Aubrey Plaza - CollegeHumor Interview

After getting her start in hit web series like The Jeannie Tate Show and ESPN's Mayne Street (she's also appeared in a CollegeHumor video or two), Aubrey Plaza currently appears in NBC's Parks and Recreation. She recently finished shooting Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). She made her feature debut this summer opposite Seth Rogen in Funny People, which comes out on DVD this week. She also wouldn't mind if you followed her on Twitter.



In Funny People, you play a stand-up. You hadn't done stand-up before the movie, correct?

The first time I did it was in Queens. I did do it just for the film - I had met with Judd and I knew the only obstacle was that I wasn't a real stand-up. Then, when I was cast, I came out to L.A. and had to immediately start doing shows with the rest of the cast. I kind of got thrown into it, but I really liked it so I kept doing it. I'm still doing it now.

You came up through the UCB Theatre - how do you feel about the relationship between stand-up and improv?

Improv is obviously collaborative because you have support and people around you. For me, stand-up is terrifying and really, really hard and scary because it's all on you and your delivery and what you're writing and how you're saying it and everything so it's kind of unapologetic.

Stand-ups will spend hours writing and rehearsing a joke to make it sound organic, improv is always that way.

Totally. In terms of what I like, I think I like improvising more. I don't like planned things, but I like writing too. It's a good exercise for your comedy brain to write stand-up jokes and see how they work.

Are you writing anything besides stand-up right now?

I've been trying to work on some movie ideas and stuff like that. It's hard to balance it [with Parks and Recreation], but I'm trying to be one of those people who writes and performs and does everything all of the time.

I went to Donald Glover's Comedy Central Presents stand-up special the other week. He definitely seems like one of those comedians who do everything.

He's a good friend of mine, and you're right, he's that guy. He goes to shoot a scene and instead of messing around in his downtime he's writing a million jokes or writing and shooting videos. That's kind of like the ideal comedian right there.

He's definitely doing about as well as someone can do.

He's amazing, and so disciplined. He reminds me of Seth Rogen actually. Seth is like that, he's really disciplined, always writing and always working on something.

You're not doing badly, either. Web comedy can be a bit of a wasteland, but your track record (Jeannie Tate, Mayne Street) is pretty exceptional. Anything we're missing?

I don't think so. I don't have any horrible web series locked away in my basement. Honestly, I'm lucky to be in all of those. Jeannie Tate changed my whole career. It got me an agent, and without that, I don't think I'd even be talking to you.

Liz is awesome. She did a pretty great Sarah Palin for us a while back.

The CollegeHumor videos I've done, too, were so helpful in getting agents and getting people to see me. Any time Sam Reich has a video or wants me to do anything, I'm indebted to him.

So I should cross "dirt on Sam Reich" off my list of questions?

[Laughs] Um, yes.

I just followed your Twitter about an hour ago. Some comedians, like Steve Agee, have almost a million followers. How does that happen?

I don't know. Aziz [Ansari] has a million Twitter followers too. I'm not really great at Twittering, I do it really inconsistently or when I have a link I want people to see. I'm not much of the, "I'm eating a sandwich right now"-type Twitter-er. I don't know how to make myself have more followers. If you find out, let me know.

After doing Internet comedy, how does it feel to shoot a movie and then not see the finished results for almost a year?

It's pretty strange. By the time Funny People came out I had forgotten what I had done, and I had no idea what to expect. It's kind of exciting in that way, though. You work on it and you have to let it go, and you hope that you're going to be happy with the outcome. Luckily, I was, I thought it was really great.

The lead of Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler, started the UCB Theatre. Do you improvise on set at all?

Our scripts are so good that we don't need to improvise too much, the jokes are there and everything kills at table reads. Usually our directors let us have fun after we have what's in the script and we get to mess around a bit. I think that's important, because you can discover different ways of doing things. It's also fun to try and come up with stuff that will make the other person laugh. It keeps you on your toes, keeps everyone's spirits high and keeps it fun.

Finally I wanted to ask about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright. Edgar, like Judd, is famous for having a pretty distinctive sensibility.

It was amazing. Edgar is so different from Judd, he's really technical and specific in a great way. Edgar's very funny too, he just has a very different style from Judd.

Much more precise.

Totally. And Bill Pope, the DP, did The Matrix and Team America, so that team just knew what they wanted and how it was going to work. Fitting your choices and your comedy style into that, that was something I had to learn how to do, but once it worked, it really worked. I think that movie's going to be the best movie of next summer.

From:
http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1794915

Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza - interview with Matt Patches

With hard work and dedication, even you or I could become a showbiz success.

Being really funny doesn't hurt either. That's the lesson I've learned from Aubrey Plaza, an actress I had a chance to work with in film school who recently blew up with her role in Judd Apatow's Funny People. I spoke with Aubrey about her recent rise to fame, touching on Funny People and the highly anticipated Scott Pilgrim vs. the World where she plays Julie Powers, the on-again/off-again girlfriend of Scott's bandmate.

Finally, I can fufill my dream of being a name dropper!



Matt Patches: How did you end up working on small comedy projects with schmoes like me, to hot tailing it out of New York and starring in Funny People?

Aubrey Plaza: Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that out...I don't know how it happened. I kept doing a lot of online videos and I did this one web series called the Jeanie Tate Show and that kind of got me an agent and then I started auditioning. Funny People was the second movie I ever auditioned for.

MP: Oh, wow. What was the first movie you auditioned for?

AP: I don't remember, didn't get it.

MP: Fair enough, don't look back!

AP: Yeah, some romantic comedy. But [Funny People] was kind of a crazy process because I auditioned for it...I put myself on tape in New York thinking that no one would even watch the tape or care, then Judd watched it and really liked it. Also, the part is weirdly just perfect for me. I think there's only so much you can do as an actor and sometimes it's just like when someone writes a part you're perfect for. So the final part was the stand up and I knew that's what they were looking for...so I took it upon myself to start doing stand-up.

MP: I know Judd Apatow is notorious for just shooting, shooting, shooting tons of footage. How much of you're material ended up on the cutting room floor?

AP: For me, every scene I was in made it. I think I only had one scene in the movie that didn't make it in.

MP: So...they love you.

AP: I guess. Or someone was drunk in the editing room.

MP: Do you have any solo projects coming up?

AP: I'm writing. I'm trying to write my own projects, being that person who's creating their own thing. But I've been busy shooting the show, the thick of season 2. After the show, maybe I'll do another movie.

MP: So next year you've got Scott Pilgrim. Everyone I know is head-over-heels for the books and its one of our most anticipated movies for next year. Have you seen any of it?

AP: Yeah, I've seen twenty minutes of it and...it blew me away.

MP: That's what everyone's been saying, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around what's going to be blowing my mind next year.

AP: I think it's a combination. The DP of the film is Bill Pope who shot The Matrix and Team America, so he's kind of a genius. Him combined with Edgar [Wright], who has a very particular directing style...his other movies are very particular and fast, he's unique. And the comic books are really funny. I don't read comics that often, but these made me laugh out loud. So you've got this really funny comic, plus crazy talented director, and then you have Michael Cera who is one of the funniest people in movies. It's a combination of everything that's good for a movie.

MP: Not a bad combo.

AP: In one scene you have an awkward slacker comedy and in the next two seconds it's a crazy ninja action movie.

MP: Did you get to fight in the movie?

AP: No I didn't have any action scenes. I wish though, the other actors got to do fight training for a month. I just fought with my words.

Funny People is currently out on DVD and Blu-ray while we should be seeing Scott Pilgrim sometime next year!

From:
http://movieblog.ugo.com/movies/aubrey-plaza-interview


Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza interview - MovieWeb (for Funny People DVD)

The rising comedic star talks about this new DVD, Parks and Recreation, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and more.



I was wondering how you first heard about Judd's script [of Funny People] and how the whole casting process went about for you? Who was already attached when you first heard about the film?

Aubrey Plaza: Well, I didn't know much. I didn't read the script, I didn't really know anything about it. I knew it was Judd's movie and that Seth (Rogen) and Adam (Sandler) were going to be in it. That's kind of all I knew. Allison Jones cast the movie and I had met her, just kind of generally, a couple of months before. She told me then that she was on this movie, but she wasn't going to tell me what it was until later. I knew something was going on, but I wasn't sure what it was. I was in New York at that point and she had me put myself on tape. I just did the scenes and improvised with my friends and sent it to L.A., just hoping that they would actually watch it. I heard a couple of months later that Judd did watch it and he really liked it, so I came out to L.A. to have a callback and I read with Seth, in front of Judd. That was terrifying but it went really well. I hadn't heard anything for a month after that and I knew I did well but I wasn't really sure what the hold-up was, what they were looking for. I found out that they had really wanted to cast a stand-up comedian. At the time I wasn't doing stand-up, so I kind of took it upon myself to start doing stand-up and taping myself and sending it to him. So that's kind of how I got the part. It was a three-step process, I guess, where the final step was, I think, the most important, sending bits of me actually doing jokes and having him actually see me on stage with a mic, in front of an audience, that it was possible that I could pull it off, to be this young, stand-up comedian.

You have an improv background... What was it like getting into stand-up mode, as opposed to your improv background?

Aubrey Plaza: It was really tough. Improv is so different, it's such a collaborative thing, you're working with other people, nothing is planned and it's kind of this community mentality, whereas stand-up, you're alone and it was really hard. Having to stand in front of an audience and have it be your job to make them laugh, you can't really look to anyone but yourself. It's what you wrote, what you said and how you said it, so it's kind of terrifying, but I liked it. When it goes well, it's the best feeling in the world. When it doesn't go well, it's the worst feeling, but once you get into the rhythm of it, I think it's really fun. Also it's a good exercise for writing, for me, using my brain in that different way.



I know the DVD and the Blu-ray that are coming out are both just packed with extras, with a lot of bonus stand-up material. Is there a lot of these unseen bits from your performances on here then?

Aubrey Plaza: Yeah, definitely. The first time I ever did stand-up was in Queens and it was the first time I had done it and I taped it and sent it to him. After I got the part, a couple of weeks later, he brought me out to L.A. and I immediately started doing shows with the rest of the cast, having never done it before. So I went from zero to performing with Adam Sandler in less than a month. It was really a crazy interaction to stand-up, but they had camera crews follow me to every show and tape every single show that I did. I went up multiple times a week and I did The Laugh Factory, all these open mic's and they sent camera crews everywhere. There's a ton of shows on the DVD, a lot of me bombing on stage, which I'm sure will be fun for me to watch (Laughs). So yeah, a lot of failure, but it will give you a good idea of how I got to where I am now.



This has to be just a dream movie for any comedic actor. What was a normal day on the set like with all these comedic heavyweights?

Aubrey Plaza: It was really surreal. Adam is one of my heroes and getting to work with Seth and Jonah (Hill) and Jason Schwartzman, every single person in the movie was amazing. It was really scary at first, but everyone was so welcoming. Judd, it's really important to Judd that everyone gets along and it's like a family atmosphere, so he really embraced me and everyone there did, so I felt comfortable immediately. Also coming from UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) and coming from a comedy community like that, it actually was a really smooth transition. It felt like just hanging out backstage with my comedy buddies in New York. Seth and Jonah and those guys, they're just normal, funny guys, you know, but I guess they're also famous movie stars.

I'm also a huge fan of Parks and Recreation and it was quite an interesting episode this past week. Will we see maybe a bit more of April and Andy's relationship continuing for the rest of the season?

Aubrey Plaza: Yeah, definitely. I can't give away too much, but you'll definitely see more scenes with myself and Andy. I'm glad you like the show, thanks.

Oh yeah. The show has really been hitting its stride this season.

Aubrey Plaza: Yes, definitely. I'm glad people are watching it.

I'm curious if there's any kind of cliffhanger planned for the midseason break, and if you have any thoughts about how your character might be evolving throughout the rest of the season?

Aubrey Plaza: Honestly, I have no idea (Laughs). I don't read any of the scripts until a week or two before, so I have no idea what's going to happen. I do know that there will be more April and Andy, but other than that, I don't know. The scripts are crazy. Each week, the stuff they have us get into, there's always something that totally surprises me, so whatever it is, I'm sure it's going to be really great. But I don't know what it is (Laughs).

There has been a lot of buzz about Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World as well. Can you talk about the overall experience on that film?

Aubrey Plaza: That movie was crazy. It was a crazy experience, working with Edgar (Wright), who I was such a huge fan of, and Bill Pope was the DP, who did The Matrix and Team America: World Police. He was this genius guy and Edgar's a genius and Michael Cera is like a comedy genius guy. I don't know, it was really crazy. It was really different, coming off of Funny People, it was really strange. The styles were so different. Edgar is so precise and everything is faster and really specific. Working with him was really awesome because I was learning how to work in a different way. I was so used to Judd just turning the camera on and just letting it roll forever, so yeah, it was a learning experience, for sure, but it was so much fun. I've seen 20 minutes of it and its like nothing I've ever seen before. I think it's going to blow people's minds when it comes out next summer.



Yeah, I read about that. I believe it was Jason Reitman that said he saw 20 minutes of it and couldn't stop raving about it. I'm really excited for it.

Aubrey Plaza: Yeah. It's really special. It's such a crazy combination of visuals, the comic book visuals with the awkward comedy with the action sequences. It's got everything and there are really great actors like Michael Cera and Mark Webber and Alison Pill. All of those guys are just amazing actors too, so it's got every ingredient. And Edgar puts his own touch to it, so it's going to be good. I don't even know how I ended up in that movie. I don't remember how that happened, but I'm glad it did.

...What would you like to say to maybe your fans from Parks and Recreation or people who might not have seen Funny People... about why they should pick up this DVD?

Aubrey Plaza: They should pick up the DVD so they can see me fail miserably on stage, over and over again (Laughs). They filmed every single stand-up show that I did when I was just starting out and it's going to be very hard for me to watch that, but for other people, I think they'll enjoy watching me totally bomb in front of strangers. I would watch it if it was someone else.

... Aubrey, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season of Parks and Recreation.

Aubrey Plaza: OK. Thanks a lot, man. Bye.



You can bring Aubrey Plaza and a ton of other Funny People home on DVD and Blu-ray on November 24.

From:
http://www.movieweb.com/news/NE1Vd6336QUO44

Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza - DC standup interview

We spoke to Aubrey Plaza, currently featured in Parks & Recreation and Funny People, one of 60 comedians performing in DC as part of Bentzen Ball.

Bisnow: Where are you answering these questions from?

Aubrey: Nicolas Cage's patio. I'm using his macbook.

Bisnow: Anybody in particular you’re excited about doing stand-up with here in DC?

Aubrey: Nick Offerman from Parks & Rec is doing some shows so it will be fun to hang out and do comedy with that old mustache.



From:
http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_the_scene_news_story.php?p=5763

Kyle asked Aubrey Plaza our question and cusses us out (interview)

He asked our question and cussed us out! =^)

That's okay. We asked her the question and got the answer a few days before he asked her. Here's that:

http://aubrey-plaza.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-aubrey-plaza-hanging-with-andy.html

And here's Kyle's interview (we're "the--legend"):



Ever seen a striking new actor and wondered, “Who’s that?” Now you’ll know before you even have to ask. Welcome to The Verge, Movieline’s weekly interview with up-and-comers on the verge of a serious career boost.

As the deeply disinterested intern April in the Amy Poehler sitcom Parks and Recreation, Aubrey Plaza may be the lone newcomer in a cast of comedic heavy-hitters, but she’s got a slate of upcoming projects that’s guaranteed to up her profile. In addition to her scene-stealing Parks role, Plaza nabbed the part of Seth Rogen’s love interest in Judd Apatow’s summer dramedy Funny People, and her presence in Edgar Wright’s rising-star-filled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World anoints her as one to watch. Plaza spoke to us about the unconventional way she won two of her biggest roles, and gave us the skinny on one increasingly skinny costar.

How did you end up in Parks and Recreation?
Allison Jones cast the show and casts Judd’s movies, and she had just cast me in Funny People. And the way that [producers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur cast Parks] is that they met with potential actors before they even started writing the script. So Allison set me up on a meeting with them because she thought they might be interested in writing a character for me, even though I thought it was a just general meeting. So we sat down in July and didn’t even talk about the show specifically, and then after that meeting, they had written me into the show — and I didn’t find out until Thanksgiving!

So you didn’t pitch them a character? They just wrote one for you?
I didn’t pitch them anything, no. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Jeannie Tate videos, but they had seen that and they were big fans of it, and I think they saw the character I was playing in Jeannie Tate and thought they might make something like that for their show. I think they’d had an idea of having a different kind of intern character, but after they met with me they kind of wrote it for me in my voice.

How did you feel about the leak of the Parks focus group results?
That was kind of a bummer, because the version of the show that those guys saw was really premature. I think everyone in the industry knows that pilots don’t generally test very well, and I think that whoever leaked that online was kind of mean-spirited. It was unwarranted, but it didn’t really bother me that much because a lot of the things that came out of that testing were things we had already been working on anyway.

You play Seth Rogen’s love interest, Daisy, in Funny People. Obviously, the burning question America needs to know is, what weight was Seth Rogen at in this movie?
[laughs] I know that he looked super-different than he did in Knocked Up and Observe and Report, but I haven’t heard people talking about it. Is that what everyone’s talking about?

He had to lose a lot of weight for his upcoming action role in The Green Hornet, and it’s all anybody is asking him about when he does press.
Right, because he looks like a totally different guy. Well, when we were shooting, that was the first time I’d ever met him. I don’t know what weight he was at, but I’d say that he looked very good. [laughs] I didn’t have a problem having a crush on him on-camera.

Tell me about your character.
Daisy is an up-and-coming stand-up comedian, just like Seth and Jonah Hill’s characters. Originally, they wanted to cast an actual stand-up comedian, and I ended up doing stand-up for the first time at an open mic and I taped myself and sent a link on YouTube to the casting director and that kind of got me the part. So after they saw me attempt to do it and not totally fail, and they knew that I was motivated to try it, they gave me a chance.

Did you take part in the secret stand-up shows before shooting?
Yeah, when I flew out to LA to do pre-production, they had me do stand-up with the entire cast, and that was the first time I’d ever really done it. And in the movie, Daisy is doing it for the first time as well. She’s in that time of her life where she’s just starting out, so it was very easy to get into that character. But you know, even when we were shooting and I was doing stand-up in the fake comedy clubs they’d built on the soundstage, the extras that were sitting there are an actual audience and I was still trying to make them laugh. I think that’s what Judd liked about it, that I was so like the character. He wants real people.

He’s been criticized at times for not really “getting” female characters.
I think he understands female characters. I think the cool thing about Daisy in this film is that he wanted Daisy to be more than just a love interest. He didn’t want me to just be the girl that the boy has a crush on; he wanted me to find my own voice and be just as weird and crazy as the guys. The way that Judd works a lot of the time is that we’ll be shooting a scene and we’ll be improvising, and he’s really big in giving us ideas in the moment, like shouting out and pitching us jokes. I think a lot of those jokes are pitched to the guys, but I found that when I was shooting with Jonah and Seth, a lot of those were jokes that anyone could say, and he was like, “Aubrey, why don’t you say it?” So it was pretty cool. He definitely let me be weird and funny.

And you also have Scott Pilgrim vs. the World coming up, with Michael Cera. Your character, Julie Powers, could be described as “difficult”…
Julie Powers is a crazy *****! She has a big chip on her shoulder. She’s a supporting character who pops up a couple times in the film and is confrontational toward Michael Cera’s character. Every time I’m on-screen, I yell at him.

Aubrey, I’d like to walk you through a couple of the IMDb topics created in your name and give you a chance to respond. You ready?
Ready!

This first one is from “Fish_Flake1209,” and it says, “This girl’s name sounds like a shopping mall. I could imagine the place I go to drop off my dry cleaning to be located in Aubrey Plaza.” I’m sure that’s a new thing for you to have heard, that the name “Plaza” could evoke images of a shopping mall.
[laughs] I’ve heard that all my life. All I can say is that I think it makes sense for me. I think I’m more than a person and I compare myself to a shopping center every day of my life.

This next one is from “the—legend,” who wants to know, “Is Aubrey Plaza dating Andy Samberg?”
I am not dating Andy Samberg! Andy is a good friend of mine, but I’m not dating him. I think he has a girlfriend? Or, at least, he did have a girlfriend.

**** “the—legend” for spreading those rumors.
[laughs]

The last one is from “eyes-wide-open,” and it says, “I was in a show with her!! It was called ‘The Bo Peep Case.’ I was nine and she was 16 I believe. She’s amazing and very funny. I love you Aubrey!!! Congrats on everything. R.I.P Heath Ledger 1979-2008.”
What? [laughing] Oh my... “The Bo Peep Case” is haunting me.

What is “The Bo Peep Case”?
“The Bo Peep Case”! That was totally real, and I played the evil villain. It was this one-act play in my hometown at the Wilmington Drama League Community Theater, and I think that girl’s name was Lucy. I feel like I remember her. She was maybe playing, like, a little newsboy. Or a chicken. Wow. That play was full of Oscar-worthy performances.

Sounds like Lucy is a big fan of yours, but still very broken up about Heath Ledger.
I know. I am, too. ♦

From:
http://www.movieline.com/2009/04/the-verge-aubrey-plaza.php
=============

Hahahaha. I got cussed out by Kyle Buchanan.

Well, Kyle, I wasn't spreading rumors. I was asking a question, cuz neither of them had been seen with their sig others and they were in a video with their arms on each other.

But I did talk to Aubrey directly like a few days before Kyle ran that interview. So she probably knew the question came from me. She's just close to some of her dude friends like that.

So still, it's cool that Kyle was reading some of our posts out to Aubrey. That brings some of the fan's stuff to her.

That said, Aubrey is a technofile, she probably checks out her IMDB page anyway.

About the "Bo Peep" play, the person said on IMDB in response to this that she is not Lucy (and wrote that from a "Travis" account). And the name of the original account changed to "Kate."

More on that:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2201555/board/thread/119532130?d=139745749&p=1#139745749


And what did Fish Flake have to say about this (the dude that said she was a mall):

Alright! Now if I ever run into Aubrey by chance, I will be unable to hide my identity as a hopeless fanboy from her! Take that, elaborate quasi-celebrity dating scheme!

More on that here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2201555/board/thread/134314061?d=136105310&p=1#136105310

Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza - Teen Vogue

Laughing Matter: Aubrey Plaza



Aubrey Plaza isn't kidding when she deems this "the best year of my life." In April, she made her debut as Amy Poehler's deeply disinterested intern on NBC's hysterical mockumentary Parks and Recreation. This month, she'll share the big screen with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill in the sure-to-be-a-hit Funny People. And then she heads to Toronto to play Michael Cera's nemesis in the upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Basically, the lanky brunette has already worked with everyone who's anyone in comedy. "Well, I haven't met Tina Fey yet," Aubrey deadpans in her trademark monotone.


Her stony-faced shtick is hardly an accident: The 25-year-old has been working on it since high school. As a freshman at New York University, she began taking classes at Poehler's prestigious slapstick training ground, the Upright Citizens Brigade, but Aubrey also had her sights set on interning at Saturday Night Live, so she relentlessly faxed her resume to their offices until she got an interview. She was hired on the spot: "I literally went from doing nothing at my apartment to watching Ben Affleck rehearse on stage."

With a few recommendations and some viral Internet hype, she's gone from playing a "girl with a massive head wound" (her first film credit) to improv-ing with Team Apatow. The actress is used to holding her own with the guys, though: "On set, it's not like, 'Oh, you're funny for a girl,'" she says. "It's just, 'Are you funny?'" In Aubrey's case, the answer is an emphatic yes.

From:
http://www.teenvogue.com/industry/blogs/entertainment/2009/07/laughing-matter-aubrey-plaza.html

Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza - Makes the Elle 25 (photo)

#2 Aubrey Plaza: The new funny girl



Given the circumstances, there couldn’t be a less surprising career arc than that of 25-year-old Aubrey Plaza. She attended an all-girls Catholic high school in Delaware, where the official handbook afforded a single loophole—“It didn’t say you couldn’t have fake facial hair. I almost wore my mustache to detention, but I thought that was pushing it”—and has grown up in the YouTube age idolizing funny women. (“Tina and Amy are my heroes.”) Then there were the weekly improv classes in Philly. (“I researched how people got on SNL—their bios always said they came from improv.”) As wry as Sarah Silverman and as grounded as any Groundling, Plaza, a deadpan ace, was first noticed by SNL regular Bill Hader, whose wife, Maggie Carey, cast her in the perfectly absurd Web series The Jeannie Tate Show.

Plaza costarred in Judd Apatow’s Funny People, snagging the role of a stand-up comic with a tape of her first gig. This month, she’s back in NBC’s Amy Poehler–ized Parks and Recreation, and she’ll continue her costar-of-every-hilarious-actor tour with Michael Cera in next year’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Celluloid suits her, but she’ll be damned if she’s giving up the mic. “With stand-up, it doesn’t matter who you are,” she says. “If the audience claps because they love your movies, that clapping stops after five seconds, and then it’s your job to make them laugh. It’s kind of bada$$.”

From:

Aubrey Plaza - One of the Variety 10 Comics to Watch

Aubrey Plaza
The 'Parks and Rec' intern perfected craft online



A master of the above-it-all annoyed-teenager look, Aubrey Plaza found a way to take her disgruntled millennial girl routine to primetime in the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation." It's a character type the improv-oriented comedian first honed on the Web series "The Jeannie Tate Show," where she plays the troubled stepdaughter to the show's titular soccer mom, developing it even further on a trashy MTV-style dating show satire she wrote and directed.
"I am not sick of roles as the angry teenager; I could be one for the rest of my life," quips Plaza, who explains, "I have a younger sister who I draw a lot of inspiration from."

Sure enough, Plaza jumped at another droll adolescent role opposite Michael Cera in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." And though the acting attention is heating up, Plaza still considers herself a student of the form.

She spent the 2004-05 season interning on the set of "Saturday Night Live," being a wallflower while quietly observing the pros in action. "People on 'SNL' remarked how quiet I was and were shocked to learn that I was in comedy," she reports.

And although she studied improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade, Plaza decided to branch into standup after landing the role of Seth Rogen's girlfriend in "Funny People." Director Judd Apatow wanted an actual standup for the part, so Plaza made a point to film herself onstage at a comedy club in Queens.

Plaza's early material has been dark and rebellious, reminiscent of those grunge comediennes who came before her, such as Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman (in fact, she does a killer impression of the latter's potty-mouthed persona).

"My sense of humor is a little strange," Plaza admits. "I have to remind myself that if I think it's funny, then I shouldn't worry about others getting it."


POV: "My purse is so heavy that when I put it on the passenger seat of the car while I am driving, the airbag light goes on because it thinks there's a person there."

From:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006155.html?categoryid=3183&cs=1
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Aubrey has a heavy purse. Good to know!

Enjoy!

Aubrey Plaza - Amy Poehler is her hero (Delaware Today interview)

Funny Business

March 19, 2009

Aubrey Plaza is laughing all the way to Hollywood. Catch her on a new TV sitcom this month and on the silver screen this summer.



With an upcoming feature film starring Adam Sandler, a production company she operates with her best friend, and exchanging jokes with Amy Poehler as part of her daily grind, Aubrey Plaza has it all—almost.

“I’m officially moving out to L.A. now,” says Plaza. “I’m going back to New York tonight to get the rest of my stuff—and my cat.”

Plaza’s residence is not the only thing that has changed during the past few years. She has gone from interning at “Saturday Night Live” to starring in the web series “The Jeannie Tate Show” to overcoming her fear of stand-up comedy for her role in Judd Apatow’s feature film “Funny People,” scheduled to hit theaters in July.

Plaza will exercise her new stand-up skills alongside such comedic actors as Sandler and Seth Rogen in the film. “It’s terrifying,” Plaza says. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“Funny People” finished shooting in January. That left Plaza only a week before starting her next project, an NBC sitcom titled “Parks and Recreation” with Poehler. The first episodes are expected to air this month.

“Amy was always one of my heroes,” Plaza says. “If I had known back then that I would be on a show with her, it would have blown my mind.”

Though she’s in Hollywood’s spotlight, don’t expect Plaza, an Ursuline Academy graduate, to become a stranger.

“I’d like to shoot a movie in Delaware,” she says. “Me and Joe Biden—we have to put Delaware on the map.”

That could happen via her Small Wonder Productions, which she runs with fellow Delawarean Dan Murphy. “My biggest hope is that I could write some of my own projects and that we could produce movies through our company,” Plaza says.

For now, she’s keeping herself busy learning new things.


From:
http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/April-2009/Funny-Business/


Enjoy!