Mae Martin seems to have done it all: stand-up comedy, a limited rom com-style series, an actual musical album, a podcast so popular it’s spawned live shows and, just last week, animal paintings in support of Doctors Without Borders that sold out in hours. But the Martin cinematic universe hasn’t crossed paths with the world of psychological thrillers — until now.
After delighting viewers with their heartfelt, semi-autobiographical comedy Feel Good and standup special SAP, Toronto’s Martin is making a triumphant return to Netflix — but this time, with an uncharacteristically sinister psychological thriller delving into the twisted world of the troubled teen industry, titled Wayward.
It may feel like a departure from Martin’s previous endeavours — usually self-deprecating (“My way of pointing outwards and commenting on the external world is to talk about how it affects me and to point a finger at myself and my moral failings and foibles.”); comedic, of course; and often with a hopeful bent — but they’re quick to note that Wayward, in some ways, comes from the same place as some of their other work.
“A lot of what I write is about an adult who is still processing their teens,” they say. “And I became really in interested in and fixated on the troubled teen industry after my friend came back from being away [at one of those institutions] for two years.”
To Martin, the psychological thriller element was a natural fit for the subject. “The whole concept is born from self-help cults of the 1970s and that very theatrical therapy. And the industry, at least when my friend and other friends I knew went, was just very unregulated and opaque.”
But this is Mae Martin’s show — horror or not, there’s still going to be some humour. “I feel like, if you take two teenage girl best friends, even if they were about to be executed by firing squad, they would still get the giggles.”
Here, they pause, and deliver the one-two punch I’ve come to expect from Martin throughout our conversation: a joke, followed by something so incisive and heartfelt that you’re left reeling.
“That feeling of otherness and sense of nostalgia in my work comes from an increasing alienation from the world around us. The world that we live in doesn’t reflect our internal experience, which is that we all just want to love and be loved, and are generally nice people,” they say. “And then we live in this world where we’re inundated with such immense cruelty and darkness. I think that sense of confusion permeates a lot of my work. And maybe that’s the nostalgia for adolescence too, because when you’re a teenager, you have such a keen sense of injustice, and you’re like, how am I supposed to participate in this world?”
The show features a whole host of emerging local talent (Brandon Jay McLaren, Joshua Close, Sydney Topliffe and more), and stars Toni Collette as an unsurprisingly convincing cult leader-type, Sarah Gadon as Martin’s (who plays the police officer looking into the sinister happenings at the fictional Tall Pines Academy) pregnant wife and Patrick J. Adams as the principal perhaps knowingly funnelling troubled kids into the secretive academy.
Before the limited series hits the small screen on Sept. 25, it’s coming to the biggest of big screens for its premiere: the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I’m just honoured; it’s a dream come true,” Martin says of the premiere, which takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 9 and is followed by two additional screenings throughout the festival.
It’s doubly fitting for Wayward — of which Martin is the creator, co-showrunner, executive producer and star — to have its premiere in Toronto. The comedian grew up here, getting their start at the Second City at just age 13 (and, they casually mention as an aside, babysitting for The Kids in the Hall alum Mark McKinney). But Wayward also filmed here, and Martin lights up talking about the experience.
“All the cliches are true about Canadian crews: they really just are so kind. But also, because I was thinking so much about my teens during filming it and adolescence and coming of age, to be filming on those streets where I ran around was pretty great.”
Nostalgia is a feeling that comes up a lot for Martin during our conversation, who says that they come back to their hometown of Toronto at least once a year. “I like to go by old apartments I lived in to get emo,” they joke, referencing Kensington Market, Mount Pleasant Cemetery and the Skyline Restaurant (“I like a diner!”) as other much-frequented stops when they’re back home.
Martin says there were some weird synchronicities while filming — like the sound team for the show recording at Martin’s former summer camp. “So the door of my character’s house, that creak, was the sound of the dining hall of my childhood summer camp!”
Ahead of Wayward’s Netflix release (Sept. 25), Martin says they hope this show “stays with you.”
“I hope it makes people think about their own teens and about what they would be willing to compromise in order to have acceptance or this sort of promise of utopia. Cults are always a useful metaphor for that,” they say. “I hope that it’s kind of like a weird parable, especially the last three episodes.”
