While many cash-strapped filmmakers often go to astonishing lengths to fund their passion projects, they still need to pay the bills every day. While their career considerations are important to them, future Spielbergs and DuVernays also have to think about where their personal and family lives stand. Will they fall in love? Will they create families while creating good cinema? Will they achieve a perfect balance between work and life?
In the nine part Amazon Video comedy 37 PROBLEMS, would-be auteur Amanda (played by the show’s creator/writer/director/producer, Lisa Ebersole) bravely tries to strike that work/life balance as she attempts to get her own web series from pipe dream to production. Nearing 40, Amanda also feels unending pressure from her nagging mother Diane (Catherine Carlen) to bring a child into the world with the last egg she can freeze.
Insisting that her daughter should immediately get hitched to the first “Genius” she spots at the Apple Computer service store, Diane refuses to help Amanda pay her series’ editor/ex-debtor Gunnar (Joseph D. Reitman) to complete the project. Instead, Diane wants her money – $10,000 total – to go towards the egg fertilization procedure that she’s hoped Amanda would get.
Lisa Ebersole plays a fledgling auteur who’s up against her biological clock in the Amazon/WhoHaHa/XFinity VOD series 37 PROBLEMS. Ebersole also created, wrote and produced the series.
Unfortunately, Amanda’s search for romance has been atrophied by her impulsiveness, and by the disappointing partners who’ve come her way. After finding out that her equally career-driven ex-boyfriend Kevin (James Morrison) had a fling with another woman, Amanda develops an undeniable fixation on her fertility doctor: Indira Drimi (Pej Vahdat).
When Amanda needs advice, she turns to an important yet invisible source of wisdom: her dead father (Larrs Jackson). On the extant side of humanity is September (Stephanie Sanditz), a vital cast member on Amanda’s web series.
Though September always attempts to help Amanda with whatever problems ensue on the set, she’s also a sobering voice of reason for her best friend/collaborator. Amanda wants to get her web series to its final cut, but can she finally do the same for her love life?
As humorous and charming as it is authentic and relatable to audiences, 37 PROBLEMS features Ebersole as a character who has to comprehend the same challenges (career, love, potential parenthood) that she had to face in her actual day-to-day life. Like her fictional alter ego, Ebersole was up against the biological clock while racing to fund her multitudinous creative enterprises.
“(The series) was based on what was going on in my life at the time,” recalls Ebersole. “I was 37 years old, in grad school and single. Friends of mine were freezing their eggs, and I didn’t have the money or the inclination to do that, but it brought the question of motherhood into sharp focus. What if this is my only chance? I’m 37. Time is running out. I was forced to question whether I wanted to become a mom, and whether I wanted to put time and money and energy into that right away.”
Unconvinced that Amanda (Lisa Ebersole) will successfully get her web series completed, Amanda’s mother Diane (Catherine Carlen) pushes her to birth a child by fertilizing her last remaining egg.
Ebersole ultimately opted to finance her filmmaking work, including 37 PROBLEMS. “As a person in the universe, and as an artist, I’ve made the decision over and over to put money into my independent theatre and film projects,” she says.
“I’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that, but I’ve never put my money into preserving my fertility. I think that’s an interesting choice that I’ve continued to make. Even with this project, I crowdfunded $37,000, which I could have used for egg freezing or IVF (in vitro fertilization), and I chose to make a web series.”
While the series’ characters and episodic incidents are comically heightened, the themes examined in 37 PROBLEMS are very real for Ebersole and women of all backgrounds. “(37 PROBLEMS) is exaggerated for comedic effect and all of that, but the core of it is the decision between career versus motherhood. (That) moment in a woman’s life is definitely something I struggle with and relate to.”
From behind the camera, Ebersole is proud of 37 PROBLEMS’ top-notch production quality. In planning the show, Ebersole researched many web series to help her create the aesthetic formula she wanted to achieve. The most influential of those series was a Vimeo sensation-turned HBO comedy hit.
“I started writing in 2015, and pretty quickly I knew HIGH MAINTENANCE was my favorite thing in terms of web series,” recalls Ebersole. “I was like, ‘okay, I want it (37 PROBLEMS) to be as well-produced as this even though the subject matter was going to be totally different. I want it to look great. I want the acting to be top-notch. I want it to be written amazingly, and to be really well-directed. I want it to feel like a TV show.”
After spending 9 months writing the show’s scripts, Ebersole held several live reads to help her fine-tune the material before production started on 37 PROBLEMS. For Ebersole, producing and starring in that series meant a new opportunity to exhibit the creative skills that she shared with live audiences during her years in theatre. Through her series being programmed on Amazon, Xfinity VOD, and actor/director Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaHa YouTube channel, viewers from every part of the world can now see Ebersole’s talents play out.
Under pressure to freeze the last egg she has, Amanda (Lisa Ebersole) starts to become infatuated with her fertility doctor, Indira Drimi (played by Pej Vahdat) in 37 PROBLEMS.
“I wanted to make a comedic web series that shows what I can do as a writer/director/actress/producer on film, because I had only prior to (37 PROBLEMS) done that on stage,” notes Ebersole. “I didn’t have evidence of what I could do on screen, and I was transitioning from the theatre world to the film/TV world and needed that evidence. And I’m an artist. I wanted to make something. I was itching to create something, so this was that.”
Aiming for 37 PROBLEMS to be, in her words, “(like) the comedy of GIRLS mixed with BROAD CITY,” Ebersole believes 37 PROBLEMS is possibly the only series that explores the clash between career and motherhood.
“I would never make something if it already existed, and there was nothing about a single 37-year old fertility-challenged woman struggling with the decision of whether or not to have a baby while still striving to make a mark in her career,” she explains. “I felt like it was worth shining a lens on, in terms of the character and her struggle and choices. Is this a story worth telling? Yes it is, because all of the women I know are going through this, and nobody’s talking about it in this way.”
As Ebersole moves forward with her acting and filmmaking career, she looks back at 37 PROBLEMS as a series that was as enlightening to make as it was exhilarating to watch. “…I love it every time I watch it, which is the biggest gift. I wasn’t ever able to watch my plays. I did make a movie at one point that I literally couldn’t watch. I would have to leave the theater when it played, because I just saw all the flaws. So whether it was growth in the material, or in me, or both, I would definitely enjoy watching (37 PROBLEMS) with audiences.”
With Ebersole’s acting, writing, producing and directing abilities making her a quadruple threat in the entertainment industry, she’s also honored that viewers have taken notice of both herself and 37 PROBLEMS. “I think it’s already done what I hoped it would do, which is that it exists in the world. It has people who love it and people who hate it. It enabled me to take a step forward in my film and TV career.”
ON THE WEB: https://www.37problems.com/
AMAZON VIDEO: https://www.amazon.com/37-Problems/dp/B076HT8ZJQ
WhoHaHa: https://whohaha.com/series/37-problems/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/37problems