The ‘Odd Mom Out’ alum is bringing her viral persona to the big screen in her upcoming film, ‘Influenced’

NEED TO KNOW

• Jill Kargman joked that she has a “Ph.D in people watching” after creating her viral character, Dzanielle
• The fictional Upper East Side mom will soon take center stage in Kargman’s upcoming film, Influenced, which holds up a “funhouse mirror” to momfluencer culture
• Influenced will be released in theaters on May 8

Jill Kargman is holding a “funhouse mirror” up to influencer culture.

While speaking with journalist Alina Cho at New York City's 92NY alongside her Influenced costars David Krumholtz and Jenny Mollen, the Odd Mom Out alum, 51, said that Dzanielle — the fictional Upper East Side “momfluencer” she created during the COVID-19 pandemic — gave her a “Ph.D in people watching.”

Now, her viral character is taking center stage in Influenced, a comedy-packed film that pokes fun at a world of social media obsession and shallow relationships.

“I would say it's a friendly send up of influencer culture — momfluencer culture,” Kargman said. “I feel like we just wanted to hold a funhouse mirror to influencer life on the Upper East Side specifically.”

In addition to a cast full of stars — including Krumholtz, Mollen, Jessica Capshaw and Justin Bartha — the film features cameos from Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore. (Barrymore used to be Kargman's sister-in-law, married to Kargman's brother Will Kopelman from 2012 to 2016.)

As for where the idea for Dzanielle came from? Kargman explained that in March 2020 she heard her daughter Sadie consoling her friend, who was “hysterical” about being trapped in her Hamptons house during the pandemic, on the phone.

“She's like, ‘This is a nightmare. This is a total nightmare. We can't leave the house. This sucks,' " she recalled. “And I heard Sadie say, ‘This doesn't suck. We are so lucky. I was in Anne Frank's house two months ago, and she didn't have the internet, so shut up.' ”

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“I felt so happy that we had that trip because it really reframed the entire pandemic for us,” she continued of a family trip they took to Amsterdam a few months prior. “And so I started basically recording this whole thing, dumping on the friend and the mother who was saying what a nightmare was.”

After she started making the comedic videos out of pure boredom, a friend convinced Kargman to start posting them to social media.

“I was so bored going out of my skull, but I was in New York the whole time and I felt lucky to be here,” she said. “And my friend said, ‘You should post this.' So that's what happened.”

Influenced, which had its world premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival in January, will be released in theaters on May 8.

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