“PAIN IN THE NECK”
‘Vampy, campy lesbians’ an interview with Lauren Payton and Alyssa Eelis about their upcoming sapphic webseries ‘Pain in the Neck’
By Carrice
Publishing by Mel
When rom-com lover Alyssa and vampire enthusiast Lauren decided to work together, the incredible web series ‘Pain in the Neck’ was born. ‘Pain in the Neck’ tells the story of human Ruby (played by Alyssa Eelis) who falls for vampire Helena (played by Lauren Payton).
The series, which is set to be released with a two episode debut on September 17th, promises to be both heartwarming and hilarious as well as having an exciting musical number performed by one of the talented leads.
‘Lesbians are the funniest people I’ve ever met’
Lauren and Alyssa wanted to create a lesbian story that is happy and cosy, they said that they feel a lot of lesbian media is about coming out - and whilst that is beautiful and important in its own right - they felt it would be nice to watch a lesbian love story where the couple had already gone through that and were comfortable and happy in their sexuality.
The pair also spoke of the dreaded ‘kill your gays’ convention and how ‘Pain in the Neck’ would not be doing that, Alyssa voicing how this show is to be goofy and silly and above all extremely sapphic. The element of humour will be very prominent in ‘Pain in the Neck’ as well, with Alyssa previously studying comedy in college and the pair having a fondness for creating hilarious skits on their respective TikTok pages.
The couple also voiced how lesbian media is also usually very serious and heartbreaking, and whilst everyone is big fans of painful period love pieces, lesbians are generally amazingly funny people and that should be showcased as well.
A love letter to Lauren’s younger self
For Lauren, growing up in a southern conservative town queer media was the only connection to her community she had for a long time. When she was younger, she did not know any other gay people and queer media made her feel less alone for a long time. Lauren hopes that this feeling of unity and comfort is something the audience take from ‘Pain In The Neck’, wishing to create the same lifeline with her own queer art that was so vital to her growing up.
For Alyssa, it is important to her that queer art is used as a form of protest. She feels that queer joy being seen is a political act in itself, and she also wishes to showcase how being queer is the happiest experience of her life and should never be threatened or silenced.
‘I'm in love with you because I think you're the best in the world, and that includes the talent you possess’
For loving couple Lauren and Alyssa, the prospect of working together was both exciting and nerve-wracking. It was very important to the pair that their relationship was valued over everything else, promising to try working together but at any point it was a strain on their personal relationship they would stop.
The pair sat down to write ‘Pain in the Neck’ with this thought in mind and found that this was not the case, their talents perfectly complementing each other and the story coming together perfectly. The natural chemistry and admiration for each other certainly helped the creative process for ‘Pain in the Neck’, and Lauren and Aylssa have created a passion project that they are extremely proud of and cannot wait to share with the world. Lauren and Alyssa even say how they cannot wait to work together on more projects in the future, saying how it was their favourite thing about the whole experience of creating ‘Pain in the Neck’.
‘If the apocalypse comes, beep me’
There were a few inspirations for ‘Pain in the Neck’ that helped Lauren and Alyssa with creating their cosy vampire world. Lauren mentions that a webseries called ‘Carmilla’, which is about sapphic vampires, was one of her favourite things to watch growing up and that is what helped to first inspire the idea of creating a lesbian vampire love story.
Alyssa and Lauren are also big fans of 2000s media such as ‘Twilight’ and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer' which inspired them to create an autumnal and spooky vampiric love story as well as making lots of fun easter egg references throughout ‘Pain in the Neck’. The 2000s energy continues with the dialogue of ‘Pain in the Neck’, the characters conversing in quick whips and fast paced witty comments similar to one of Alyssa and Lauren’s comfort shows ‘Gilmore Girls’.
Added to our Halloween watchlist
‘Pain in the Neck’ will be released on September 17th, with a two episode debut that is set to be followed with a new episode every week. The series totals at eight episodes and promises to be the perfect new cosy show for the autumnal months.
