‘Everything’s Gonna Be Okay’ Star Kayla Cromer on Matilda’s Queer Coming of Age

Kayla Cromer’s Matilda is groundbreaking in more ways than one. Through her relationship with her best friend and girlfriend Drea (Lillian Carrier), she explored what it means to be queer in 2021 including aspects of queerness, intimacy, hookups, love, partnership, and asexuality sometimes across the course of a single episode.

Cromer and Carrier are both on the autism spectrum, and last year Cromer made history as the first person on the autism spectrum to be a series regular lead on a network show. But the show never tokenizes Matilda. Instead, it opens the door for a neurodiverse world that better reflects the world around us.

In an interview with Awards Daily, Cromer spoke to the show’s success in its second season and what it was like to continue to build on their family bond when the pandemic prevented them from actually spending time together.

Awards Daily: With the first season of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, you became the first person on the autism spectrum to play an autistic character in a lead role. Now that you’re in the second season I’m curious what that journey has been like for you and the reception you’ve received. Have you been able to interact with fans to hear about what that means to them?

Kayla Cromer: It has been amazing. Everyone involved has really amplified my voice and it led to many important conversations around inclusion. The DM’S, comments, and fan mail have been so much. The show has helped people to feel empowered to share their stories and experiences with me. Everyone is just in awe to see this kind of representation and storytelling on TV. It makes me very happy.

AD: Hollywood has had a pretty terrible track record with portraying and writing about the experience of people on the autism spectrum. What makes the show and the character different and what made you realize Matilda was someone you wanted to play?

KC: Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is not the typical kind of family that you see on a sitcom. It reflects the world we are actually living in. The show allows Matilda to be an individual. When I first read the script I immediately recognized that this was a first within the industry and I knew that I wanted to be able to explore that.

AD: Because of the pandemic the second season is filmed almost entirely within the family house and relies even more so (if that’s even popular) on the family dynamic of Nicholas, Matilda, and Genevieve. How has it been developing that familial relationship even further in the second season?

KC: We were already quarantining before shooting so it already created this sense of isolation from the world but what made this season so different was that the only time we really got to interact as a cast was when we were literally shooting scenes together. It’s the only time we got to see each other. We’ve had this genuine family bond from the very beginning in our very first table read and I think it comes across in the show.

AD: One of my favorite aspects of the second season is Matilda’s storyline exploring her sexuality and realizing it’s okay to not have the answers right away. What has it been like for you as an actor to explore that aspect of Matilda? 

KC: Well, I am straight in real life, but as an actor its my job as an actor to get out of my comfort zone and explore who my character is. I did a lot of reading and chatted with friends in the LGBTQ+ community. I had a lot of conversations with friends within that community and their struggles with deciding who they are and what all that it entails.

AD: What was your favorite moment from the second season? 

KC: My favorite scene from season 2 to shoot was the penis scene. I really do feel like Maeve is my sister. The scene was so funny, and it is just real talk between sisters.

The second season of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay airs Thursdays on Freeform and can be streamed exclusively on Hulu.