Posts Tagged ‘Q&A’

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Fancast’s Q&A with Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

From Fancast:

What was the genesis of “Woman of the Year”?
We at first just thought it’d be funny if Ron won an award for work Leslie had done. Then one of the writers pitched that it should be from a feminist organization, as a double whammy. The thing that made us laugh the hardest was picturing Ron’s face with his big mustache on a plaque that says “Woman Of The Year.” I think we’re making T-shirts with that design on them.

Nick told me he’d love to have his wife Megan Mullally guest-star eight times a season. Will she be returning anytime soon?
Almost immediately after that [November 5th] episode we started trying to get her back, but she’s doing a play in New York right now. We’d love to have her back [as Tammy]. She was super funny.

One thing you seem to have stumbled upon is the “Will they, won’t they?” thing with Andy (Chris Pratt) and April (Aubrey Plaza). Was that in your original plan?
It really wasn’t. That came from a moment in the last episode of Season 1: Andy was talking about his band, and we saw that April was staring at him a bit intensely. We thought: Maybe there’s something there? Then as soon as we saw footage of their B-story in “Hunting Trip,” which was so fun to shoot and the two of them were so fun together, we were like, “This is our romantic intrigue for the rest of the year.”

We’re going to be meeting April’s family soon. Any fun casting there?
It’s not stunt casting; we just found two really good actors that we like [as her parents]. We also got a funny girl to play the sister. All you had to do for that entire audition was roll your eyes. We then chose the one who looked the most like Aubrey.

Tell me about the episode airing later this season that Amy Poehler wrote.
It’s the third-to-last one of the year, and the premise is that Leslie is volunteering to cohost a cable access telethon for charity, and her shift is from 2 to 6 in the morning. It’s all about her trying to get through the wee hours of the morning.

To read the full Q&A, follow the link below!

Link: ‘Parks & Rec’ Boss Shares Secrets Behind Sophomore Surge

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Vulture’s Q&A with Chris Pratt

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

From Vulture:

How much does the cast improv?
They encourage you to improv if you’re funny. There have been times when I’ve improv’d and they say, “You know, let’s just do it as it’s scripted.” We’re allowed to do five or six takes the way it’s written, and then a couple more where we get to make things up and have fun. I think the writers get frustrated with the question. “Yeah, the whole show is improv, huh?” And the writers are like, “What the fuck”?

Do you do your own stunts?
I’ve done a lot of my own stunts. There’s one major stunt that I definitely did not do — I’ve got a great stuntman, he’s remarkable, the things that he can do, and the diving into the pit, it was definitely a stuntman. I’ve done things. I dove over the hedge.

You and Nick Offerman have managed to become fan favorites. Have you bonded?
You know, the unique bond I have with Nick comes down to this … it was under some really brilliant advice from my friend and acting coach Ben Davis, who said, “Always pick someone to watch who you think you can learn from.” On this show, Nick Offerman is that for me. I just want to watch him work. And we have a unique bond in that we’re both definitely dudes. Sort of men’s men.

Link: Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt on How to Make It in Acting: ‘Get a Van, Move to Maui, and Get a Bunch of Pot’

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New York magazine’s Q&A with Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Hey hey, Ron Swanson!

From New York magazine:

Megan Mullally: Neither of us are paragons of physical perfection. That’s why I pitched that nude-photo idea: It’s as if we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but of course we’re not.
Nick Offerman: I’m very hairy, and men in film and TV are no longer allowed to be hairy. If you’re going to be topless you have to wax everything. My uncles, who are farmers in Minooka, Illinois—I grew up with them and their pickup trucks and mustaches, and to me that was masculinity: big hairy sweaty guys who could pick up a bus.

Tammy and Ron had one of the best hate-sex scenes in modern history. That throwdown in the restaurant—was that hard to pull off?
N.O.: It was really good therapy, because in any relationship you have love times and you have who-didn’t-do-the-dishes times. We’ve worked together before in different ways, but we’ve never had the opportunity to be a team, and in that episode we were like a two-fisted weapon, battering comedy in the audience’s face.
M.M.: We basically destroyed the diner. We ran the gamut of wild, crazy, exhibitionist sex acts and screaming at the other patrons, throwing things, berating the manager and …
N.O.: We actually tore the table off the wall.
M.M.: That was kind of an accident. [Laughs.] When we screech into the motel parking lot, that was the first shot on the first day, six o’clock on Monday morning. We’re in that car and I was like, “I’m going to throw my bra out the window and take my top off as we run in.” I didn’t care. I didn’t know anybody. It’s not my set.

You both got your big TV breaks in your late thirties, though ten years apart. How did you negotiate the disparity between your careers before Nick landed Parks and Recreation?
M.M.: We’re very supportive of each other. I don’t know when I’ve been happier than when he got Parks. That was one of the most exciting things that ever happened.
N.O.: One great benefit of our relationship is that Megan has gone through everything a couple of chapters ahead of me, so there’s an easy student-master quality to it. When your wife is a legend of comedy, you have to be a huge jackass not to assume the student role.

Link: Our Valentine Gift to You

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New York Post’s Q&A with Aubrey Plaza

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

From New York Post:

PopWrap: Everyone keeps talking about how the show was “2009’s most improved,” what do you think about that?
Aubrey Plaza: [Creator] Greg Daniels once said that when you have a first season that consists of six episodes, you have to view season two as extension of that. It takes more than 6 episodes to get on a rhythm, so I think about it like that. Once you get passed the exposition and set up the world, you allow the characters to start playing together. I think that’s what people are having fun watching now that they’ve gotten to know us a bit.

PW: When you first started creating April, where did she come from?
Aubrey: Greg and Mike [Schur] talked to me about this intern character and I remember relating to that immediately because I’ve had so many internships. So they asked me about those and I told them, “I did nothing and hated every second of it.” So having a character that doesn’t want to be there is funny — especially next to Leslie, who is such a go getter, trying to inspire her.

PW: What was the worst job you had?
Aubrey: There were a lot. I was an intern for Samba Post-Its and one day my job was to literally wallpaper a bathroom with Post-Its. That was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do.

PW: One of my favorite things about April is her bisexual boyfriend and his boyfriend — where did the idea for this weird threesome come from?
Aubrey: Actually, I think it was my idea. Originally she just had a regular boyfriend, but I kind of felt like April is a little more complicated than that. I didn’t think she would just have a regular boyfriend, she’d have a gay boyfriend.

Link: Aubrey Plaza: My worst job ever was wallpapering a bathroom with Post-Its

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Fancast’s Q&A with Nick Offerman

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

In a Q&A with Fancast, Nick Offerman discusses his character, Ron, and working with his wife, Megan Mullally, on the show. Also, he reveals some details about tonight’s episode!

What do you like most about Ron?
Oh gosh…. It’s hard to separate what I like most about Ron from what I like most about playing him. But I guess the answer to both of those questions would be his stillness. His stoicism. I love finding humor in silence.

Would you be friends with Ron?
Oh god, no. I mean, I have been friends with and mentored by guys that had his “devil-may-care” attitude concerning their administration, and that part I love and admire about Ron. But I think our worlds would be just too disparate.

What’s your school of thought on your wife resurfacing as Ron’s ex? Does once a season sound like a good balance?
I wouldn’t mind eight times a season. [Laughs] That was the funnest episode of anything I’ve ever gotten to do in my life. To be married to a comedy legend is one thing; to get to do something like that with her was a high point of my whole career. So I hope we see plenty more of Tammy.

Tell me about this week’s episode and the Parks Department’s tour of the Sweetums factory.
I love this episode. It’s a nod to giant food corporations and cornstarch, with a wink to obese bovine America.

Does Sweetums have a Willy Wonka-type figurehead?
There is a great sort of managerial type, somewhere between Willy Wonka and the Wizard of Oz, a man behind the curtain. He’s sort of the snake oil salesman, because Sweetums also has this “apple pie and America”-type family campaign…. It’s a lot of fun.

Read the full Q&A by following the link below!

Link: For ‘Parks & Rec’s Nick Offerman, Silence Is Golden

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Time Out New York’s Q&A with Aziz Ansari

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

From Time Out New York:

In your Comedy Central special, you have a whole bit about getting chummy with Kanye West. Does he know you’re doing it?
I performed that whole Kanye routine over speakerphone for him when I did a show in San Francisco, to make sure he was cool with all of it before I put it down on the special. He was cool with all of it.

What about your younger cousins? You make fun of them, too.
Now, unfortunately, they get beat up by this big kid at their school named Mongo. It’s really a bummer. No, I’m just kidding—they are fine and still chubby weird kids that watch Burn Notice and Psych all the time.

Ever since I saw the episode of your old show, Human Giant, with Michael K. Williams, I’ve wanted to ask: Are you a big fan of The Wire?
The Wire is hands down my favorite TV show ever, and I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with some of the cast. I was standing behind Jamie Hector [who plays Marlo Stanfield] in line at a party once, and they were checking his name off the list; I was hoping the person mispronounced it, just so he could say, “My name is my name!” And then maybe Chris Partlow and Snoop could take that person out and put ’em in the vacants. If you haven’t seen The Wire, I just wasted your time with those last few sentences.

Link: There’s more to the rambunctious comedian than Raaaaaaandy

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Aziz Ansari to do Q&A at the Apple Store in NYC

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Aziz Ansari announced on Twitter that he will be at the Apple Store in SoHo for an in-store Q&A on Tuesday, February 2!

Here’s the basics:
What: Aziz Ansari In-Store Q&A
When: Tuesday, February 2 @ 7 p.m.
Where: Apple Store in SoHo
Address: 103 Prince Street, New York City, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 226-3126
Cost: FREE

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