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Spoilers below forDead to Mes first season.
As Jen, you have to be so angry.
You swear constantly and you use fuck like every sentence.
What was it like to inhabit that anger?Very cathartic.
We had to go so raw with this.
This is your bottom.
Once we started doing it, I couldnt stop sobbing.
That was the only time that I fell apart.
Ive read that you describe yourself as being insemi-retirementfor the last few years sinceUp All Night.
What sold you onDead to Me?Just the script and the human who wrote it.
Liz Feldman is just a dream human.
I also wanted to raise my kid, so thats what Ive been doing.
What [Liz] wrote was something unlike anything thats come across.
It took a minute to convince me.
It took a lot of my manager and agent being like, Youhaveto do this one.
Cut to being in every single scene in this show, basically.
Shes like, Are you willing to go there?
I said, Its important to the character and important for me to talk about it.
We didnt want to make it like a whole other story line, thats the thing.
We didnt want the audience to feel sorry for her.
People whove had the surgery are like,Oh, no, its good.
Its all good; its all good; its all good.
Then, we get toepisode nineand we see the pain that is involved with this.
I didnt want to do a public service announcement.
It wasnt about that; it was really about trying to find the core of her pain.
Because shes so tough and her coping mechanism is to be the way that she is.
Theres a deep connection between Jen and Lindas character, Judy.
Theyre dealing with grief in such different ways, but still bound together.
These people became invaluable to me.
Theyre still in my life because we got each other on a level that nobody else could possibly understand.
Jen has this backstory where she always wanted to be a dancer.
You actually dance in the show.
I know you didSweet Charityand you were a dancer.
He had seen me inSweet Charity.
I think he got it written in there.
He came to me, hes like, Youre gonna be dancing.
Im like, Oh,hellno.
Im not gonna be dancing.
I havent danced in ten years.
Hes like, No, youre gonna be dancing.
Theres only a mention of it one time, where she says, I wanted to be a dancer.
They wanted to have a moment where Jens finally coming out of her pain, with dance.
Judy, on the other end of it, is now suffering.
They wanted to find what would make Jen actually smile.
What was it like for you to do the dancing?It was horrific.
It was so hard.
It hurt a lot because I didnt have, really, any rehearsal.
Our schedule is so tight that I had maybe one hour for us to choreograph.
Then we shot it.
Ill tell you that.
Cause every night ofCharity, that was a pain extravaganza.
That was nice to be healthy.
Basically, well be exploring the dynamic that its an equal playing field at this point.
Im the one who killed your husband.
Now, that thats happened, I dont know how shes gonna weave it.
But shes got a pretty great brain and Im sure shell figure it out.
I actually pushed Linda really hard.
I wasnt supposed to, and I didnt mean to.
Afterward, I literally started crying.
Im like, Linda, Im so sorry.
Shes like, No, no, its okay.
Did they end up using that take?Its the one they used, yeah.
it’s possible for you to see, I push her and then her face just …
I thought Linda was gonna start crying.
One of those moments.
Youve been on so many connection shows, likeUp All NightandSamantha Who?andMarried … With Children.
Does it feel different to be making a show for Netflix?They are the greatest group of people.
They leave you alone.
And you work for three months!
Its not nine months of your life.
I mean, shit, that was a long three months.
That was a hard three months.
But it was three months.
With this, we can just shoot it all.
No one can say anything.
Theyre like, Do you wanna work this summer?
No, I dont.
Id rather just be with my daughter.
Im good not getting up at, like, 4:30 in the morning for a while.
