Anna Konkle's vagina was still recovering from childbirth when she read the script for her new feature film, "The Drop."
In the film, Konkle's character, Lex, is trying to get pregnant with her husband Mani (Jermaine Fowler) while at their friend's destination wedding. But things take a turn when Lex drops the baby of the bride-to-be in front of all their friends.
“I was three months postpartum, and this came in," Konkle said of the film's offer, "and I was like... ‘How am I supposed to go to Mexico [where the movie was partially filmed] with my new baby and do this?’”
But the "PEN15" star said the film, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend, ultimately came at the exact right time for her.
"It also felt exciting to try, because it was the first foray into being a working mom and something symbolically just felt like this is the right thing to do,” she said in a recent Zoom interview.Centering the film around dropping a baby was a funny and absurd way to explore how different motherhood can look like for many people, Konkle said.
"What's so neat about the film and with my own journey with motherhood is how it's evolving, changing, and — this isn't going to sound good — but the falling in and out of love with motherhood," Konkle said. "There are days that are joyous and feel like what could possible be better, and there are days where I want to bury myself."
She continued: "This movie is not afraid to put a woman at the center of it and say, 'Sometimes [motherhood] really sucks, and it's not necessarily what Instagram makes motherhood out to be. It doesn't have to be perfect, and it can still be important.'"
Portraying her character Lex wasn't without its challenges. Konkle found it difficult to separate her own insecurities as a new mother from her Lex's as an aspiring one, saying she was often plagued with questions as existential like "Am I going to be a good mother?" or as simple as "Is the baby drinking enough milk?
But embracing those fears can create a work of comedy that speaks to a "darker, more untapped" universal truth, Konkle added. "That can be a good thing, you know?"
It's a feeling Konkle has not shied away from in her past filmography, including "PEN15," a cringe comedy TV show she co-created and starred in as a 13-year-old version of herself with actress Maya Erskine — and it's a feeling Konkle wants to continue pursuing in her future projects.
“The work that I want to do is a reflection of the therapy I’m doing in my own life," Konkle said. "I'm really distilling what's important to me... and it’s to continue to talk about things that are shameful, scary, weird, not being talked about, traumatic — and the glue of that, for the most part, is humor."
"If you cry a little, that's great, too."