“Local Attraction” came about like many Web series do: An actor was looking to get footage for his reel. “I wasn’t intending for anyone to see it,” says creator-director Connor Hines. “I thought to myself, My mom will watch it…and her book club and my grandparents. I even remember saying, ‘I would love for it to get 200 views; I know I might be getting a little ahead of myself.’ ”
Since the series’ launch in March of this year, the first episode—about a disastrous, hilarious Tinder date—has garnered over 300,000 views on YouTube. Hines’ success proves that when the story, writing, and characters are good, people will watch. “Local Attraction” is unconventional: The episodes come in at around 15–20 minutes, and while not technically perfect, they nail their over-the-top characters.
From the jerky Wall Street financier who’s never heard of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to the overly zen actor who “shakes the bad leaves off his tree” when he enters a room and answers a casting director’s practical questions (“What’s your contact information?”) in character during auditions, they’re wild and wildly familiar to Tinder daters and New Yorkers in general.
Hines, who studied at the William Esper Studio, connected most with the grossly exaggerated fictitious actor from the second episode. Skye is a Method actor to the fullest, telling his date he even tried to temporarily infect himself with typhoid to play a role.
“I wrote that episode in, like, three hours,” Hines says. “It was so easy; I was just tapping into my classmates, and I was so excited to share that one because it was closer to me than any of the other episodes. It was almost therapeutic to poke fun at myself and my fellow actors and just how seriously some of us take it.”
Hines plays one half of the date in every episode. Thanks to his friendship with Glenn Close’s daughter, he was able to get the Emmy- and Tony-winning actor to play an older woman on the prowl in the sixth installment. “She reached out and said, ‘I think these are funny; if you write one and I like it, I’ll do it,’ ” Hines explains. “I was experiencing a range of emotions: perplexed, ecstatic…I wanted to throw my computer out the window. It took a long time to come back down to earth and gather what I’d just read.”
For his writing process (with or without Close), Hines uses his iPhone—because he feels it’s less pressure—and as far as inspiration goes, sometimes it just drops in his lap. He once found a character at popular Meatpacking District bar Brass Monkey.
“This kid came up to me and he was wearing a ridiculous sweater and these big designer sunglasses at night. And we were inside, and that’s basically all you need to know about him,” Hines says. “He asked if I had a cigarette and I was so taken aback by this guy. What motivated him to buy these sunglasses and keep them on inside and does he feel completely secure in that decision?”
Hines went on to pump the man for information. “He probably thought I was hitting on him, but I was like, This is the next character! I felt like I should thank him, but that clearly wouldn’t make any sense.”
The actor is now shifting gears and has moved into network television, currently working on a pilot with ABC Studios. “There’s been a lot of Googling and book reading,” he says.
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