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Spielberg and Goldwyn—on Snapchat

Filmmaking scions star in scripted series on the social media network

by
Stephanie Butnick
March 20, 2015
L to R: Emily Goldwyn, Sasha Spielberg, and Rylee Ebsen, Snapchat director of video content. (Snapchat)
L to R: Emily Goldwyn, Sasha Spielberg, and Rylee Ebsen, Snapchat director of video content. (Snapchat)

What to do as a pair of twentysomething aspiring writer/performers with two of the most famous last names in filmmaking? Skip Hollywood—for now, at least. Tablet contributor Molly Oswaks profiles Sasha Spielberg, 24, and Emily Goldwyn, 25, the writers and stars of “Literally Can’t Even,” the first scripted series on Snapchat—the social media platform formerly best known for facilitating sexts that conveniently disappear after a few seconds—in this week’s New York Times Style section.

It’s a buddy comedy for the social media generation—four-minute videos accessible on the Snapchat app for just a day after they’re posted. For them, the medium is hugely appealing. Oswaks writes, “The filmmaking scions say that they like the social media platform because it is very of-their-generation and also because it is not of their parents’.” (They’re also both active, and very funny, social media users: here’s Spielberg–daughter of Steven—cooly owning up to her celebrity doppelgänger in a Vine.)

“Working with Snapchat feels very separate from Hollywood,” said Ms. Goldwyn, great-granddaughter of the early film industry leader Samuel Goldwyn Sr. and daughter of the producer John Goldwyn.



Her parents are cautiously optimistic about her career choices. “My dad always says it’s great to be at the forefront of change,” she said, “but to spend so much time working on something and to have it disappear after a day, my parents were very shocked.”

You can read the profile here—and download Snapchat here.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.