The notion of “authenticity” visits L’amica geniale/My Brilliant Friend (2018–2024) in all its transmedial guises. The television adaptation, distinguished by its attempts to “faithfully” adapt Ferrante’s texts nonetheless imperils its bankable strategy by casting in Season 3 the same actors, Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Gerace, as Lila and Lenù. Daniele Luchetti, the director for season 3, remarked that the two actors had arrived at “visible maturity in their expressions, in their attitudes” and that “[it was] not a fallback solution …. We see them grow live on screen.” Continuing with Girace and Mazzucco offers a coming-of-age story parallel to Ferrante’s, one in which their friendship and wishes to develop their careers become an important paratext for the series as it unfolds. This chapter focuses on episodes 1 and 3 of Season 1, and appropriate episodes of Season 3 that illuminate the study of young actors who do not age out of roles with which they have become identified but, who, despite the stickiness of their star appeal, strain the brand’s aspirations for “authenticity.”