First things first: Molly Gordon and I went to the same theater camp. Excuse me—the same performing arts training center. We were even in a musical together. Over coffee at the Crosby Street Hotel, Gordon—who’s since starred in Booksmart, Shiva Baby, and, most recently, season two of The Bear—and I reminisce about our summers spent treading the boards in the Catskills: the sometimes wild casting choices, first crushes, fond memories, and drama. At camp, Gordon tells me, “I was supposed to be in Working, but I dropped out because I got nervous and thought I couldn’t handle it. I got put in the chorus of Aida. That actually is something I think about a lot.”

Years later, Gordon is definitively stepping into the spotlight with Searchlight’s Theater Camp, her hilarious feature about the ins and outs of working at a camp for precocious and preternaturally talented kids. Gordon codirected with Nick Lieberman and cowrote the film with her longtime pals Lieberman and fiancés Noah Galvin and Ben Platt; she, Platt, and Galvin also star in the movie, which is based on a short film the group made together in 2017. The full-length version of Theater Camp was a hit at Sundance, due largely to its stacked ensemble cast, also featuring Jimmy Tatro, Nathan Lee Graham, Owen Thiele, Patti Harrison, and Gordon’s The Bear costar Ayo Edebiri.

“It was a collaborative atmosphere, kind of going back to that theater-camp vibe,” she said of shooting the improv-heavy film. “Even if we wrote some of the dialogue for scenes, we would rehearse it and then we would just improvise it. As an actor, I’ve gotten to work with Seth Rogen as a producer, Melissa McCarthy, and at the last 20 minutes usually of every setup, you get to do an improv take. I’ve just always had this dream: Oh, what if the whole movie was that?”

Theater Camp features a side of Gordon very different from the one we see in season two of The Bear, where she plays Claire, the grounded love interest of Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy. “I think he’s one of the best actors of our generation,” Gordon says of White. “I was just like, I can’t believe I get to work with him. Like, that’s illegal. That’s not okay.”

After a walk down memory lane, Gordon chatted with VF about lovingly roasting theater teachers, her struggle to get Theater Camp made, and introducing a whole new dynamic to season two of The Bear.

Vanity Fair: We have to talk about theater camp, because we literally went to camp together. How much of your experience there inspired your movie?

Molly Gordon: I didn’t have a good time, yet I went back for three years. I was not cool there. But I always went back because I also had my favorite moments there—the moments that I felt the most free and like anything was possible. Even, like, the one straight guy. I kissed a guy my second year. He kissed me and he was like, “I miss my girlfriend.” [Laughs]

Theater Camp really feels like a cross between the 2003 film Camp and Wet Hot American Summer, specifically the over-the-top drama counselors played by Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper.

Devoting your life to teaching children is the most beautiful thing you could possibly do. Janet Adderley is Ben and my teacher, who Ayo’s character is named after. She treated me like an adult when I was three years old, and was like, “What is your trauma? Use your trauma.”

We had a screening last night, and someone came up to me and was like, “I don’t know why anyone’s saying that this is too much. My [theater] teacher was crazier than this.” I think theater people are the main characters of their own lives. They’re insane, and they’re amazing, mystical people that need to be celebrated and roasted. But only if you’re in our community do you really see how realistic the behavior is.

How did you land on the mockumentary format for Theater Camp?

We made the short in 2017 because I was jobless. I grew up loving mockumentaries, but I mostly grew up loving documentaries, like vérité documentaries. One of my favorite movies is The War Room, which is about the Clinton presidency. I’ve just always wanted to make a beautiful, cinematic comedy mockumentary that doesn’t use talking heads, but is shot more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary, because I think docs let you get closer to your subjects. You can have these larger-than-life characters, but it’s grounded in reality.

We found that in the short, and then we were trying to expand it into something for six years, and no one wanted to do it. Everyone’s like, “Why did it take so long?” It’s like, we tried. It was just really hard, especially because it’s a mostly improvised movie with kids in a market where no one sees comedies. But I do think we’re in a time where people are craving original, different, and weird films. Never give up on what you want to make. I’ve already tried to get something else made; they’ve already said no. I’m going to start my next six-year climb. Like, who knows?

Can you talk to me about how you assembled the cast?

I think I’ve just always been so inspired by collectives that have made shit together. Like a Christopher Guest, a Wet Hot, or a Robert Altman that makes stuff with the same people. As I’ve been lucky enough to get jobs as an actor, I’m starting to collect these people. “What if we bring them into this sandbox and allow them to have agency with their characters?” As an actor, you don’t have much control. We got to come to our friends and be like, “What kind of character would you want to play? You’re going to make up your lines.”

It was fun to see you play a quirkier character like Rebecca, because you’ve played a lot of cool girls—like in Booksmart and Shiva Baby.

I want to play crazy character roles. Also, Rebecca’s closer to me. All I do is make up insane songs and say insane things. It also went with [the fact that] I’m directing a movie in 19 days; I’m going to have crazy, frizzy hair and be kind of mentally ill. This works for this character. Let’s lean into that.

You’ve gotten to show a lot of range as an actress this summer, between Rebecca in Theater Camp and Claire on The Bear.

What are you talking about? They’re exactly the same. [Laughs] No, I think similarly; I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to show that part of myself…. I feel so lucky that Chris [Storer] directed me on Ramy years ago and said to me, “We’re going to work together again.” People always say that and you’re always disappointed, ’cause they never remember. He offered me this when we were editing Theater Camp. I couldn’t believe it—my hair had grown through my sweatpants on my leg. I was like, Me? This hairy woman? But also I just felt like, I get to go home again. The last time I felt so free as an actor, besides Shiva Baby, was those two days on Ramy.

Getting jobs as an actor is tough, and you’re thought of a certain way. People have put me in a box of, “You’re the funny girl,” or “You’re the friend,” or “You’re the whatever.” I think I’m hopeful that showing these two very different sides of me will allow people to see me in darker roles or sillier roles or romantic roles, whatever it is.

What was it like playing Claire and working opposite Jeremy Allen White?

I think I’ve [played] a lot of the friend that’s like, “You should fuck him,” or the daughter that’s like, “Mom, you’re crazy.” And now I think people are like, Oh, she’s the girlfriend. I’m so happy that I get to play Jeremy’s girlfriend and serve the storyline of someone who has unbelievably painful family trauma, and that we get to explore how hard it is for people to allow themselves to be happy.

The first meeting scene is the first day that we met. I felt like the minute that the cameras turned on, the minute that they started rolling, I felt like I had known him for my whole life. He’s just so free and available, and I think a lot of actors, sometimes when you meet them, are really closed off. You have to be like, How do I get them to like me? It was never that.

Some fans certainly had strong feelings about Carmy getting a girlfriend.

Some people are like, “I don’t want him to have a girlfriend.” Some people are like, “I loved that the show didn’t have any sex.” And that’s such a valid thing. How were they able to have the first season be so sexy without any sex? But also in episode one, when Jeremy goes home after work, he has nothing to do. It’s like I’ve felt that in my life, where I’m like, I’m killing it. I have everything. And then I go home and I’m like, I’m not close to my friends; I have no love, no partner. I haven’t talked to my family. So I also think they’re trying to show a reality of life that I feel very lucky to be a part of.