Actress Jameela Jamil "Zooms" at Harvard.

• Position: OFF CAMERA

The inaugural session of "Off Camera," a live monthly conversation with artists produced by the Harvard University Office for the Arts, brought actress and activist Jameela Jamil together with students on Zoom. Describing herself as "queen of the hot mess," the actress best known for her work on "The Good Place" said she felt "fairly devastated" by 2020.

"Anxious people, this is our Olympics. This is the year that we really have to survive," she said, adding that she felt "strangely hopeful" because celebrities have been right-fully dethroned as societal heroes by the real ones: essential workers and health care personnel.

Jamil answered students' questions on a variety of topics.

On cancel culture vs. call-out culture: "We need to separate what's been canceled and what's being called out. Celebrities are such snow-flakes. They don't know how to take criticism because they've never been criticized before. So, when they've just been called out, they'll cry cancel culture, but that's not very helpful because it muddies the waters to what cancellation is. Cancellation means being de-platformed, having your rights taken away, your job taken away, your finances being...