he was a very fair judge!"
Ayo Edebiri, Jason Mantzoukas, and Nick Kroll (Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix) - Credit: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
Amid other outrageous confessions from cast and creative team members, star and cocreator Nick Kroll took a moment to get serious, offering praise to Edebiri for stepping into the role of Missy in 2020. That transition came after original voice actor Jenny Slate stepped down following public concern about a white actress voicing a Black character.
"Ayo stepping into the role of Missy was one of the more impressive, complicated things an actor has ever had to do in this kind of situation," Kroll told the premiere audience. "I'm so grateful that [she] did it."
"When I got the writing job, I literally cried, I was just so happy," Edebiri revealed. "My life was very changed. I got to work with all my favorite writers, comedians, improvisers, and people I just admire so much. And so similarly, I'm very grateful, and I owe you $20 for saying something so nice."
Speaking to Gold Derby on the yellow carpet before the screening, Kroll's childhood friend and series cocreator Andrew Goldberg shared how gratified he is that Edebiri has remained connected to Big Mouth even as her fame has skyrocketed.
"When we first met Ayo, she and Nick were friends, she was maybe 23 or 24, and we already knew she was brilliant and we hired her as a writer on the show," Goldberg said. "And then when Jenny stepped aside, we auditioned tons and tons of Missys — a bunch of people even read with Nick. And it was just like Ayo brought so much of knowing Missy from working on the show, but also just so much of herself to the part in such a beautiful way. And she stepped in so incredibly with such amazing grace and obvious talent that it's just been a joy to watch her success."
Nick Kroll (Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix) - Credit: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
The creators revealed that perhaps the most surprising outcome of the show's eight-year, no-joke-is-too-dirty run was how Big Mouth became a genuine source of sexual information, reassurance, and open communication for families.
"That's by far the most gratifying thing," Kroll told Gold Derby. "We got that constantly from people being, like, 'You got me through a really hard period.' 'I've never had that feeling of depression or anxiety manifested the way that you talked about it.' 'I watched it with my kids. It helped them have the language to help them move through something.' That is incredibly gratifying. And I hope that's one of the things that will be lasting about the show. And, weirdly, that that's what sex education is for many people in this country — but we'll take it."
"The very best times are when a parent and a kid come up to us," said executive producer Jennifer Flackett. "They always watch the show separately because it's not a show necessarily to watch with their parents, but the conversations that they have, and for people feeling seen — I think that everyone gets nervous and they don't know that they're not alone, but it's happening to everybody."
"It's not what we set out to do initially," added Goldberg. "We were just like, 'What's a funny show that we would watch that's not on TV?'"
Closing out Big Mouth doesn't mean the creators are closing the book on the animated series. Next up from Kroll, Goldberg, Flackett, and Mark Levin is Mating Season, also from Netflix.
"Our next show is in the animal kingdom of forest critters, but also the characters are sort of in their 20s, so it's a little bit like graduating to the next stage of Big Mouth," said Goldberg. "Which is really cool because over the last couple of weeks we've been doing these screenings around the country and I've been meeting all these twentysomethings who were like, 'I started watching your show when I was in ninth grade and now I graduated college.' So I feel like we're kind of graduating up with that first audience."
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