If you’ve got a Y chromosome and aren’t privy to the dramedic abilities and incredible hotness of Alison Brie, you’ve either been living under a rock for the past three years or are clinically deceased. With a recurring role on AMC’s Emmy-winning period drama Mad Men and a lead part on NBC’s Community, Brie is quickly making herself a household name with primetime audiences. I was recently fortunate enough to get a few minutes to pick her brain about films, Jenna Fischer and underwear-requesting stalkers. Here’s the scoop:
1. We’ve seen you do a lot of comedy (Community, Hot Sluts) and in that work the humor seems to come from of your composure and dead pan. How did you develop that? Was it from a particular influence?
Hmmm, good observation! I don't know where this started exactly. I'm sure a lot of my comedic sensibilities on-screen just come from my day-to-day sense of humor and the way I joke around with my friends. I've always surrounded myself with funny and bizarre people and in turn developed a repartee with most of my friends and colleagues that involves one or both of us slipping back and forth between deadpan and total zaniness. Danny Pudi is a major culprit of this, as we spend most of our time together on set doing very specific odd-ball bits behind the camera that nobody else can really quite grasp.
Also, I think it's important in comedy to be able to define your role in any particular bit; are you creating the comedy or reacting to it? On 'Community' we have so many comedic geniuses on the show and everyone gets a chance to go real broad at times and have big physical comedy moments and at other times it is merely your job to play it straight while someone else flies off the handle. I think some of my favorite moments on the show have been reacting to Ken Jeong, who is friggin' hilarious and can improv and take a scene to it's very limits and all I really have to do is keep a straight face, which isn't always that easy. I suppose I also have to credit my college, CalArts, for giving me lots of practice at maintaining conviction behind your own character's intention in a scene - so when Ken's ranting and raving and everyone on the crew is losing it and just cracking up, I'm able to stay in character and focus...most of the time!
2. As of now, you’re regularly balancing cerebral drama in Mad Men with absurdist humor in Community. Which do you prefer? Which comes more naturally?
I cannot pick a favorite! (terrible answer, I know) The truth is that as different as the shows are from one another, and they couldn't be more different, they are equally fulfilling. The real gift is the opportunity to do both at the same time, which is also a wonderful challenge and great practice! I suppose the comedy comes a bit more naturally to me, but that is one of the things that makes doing both projects so great. We have so much fun on the set of 'Community', joking around and trying to find new ways of making things funny. On 'Mad Men' the challenge is often to find and articulate the depth and nuance of a character's emotions in a given situation. The struggle is what makes that fun and the fearlessness and freedom that I find on the set of 'Community' help inform the work I do on 'Mad Men', and vice-versa. After 3 years of working with such delicate specifics on 'Mad Men', it is easy to find comedic twists and turns on 'Community' while still giving the character some depth and perspective.
3. In the realm of films, you’ve been doing indies for a while now - and more specifically - horror flicks. If an offer came through today to do a big-budget studio horror picture, would you take it or have a “been there, done that” attitude towards it?
This is a tough one! I'm not sure I'm pursuing horror films as my next career move but if an offer came through I'd have to think long and hard before passing it up. I actually love horror films. Some of my favorite movies (and we're talking, like, on my list of top 10 films of all time) are horror flicks, or at least thrillers. Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, and Silence of the Lambs are three films I love, not just for their ability to scare people, but also for the moving performances and overall amazing craftsmanship. Horror films can get a bum rap, but at the end of the day they are movies that make you feel something very viscerally and that's worth something. So, I think I'd definitely consider a horror project, but it'd have to be a really good one.
4. Be it actor or director, who would you kill to work with and why?
Martin Scorsese. I love his movies, it's as simple as that. He makes beautiful movies with amazingly convicted characters. Also there's a general bad-ass quality to his work that I'm dying to prove I have inside myself. It's definitely one of those fantasy things, like if I can just be in a Scorsese movie I can die happy. Plus, he just seems like a cool guy, right?
To be fair, Marty actually ties with the Coen Brothers. I'm really into dark, off-color comedy, which is their forte. I love that they take great risks with their films and stay true to themselves. I think it would be a lot of fun to dive into their world and help create some oddball character that not everyone understands. I actually think I'd fit right into a Cohen Bro's movie - pass that message along, will you?
5. How many nerdy stalkers have you aggregated thus far? Would you like to be the next Jenna Fischer?
Hahaha - I have no idea! From what I can gather from my followers on Twitter, my fans seem to be very supportive sweethearts, with the rare exception of the creepy under-wear-requesting stalker-type. So, I'm lucky.
This is definitely the first time I've been asked about being the next Jenna Fischer and I will have to respectfully decline. While I love Jenna as an actress and The Office continues to be one of my favorite shows, I'd like to think that I have a few qualities that might set me on a trajectory of my very own. I also think Jenna Fischer might still be a bit too current to already have someone vying for the position of the "new her". Let's let her continue to have her fun - I'll just be the next me. ;)
Catch Alison Brie on Mad Men's fourth season (premiering on July 25th at 10PM on AMC) and Community (Thursday's at 8PM on NBC).