Mau credited Gadd’s incisive writing for helping her understand Teri’s place in the story, and she even went as far as to create a backstory that Teri’s fears that Donny will no longer love her and will one day leave her stem from the character being abandoned by her father as a child. But, Mau said, she was also inevitably able to draw from some of her own personal experiences.

“I’ve definitely had my fair share of experiences in dating where people did not feel comfortable being…