'Eighth Grade' breakout Elsie Fisher talks shrimp, middle school and channeling her awkwardness on-screen

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Elsie Fisher is just trying to enjoy her lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., but her waiter won't stop telling jokes. And they're really bad jokes. Painful, in fact. Every time he stops by the table - roughly every seven minutes or so - he offers up another:

"Hey, you guys know why seagulls like to go to the sea? Because if they go to the bay - bagels."

"Hey, you know why ants don't get sick? Because they have little antibodies."

"You know what Forrest Gump's password to his email is? 1Forrest1."

At other tables, this shtick is met with grimaces and uncomfortable silence. But not Elsie's. With every pun, the 15-year-old smiles and gives a generous chuckle. Sure, the server is awkward. But nobody knows awkward like Elsie Fisher.

As the star of "Eighth Grade," writer-director Bo Burnham's critically acclaimed teen dramedy that has emerged as a breakout hit