Aubrey Plaza

RJ here, hanging out at the Young Hollywood Studio at the Four Seasons Hotel, with the beautiful Aubrey Plaza, who you know from Parks and Recreation. But we got to go a little bit to the backstory here. I mean Yes, we have to. We have to. This whole YouTube thing, I mean people are always doing these videos and like they don't go anywhere. And you're one that was actually doing and then it went somewhere.

Yeah, yeah. I have to thank the internet a lot, actually. Like, um, that was a big thing I used to do. Like I used to write a lot of like parody videos, like MTV parodies and stuff like that. And um, I would send the links around, and that's actually how I got an agent, and um, yeah. So YouTube is really big for me. That actually worked.

That's interesting. Well, how many videos did you have to do until people started to actually take note?

Yeah. I mean I just did a lot of like sketch videos. I was in this one, um, web series called the Genie Tate Show, which was about a soccer mom who like ran a talk show in her mini-van. It was actually some people from SNL, like Bill Hader and his wife, and um, some writers, Liz Cackowski, that came up with that one.

Nice. Well, speaking of SNL, you you did an internship there. What what was that like, being an intern over there?

Um, it was awesome. I like faxed my resume to every department just because I wanted to be there, and I ended up, um, getting put in the design department, which is um

What's that do? What are you doing in the design department?

Uh, well, I think my main job was like hanging things on the walls. I don't really know what I did. I did a lot of like stalking. I would like kind of be in the shadows like watching the cast and just trying to like, you know, absorb everything I could.

So who was the first cast member that actually knew your name, that called you by your name? Do you remember?

I don't remember. I do remember though that, well, because like I didn't really interact with them that much, because um, I was a design intern, so I had nothing really to say to them unless I came up with something really ridiculous. Um, but one time at at an after-party, I got really drunk and I attacked Fred Armisen outside of the bathroom.

You attacked him? The men's bathroom. How do you attack him? What did you do?

I just like scared him. I like came up behind him and I was like, "You're my favorite cast member." And then I ran away.

Yeah. So now, Parks and Rec, I mean people are just loving the show.

Yeah, thanks.

And now Rob Lowe, what's what's that like now that you're working with him? Are you stalking Rob now? Cuz you have the stalking tendency going on.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I stalk Rob. I wait outside of his trailer every day. I don't know. We have a lot of fun on the show. Um, I gave Rob Lowe a nickname.

What's his nickname?

Rolo.

And then why? Why do you, what made you say, "Okay, you're going to be Rolo?"

I don't know. Cuz we all have like kind of weird nicknames and when he came on the set, I was like, "I'm going to call you Rolo from now on," and he loved it.

And then you got a fun film coming out that you actually get to play a bitch in. So how do you like prepare to be a bitch? How did you find the inner bitch in you?

Yes. Um, it was in me all along, I think.

Wow. So you're just playing yourself?

From the minute I was born.

So I got to ask, you're known on the show, like just the dry personality, so that's like your sense of comedy. Did it like start in stand up? Like is it a routine you created? Is it just sort of how you've been? Like,

Um, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's like a character I play, I guess. But um, but I've played a lot of characters like that. And uh, I guess it comes it's a part of me, a little bit. I'm deadpan, I've been told.

There you go, Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Rec.