Ellie Kemper shares amazing acting tips and stories behind her acting career.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has quickly become one of Netflix’s most popular TV series. The comedy focuses on the character, played by Ellie Kemper, who makes her way to NYC after being locked in an underground bunker for fifteen years. The show’s popularity is largely attributable to Kemper’s acting abilities, coupled with the off-the-wall behavior Kimmy’s roommate, Titus (Tituss Burgess) and her employer, Jacqueline Vorhees, played by Jane Krakowski.
Written by husband wife team Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a popular comedy series, but also a show with real emotions. It was also written with Kemper in mind for the leading role, which is either a massive compliment and major risk for Tina Fey and her husband.
“In terms of playing Kimmy’s naive side, there is always a danger of that being grating or obnoxious for people to watch,” Kemper says.
“So I think it’s just a balance of she is so sincere in her lack of knowledge, I guess, and she’s so determined to catch up on it, I think that playing it very sincerely helps to alleviate the risk of appearing grating or obnoxious in the fact that she doesn’t know a lot of stuff.”
Kemper’s approach to the role has worked out for her. However, it was a long time coming for Kemper. In fact, she auditioned for a role on Parks and Recreation, a role that would later go to Aziz Ansari.
“I had met with [Parks and Recreation creators] Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, who ran the ship at The Office and a couple months later they called me in to read a part with the casting director Allison Jones, but then my manager called me a month later to let me know I hadn’t gotten [the role of Aziz Ansari‘s character’s wife on Parks and Rec]. …
She would later audition for a role on The Office. “they called me in for this four-episode arc for a temporary receptionist who was filling in when Pam went to the Michael Scott Paper Co. [on The Office]. So they called me in to audition and I read with Ed Helms [of The Office]. …
Kemper admits that after the writers got to know Kemper’s acting, they rewrote the character. “[Erin, the character] was more serious and a little bit more sarcastic, I think, at the beginning, and then I fear that as the writers got to know me, they sort of made Erin weirder, so that’s sort of how she morphed into the weirdo rube that she became.”
Kemper also revealed that she learned how to improv by working with Jon Hamm in high school. ““He attended my school, my high school, John Burroughs, and then went to college and came back after college and taught theater at our high school for a year, so I was a freshman taking a ninth grade … Introduction to Theater course, and he taught the improv portion of that class. …”
She said it was shocking to see Jon Hamm on buses and billboards as Don Draper in Mad Men. “Wait a minute, that’s Mr. Hamm? He’s this arresting matinee idol.” … It was so cool to see that. By the way, I have to tell you, that I came out to Los Angeles to put on this one-person show I had been staging, trying to get an agent and a job, and I was in Los Angeles doing it and this was, like, the first season that he was on Mad Men, and I emailed him just to see if he might remember me and if he would come support me at my show, and he wrote right back and he was front row in that show, wearing his St. Louis Blues hat. … I will say, he sort of stole the spotlight a little bit, everyone was like, “Jon Hamm is here,” but that was fine with me.”
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