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Gillian Jacobs on Love in the time of character flaws

Community star Gillian Jacobs plays the turbulent female lead in Love, Netflix's new Judd Apatow series.
Mild-mannered DVD collecting boy meets grumpy pot-smoking girl. Could it be Love? (Netflix )

From her role as the principled but sometimes hypocritical Britta Perry on Community, to her turn as the self-assured but twisted Mimi-Rose on Girls, Gillian Jacobs is no stranger to characters with humanizing flaws. 

Now Jacobs stars opposite Paul Rust in Love, a new Netflix series produced by Judd Apatow. This time she plays Mickey, a substance-abusing romantic whose life is a disaster when the series starts. 

 The Juilliard-trained actor and admitted ex-goodie-two-shoes says she was attracted to the character's duality and redeeming qualities. Although Mickey is somewhat self-destructive, Jacobs argues that there's something universal about her motivations.

"Underneath her difficult exterior she is a very sensitive, emotional person who cares about other people and wants to be loved,"  she tells Shad. 

Jacobs also reflects on how fun it is to play characters so different from herself, the challenges of portraying an addict both accurately and comedically, and the show's anti-rom-com approach to relationships.