written by Jessica Peralta, Los Angeles Times
Fullerton is having its moment in the streaming scene and it all started with a book.
Rufi Thorpe’s 2024 novel “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” tells the story of a young woman who becomes pregnant by her married college professor, drops out of school and subsequently posts to the adult content platform OnlyFans as a way to earn money to support her baby.
Thorpe wanted Margo set in a place that felt reassuringly safe so that it would make her character’s actions seem less ill considered. Fullerton seemed right, she said.
“I have never lived in Fullerton, but we have a close family friend who does and so I have spent a fair amount of time there and have always found it charming and slightly anachronistic,” said Thorpe, who grew up in Corona del Mar and currently lives in El Segundo.
Apple TV released “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” this spring. It features Fullerton as more than simply a name and a backdrop. It’s a real, living place where the characters move through the story. Locals will quickly recognize locations like Fullerton College and the historic Fox Theatre.
The show stars Elle Fanning as Margo Millet, Michelle Pfeiffer as her mom, Shyanne, and Nick Offerman as her dad, Jinx. Apple TV has already greenlit the show for a second season.
“The book got optioned before it published, which was unusual and fun, and from the beginning the initial team was Elle Fanning, David E. Kelley and A24,” Thorpe said. “As executive producer, I got to be kind of as involved as I wanted to be, and I have to say, everyone was just so generous with me — from letting me visit the writer’s room and talk with the writers about everything I hoped and feared, sharing the research I had done for the book to give them a head start, to giving notes on all the scripts, to coming on set.”
The show’s director of photography, Tari Segal, ASC, said they filmed in the city on and off over the course of five months.
“Fullerton, like many smaller towns of Southern California, has a very specific and time-capsuled look that helped us in framing Margo’s world,” she said. “Whenever we went down there, we would set up base camp and schedule several days of work at a time, covering several episodes.”
Carl Herse, who also served as director of photography, said the team really wanted to bring viewers into the very specific corner of the world that is Fullerton.
“We found it really critical to nail what Rufi Thorpe did such a wonderful job of describing in her novel,” Herse said. “A world of palm trees and stucco, doughnut shops and car washes, the blinding sunlight in a place not nearly as romanticized as other parts of the state.”
Herse said Fullerton College is the main setting that kicks off the show.
“Elle Fanning plays a young student with enormous creative promise, and the campus was kind enough to give us access to many of its iconic spaces,” he said. “Margo has grown up in Fullerton, so we sought locations that felt like timeless institutions: the Fox Theatre, B&B Donuts, Rutabegorz restaurant, Villa Del Sol, and all around the main thoroughfare in the historic downtown. It was a gift to have such incredible access to this specific setting with such rich character.”
Segal finds that Orange County has a lot of aspects that feel trapped in time.
“It has a simpler vibe and small-town feel,” she said. “Those elements really helped shape Margo’s life and goals, and in a very relatable way, her expectations for herself. She’s not looking to escape Fullerton, she’s looking to thrive.”
Segal said “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” is a story about family and perseverance, it was important to be relatable and real without leaning toward a dark grittiness.
“We wanted to create a very inviting world with a colorful palette that is satisfying and fun to watch,” she said. “All departments did such a good job at controlling the palette through production design, costumes and makeup. It was very important to find the right harmony of colors for this show, which also bled into the lighting choices in later episodes where OnlyFans really starts to take shape.”
Herse said they chased the sun as much as they could.
“There is a particular quality of light and strength of shadows in Orange County and it has a personality all its own,” he said. “Oftentimes in filmmaking, we go to great efforts to soften and diffuse the sunlight, but for Margo’s world, we really stepped into it.”
Fullerton College Director of Campus Communications Miranda Bates said the college was approached in winter of 2024 by an A24 location scout regarding filming an Apple TV series on the campus. Filming occurred in three days — two days for shooting and one day for cleanup.
“The funds [about $52,000] generated from this facility and film rental were directed to our Friends of Fullerton College Foundation, which is the entity that distributes our student scholarships,” she said. “The experience overall was positive. The campus community appreciated having the film crew on set as it allowed our students to see how shows are made firsthand. The crew was also very accommodating to ensure minimal disruption to classes and campus operations. This was the first time in recent history that we filmed to this scale and I think our campus would be open to being used for other productions in [the] future.”
Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung said the city was very supportive of the production, assisting with everything from the permitting process to suggesting location possibilities and the procurement of public safety assets.
“The city of Fullerton is one of the oldest cities in Orange County and having a show, any show appreciate the value of its very unique aesthetics and landmarks makes me very proud as a Fullertonian,” he said.
Thorpe was very pleased with the casting decisions, which included Orange County-raised Pfeiffer.
“I was already an Elle Fanning fan, so I was unbelievably excited about that, but Michelle Pfeiffer? Are you kidding? On principle I was thrilled, but then when I first watched her dailies,” Thorpe said. “She is extraordinary and this performance is stunning. She understands Shyanne so deeply, and I do think it is because she grew up in Orange County and has known many ‘Shyannes.’ She isn’t playing her as a caricature, she is playing Shyanne as a real person. And I think every member of the cast really did that — Nick Offerman took so much time to learn about wrestling and train and understand Jinx as just a human. Greg Kinnear’s Kenny is so lovely, so real, he takes [the character] so seriously.”
