It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it. Make that two jobs.
Alison Brie not only balances her part-time gig on Mad Men (as Trudy Campbell, the upscale East Side wife of tumultuous ad man Pete) but she’s honing her comedic skills on the Citytv/NBC freshman hit Community, where she plays cheery, straitlaced 18-year-old Annie Edison, something many viewers of both shows didn’t put the together when the sitcom debuted.
But balancing one of the most lauded series on TV with a burgeoning sitcom sounds like a tough job, whether it’s transitioning characters or genres, but Brie, a self-professed workaholic, couldn’t be happier pulling double duty on two critically-acclaimed shows.
After a scheduling conflict resulted in a missed opportunity to chat with the actress when she was in Toronto in June, she called me up a few days upon her return to Los Angeles to dish about becoming one of Mad Men’s go-to recurring players, the major differences between her on-screen leading men, and Jon Hamm making an appearance on Community.
TVGuide.ca: I’m sorry I missed you while you were here in Toronto. How was your visit?
Alison Brie: I had to rush back for an appointment. I was meant to stay later. In fact, as soon as we came in and the weather was so nice, we were like, ‘let’s stay an extra night.’ We had all these plans in the works, then I got a call from my manager who said I had to get back.
TVG: You’re back for Season 4 of Mad Men, right?
AB: Yes, and that’s all I can say about Season 4. [Laughs.]
TVG: Pete and Trudy seemed to have gotten over that rocky period and Pete seemed more committed, more appreciative of Trudy. In last season’s finale, with the new firm, you were involved. Are you going to share more scenes with other characters besides Pete?
AB: What I can say about Pete and Trudy’s relationship is that it was a big relief to me last season that they did come around. The second season was like the first or second year of a marriage with people, especially back then, you didn’t live together before you got married. I think Pete and Trudy probably hadn’t had many conversations about their similar goals before they got married, so there were a lot of surprises in store for Trudy, she was very unhappy, it was a very rocky time and tough with the child issue. And in Season 3, Trudy decided to shelf that, at Pete’s request.
Last season, there was the episode where Pete slept with the au pair and you got the idea that Trudy knew, she knew what was going on! She obviously didn’t know any of the details, and didn’t want to know, but she made the choice to stay in the relationship and work through it, and it’s just a testament to a number of things. She really loves Peter. She doesn’t like to fail, so she wants the marriage to be a success, and I think a lot of people at that time had to make sacrifices to make their marriage work, much more than the men in the relationship had to.
TVG: Where do you want to see Trudy go? What are your hopes for her?
AB: I like when Pete and Trudy are working together. I think they make a great team when they’re not in turmoil. I would like to see more of that, fingers crossed. Like I said, I’d just like Trudy to be around, that’s my goal, that she’s still alive. [Laughs.]
TVG: Well, obviously the shows are wildly different. On Community, you do all kinds of things, whereas Mad Men is clearly not as diverse. How does the atmosphere on the sets differ?
AB: For me, personally, and I can’t speak for the entire cast of Mad Men because I recur on the show so most of my scenes take place in our apartment with Vincent Kartheiser, who plays my husband. So for me, it’s different, because on the set of Community, it’s all of us there, all the time, and everybody is so loud and so rambunctious and we’re constantly joking and laughing. Vinnie and I joke and laugh as well. I love working with him, we get along great. But it is a much quieter and more focused atmosphere on the set of Mad Men because usually the work that we’re dealing with is so serious. You’re not going to be joking about farts, then going to talking about not being able to conceive a child. [Laughs.] The most basic way I like to describe it is that it’s just quieter on the set. And that might just be when I’m there because there’s only two of us and not a huge amount of people so there’s less noise.
TVG: What’s working with Vincent Kartheiser like?
AB: It’s great!
TVG: He seems a little different from Joel [McHale, the star of Community]. [Laughs.]
AB: [Laughs.] He is. But Vinnie knows a lot. He’s been working for a long time, he was a child actor, so even though he’s not that old, he has a lot of experience under his belt. I’ve learned a lot from him. When we first started this show, it was one of my first big roles out of theatre school, so I definitely learned a lot from him. It’s been a great experience returning to a show over the course of three years, now going on four, because that underlying relationship between he and I just continues to grow and I think it feeds the on-camera relationship because we’re supposed to be in a marriage. And it has helped that we’ve known each other now for years and have a history.
We used to be really diligent about getting together and rehearsing at his house. We both have a strong work ethic, and there’s so much nuance to all the scenes, so we’re always excited to get together and meet up at his place and run the scenes, or meet at the park and work it out. And I know that Matt Weiner, [Mad Men’s creator], was always really appreciative of that. Of course, in the last year, it’s been more difficult with my schedule with Community, and Vinnie’s got a lot going on with other scenes involving his character on the show. It’s been difficult to keep that tradition alive but we still like to make an effort.
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TVG: How fun is it working with Joel?
AB: It’s fabulous, it’s absolutely amazing. We couldn’t ask for a better leader for our crew. He’s a great captain because he is totally down-to-earth and very grounded and he’s a great guy, there’s no diva about him. Which is great because it instills that in all of us. I don’t think anybody was going to be a diva anyway, since it’s new to all of us. But it really helps that the lead actor in the series is never late to set, he’s not asking for crazy demands, he’s just a cool guy that we all hang out with, he’s hilarious, he doesn’t let anyone get off the hook, and he can basically make fun of anyone to their face and they just still love him, which I think is his charm. Everyone wants to be made fun of by Joel McHale. |
TVG: What’s it like pulling double duty on two critically-acclaimed shows?
AB: It’s fabulous, I love it. The last year, there were [some tough] days, but the overlap was minimal, which is fantastic. I totally lucked out that they work on sort of opposite schedules. But there were still days when I was literally on the Community set in the morning, and then went over to the Mad Men set and shot until the evening, then go back over to the Community set in the morning, but it was great! It’s such fuel for me. As an actor, I’m kind of a workaholic. [Actors] wait around for jobs all the time, so I’d rather be working. I’d rather be bogged down with work and it’s great exercise for that actor’s muscle to go back and forth and see if you still have that switch inside of you that you can go back and forth between characters. And the productions make it so easy because everyone’s so good at what they do. The shows are so different themselves – the costume design, the set design, all the other actors are so amazing — that it’s not confusing to go back and forth. It’s actually quite easy. I feel if the characters were super-similar, it might be a little odd. But since they’re different, it’s fun.
TVG: When do you ever get a break? Or are you just going to sleep as soon as we hang up?
AB: Yeah, pretty much, pretty much [Laughs.]. Because I’m working on Mad Men during the summer, it’s not as heavy of a gig as Community. With Community, it’s definitely a five-day-a-week, full-time job, which again, just because I’m a regular on the show and because most of our scenes involves all the actors all the time, we’re just all there, all the time. On Mad Men, there are a lot more characters, it’s a one-hour drama, so in an hour, you can explore storylines for many different characters at a time, so people just come in and out. The workload is less, for me. But for Jon Hamm and January Jones, it’s not probably. Jon is there all hours.
TVG: He does everything, he works behind the camera, writes scripts … [Laughs.]
AB: [Laughs.] Yeah, he’s an everyman. Again, like Joel, he’s very down-to-earth and such a great guy, he really sets the tone.
TVG: Jon Hamm should totally do a guest spot on Community!
AB: I know! It would be fabulous. Who knows? He’s done the 30 Rock thing, so fingers crossed. He could be a school counsellor! Although he’s got a lot on his plate right now!
Season 4 of Mad Men returns Sunday, July 25 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.
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