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Who am I? Like seriously – who am I? This eternal existential question has come to take on a whole host of different layers since the onset of the Internet and the rise of social media. Where once people struggled just to define themselves as they are day-to-day; nowadays – people define themselves in life, on Twitter, on Instagram, on Snapchat, on [insert app of choice here]… How does one reconcile all these different identities? Which identity is the real ‘me’? Can I choose to be the ‘Instagram’ Me or the ‘Snapchat’ Me if that identity is preferable to ‘Real’ Me?

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This blurring of identity is foundational to Ingrid Goes West, a delightfully dark comedy about what happens when public and personal identity becomes almost inseparable. Ingrid (a terrific Aubrey Plaza) hates the real ‘Her’, yearning instead to become the beautiful Instagram profiles she obsessively follows (e.g. Elizabeth Olsen’s Taylor Sloane). As such – Ingrid sets out to California, befriending Taylor so that she can be just like her on Instagram and thus just like her in real life too. Of course, Ingrid has trouble maintaining this Instagram façade, leading her to some, well, desperate courses of action in reality.

In the following interview with stars Aubrey Plaza & Elizabeth Olsen, the duo discuss the difficulties (or lack thereof) of keeping up a public persona, Ingrid’s ‘negative’ depiction of social media and who they wish they were just like. For the full interview, watch above.

Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen:

  • Aubrey Plaza & Elizabeth Olsen on the person they emulate the most
  • Olsen on whether Ingrid Goes West is a negative depiction of social media
  • Olsen & Plaza on the difficulties of creating and keeping up a public persona
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Image via NEON
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Image via Sundance

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