Nicole Wants a Coffee Coolatta

August 5, 2021 7:20 pm Published by Kelsey Lawrence

“I made a short filmé about a loser trying to get a coffee coolatta 💅 ” Edy Modica wrote in her caption for the premiere of Nicole, a short filmé about exactly that, but also hometown aimlessness, strip-mall ecstasy dealers, vampires, and fundamentally irredeemable people looking for frozen coffee in this weird lil’ life.

And speaking of the fundamentals, Edy is fundamentally famous in that way that some superstars – the superstars who know how to make unsparkly daily minutiae shine — just are. In her world, the intense sensory experiences of getting by are magnified to repulsive, enchanting degrees. The sugar rush of a Coolatta, the girls waiting in the parking lot to settle something, an irritated belly button piercing, cream of white wine sauce. (“It’s too much. It’s ugly. And yet…it’s delicious.”)

Today, we enter the Very Famous World of Edy. Calling 1-900-Cream-of-Bread…

How’s your day going?

It’s good! I’m doing this show in August, so I just went and bought a wig. I’m very excited about it.

What does it look like?

It’s long, black — I was going for Snooki-looking hair. It looks like that. I just tried on a whole outfit, and I got these fake boobs, they go under a shirt. I’m just so excited, I can’t wait.

I would love to wear those around on a night out, just to see what it’s like.

It made me feel really hot, which is annoying.

I know, I know, I can feel how hot I’d feel wearing them.

I took some pics of them, and you can see in my face how confident and sexy I feel. It’s the best I’ve ever looked.

I don’t know how much you can reveal, but are fake tits part of the play?

I just wanted to wear them for the character. I feel like the look of something inspires everything else for me.

I loved the inspo pictures with the teeny tiny bikini!

Yeah, I bought that. I just tried it on with the tits, it looks amazing.

You’re going to look stunning on stage. Cream of Bread! Hitting the stage soon. What’s the story?

It’s barely written. I feel like you saw Cream of White Wine Sauce, the other one, right?

Yeah!

It’s a similar premise with a bunch of different characters coming in and out, and me and the same guy Chase [Montavon] are just going to wrangle everyone. But it takes place at a collector’s convention in Atlantic City.

What a dream! What are they collecting?

It depends. I’m there to collect wires.

Are the characters related to the ones in Cream of White Wine Sauce, or is it a different ambiance?

It’s a little different. I feel like my character’s more Jersey Shore, younger than the other character, tattoos. Snooki is the inspiration — and JWOWW. And Angelina, honestly, the whole cast. I saw this couple fighting on the subway, on the platform, the girl had mascara running down her face, and they looked like caricatures of Jersey Shore people. She was like, “I saw you looking at them,” and the guy was like [roars] “WHAT GIRLS LAURA!” Ever since I saw that, I’m like, well I want to do that on stage. This is all just a vessel for me to be able to be that person.

I feel like my lover (Editor’s Note: Sorry for saying that!) Steve who is, in fact, in your movie, told me it was inspired by where you grew up?

Nyack, where I’m from, it’s known for the arts and it’s really beautiful, on the water. It’s really quaint, and there’s a lot of money there. But then there’s also…it’s so trashy. The people who grew up there are just, like, trashy. My stepdad’s whole family, who I grew up with, are all from there, and they’re Italian, just low-lifes, and they never left.

There’s a lot of drugs there too. There were a lot of drugs in my high school. It was inspired by some really specific people I went to high school with.

I was gonna ask about the story of Nicole. What inspired her? Who is she?

A lot of my dad’s side of the family, too, are like low-income drug addicts who have a really short fuse or just are never going to change or look inside of themselves and see why they are stuck where they’re stuck. That’s going to be their life forever. I didn’t want the movie to be about drugs, but I feel like a lot of the traits of that character came from people like that. They want what they want, and they don’t understand why the world is so against them.

Whenever I see that in movies, that’s what I’m drawn to. I love characters like that, who aren’t redeeming. In a lot of shows, like, Tony Soprano is a horrible guy, but you love him. I like not liking people, too. I think it’s funny when someone’s bad through and through.

Yeah, like maybe someone who doesn’t necessarily have charisma. I think maybe people like to explore poverty or just, like, low-income suburban America, and there has to be a main character who has this redeeming charisma.

Totally! I can’t even remember what movie I saw recently, but it was like, the daughter is the hottest girl ever and the mom is a struggling waitress. I don’t know — I feel like poor people’s storylines aren’t told in a real way.

Is that a part of your life you’re still close to? I know you’re really close with your parents, but is that something that’s still part of you in a way? I don’t know if that makes sense.

I don’t really see my family — my dad’s side of the family, they’re just, like, crazy people who I just don’t get to see anymore. A lot of them have died, and my other cousin, there was this thing when my grandma died, I got in touch with her and I didn’t answer her on Facebook fast enough. It ended with her being like, “Don’t ever fucking talk to me again.” She is Nicole. She is that. It was so much a part of my growing up. Sometimes I feel like… when I made this, because of the way I look now, I don’t look like I came from that. I don’t want to seem like I’m appropriating something.

I know what you mean, I do want to talk about those things and tell those stories. It’s weird when you’re in your circle of New York people who come from a bunch of different backgrounds. Is that an overarching theme that connects a lot of your work, capturing that kind of environment?

One thousand percent, I’m obsessed with it. It’s like all I wanna tell.

How does Dunkin Donuts come into play? Tell me about Nicole’s relationship with Dunkin — and yours.

I mean, I grew up on Dunkin Donuts, and there’s one in my town that we all used to go to. I feel like it’s such a staple, like a giant cup of iced coffee or something nasty. For me, it’s associated with weed smokers because you just want something sweet and delicious. I feel like when I try to describe who Nicole is or my tagline for the movie, I’m like, “She’s a Dunkin Donuts-drinking, Bath & Body Works-spraying kind of person who lives in her mom’s basement.” They live in a basement apartment together because that’s my mom’s house.

I also think of dirty Uggs, in fact isn’t she wearing dirty Uggs?

She is wearing dirty Uggs.

A little Victoria’s Secret Pink sweatshirt action?

When I found that sweatshirt, I was looking for so long because I wanted the look to be iconic. I wanted it to be perfect. When I saw that I was like, “Yesssss.”

This might sound like I’m fluffing your feathers, but I got goosebumps watching Nicole.

I’m so glad, I feel like when I watch it, I’m like, “What is this?”

What is it like to make a dang movie? Is it…hard? I’ve never made one, I don’t know.

It was so hard. I only paid the crew people. It was only three days, it was so stressful. I couldn’t have done it without Alex Bliss, my friend. My mom lives in a basement apartment, and we were gonna have five people sleep there, which would have been impossible. Alex has an aunt who has this huge house, so everyone slept there. You just need money! Like I think it cost me $2,500. I paid for all of it.

Bless you, that’s a lot!

It’s a lot! But I was saving for it. I wanted it to be $1500, and I feel like, at this point, paying people after the sound and stuff, that’s about how much it cost. I didn’t pay any of the actors because they’re my friends. Which I hate doing. I want to pay everybody all of the money in the world. I feel like I got really lucky.

What do we think happens to Nicole after the movie ends?

I like to think that she just continues on this way. I like thinking that her life is really sad, maybe her mom dies, and it’s like, now what. I don’t see any hope for her. Maybe she’ll start working at ShopRite.

ShopRite, maybe even Bath & Body? Maybe that would be too much.

Maybe that’s a dream. We had to reshoot something because I really wanted — Bath & Body Works’ Sweet Pea was like my scent in middle school and high school. I was like, we need to see the Sweet Pea, and it wasn’t in it. I don’t know if it’ll mean anything to anyone, but if I saw that I’d be like, “Oh yeah.”

I was gonna ask you, what is your go-to Dunkin order?

I’ve been really into the Blueberry Iced Coffee. It’s a pump of blueberry syrup in iced coffee, but I love it. I love Coolattas too.

I’ve never had one actually.

Oh my god, you have to have a Coffee Coolatta. It’s been the same for 20 years or however long. Oh my god, they’re so good, I used to get them at the mall with my mom.

Edy, my last question for you, what are three things that make you feel famous?

Oh my god. Um, ok, wearing an outfit that’s bordering on costume, like trashy. My newest style that I’ve been trying to do is a celebrity that’s just trying to get an iced coffee. A hat and sunglasses and sweats, kind of, but like it’s cool. Big hoops. I feel hot and I feel famous. OK, what else, not working at a restaurant on the days that I have off. Running into people, and I run into people all the time.

You do?

I really, really do. I’ve lived here for like 11 years, and I grew up not too far. There’s a lot of people from home here.

All photos courtesy of Edy and her movie Nicole. Buy tickets to Cream of Bread here!