Since the internet first got a glimpse of Bentio Skinner’s new comedy series Overcompensating, one detail stuck out like a sore thumb: despite being a show centering on college freshmen, the series’ ensemble cast is largely in their 30s and late 20s.
Even given that somewhat distracting detail, the show has quickly become a hit since its release on Prime Video two weeks ago, with viewers falling in love with the series’ candid portrayal of college queerness and pitch-perfect comedy. (Every single one of Hailee’s lines has cemented itself in our vocabularies. Get Holmes their Emmy now.)
Still, Skinner and his Overcompensating co-star Mary Beth Barone took to their podcast, Ride, to address critics’ concerns about their age-innacurate casting.
“I don’t think anything could matter less,” Skinner said in the podcast’s most recent episode.
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To his critics, Skinner continued, “I’m listening. I’m hearing you. And also, in a perfect world, if I could just make, like, a period piece, and it’s like, you have no budget, everyone is like, ‘All hands on deck. We’re doing it’ — of course that’d be amazing.”
“But I think that, yeah, I didn’t want to limit audiences,” he added. And also, productions are really difficult and a collaborative process. And these are all conversations in production, just to be clear.
“A lot of thought has been put into every single detail about the show,” chimed in Barone.
‘Overcompensating’ star Benito Skinner addresses criticism of his show featuring actors in their 30s playing college students:
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 28, 2025
“These are all conversations in production…I think we join a long line of American shows where the actors are playing characters not their age: Glee,… pic.twitter.com/dYimD9jJSq
Skinner and Barone then pointed out that their show is far from the first to feature older actors playing teenage characters.
“I think we join a long line of American classics where the actors are playing characters that are not their age,” Skinner said. “Okay: Glee, The OC, American Pie, Gossip Girl, Grease, Euphoria, Outer Banks.”
“I get what you’re saying, but at the same time, I think I wanted it to live in this Y2K, nostalgic, sweaty, nasty American fantasy, but then we make it gay and actually, like, write women who have storylines and have brains and have sexual autonomy and sexualize themselves, and all the characters sexualize themselves, and I think all of us having space from that time in our life allows both audiences and us to be more comfortable seeing this on screen,” he explained.
Barone also added that, luckily, the general public seems to have gotten over its hang-ups about their casting since Overcompensating’s release, especially given the sometimes graphic encounters the characters go through. “I’ve seen a slight shift, in that it’s like, people being like, ‘I wouldn’t want younger actors to play these parts, and they wouldn’t be able to nail the millennial cringe of that time period,’” she said.
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