Is ‘Not Okay’ Based on a True Story?

Hailing from director and creator Quinn Shephard, the satirical dark-comedy, Not Okay, starring Zoey Deutch (Why Him?) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) explores influencer culture, trauma (regarding school shootings and terrorist attacks), and social media trolls. But is this based on a true story? The answer is no, the plot and the characters are fictional, though the film itself, which Shephard began writing in 2018, was a “reaction” to everything going on in the United States at the time, she told Newsweek.

“At the time, it was peak Trump America and there was a huge rise in gun violence and that was all happening played against a backdrop of influencer ads and celebrity gossip and skincare,” Shephard said. “It just felt so surreal, waking up and immersing myself in that world daily when I checked my phone. I really wanted to talk about that feeling of the cognitive dissonance of those two worlds being constantly blended together.”

Although the plot itself is fictional, there is a brief appearance from real-life social media influencer Caroline Calloway and the look of O’Brien’s character is inspired by Machine Gun Kelly, Pete Davidson, and Justin Bieber — the trifecta.

The story follows Danni (Deutch), an aimless millennial desperate for attention, who, in order to be noticed by her workplace crush Colin (O’Brien), decides to fake a trip to Paris. When the city is hit by a terrorist attack, rather than coming clean, Danni pretends to be a survivor — she even joins a support group.

In referencing school shootings and terrorist attacks, two very real subjects, Shephard explained that she has a “tremendous amount of empathy for and respect for trauma survivors.”

She continued, “I really hoped that I would navigate them all right, but to make sure that I was doing so I did vet the script with a number of people, including a trauma consultant, to make sure that I was navigating all of those scenes in an authentic way and I guess that’s the best you can do when you’re going to try to talk about topics like these.”

Moreover, Shephard said the film is more of an “indictment of privilege and co-opting trauma” rather than taking a stance on influencer or cancel culture, adding that she wants Danni, who is intentionally “terrible and relatable,” to be a “character that people see themselves in so that they can kind of question how they can be less of a Danni in their daily lives.”

Not Okay is streaming now on Hulu.