Anna Konkle Embraces the Realities of Motherhood in ‘The Drop’

LOS ANGELES – Three months after giving birth to her first baby and shortly after she completed that Emmy-nominated series “PEN15” Anna Konkle liked the sound when filming her next project in a remote Mexican jungle.

“They had heard about casts going to these beautiful places and having to quarantine, so they just stayed in these amazing hotels and filmed there,” she said.

In reality, Konkle’s experience producing her new movie, The Drop, which premieres Friday on Hulu, has been far from a happy one. Poor cell phone reception and limited access to food and water were the least of the nursing mother’s worries. At the end of the shoot, she had to be given fluids through an IV line.

“Everyone got horrible diarrhea and I stopped making milk, so I had to get the IV while I was pumping to make milk because I was so dehydrated,” she recalled. In the end, she was glad she did the film — and not just because her daughter “adjusted beautifully and was very fat by the end of filming.”

“I liked the idea that motherhood wasn’t sugar-cute, it was R-rated and fun. And it just felt exciting to be a part of that, I think, especially confronting the phase that I was in,” she said.

“The Drop” who was executive producer by Jay Duplass, follows Lex (Konkle) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler) as the happy couple tries to conceive. But their relationship is tested when Lex drops her friends’ baby during a honeymoon in front of everyone.

For Konkle, the film’s honest exploration of parenting and the failures that come with it was a refreshing reminder as she adjusted to life as a new mom.

“The amount of criticism I have, questioning myself, comparing myself to other people, you know, they’re vacationing with their kid or they’re teaching them science or whatever,” she said. “I just loved the movie that it was kind of like, s— happens, nobody’s perfect and you fight with it and move on.”

Konkle, along with her best friend Maya Erskine, earned critical acclaim for “PEN15,” a spasmodic homage to seventh graders is set in the early 2000s, in which the duo starred and co-created. Though she and Erskine both studied experimental theater at the college where they met, Konkle sees comedy as a natural if unexpected step in her career.

“There’s something about comedy, laughing at your darkest moments and your own vulnerability that feels like you can go further than drama,” she said. “I didn’t think I would end up in comedy. i was so serious But it’s the perfect home. I’m so thankful I ended up there.”