Krysten Ritter is having fun playing the hardpartying, attention-seeking lead in Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
Trying to find your footing in Hollywood can be difficult. Just when you think you have it figured out, you find yourself back at square one. Likewise, when you are ready to throw in the towel, opportunity comes knocking.
“I’ve always been told, ‘This is going to be big,’ or, ‘This is it! This is the one,’ but it never was,” says Krysten Ritter from the set of her new ABC comedy Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. “I never look at the future or try to predict the outcome of things. I just want to find the best scripts and people to work with, and what happens, happens.” It’s been an interesting road to get to this moment for the farm girl-turned-model-turned-actress, who celebrates her 30th birthday this month and who—for the first time in her career—finds herself playing the lead on a network TV show.
The raven-haired beauty plays Chloe, a hard-partying, manipulative “trickster,” as Ritter describes her, and the Pennsylvania native is clearly having fun bringing her to life. “I’m not playing myself, or ‘the Best Friend,’ or ‘the Girlfriend,’” says Ritter. “[Chloe] has such a point of view and loves to be the center of attention. I’m having a blast. I can’t believe the stuff I get to say. The writing is so tight—it’s easily the best-directed and best-written show I’ve ever been a part of.”
A Big Breaking Bad Break
Over the years, Ritter has appeared on shows including Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars, and despite not personally being a fan of romantic comedies (“I’m more of a cool indie, R-rated comedy, or Saw type of girl,” she says), she’s found herself in quite a few—from 27 Dresses to Confessions of a Shopaholic. However, it was her turn as the beguiling Jane Margolis on AMC’s gripping Breaking Bad that “changed everything,” says Ritter. “I never thought going into it that the role would catch on the way it did and people would love it as much as they did. I’ve been offered projects and gotten to do pilot season for the first time, all from Breaking Bad.”
She’s come a long way since her first turn living in LA, when she thought the city would be “romantic” and “filled with cool writers,” but quickly found herself lonely and a little depressed. Ritter moved back home to Pennsylvania, began modeling and traveling the world, and eventually gave LA a second chance. Yet this time around, despite her continued success, she still hasn’t quite gotten used to the spotlight. “There are people following me around [on set] basically babysitting me; my character is wearing these over-the-top clothes—it’s crazy,” says Ritter. “Every day I think to myself, I’m a farm girl; this is insane.”
