Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to
Speaker 1: hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions change
Speaker 1: their careers, what relationships influenced their work. My guest today,
Speaker 1: Ellie Kemper, is adorable, even she's admitted that she does
Speaker 1: closely resemble Strawberry Shortcake. Most of us were first introduced
Speaker 1: to her as Aaron, the eager and friendly receptionist on
Speaker 1: the office. These days, she's the star of Unbreakable Kimmy
Speaker 1: Schmidt on Netflix, now in its second season. Ellie Kemper
Speaker 1: says she plays exaggerated versions of herself, so you'd be
Speaker 1: correct in assuming that she is kind, optimistic, and self effacing.
Speaker 1: Consider her theory on why she's been successful in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I have a very um large face that is moonlike
Speaker 1: and sort of friendly and rube ish. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I look like someone moonlike face that's responsible for
Speaker 1: the career you have. Actually, yes, I think so, because
Speaker 1: all the characters I've played sort of play up that
Speaker 1: aspect of me, and certainly I think I do. I do.
Speaker 1: I am sort of naturally cheerful and Sonny, I think
Speaker 1: I am healthy. I think healthy, yes, not manic, and
Speaker 1: certainly certainly I get bad yes, and that's not I'm
Speaker 1: not manic. Thank you. Oh good, Now now it's confirmed.
Speaker 1: Maybe if I were a stand up or something, maybe
Speaker 1: that might be, you know different. I did not do
Speaker 1: what was the beginning of that part of your career.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of my career was in improv. So
Speaker 1: I started doing improv comedy in college and I felt
Speaker 1: like I was good at it. And that was the
Speaker 1: first time I felt like I can do this. This
Speaker 1: is something that I feel connection to and and not
Speaker 1: only do I feel a connection to it, but it's
Speaker 1: something that I want to or sue after college is over.
Speaker 1: And that's that's how I started. I started doing stuff
Speaker 1: at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and
Speaker 1: the People's Improv Theater. Started in college at Princeton, Yes,
Speaker 1: to study English. I didn't go there to study English.
Speaker 1: I got there and decided I'll study English. But I
Speaker 1: actually played field hockey my first year. Well I was.
Speaker 1: I was good in high school and I was captain
Speaker 1: my team. And then I went to college and I
Speaker 1: never played I said on the bench the whole time,
Speaker 1: and I one day worked up the courage. It was
Speaker 1: like Rudy to ask the coach, you know, like you
Speaker 1: gotta put me in. Why am I not going in?
Speaker 1: And she said because I had the tools but was
Speaker 1: having trouble building the house. Yeah, she I never saw
Speaker 1: her take off her some glasses and still position. I
Speaker 1: could not. I know you didn't. I didn't let him know.
Speaker 1: I quit in fact, But you went to Princeton not
Speaker 1: knowing what you wanted to study. You decided to study
Speaker 1: in wh once you got there, that's right. Did you
Speaker 1: have an idea what you wanted to be or do? No?
Speaker 1: And I regret that because I think that it's so nice,
Speaker 1: if it's helpful, if you know in middle school or
Speaker 1: high school what it is that you want to do.
Speaker 1: I think that just helps to make decisions for you earlier.
Speaker 1: But you didn't know you wanted to be an actress,
Speaker 1: then that's right. If you did four years at Princeton
Speaker 1: and graduated with a degree in English, and then you
Speaker 1: went to OX I did for a master's for a
Speaker 1: master's that I did not complete, but talk about. I
Speaker 1: was like, let's give it one more go, I'm not
Speaker 1: done yet. I've still got those quads. I have very
Speaker 1: strong quads, quadriceps um. But I quit that. Then after
Speaker 1: a year, I went to school for a year and
Speaker 1: decided this is not satisfying, this is not I am
Speaker 1: not an academic, Okay, so that is not what I
Speaker 1: wanted to pursue. So I moved back to New York
Speaker 1: after a year. Well you're not an academic, but you
Speaker 1: went to Princeton and Oxford. Yeah, but I'm not how
Speaker 1: did you get into Princeton and Scott Oxford if you're
Speaker 1: not a student. I got in on pluck. No, I
Speaker 1: know what I'm how do you get in? I'm well rounded.
Speaker 1: I'll say that. I think that. I always I felt like, okay,
Speaker 1: well I have strengths in different areas. So I felt
Speaker 1: like that's that's I mean, I'm not dumb, but I
Speaker 1: but I but I am not. Um. I just spoke
Speaker 1: at Bucknell the other day and I was surrounded by
Speaker 1: professors and like, oh, these are academics. Now forgive me
Speaker 1: for saying this, but you come from a very prominent
Speaker 1: family in St. Louisia. I don't know your family's family's
Speaker 1: family somewhere in your family a big organization. Correct, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to answer the question not sound like a jerk.
Speaker 1: I don't know if prominent is a word. Success Uh
Speaker 1: kind yeah, yeah, no, my my successful business? Yes? Yes,
Speaker 1: are you the weirdo in the family of the four
Speaker 1: kids that anybody else's show business? I told your parents
Speaker 1: are going to go take your Princeton and Oxford degrees
Speaker 1: and go beyond TV whether like no, no? They on
Speaker 1: the contrary, they did not flinch. I think my dad
Speaker 1: sort of thought, oh, she'll try. In fact, he said, like,
Speaker 1: try this for a year and see what happens. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, well, actually not in your case because you
Speaker 1: were employed right away. But after a year for most people,
Speaker 1: nothing really happens. What your first year trying to become
Speaker 1: an actor in New York City? Um, but nobody ever
Speaker 1: discouraged me from doing that. My mom is an actress.
Speaker 1: I mean she sheciated at home and raised her four children,
Speaker 1: but in high school and she's a performer, I guess
Speaker 1: that's what I mean to say. And she was always
Speaker 1: in the college plays. She's very funny. Both of my
Speaker 1: parents are very funny in very different ways. But my
Speaker 1: mom is closer to me in terms of, uh, she's
Speaker 1: more animated, I guess and energy wise. Um, she was
Speaker 1: miss Adelaide guys and dolls, you know that, that type
Speaker 1: of lady. But they were both very supportive. And my
Speaker 1: younger sister, Carrie is a writer. Um on silicims. It
Speaker 1: hasn't come out yet. It hasn't come out. I have
Speaker 1: to tell you no, we've put that on hold for now,
Speaker 1: but I want to return to that. But I personally
Speaker 1: want to write a book, a book of essays, just
Speaker 1: my own, some some um nonfiction. Yes, I do. I
Speaker 1: have a lot of time. Let's not let's thank you.
Speaker 1: I think that's a compliment that I wouldn't have time.
Speaker 1: But I have a lot of time. So um, I've
Speaker 1: been trying to write in the meantime because I think
Speaker 1: that is something that I've been saying for ten years
Speaker 1: that I want to write a book and I haven't
Speaker 1: done it yet. When you did the Office and you
Speaker 1: came onto the Office, you're a cast edition, which is
Speaker 1: always a wonderful thing. I had that happened to myself actually,
Speaker 1: where I was a cast edition on a on a
Speaker 1: nighttime soap opera. I did the show, not s Landing,
Speaker 1: which was a huge hit on TV, and I came on.
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, this is great because all of
Speaker 1: you have done all the hard work and built this
Speaker 1: like cathedral of soap opera. And I was gonna walk in,
Speaker 1: do a couple of numbers here and leave. When you
Speaker 1: were cast addition on the show, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: How did they find you? Um? I met with Greg
Speaker 1: Daniels and Mike Shure, who Greg Daniels adapted the British
Speaker 1: show to American television and I got that meeting through
Speaker 1: my agents at WM and WM and working a lot before. No,
Speaker 1: this is what had happened. I had auditioned for Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live. Maybe you've heard of it and I maybe
Speaker 1: you've hosted That'll just nut and I auditioned. Obviously did
Speaker 1: not get the part, but I do it did help
Speaker 1: to put me on you know, people's radar, I think.
Speaker 1: So I just signed with a manager prior to that audition,
Speaker 1: and then I got meetings with all the big agencies.
Speaker 1: So I signed with W M E and they were
Speaker 1: developing a new show which turned out to be Parks
Speaker 1: and Recreation, which I think is what I was initially
Speaker 1: being considered for and I even read for a character
Speaker 1: that's not in Parks and Recreation, but I think was
Speaker 1: maybe going to be. And and then my manager called
Speaker 1: me to say, first all, I didn't really know it
Speaker 1: was an audition. I thought I was just I don't
Speaker 1: know what I thought I was doing reading a script
Speaker 1: with Greg Daniels. And then my manager told me, he's like, look,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to say this, but you didn't
Speaker 1: get the part. And I was like, I didn't know
Speaker 1: there was a part that I was. It's okay, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Sometimes they have a way making me feel
Speaker 1: worse like than I do when we tell you bad news,
Speaker 1: we want you to feel bad. Yeah, play the part,
Speaker 1: be crushed. So then I was crushed. But then this,
Speaker 1: this part of Aaron Hannon came up a few months later,
Speaker 1: and because I hadn't gotten any job on Parks and Recreation,
Speaker 1: I of course was available, and so I auditioned for
Speaker 1: that and that's how I got it. And this kind
Speaker 1: of like in that world, when you get into that
Speaker 1: wheelhouse with them and they know you, they're going to
Speaker 1: find some way. They're gonna always call you when they've
Speaker 1: got something. So yeah, yeah, that the introduction was the
Speaker 1: main thing, just as as meaning Lauren Michaels was was
Speaker 1: enormous on its own. Being in a room with Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, when you come on the Office. You started
Speaker 1: season five, yeah, the end of season five, and you
Speaker 1: did until the end of season nine. Yes, it was exactly.
Speaker 1: It was initially written for four episodes. It was a
Speaker 1: four episode arc, and then Aaron stayed on. She became
Speaker 1: the new secretary. Did you enjoy it when you did it?
Speaker 1: I remember it like a dream. I think I enjoyed it,
Speaker 1: But it was the same thing. I thought, these guys
Speaker 1: have the train on the tracks, They've done all the
Speaker 1: hard work, get in there, and you don't make a peep.
Speaker 1: You just do right. But it's true. It's like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't just don't make a splash, and then um splash,
Speaker 1: and then uh I did enjoy it. I think the
Speaker 1: very beginning was just like a little bit in shock
Speaker 1: about what was happening. Yeah, because I was a fan
Speaker 1: of the Office, so it's surreal to be interacting with
Speaker 1: people who you've only seen on television, you know. But then,
Speaker 1: and especially when I look back, I'm like, that was
Speaker 1: the greatest job. It was it was so great. Sure,
Speaker 1: so you come on and you keep your head low,
Speaker 1: you keep low, keep stay low. Stay love those stars
Speaker 1: of that comedy show. Absolutely, I mean that, I think
Speaker 1: that where are they now? They're not doing Kimmy, They're nowhere.
Speaker 1: They're all thriving. Yes, they are. Minty projects my favorite
Speaker 1: show ever. It's i mean, other than some other television
Speaker 1: shows that both of us are. Oh, it's so her.
Speaker 1: It's her distinctive voice. It's it's it's it's uh so
Speaker 1: supremely funny. I don't know if you watch or not,
Speaker 1: but the lines are just like so polished and honed
Speaker 1: and hilarious. And I just think it's so unique because
Speaker 1: it's Minty's voice. I love it and it means and
Speaker 1: it makes me cry. So it's this very funny show.
Speaker 1: And then this last Christmas episode, I text her, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm in I'm in tears on the couch. It was
Speaker 1: so it's touching. It's it's that is hard to pull off.
Speaker 1: What what did you watch when you were growing up?
Speaker 1: And what was TV in your life when you were
Speaker 1: a kid? Um? Do you know what? Okay, we did not.
Speaker 1: I didn't watch a ton of television In fact, we
Speaker 1: watched Seinfeld as a family. That was the show we
Speaker 1: always stopped on Thursday nights to watch, which I'm surprised
Speaker 1: because Seinfeld is a little, um, it's a little risk.
Speaker 1: My family is into urban. Well it's a little urban. Yes.
Speaker 1: I'm always so shocked that like four single people on
Speaker 1: the Upper West Side would resonate with an entire country,
Speaker 1: but it did, And and my family's conservative, not crazily so,
Speaker 1: but like I remember not knowing what like Elaine's diaphragm was.
Speaker 1: It was like, I am still not entirely short the contest.
Speaker 1: I had no idea and nobody explained it or asked,
Speaker 1: so that was fine. Just you know what hot dog eating? Right?
Speaker 1: It was who could eat the most hot talks um?
Speaker 1: I think I know what it means now, But we
Speaker 1: always watched My sister and I always watched a Letterman
Speaker 1: um uh in high school, mostly because it was on Leader.
Speaker 1: Would your parents do for entertainment? Were they entertainment people?
Speaker 1: Would your father stay home and like read the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal? My parents, No, he's not a foreign of hersman.
Speaker 1: They love going to the movies. Every Saturday they would
Speaker 1: go to the movies. I think and I feel like
Speaker 1: we went when it was appropriate, if it wasn't an
Speaker 1: our movie. UM My mother loves television, so she watches UM,
Speaker 1: her share, her share, and my dad also, they both
Speaker 1: love television. In fact, he get a jockey, a sports guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was a sports guy. He still is. He works
Speaker 1: out every day. He's very regimented. And you have two brothers.
Speaker 1: I have two brothers, older brother John, younger brother Billy.
Speaker 1: What do they do? John is a banker. He lives
Speaker 1: in St. Louis. Of course he is him. He has
Speaker 1: his three angel children who I could only got it.
Speaker 1: He know, he's got it. These children, He's already the
Speaker 1: bar is so high that if and when I have them,
Speaker 1: good luck, where would this will be without the John's
Speaker 1: I don't know. John is like a rock. He is
Speaker 1: a very he's so, he's unflappable and by the way,
Speaker 1: infinitely funnier than my sister and me, who both technically
Speaker 1: work in comedy. So, but he still wants you to
Speaker 1: give him a free subscription to Netflix. Yes, and little
Speaker 1: younger brother not little younger brother, Billy is about to
Speaker 1: go to UM. He worked at Yahoo for a while
Speaker 1: and he's going to go to Kellogg Business School and
Speaker 1: Northwestern in the fall. So the men are in business
Speaker 1: and you and your sister are in the business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. What does she do now? Your sister?
Speaker 1: She's writing on Silicon Valley on HBO. She wrote on
Speaker 1: the Office while I was there as well, which was
Speaker 1: the sister was writing on the show when you were
Speaker 1: on There isn't that? That was incredible. My sister and
Speaker 1: I get along very well. Luckily there's a four year difference,
Speaker 1: and you know, we would have lunched together. She she wrote.
Speaker 1: I think she joined in season six, I think maybe
Speaker 1: the sixth season. And she is so funny, and it
Speaker 1: was she like a moon faced hays To like you know,
Speaker 1: she's oh, she looks like Godrey Hepburn. Actually no, seriously, though,
Speaker 1: you just nailed it. She has dark dar you don't.
Speaker 1: She has raven hair. She's her face is she raven
Speaker 1: hair is out of a renaissance eat. I'm not an academic.
Speaker 1: I don't know art, but it's out of like a
Speaker 1: classical painting. She's beautiful. Where she go to school? She
Speaker 1: went to Stanford. Oh my gosh, I know we went
Speaker 1: so pathetic and stupid in your Well, yeah, everyone is
Speaker 1: pretty smart, but I don't think that is I don't
Speaker 1: think you have to go to those colleges if you're smart.
Speaker 1: I think plenty of smart people don't go to those colleges.
Speaker 1: When let you say that, yes, it's true. Now when
Speaker 1: you finished the office, like, what was your feeling? Like?
Speaker 1: I love when I did thirty Rock, I remember, I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, it makes me kind of get choked
Speaker 1: up bout a really good cry right now when I
Speaker 1: say this, But because it's really hit me more and
Speaker 1: more as time has gone on, because it's like it
Speaker 1: was a home. It was home. Because the movie business
Speaker 1: is so gypsy, like I mean, it's so nomadic. Makes
Speaker 1: me cry and I cry a lot. But anyway, the
Speaker 1: dory I cry a lot. I cried the other night.
Speaker 1: What happened? Um? I think it was Oh, it was
Speaker 1: an email. It was an email about plumbing for this
Speaker 1: a plutment. I started crying, but that's a different that's crying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it feels good and then it's over. We wait
Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait stop? What was
Speaker 1: the plumbing email that made you crying? Well, it was
Speaker 1: about choosing fixtures, and you cried because because I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. I'm not an academic, I'm not a plumber.
Speaker 1: What am I am? Nothing? I give me the lines
Speaker 1: and all, I'm not an engineer, an engineer, and I
Speaker 1: get frustrated very easily. It's always been this way. I
Speaker 1: remember crying doing homework. I don't get it, and just
Speaker 1: I get I get stressed out easily. Does your husband
Speaker 1: handle some of this stuff? He? Or do you wear
Speaker 1: the pants in the family? Oh? No, no, because you're
Speaker 1: the star. Oh he's I'm not a star, but I
Speaker 1: when when you're on my show, do me a favorite.
Speaker 1: I need you to pretend you're a star while you're here,
Speaker 1: because this is this is a show where there's some
Speaker 1: quotient of stardom. We have academics who come on, and
Speaker 1: we have people who are like in public affairs and
Speaker 1: education writer. But then maybe people on here who are
Speaker 1: film and TV stars, and they need to kind of
Speaker 1: act like I need today, starkay, I am the star
Speaker 1: in the household and in the world. And but Michael
Speaker 1: Coleman is his name, my husband, and he is eerily calm,
Speaker 1: not eerily comfortingly calm, so he is a good of
Speaker 1: you said eerily. Don't back up because he doesn't he
Speaker 1: know he's a writer. As a writer, who is he
Speaker 1: reading for now? He created the show Nathan for You,
Speaker 1: which if you haven't watched it, you would love it.
Speaker 1: It's on Comedy Central. It's stars this guy, Nathan Fielder,
Speaker 1: and it's basically, uh, it's sort of um. He's a
Speaker 1: small business consultant who goes in and tells businesses how
Speaker 1: to improve their business. But his ideas are inane and crazy,
Speaker 1: and I really do think you would like it. I
Speaker 1: want to be on it. You should be, Well, you
Speaker 1: can't be on it. It's all real. It's all real
Speaker 1: life people. So he goes into real life people and
Speaker 1: with him, Yeah you should. I could go with him.
Speaker 1: Now we put it out there. Yeah, would that would be?
Speaker 1: That would be something that we were dancing around. Why
Speaker 1: you cried over the plumbing? We are because well it
Speaker 1: was night. So I'm always a little more emotional at night.
Speaker 1: I'm tired from the day, as we all are, and
Speaker 1: I get well, this is okay. Here's what I'll say.
Speaker 1: I think for a person, I think for a person,
Speaker 1: I think that I'm sort of emotional. I think I'm
Speaker 1: a little sensitive. I think that I'm a little tightly
Speaker 1: wound for an actress. I am like the most normal
Speaker 1: I've ever met. I am no, I just mean that
Speaker 1: I don't have neuroses that are crazy. But I do cry,
Speaker 1: for example, about something that seems too much to handle
Speaker 1: at the time. Now you still haven't answer the question,
Speaker 1: what would the plumbing issue? What what could happen plumbing wise?
Speaker 1: It would make you cry? It was a decision I
Speaker 1: had to meet you weren't is in the fixtures? Yes
Speaker 1: it was. Three different fixtures had been emailed to me,
Speaker 1: and I don't notice differences. But Kimmi Schmiant doesn't do fixtures.
Speaker 1: She does. It's not that she doesn't care, It's just
Speaker 1: that I don't have a strong opinion about them. And
Speaker 1: it made me. I guess the reason I crit is
Speaker 1: I was exhausted and didn't want to make another decision
Speaker 1: for them. And did you choose your husband? Chose? Um?
Speaker 1: It still hasn't been decided. I still hasn't been decided.
Speaker 1: Would you like me to come over and decide? From
Speaker 1: down there to this new address? Now? The the the
Speaker 1: you get out of the office, and how long is
Speaker 1: the gap from that to Kimmy. Well, in fact, this
Speaker 1: is what happened. As soon as the office was over,
Speaker 1: I filmed a pilot for NBC that did not end
Speaker 1: up going forward. It was called Brenda Forever. It was
Speaker 1: very funny. But because that did not move forward, Why
Speaker 1: do you think it didn't go forward? I really don't know,
Speaker 1: because how do you It's like throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Speaker 1: You never know what's gonna stick and what's going to
Speaker 1: resonate with audiences. Frankly, I didn't know how audiences would
Speaker 1: respond to Kimmi Schmidt. It's very weird. So this show,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, the network decided we're not going to
Speaker 1: push it forward, which happens all of the time. And
Speaker 1: and well, you know what, there was a threesome scene
Speaker 1: in an interracial threesome. Maybe that was too wild back then,
Speaker 1: it was like three years ago. The pilot for it,
Speaker 1: in the comedy it was a comedy, was very funny.
Speaker 1: I played a orchestra conductor and it was and I
Speaker 1: was mean, I really liked it. Meant was an interracial
Speaker 1: three way. Yes, I could see clearly why I didn't
Speaker 1: get picked. This is I mean it isn't that bizarre?
Speaker 1: I mean, with the bizarre is mild you I think
Speaker 1: you would think it was an interracial threesome with a
Speaker 1: with a bitchy conductress with a bitchy maestro. She was duplicit,
Speaker 1: she was she was evil like she she was bad
Speaker 1: this character. But but isn't that the new thing antiheroes?
Speaker 1: But then it's a story about what was the show about?
Speaker 1: This show? Well, it was split. It was half so
Speaker 1: Brenda Forever. We saw half of the show Brenda was thirteen,
Speaker 1: and that was played by obviously not me, um by
Speaker 1: a younger actor. I could do it the route. Could
Speaker 1: we stretch a face a little bigger, change your hair,
Speaker 1: a little change pie face will be up for it.
Speaker 1: It's a compliment. But then the other half of the
Speaker 1: show was me as an adult. So that's why is
Speaker 1: Brenda Forever intercut between the young girl and the older
Speaker 1: And it was so I really think you would like it.
Speaker 1: It was God, I see it's nowhere, but there's DVDs
Speaker 1: of it. I'll get you a DVD. And even I
Speaker 1: think you would like it. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun doing that. But you know,
Speaker 1: did one episode the pile. That was it was, it
Speaker 1: was it. What did you do? Then? Then I thought,
Speaker 1: what do I do? My agent Richard White's who is
Speaker 1: Tina's agent? He and Robert Carl He said the pilot.
Speaker 1: You know that my pilot was not going forward? He said,
Speaker 1: get drinks with Tina and Robert New York City, talk
Speaker 1: about did you Yes? You had drinks with the two
Speaker 1: of them. Changed. So the first seed of Kimmy was
Speaker 1: you sit down with the two of them. Could do
Speaker 1: many of them before. Now you never met them. Now
Speaker 1: I had seen Tina intimidating. Oh dear, I was so
Speaker 1: nervous the whole day. I didn't know. I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to calm myself down. I mean, I was so
Speaker 1: I was so anxious being a lawyer in front of
Speaker 1: Supreme Court? Absolutely, And do you do you be funny?
Speaker 1: Do you do you be smart? What do you do?
Speaker 1: You let them talk? I think that's what they don't
Speaker 1: want to talk. Well, they're sick of talking. And when
Speaker 1: I'm around when I was around them, they were they
Speaker 1: weren't very talkative. They wanted to write, they wanted they
Speaker 1: want to talk a little as possible. So you can
Speaker 1: get back in the writers from the ride. They don't
Speaker 1: want to waste their time with me. It was on
Speaker 1: a Saturday night. I remember. I was like, I'm taking
Speaker 1: up time on their Saturday. They just keep it. Would
Speaker 1: talk to them and be like yeah, yeah, yeah, great, great,
Speaker 1: that's not the case of writing. They endured me. Well,
Speaker 1: I feel like they endure me every day. So this
Speaker 1: was the beginning of the I felt like, I just
Speaker 1: don't be crazy, right, just try to be what you
Speaker 1: drink Carlisle. And I was like, I'm going to west side,
Speaker 1: hing over to the east side, I mean true, and
Speaker 1: and the thing was set up the day before, so
Speaker 1: talk about I'm an anxious person. So I was like hyperventilating.
Speaker 1: And then um, I thought, I'll just order whatever Tina
Speaker 1: fe orders. So I did the first thing. I thought,
Speaker 1: when a glass of white wine. That's funny, exactly you
Speaker 1: drink That's so great, like google her like, great, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, what aggrecidence. Um and that was fine, you
Speaker 1: know what. I was so relieved when we when I left,
Speaker 1: I was like, well, that was fine. That was not scary.
Speaker 1: It was we didn't talk about anything of substance. It
Speaker 1: was just small talk chatter. Again. The constant nagging notion,
Speaker 1: and I knew who you were. They've seen you that
Speaker 1: that's right. So they told you they wanted you to
Speaker 1: play Kenny. No, they basically said, we're developing a new show.
Speaker 1: We don't know what it is, but good to have
Speaker 1: met you, you know. I think it was a general introduction,
Speaker 1: although maybe it was for something after that. Did you
Speaker 1: get the script to the pilot? We met in May,
Speaker 1: and then they met them again in July and they
Speaker 1: pitched the actual idea to me. I thought they were
Speaker 1: joking because the premise of the show, I know, And
Speaker 1: I was like, and I have said this before, but
Speaker 1: I went home that night and again I had to
Speaker 1: call myself down. I was like getting the tub, took
Speaker 1: a hot bath. I was like, they were pranking me.
Speaker 1: They're super smart people with their imaginations are sucked up.
Speaker 1: That's everything, is right. Yeah, they're brilliant, beyond brilliant. They
Speaker 1: imagine great things. And because because they are so brilliant,
Speaker 1: I thought for sure they're testing me to see if
Speaker 1: I'm smart enough to know that they're joking, you know,
Speaker 1: like I put it into my name right away, I know.
Speaker 1: And then they weren't joking because that is the premise
Speaker 1: of the show. And then so that was in July,
Speaker 1: and then I saw the script in October, I think,
Speaker 1: and then NBC picked it up for thirteen episodes. I think, Oh,
Speaker 1: I know exactly went actually on Halloween of that years.
Speaker 1: So from Brenda Forever to Kimmy it was about it
Speaker 1: was April two October. So that's pretty question when you
Speaker 1: got you got a pilot or did you get a
Speaker 1: couple of scripts? First pilot only then we waited even
Speaker 1: though it had been ordered for thirteen, so we shot
Speaker 1: it the following spring and then waited four months and
Speaker 1: then shot the rest in August, and that was then
Speaker 1: that was filming, and as you were shooting, we're like,
Speaker 1: oh god, this is so insane. Insane. And also and
Speaker 1: so they did you realize that in order for that
Speaker 1: to work? This is the funny thing because if everybody's cynical,
Speaker 1: like sometimes, did you have to hang out with people
Speaker 1: at uc being in order to fit in pretend you
Speaker 1: were more cynical than you really were. Would they say
Speaker 1: like really cynical things and put people down? You're like, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's a douche. You have to hide pie
Speaker 1: face under a bath. You do. But see the problem
Speaker 1: with pie Face is that it's it's always with me.
Speaker 1: So it is if I say he's a douche, are
Speaker 1: you gonna take meat serious? Like? Are you going to
Speaker 1: be like, oh yeah, she means it probably not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's the problem. It's like you have bright red hair.
Speaker 1: I am pie Face forevermore so like trying to say something,
Speaker 1: it's like being Mickey Rooney. Yes this is what can
Speaker 1: you do about it? You can't go so you embrace it.
Speaker 1: So so there is I don't know, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't get away with that. So you get so
Speaker 1: you get there to do the show. And again I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this, you realize this is one of those things.
Speaker 1: The brilliance of the show, because I've watched a lot
Speaker 1: of Kimmy lately, is that it is your tone and
Speaker 1: your warmth, and that helps well. I was trying not
Speaker 1: to interrupt you because I didn't want to interrupt the host.
Speaker 1: But that is much more credit than is to thank
Speaker 1: you very much. I think the writing, of course, as
Speaker 1: it was on your show, you owe them everything. You
Speaker 1: don't need to dress up anything because the lines are
Speaker 1: handed to you pristine not a not a I was
Speaker 1: about to say, not a hair lucky. Yes there, Oh,
Speaker 1: I think about that all the time because there's so
Speaker 1: many dopes out there, and you would take a job
Speaker 1: whatever you would. You would take a lot of jobs
Speaker 1: to make money, to to earn a living, to keep working.
Speaker 1: But then you get to work on this job, which
Speaker 1: is truly the genus minds. So it's it's extraordinary. Now
Speaker 1: the show is, you did two seasons and you're going
Speaker 1: to go into a third season. You got picked up
Speaker 1: for a third season. What did you do in the
Speaker 1: time in between the two? What have you been doing?
Speaker 1: I'm not like you. I'm not as industrious as my
Speaker 1: bosses are. So they Tina went off and made a movie.
Speaker 1: Robert went often wrote that you know, they me. I
Speaker 1: feel like I felt like the press took up a
Speaker 1: lot of the time in between. I felt like and
Speaker 1: Titus and I brilliant. Titus Burgess, who plays Titus on
Speaker 1: the show, we talked about this where like, I have
Speaker 1: spent more time talking about the show than we spent
Speaker 1: filming it, but that promotional requirements have now become absurd,
Speaker 1: So in between you did a lot of press. I
Speaker 1: just truly feel I want to ask you about Letterman,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to ask that later, I guess, But well,
Speaker 1: I just want to ask, like, would you ever say
Speaker 1: you were a guest? You were one of his favorite guests,
Speaker 1: of course, and would you ever say that was a
Speaker 1: pleasure for you? I'm assuming like that you didn't think
Speaker 1: of that as work. No, No, that was not a
Speaker 1: chore at all. That was would you get would you
Speaker 1: feel like I need to make these stories really good?
Speaker 1: Like would you feel nervous at all? Or no? God? Yes,
Speaker 1: Well he's a he never hid the fact that he
Speaker 1: was restless. He's very restless. Smack, yes, and he was.
Speaker 1: And I don't say that it's a bajard. He was
Speaker 1: very restless. He leaned over to me one time and said, godd,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how much I want to thank
Speaker 1: you when you come here, because because sometimes this is
Speaker 1: really tough. People come on and he has to pretend
Speaker 1: they're special, and you're hard pressed to identify why they're special.
Speaker 1: He must have looked forward to I mean, someone who
Speaker 1: is just going to people that's going to come to talk,
Speaker 1: and he were a good guest for him, He really
Speaker 1: looked forward to coming and he was very kind to me,
Speaker 1: very kind. Of course, he was super kind. My very
Speaker 1: favorite thing, though, is when when someone goes on the
Speaker 1: show who you can just tell from the story he
Speaker 1: doesn't like, and he does not. I think he got
Speaker 1: better at this time. I mean he I just mean
Speaker 1: that he put on a a face, I guess a
Speaker 1: polite face more often like later on. But when Starlett's
Speaker 1: who he just didn't care about, when he just he
Speaker 1: let them hang out to drink yes, which is great.
Speaker 1: So during the break and Kimmy, you only did, I
Speaker 1: honestly feel like all I did was promotion and that movie.
Speaker 1: That's not I did not do a movie? Did I know?
Speaker 1: I didn't? And that's wow, I know, wow. What an
Speaker 1: arrogant show business card that was to turn over? Did
Speaker 1: I do a movie that see movies? Let me my
Speaker 1: raven the only reason. Let's try it again. Did you
Speaker 1: do a movie? I did not? Okay, that was the
Speaker 1: correct answer. That the reason I question my memory is
Speaker 1: so bad. I'm thirty five. There's no reason for my
Speaker 1: memory to behazy. It is so bad that I couldn't
Speaker 1: remember if I Crawford Kemper I was on my gosh,
Speaker 1: you can count the number of movies I've done on
Speaker 1: one hand, so I couldn't. I don't know what's the goal.
Speaker 1: When you finished the show, Okay, I like balance and
Speaker 1: I realized that, like I I crave that. Now at
Speaker 1: this stage, I don't know if that's good or bad.
Speaker 1: I thought I was like a driven person, and then
Speaker 1: I met Tina and Robert, like, oh I am. I
Speaker 1: am not as a hard working as I thought I was.
Speaker 1: But Ellie Kemper is just about to start working harder.
Speaker 1: She and her husband Michael are expecting their first child.
Speaker 1: Explore the Here's the Thing Archives, where Kristen Wigg talks
Speaker 1: about breaking her fans expectations. The audience very quickly puts
Speaker 1: you in uh folder, like they know you how they
Speaker 1: first knew you. I'm Kristen from SNL or comedic actress,
Speaker 1: and people are always so surprised when I want to
Speaker 1: do dramatic stuff. Really you really want to do that?
Speaker 1: Take a listen that Here's the Thing dot Org. This
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: My guest today is actress Ellie Kemper, the star of Unbreakable.
Speaker 1: Kimmy Schmidt now in its second season on Netflix. Ellie
Speaker 1: plays a former cult member looking to restart her life
Speaker 1: after being held for fifteen years in an underground bunker.
Speaker 1: Both Kimmy and Ellie appear to have an eternal optimism
Speaker 1: that lifts them above all the obstacles in their path,
Speaker 1: or almost all of them. I have a problem limiting
Speaker 1: ice cream intake. That's so dorky. That's just so such
Speaker 1: a gross problem limiting ice cream. And you like a
Speaker 1: Brando level, or you're at my level. I wasn't at
Speaker 1: a Brando level. I wasn't at Brando. Okay, you know
Speaker 1: he was an ice cream addict. No, I didn't pat
Speaker 1: Gelson's and go into the park line, I need a
Speaker 1: half a gallon of ice cream in the car. Why
Speaker 1: am I just learning this now? I really don't know
Speaker 1: out in terms of if you say you have an
Speaker 1: ice cream problem? Was Brando? And I didn't even think
Speaker 1: I would have connected with other I came with the
Speaker 1: Charles Bukowski of ice cream. I can't I can't start
Speaker 1: a point without finishing it. That's just like a pint. Okay. Now,
Speaker 1: I had a period of my life and I didn't
Speaker 1: get really sick from that. I gained a lot of weight.
Speaker 1: I found that I was pre diabetic. You're you're, you're, you're, you're,
Speaker 1: You're so fit and you're and you never work out.
Speaker 1: Probably do you work out every day? You do have
Speaker 1: to St. Louis thing. I'm from St. Louis and we're
Speaker 1: just naturally damnital when naturally whippity hardy, whippity whippity pie
Speaker 1: faced people. I et a pine cream to night. I
Speaker 1: come home at the end of the day and it
Speaker 1: was my reward. I was stressed out and I would
Speaker 1: turn on the TV. I watched Turner Classic movies or
Speaker 1: cable news or something. I recognize that experience so closely
Speaker 1: because it is my own. I justified to myself. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: it is better than Jim Beam. It is better than drugs.
Speaker 1: I mean, but it is a drug like any other.
Speaker 1: What's your favorites? My favorite, My very favorite is Bene Jerry's,
Speaker 1: but that is because they're so readily available. The tonight dough,
Speaker 1: that's that tonight dough is what it's called American dream.
Speaker 1: Now I'm only naming late night hosts, but I do
Speaker 1: like those flavors a lot, and just cookie dough and
Speaker 1: then for Haganaz, it's just vanilla chocolate chip, which went
Speaker 1: off the market for a while. Can you imagine my favorite?
Speaker 1: When you were I knew I would really cross the line.
Speaker 1: But one time I went to a nam place and
Speaker 1: I had three scoops of ice cream and a vanilla
Speaker 1: shake to wash it down. I've been there, said I
Speaker 1: couldn't make of my mind. I said, I'll have both,
Speaker 1: and I deserve, Yes, you do. I remember They're seen
Speaker 1: in mis Congeniality and Sandraba looks like it's time to
Speaker 1: get chip faced, and she's talking about drowning her one
Speaker 1: of the great lines of cinema. She's drowning her sorrows
Speaker 1: in mint chocolate chip. And I will come into work
Speaker 1: the next day and Lilyan and Ariel, who I work
Speaker 1: with my hair and makeup on the show. I will
Speaker 1: walk in and I'll be like, I'm a little bloated today,
Speaker 1: Like in my face, it's not wine, it's not whiskey,
Speaker 1: it's it's I'm chip faced. I'm hung over from ice cream.
Speaker 1: What does your husband do? He's weirdly disciplined. He will
Speaker 1: he will eliminate sugar for months at a time. Is
Speaker 1: that weird? And then he'll go back to it. But
Speaker 1: when he starts, he can't stop his thing. He loves licorice,
Speaker 1: which is somehow. I mean, he has very old man
Speaker 1: like he likes sour candies and received kid. He grew
Speaker 1: up on the beaches of San Diego, but he is
Speaker 1: not a beach bum. He's he's very indoor kind of guy. Um.
Speaker 1: We met because he wrote on Conan O'Brien when Conan
Speaker 1: used to be here. So he's like a very bookish type.
Speaker 1: Co Oh, I miss Conan out there in l Ah.
Speaker 1: That's what I would watch if you're if. While I
Speaker 1: was drowned, it was so pleasant to eat a pine
Speaker 1: of ice cream and watch David Letterman and let the
Speaker 1: day melt away. And now I can't watch him anymore,
Speaker 1: so so I just eat ice cream. I watch reruns
Speaker 1: of Letterman. I'm not kidding. The Did Cavit box set,
Speaker 1: I need to get that. Get that. I'm only recently
Speaker 1: discovering that Cavit like his shows and uh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: His show is so fantastic because they're they're just talking,
Speaker 1: i mean talk about nothing going by from different style. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when the show is over and it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be over for a while, and we're gonna do this
Speaker 1: for a little while longer. But when the show is over,
Speaker 1: especially people in comedy land, when the me gig ends tries,
Speaker 1: they might get out of here and they go to
Speaker 1: l A. Do you see yourself going to LA to live.
Speaker 1: I would like to avoid going back to l A
Speaker 1: because I get depressed there. I realized that recently. Even
Speaker 1: though my sister, my gorgeous sister, you think she would
Speaker 1: light up the whole city for me with her beauty,
Speaker 1: but I she lives there, But I I get when
Speaker 1: I'm not working there, it's depressing to me. I can't
Speaker 1: figure it in a way that's different here because I
Speaker 1: feel the same way. The whole time I was in
Speaker 1: l A. I was working for the office and then
Speaker 1: depressed on there. It fills me the minute I land
Speaker 1: in New York. You are depressed in a different It's
Speaker 1: like a very invigorating way. You know you're angry instead
Speaker 1: of being low. You know you're frustrated and you're crying,
Speaker 1: but and it's like full of passion. In l A.
Speaker 1: I just feel like I'll think, Ellie, it's a gorgeous day,
Speaker 1: It's seventy five, go for a walk. The walk depresses
Speaker 1: me because no one is walking when you live there.
Speaker 1: You when you shot the office wear in Van Eyes
Speaker 1: a studio, I don't think you'd place where they used
Speaker 1: to put dry cleaning chemicals, exactly where we were to
Speaker 1: put perky. Where did you live of Hollywood? In Highland
Speaker 1: that's right on Hollywood, like a record store. It was horrifying.
Speaker 1: We moved there because I felt like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: like New York. It's a high rise. The guy next time, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's literally. I was like, this will be this will
Speaker 1: be happen. The guy next to us our neighborhood an
Speaker 1: ankle monitor, which I didn't and we never knew what
Speaker 1: it was. For one night I came home and he's like,
Speaker 1: come on, just be a good sport. And the girls
Speaker 1: like that hurts, and he's like it's just a taser.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I don't know what he was doing.
Speaker 1: But when you when you leave there and you go
Speaker 1: to New York, it's just much. It's just easier. I
Speaker 1: think everything here and yeah, it's just easier to I
Speaker 1: think everything for someone now I'm not, but for someone
Speaker 1: like you who is recognizable very prominent. You must have
Speaker 1: trouble going places. I would imagine in New York it's
Speaker 1: somewhat easier. I feel like people don't want to be
Speaker 1: caught recognizing you, and it's easier because you're in a car. Well. See,
Speaker 1: it's a different New York exchange to what New York
Speaker 1: has changed because people are not as they're not as
Speaker 1: cool as they used to be. But everyone has a
Speaker 1: phone and if someone asks you, and I have only
Speaker 1: done this. Look people, people are not clamoring from my phoone,
Speaker 1: but if they do ask, they will ask it like
Speaker 1: the gym or something. When you're sweaty, you look terrible.
Speaker 1: I said this one. I said, I'm so sorry, I
Speaker 1: look disgusting. Would you mind if we don't do it?
Speaker 1: And she goes, no, you're fine, I'm sorry, and like
Speaker 1: lifted her phone to take it. And I can only
Speaker 1: imagine that this is to the five thousand degree with you.
Speaker 1: But I said, I started to say it, but you're
Speaker 1: not sorry. But I didn't say that, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to now yes. So John Ham played the head of
Speaker 1: the Cults and and then only appeared in the show
Speaker 1: and flashbacks flashback to Kimmy. He does come on at
Speaker 1: the end there's a trial and he I know, and
Speaker 1: do you and talk about the only person who could
Speaker 1: have played it. He is so okay. So you're describing
Speaker 1: this guy who presumably raped these women, he napped them,
Speaker 1: he's a sinister figure. Then who whose face do you
Speaker 1: attach to it? John Hammon? Well, that lightens the load.
Speaker 1: It works. And so for whatever reason, you watch this
Speaker 1: guy and you don't feel discussing, you don't feel disgusted.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's this. I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker 1: I've described John Ham's from St. Louis, which is where
Speaker 1: I'm oh, yeah, well, I'll tell you something which I
Speaker 1: always I feel like John Hamm must be sick of
Speaker 1: me mentioning this. He went to my high school. He's
Speaker 1: ten years older than I am, and he came back
Speaker 1: and taught high school for a year. Um, he taught
Speaker 1: our theater class. Theater class with him. I took one semester.
Speaker 1: He taught me the improv portion of of our classes.
Speaker 1: But then, but then the wheels turn and eventually John
Speaker 1: Hamm comes back and teaches acting at your class. And
Speaker 1: then he's guesting on your shoe. Don't you forget it? John,
Speaker 1: I may or may not have a movie to shoot.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you? Filming with him that was so
Speaker 1: intimidating because he is you always retain that dynamic. Talk
Speaker 1: about crying. There's a scene in the bunker where I
Speaker 1: really did feel like like I was so it was
Speaker 1: so powerful to me that I, who normally can't cry
Speaker 1: in scenes, I started crying. Now, the character of your
Speaker 1: father has never been on the show, has he not?
Speaker 1: Or even like a weird uncle? I could come and
Speaker 1: play your weird uncle. I'd love to come on and
Speaker 1: play your weird uncle. Will you emailed him? Yeah, well
Speaker 1: I've already told him now. Number two, Um, who do
Speaker 1: you take advice from? Oh? Oh, I take a lot
Speaker 1: of advice from my husband. You do, Oh, he's you
Speaker 1: trust his opinion? Two D. He is very wide. I
Speaker 1: kept going up and up. I was like more than
Speaker 1: of my birthday. He and I have our own little
Speaker 1: handy formula. Why did I come out to that? I
Speaker 1: wanted to ump it. I wanted to up it from
Speaker 1: that's the name of way. I wanted to up it. Michael.
Speaker 1: Michael is very um. As I'm described. He hates it
Speaker 1: when I describe him. His calm but he just has
Speaker 1: a very level In fact, I think he would be
Speaker 1: a good manager. To be totally honest with you, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about a show business manager. He's just smart in
Speaker 1: that way. Um. But people will ask and I don't know, well,
Speaker 1: they didn't ask you this, but people impress interviews will say,
Speaker 1: what is the best advice Tina has ever given you? Well,
Speaker 1: as she did, I mean indirectly. Tina can tell you
Speaker 1: privately that the first year I was on that show,
Speaker 1: I annoyed them so much because I tried so hard
Speaker 1: to be funny on camera and off camera. I tried
Speaker 1: to keep up with them. And then people who like
Speaker 1: Tina Carlock Bird at all of them, reg everybody who
Speaker 1: was running for the show back then, Volley, Uh, Tracy,
Speaker 1: They're Paula Pelle. They're funnier on their worst day that
Speaker 1: I'm on the best day. They're just eighth degree black
Speaker 1: belts Ninjas. And I always feel like China will come
Speaker 1: into the makeup room, I'll be telling some just endlessly
Speaker 1: boring story about the laundry machines in my buildings, just
Speaker 1: and I'm like, it's the same thing where I'm like,
Speaker 1: don't stop wasting her time. Stop telling this story that's excruciating.
Speaker 1: And then she says one thing that's funnier than than anything.
Speaker 1: You know, Well, yeah, that's very obvious. She's she's very
Speaker 1: she's so funny. She's so funny. It's not as though
Speaker 1: she sits down and and imparts wisdom you just learned
Speaker 1: or I learned so much. The one thing I want
Speaker 1: to ask you is, when the opportunity presents itself, do
Speaker 1: you see yourself working in a drama at all and
Speaker 1: doing any dramatic films? I think I have it in me.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's something that I want to do.
Speaker 1: I think that transition is hard. Don't you think you'd
Speaker 1: be a mistake if you didn't? Really? What do you
Speaker 1: think of the idea that people come to know you
Speaker 1: in a certain way and come to expect you help
Speaker 1: them to know you in both ways? Yeah? Because didn't
Speaker 1: you think it was interesting to see Teina do whiskey tank?
Speaker 1: She can do it? Do you've ever feel like you
Speaker 1: want to try that yourself? The pause alone speaks volumes.
Speaker 1: I think that that would be I do you know
Speaker 1: what the thing is that I feel like when I'm
Speaker 1: being serious people laugh? Is that horrible. Maybe we've just
Speaker 1: stumbled on something where I feel like if I were
Speaker 1: to be uh, I don't know, I would have I
Speaker 1: to think think about it. I'll think about it. About
Speaker 1: it you want. I think you can do anything. It's
Speaker 1: it's work. I should do it. I should after Kimmy
Speaker 1: ends after Kimmy. You don't want to. You can't make
Speaker 1: those two to stay in the Kimmey zone. I think
Speaker 1: you're going to stay in the Kimmiy zone. You can
Speaker 1: watch Ellie Kemper in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the
Speaker 1: thing