Justine Lupe has a guiding principle for life, and it is this: Embrace the “goof.”
“If you try and curate who you are too much, it’s unsustainable, and it makes life way less fun,” she says. “I have a dad who’s always been, like, goof-forward, and it brings me a lot of joy. I feel like it’s just where my thermostat is set.”
In her Zoom conversation with Alexa, the effervescent “Nobody Wants This” blonde radiated an unself-conscious sense of humor — a marked contrast to the intensity of her fan-favorite character, Morgan. At one point in our talk, her husband, visual artist Tyson Mason, even crept stealthily through the background, making her laugh and underscoring the couple’s humor-first dynamic.
It was Mason, she says, who helped her rediscover her sense of playfulness. “I think there was a time in my 20s when I was maybe wanting to be a bit more mysterious, a little more poised and posed,” muses Lupe, now 37. “Then, I got into a relationship with my husband, who’s also very goof-forward.” Meeting him, she says, helped her get back to her true self. “One of the first things I found appealing about him,” she says, “was the feeling he gave me of home and comfort, and it just turned me back onto goof being something that’s joyful and relatable.”
Since then, she’s cheerfully talked to media about the messiest parts of motherhood — scatological bath time stories, eating chewed-up food her daughter rejected — and, on Dax Shepard’s podcast “Armchair Expert,” the tale of a long-running prank that involved convincing co-star Kristen Bell that Lupe was an adherent of the drink-your-own-pee wellness cult. “My [publicist] is always like, ‘Can we lean a little bit away from the bodily function stuff?’” Lupe says with a laugh. “But I just find it so funny.”
The actor is joining me from Brooklyn Heights, where she’s living while she shoots a Netflix movie she describes as “a big old action comedy.” It’s been a fast-moving return to work after a blissfully lazy summer spent home in LA with Mason and their young daughter, Ellis. In addition to the aforementioned action-comedy, Lupe’s got upcoming roles in the horror film “They Follow,” the sequel to the 2014 indie horror hit “It Follows,” and the comedy “Seekers of Infinite Love,” alongside Hannah Einbinder and Justin Theroux.
The third season of “Nobody Wants This,” which premieres Oct. 22, continues chronicling sisters Joanne (Bell) and Morgan (Lupe), co-hosts of a sex and relationship podcast derailed by Joanne’s committed relationship with “hot rabbi” Noah, played by Adam Brody. The first part of the season sees Lupe’s character embarking on an entrepreneurial journey that lets her lean into Morgan’s capacity for forging ahead with a delicious lack of self-doubt.
“I have a really good time playing confidently wrong people,” Lupe says. “There’s so much fun to be had with someone who’s trying to fit the bill and just does not have the tools at all. Like, Michael Scott [of ‘The Office’] is my favorite.” It’s a role that’s put Lupe squarely on the map, with a Critics Choice nomination this year for her outsize, zingy performance.
Lupe was born in New York, raised in Colorado and returned east to study at Juilliard. Graduating in 2011, she started getting roles immediately, shining in parts in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Mr. Mercedes.” Then came her breakout “Succession” performance as Willa, the girlfriend-for-hire of eldest Roy son Connor (Alan Ruck). Her character’s skeptical reactions to the power-hungry Roy family’s business dealings made her welcome comic relief in an often bleak — yet sometimes hilarious — series.
Lupe brought her charismatic character invention to the Alexa shoot, where she envisioned herself as a retro icon holding court in a Brooklyn mansion. “Almost like Farrah Fawcett, a late-’70s, early-’80s kind of vibe,” she says. “Lots of hairspray, lots of shoulder pads. It was the most stylized shoot I’ve done so far. It was a blast!”
As for her favorite looks, Lupe says, “It was kind of like a murderer’s row of clothes; it’s hard to choose!” But she particularly adored the Dior gown that “had a pattern that felt like, when you sat on the couch, you couldn’t really tell where the dress ended and the upholstery began,” she says. “It felt like this character took the leftovers from the chaise lounge and made a dress out of them and added feathers. It was really fabulous.”
The shoot connected firmly with Lupe’s approach to red-carpet style, which she says is evolving. “In the last five years, I got a stylist, Rebecca Ramsey, who started kind of teaching me and exposing me to fashion. I’ve had fun leaning into what I’m interested in, and usually it’s something that has a playfulness to it.”
She’s embraced that sense of fun even when it was unintentional, like her eye-catching sheer Giorgio Armani Privé dress at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony. “We didn’t know the boobs would show!” she says with a laugh. “We had a feeling there might be, like, a tiny hint, but definitely not full transparency. And I was just like, ‘All right, that happened!’ It’s a beautiful dress. I loved that dress. It had a lot of levity and it was airy. It didn’t feel self-serious at all.”
Lupe is equally whimsical in her daily fashion sense, where she liberally mixes sources. “Levi’s, like, always. They’re just classic and awesome,” she says. “Kallmeyer is a big one for me — they make great T-shirts. This is one of them,” she says, gesturing to her simple, elegant gray tee. “And Donni., which I wear a lot. It’s expensive, but things last, and there are fun colors — and it’s made in LA! And honestly, I do a lot of thrifting. I’ve gotten addicted to Depop.” In addition to the thrill of hunting down a used treasure, Lupe says, “It’s great for baby clothes, because they move out of them so quickly! You can find things for, like, two bucks, and they’re great.”
Lupe, it may come as no surprise, has talked frankly about her pregnancy and motherhood journey, particularly as it relates to being a working actor. She was pregnant while shooting the first season of “Nobody Wants This,” an experience she’s described as being initially daunting because she’d heard so many horror stories about motherhood as a career-ender for actors.
But when Lupe shared her baby news with her cast and crewmates, they were hugely supportive. “I feel like that shouldn’t be a thing anymore,” she says of motherhood being stigmatized for actors. “The way that happens is by normalizing it and shining a light on things we feel are taboo. We should be moving the needle forward. More people in charge should hear these stories.”
Lupe has found a solid source of support in Bell, a mother of two. “She’s got a very good handle on work-life balance,” Lupe says. “She’s really prioritized her children. She’s in a different place in her career than I am, so it’s not an identical road map. But it’s nice to have her as someone to look toward for, like, a good example of a really good mom and really great actress.”
She and Mason married in February 2025, after having Ellis. “It’s nice to be able to say ‘my husband,’” she says, as we laugh about a John Mulaney bit on how the word “wife” lands so much better than “girlfriend.” “I have such an aversion to the word ‘fiancé,’” Lupe says. “I just can’t!”
Now, the challenge is how to protect family time without sacrificing the work she loves. She’s long enjoyed being someone on set who, in her own description, is “happy to be here! Always here, always around!” Delineating time with her family has found her “being a little more boundaried about things. Knowing when I don’t need to go to something. Because it’s a sacrifice being away from my daughter.”
As Lupe creates new pathways for her work and her family life, she’s doing so with the confidence that it can be done her way — and that she won’t feel the need to hide the messy reality of it all. “There’s always private things that are just for me and just for my family, but in terms of the person that I am? It feels easier,” she says, “to not have to filter all the time.”
Photographer: Victoria Will; Editor: Alev Aktar; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Photo Editor: Jessica Hober; Talent Booker: Patty Adams Martinez; Production Designer: Gregory Powell; Hair: Xavier Velasquez at A-Frame Agency using Virtue Labs; Makeup: Samantha Lau at A-Frame Agency using Dior Beauty; Manicure: Yukie Miyakawa at See Management using Chanel Le Vernis; Lighting Director: Christian Ern; Photo Assistant Tessa Dillman; Digital Tech: Dustin Betterly; Fashion Assistant: Dominic Turiczek; On-set Assistant Yared Glicksman
Vintage car: @w123tdwagon, Location: NYCFilmLocations