Jason Mantzoukas Wants His ‘Paper Girls’ Co-Star Adina Porter to Join ‘John Wick’ Franchise (Exclusive)

Jason Mantzoukas made his entrance into the John Wick franchise with the series’ third movie, and now he wants his Paper Girls co-star Adina Porter to join him. During an exclusive interview to promote the new Amazon Prime Video series — which is an adaptation of a comic series of the same name — PopCulture.com noted that Porter’s role was significantly action-packed, to which Mantzoukas quipped, “I want you in the next Mission Impossible. The next John Wick. Come on.”

He then added, “It’s you versus Keanu in the next .” Porter politely replied, “Okay. All right, cool. But, luckily, I’ve got some other projects in the works before that. Which is good.” She added, “I had a great time.” In Paper Girls, Porter plays the Prioress, a time-traveling guardian who is hunting down four teenage girls from the 1980s who inadvertently wound up jumping roughly three decades into the future. “Prioress doesn’t just use her brawn to get people to do what she needs them to do, “Porter said of the character. “It’s that she’s a smart ass warrior and she plays head trips.” She then joked, “Not that I know anything about that, but yeah, I like to mess with people’s heads.”

As for Mantzoukas, he plays a mysterious but wisecracking character known as Grand Father, who is not all that dissimilar from other characters he’s portrayed in the past. The role allowed him to have a pretty simple wardrobe, as the first time we see him he’s doing a pair of camo shorts and a Tupac t-shirt. Mantzouka says his costuming “was great” and “perfect” considering they filmed “in Chicago in the summer, so it was very hot.” 

He added, “It was very hot, so I was so delighted that I could just be wearing shorts, a T-shirt and Birkenstocks every day, because it was like comfortable, you know?” Nearly dropping a potential spoiler before Porter stopped him, Mantzoukas redirected and said he felt lucky to have the wardrobe he did because Porter appeared as if she “was wearing stuff that I suspect was a lot less breathable than what I was wearing. Let’s leave it at that.”

Finally, Porter offered some crucial insight about , saying, “I love the fact that we’re talking about girls coming of age, getting their periods for the first time, what that means. I think it’s sad in 2022 that talking about, in public, getting your period is still like a surprise, a taboo. ‘Oh my God, we’re going there?’ When women have been getting their periods at 12 for since the beginning of time.”

She later continued, “But when I was reading the comic book and that being part of it and just… it’s, quite honestly, it’s kind of like when I was younger and watching television, a black person would come on and it was like, it’s a big deal, you know? And so I hope that for my grandchildren, it will not be a big deal, and that’s not all that this story is about, but it is a large thing that happens to a woman’s life. And I’m glad it’s explored.”

Paper Girls premiered Friday, July 29, on Amazon Prime Video. All eight episodes of Season 1 are now streaming. Keep it locked to Pop Culture.com for more TV, streaming, and movie exclusives and interviews!