Author May Cobb Exposes the Secrets of The Hollywood Assistant

Author May Cobb’s books are perhaps best known for their pitch-perfect summertime vibes: Propulsive fast-paced stories featuring morally gray characters a bit of spicy sexiness and what often feels like a constant stream of unexpected twists. They’re the sort of books that are made for pool season—and which are all too easy to “accidentally” finish in a single sitting. And her latest thriller, titled The Hollywood Assistant, is no different, exploring issues ranging from illicit sexual relationships to the toxicity that so often goes hand in hand with female friendship.
The Hollywood Assistant is something of a swerve for Cobb in terms of its setting, trading in the familiar sweeping vistas of East Texas that usually populate her novels for the high-pressure world of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. It follows the story of Cassidy Foster, who moves to California after a bad break-up. With her writing projects stalled, she takes a job as a personal assistant to an up-and-coming actress, and her successful director husband. The position seems almost too good to be true—she’ll barely have to do much beyond running household errands and will have plenty of time to try and find her
We had the chance to chat with Cobb herself about the inspiration behind her latest twisty thriller, the complicated nature of female friendship, whether The Hollywood Assistant has a happy ending, and more.
Paste Magazine: Tell us about where the idea for The Hollywood Assistant came from and what you were trying to do with this story. It’s such a juicy, pardon the pun, typically Hollywood story—or at least what many of us think life in Hollywood must be like.
May Cobb: Thank you so much! It was (very) loosely inspired by my own experience working as a Hollywood Assistant over twenty years ago. But the people I worked for, acclaimed writer/director Ron Shelton and his wife, the illustrious actor, Lolita Davidovich, were nothing at all like the couple in the novel. They treated me so well, like family, and it remains one of the dreamiest jobs I’ve ever had.
So I used that basic set-up as the jumping-off point for The Hollywood Assistant, which I was aiming to be my homage to 80s, 90s erotic thrillers ala Body Double and Fatal Attraction.
Paste: How was the experience of writing this book compared to some of your previous novels like A Likeable Woman or My Summer Darlings? In what ways was coming up with this story different or more challenging?
Cobb: Well, the first thing that’s different is the setting. My previous four thrillers are all set in my native East Texas, whereas this is set, obviously, in L.A. So that was different but in a refreshing way!
Paste: Cassidy is a deliciously flawed protagonist—how would you describe her journey in this book?