Basket of Kisses

In the first part of our exclusive interview with Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell), we learned about Ms. Brie’s background, vocal training, and what Trudy sees in Pete. We start part two with a total change of direction:

Deborah Lipp: Let’s talk about hair! Do you prefer your hairstyles this season? How long does it take to do your super-poof do (or is it a wig)?

Alison Brie: It’s all my real hair, any hair of mine you have seen is my own. The first episode of My Alibi was in between the two seasons of Mad Men, in later episodes of My Alibi I have much shorter hair. On the show, the first season it was all updo because women then didn’t really have hair as long as mine was, and we’d cheat the length, make it look shorter, with curling it. For the second season, because of the time lapse [between seasons] Matt Weiner wanted to change up some of the characters, and they had numerous meetings along with costume designers to discuss how the physical changes would happen for characters.

Trudy is such a fashionable character, she’s reading Vogue, she has the time and the money to be up on current fashion. We changed my nail polish color. My lipstick is a different shade this season. Cutting my hair took a lot of phone calls. I was reluctant at first, but I was very happy with the results. The updos got a little boring after a while, it was fun this season to have it shorter and have these nice styles. They [the hair dressers] had more fun with my hair season.

DL: Wow, you gave me so much information!

AB: I’m a talker!

DL: This year, your character is sadder, and more troubled. Your marriage is less happy. What have you gone through as an actress to move in that direction?

AB: It actually came very naturally to me because it had been about a year [between seasons], so as a person and an actress I’ve matured in a lot of ways and so has Trudy. So it was quite natural to have it be a year later for this character. I felt more comfortable whereas in season one everything is new and you’re figuring it out as you go along.

DL: Which is perfect for a newlywed.

AB: Exactly. I came in [to the series] the fourth episode of the show but it hadn’t started airing yet. I didn’t know anything about the show. They would only give me the pages I was working on. Everything was a discovery. In the second season it’s still a discovery, we never know what’s coming, it’s exciting; at the same time, you know the character, you’re comfortable with her.

Roberta Lipp: How do you enjoy working with Matt Weiner?

AB: I just adore Matt Weiner. He’s brilliant, he knows what he wants, he’s succinct, he’s smart, he’s savvy, he’s a fun time.

DL: Total change of subject: What about those pajamas? Do you know there’s someone on the Internet with “Pete’s Blue Pajamas” as a screen name? Pretty wacky.

AB: It’s true, people obsess over Pete’s pajamas because he looks like a little boy, especially because I get to wear sexy nightgowns. I’m going to agree with the fan base, I do find that humorous.

DL: There is a sense of the two of you playing house. You’re so young.

AB: Right! I can’t imagine getting right out of college and getting married. It’s still an ambition women have [nowadays], but at that time it was very appropriate.

You slip on the costumes and you do look older but you also look like you’re playing dress-up. Of course, it’s different now, you don’t dress up to go shopping or to go on an airplane.

It’s kind of a good analogy of their whole marriage, playing the part and trying to make it work, and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Even though there are a lot of disappointments in their marriage, she still finds reasons to make it work.

RL: I love the writing on this show.

AB: So do I, that’s what makes it such a joy to work on. It’s not like shows that try to distract you with fireworks while nothing much is happening with the characters. Mad Men is really an actor’s piece; everything has deeper layers.

DL: Tell the truth, did you and Vincent Kartheiser crack up when discussing his mighty sperm [in The New Girl]?

AB: Most likely. Most days we crack up on the set because Vincent’s very funny. He also has very funny writing for his character.

Some of my favorites of Vincent’s exclamations are…he has so many great ones. Like “I sure as hell wouldn’t want a kid here watching this donnybrook.” we could not get past that, we couldn’t, his performance was impressive.

Oh, and “Hell’s bell’s Trudy!” I just—exclamations of the period are so right on and it’s what make those moments great, and he plays them so straight. You just can’t help but laugh.

In that sperm scene, he was such a jerk, he and Trudy are in such different places. In reality I wasn’t doing much laughing that day on set because she’s so offended by his arrogance on the subject.

RL: You were identifying with the character.

AB: Absolutely.

Vincent and I try to get together and rehearse so we can get all our laughing out of the way before we’re on set.

It’s a harder season for Trudy. Last season she kind of got her way, this season Pete’s not really backing down. He’s so tired of getting it at work and at home—he really wants to stand his ground and their marriage is something Trudy doesn’t want to lose.

Ultimately Pete’s gonna have that checkmate.

DL: Last season, the relationship with Trudy and her father was a little weird. What do you think of it?

AB: The aspect of Trudy, who wants what she wants, I think that really comes from her parents. They’ve raised her to get everything that she wants—spoiled her—and they’re those kind of people, they’re ‘new money’ and they like feeling that power. Her dad wants to make his little princess happy. I wonder, how manipulative is Trudy? I don’t think she has a weird relationship with her father so much as, maybe she set him up to say that [suggesting a grandchild] and doesn’t want Pete to hear her say that.

[At this point, we got into a kind of rambling conversation about all the times we've gotten other people to say things to people rather than saying them ourselves, and then we act surprised, or agree, or disagree.]

AB: Parents are great at putting things out there that might embarrass you.

RL: Why do you think Trudy wants to have a baby so badly?

AB: I had a talk with Matt Weiner about it when we were filming that episode [The New Girl] and we just decided that it’s—Trudy needs to have deeper meaning. It’s sort of always been her plan, but then when you stop and think about it, it becomes something she really wants because she doesn’t have much. What do her days consist of? As she said in the episode, “What is all this for?” What is the meaning of my life? Eventually she wants to have purpose.

Maybe she didn’t realize she was so passionate about it until she couldn’t have it.

Although it may have started from a superficial place, I think that it did evolve into something with a lot deeper meaning for Trudy.

RL: Tell us about any upcoming projects.

AB: Montana Amazon just wrapped, with Olympia Dukakis and Haley Joel Osment.

DL: What a cast!

AB: I know! It’s sort of a dark comedy. Haley and I play brother and sister and Olympia is our grandmother. It’s sort of Raising Arizona meets Little Miss Sunshine with a little Throw Momma from the Train thrown it. It should be going to some festivals soon.

I have a movie at the Hollywood film fest right now, The Thacker Case. It’s a biopic about a real lawsuit in the 1980s in Iowa that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It stars Gabriel Mann, who plays Arthur Case on Mad Men, and Eliza Dushku. I have a really minor role. It might just be a cameo. Other than that I’ve been working on My Alibi (at www.Take180.com). We’re about halfway through filming that series.

RL: How does it feel being able to pass for a high school student?

AB: It’s great! It’s fun because it’s, all of us on the show [My Alibi] are close in age so it’s fun for us all to come in and be these high school students. And it’s SO different from Mad Men. It’s comedy, it’s broad, it’s like The Breakfast Club. It’s a fun time. It’s not even like a job. The website is interactive and there are little contests, it’s great.

RL: Well, you have the looks to pull it off.

AB: Thank you.

DL: I know you’re all sworn to secrecy, but can you give us any little teases about the end of season?

AB: You’re just going to have to watch it and see what happens.

People ask as if they want to know but really, it’s better. You enjoy the show more if you don’t know what’s going to happen.

DL: Thank you so much for your time, you’ve been so generous with us.

RL: Thank you.

Read part one.