The Hysterical True Story That Inspired Dummy

According to an interview with The Daily Beast, Heller based the premise of Dummy entirely on her own life after learning that her then-boyfriend, Harmon, owned a similar doll. As Heller recalled, "I found myself thinking about her a lot. Whereas Dan saw it as an 'it' and an object, I saw her as a person. I found myself applying a personality to her, humanizing her, and feeling jealous, asking myself: Do I live up to her? Am I as pretty as her? What does she look like? What is she like? I became obsessed with this doll, and it was taking up a lot of my mental space."

Obviously, this connection was pretty strong, considering that Heller went on to create an entire show based around the idea of that real doll coming to life and becoming her friend. As it turns out, that's not the only personal story behind the show's doll. During an Instagram Live chat between Kendrick and Heller, Heller asked if everybody wanted to meet the "real Barbara," and panned over to her dog.

Apparently, when Kendrick discovered the two Barbaras, she was a bit confused: "At first, Cody told me she named the doll Barbara after Barbara Stanwyck, and then you told me that you had a dog named Barbara that you also named after Barbara Stanwyck, and I was like, isn't it creepy that you named the doll after your dog? Your beloved animal?" Heller clarified that yes, both the dog and the doll are named after classic Hollywood actress Stanwyck, but also that the dog and the doll are both her "conscience," and she talks to Barbara the dog "the same way [her character talks] to the doll in the show."