'Shrill' Author Says Boss Character Not Based on Dan Savage

The new Hulu series Shrill, starring Aidy Bryant, is streaming now and fans might be wondering who inspired some of the characters.

The show is based on writer Lindy West‘s book “Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman.” She previously worked for Dan Savage at the Seattle blog The Stranger, where something happened that was used as a storyline for the show.

Lindy wrote an article called “Hello, I am Fat” and she called out Savage for shaming overweight people. He responded in a post called, “Hello I’m not the Enemy.” While this does happen to characters Annie (Bryant) and Gabe (John Cameron Mitchell) in the series, Lindy says Gabe is not based on Dan.

“Dan and I patched it up immediately and so there’s no conflict, but it’s funny that I’m answering questions about it,” she told Page Six. “I was feeling really nervous because I hadn’t talked to him about the show when I knew people were going to be asking about it and assuming that the character is him.”

They actually ran into each other on a plane this month and talked about the show. She said, “We actually had this really lovely talk and he was really supportive and really excited about the show and he laughed about how we’re supposed to be in a fight.”