Verified source report
‘It goes so hard in both directions’: John Early and Kate Berlant on making you laugh and cry in new influencer satire
In his directorial debut Maddie’s Secret, Early plays a food influencer with bulimia in a wild flip on the modern melodrama They don’t make film heroines quite like Maddie Ralph any more. As the creation of comedian and actor John Early , the titular character of Maddie’s Secret is a bright-eyed ingenue who greets the day like the sun came out just for her, no matter that she’s trudging to her job as a dishwasher. Like the leading ladies of ’50s Women’s Pictures, she longs for something more than the hand she has been dealt: in her case, to share her gooey, crispy and umami-packed culinary creations with the world as a food influencer. Early’s character is a loveable striver that you want to see win, even as an eating disorder threatens to get in the way of her dream. “I wanted to make a character that people feel very endeared to and protective of,” says Early a few weeks before the US
What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, ‘It goes so hard in both directions’: John Early and Kate Berlant on making you laugh and cry in new influencer satire, In his directorial debut Maddie’s Secret, Early plays a food influencer with bulimia in a wild flip on the modern melodrama They don’t make film heroines quite like Maddie Ralph any more. As the creation of comedian and actor John Early , the titular character of Maddie’s Secret is a bright-eyed ingenue who greets the day like the sun came out just for her, no matter that she’s trudging to her job as a dishwasher. Like the leading ladies of ’50s Women’s Pictures, she longs for something more than the hand she has been dealt: in her case, to share her gooey, crispy and umami-packed culinary creations with the world as a food influencer. Early’s character is a loveable striver that you want to see win, even as an eating disorder threatens to get in the way of her dream. “I wanted to make a character that people feel very endeared to and protective of,” says Early a few weeks before the US
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-06-17T10:00:29+00:00.
What to watch
Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.
Source
Primary source: ‘It goes so hard in both directions’: John Early and Kate Berlant on making you laugh and cry in new influencer satire via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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Source links
- ‘It goes so hard in both directions’: John Early and Kate Berlant on making you laugh and cry in new influencer satireThe Guardian - 2026-06-17T10:00:29+00:00
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