The Original Queen of TikTok Loren Gray admits to some serious LOLs while filming her first movie role in Incoming, Netflix’s hilarious high school romp. As Katrina, the singer/actress/social media influencer was jazzed to play a popular high schooler, but she had to draw from her research of iconic drunk scenes from a hit film to help her shoot a sprawling house party scene, which finds her ultimately binging on Taco Bell while being driven home by two nerdy escorts.
“I definitely had some personal experiences to pull from,” Gray admitted to MovieWeb in a recent interview about the Netflix hit. “Right before that movie, I was like a Taco Bell fiend. I went through three months when I pretty much ate Taco Bell every single day. After I filmed that [drunk] scene, I have not had Taco Bell since.” One too many loaded burritos during the shoot perhaps? “For the Taco Bell scene, I’m eating in the back, and we had so many of those burritos. In the beginning, I was eating them, but I don’t like beans, so I had a spit bucket full of just disgusting grossness next to me.”
Gray went on to note the movie that inspired her most through the process:
“For the scenes where I’m drunk, I watched a lot of other comedy movies where the actors were playing in an inebriated state.
Bridesmaids
was a big one for me. And that [airplane] scene was the perfect thing to reference
. It’s actually much harder than you think to pretend to be drunk when you’re not drunk.”
Taking on Her First Comedic Role
Loren Gray is no stranger to attention, outlandish and otherwise. Her TikTok account has a glorious 53.7 million followers and 3 billion likes. Incoming was a chance to hit the big screen and explore other creative outlets. The comedy comes from directors/screenwriters Dave and John Chernin (from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). The story tracks a group of freshmen (Mason Thames, Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro, Isabella Ferreira, and Bardia Seiri) who desperately want to fit in. Attending a raging house party tossed by older high schoolers seems like one way to do it. Mayhem ensues.
“This was the first script that I laughed while reading it,” Gray says of the film, noting that playing Katrina offered a chance to do some improv in some scenes. “I hadn’t gotten a lot of comedy scripts. I was really excited because I’d never been in a movie before, and I felt like comedy would be a really great place to start. I loved the character, I thought it was very out of the box, and it was going to be a challenge for me, which was something I was looking forward to.” Incoming is streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.