Jane Lynch on Only Murders in the Building, Working with Meryl Streep & Big Break in Best in Show

my first guest is a very talented five-time Emmy winning actress and my beloved co-star and only murgers in the building where she's mastered the role of Steve Martin stunt double I got a cold case for you where do I put it huh go how'd you get in here who knows have I made copies of all your keys like I said who knows okay okay photo op photo op I love these all right seon four of only murders in the building premieres August 27th on Hulu please welcome the great Jane [Applause] Lynch w fellow lesbians I love it look at you you know I I missed that little pork pie hat of yours I no I love it you know we did four seasons of this show and you played Steve Martin stunt double I do and he was here last night you are so much more attractive I am aren't I yes thank you yeah no you're just fantastic this is what I'm always Fascinate about people like you are you know when we would shoot our show there's a holding area and in that area sometimes actors are looking at their lives sence or they're studying Jane is just singing doing jokes laughing asking questions of people you love showas I do I absolutely love it and you know you will be like across the room doing something and you find the funny in everything and so I will be listening to you and you'll say something hilarious and I'll laugh and you'll be like oh who got my joke and you'll look over and it's me and and you go like yeah MH a shark yeah truly the funniest than I know you are absolutely and and that's not true it's almost like a science with you you you you find the funny and everything and I deeply deeply appreciate it well that's Hy sweet I don't believe you for one second but here's what I'm fascinating about you because you are so bursting with Show Business and is is this something you want to do your whole life yes it is I am of show as they say and um you're Best in Show oh thank you I do I I love that I my parents used to do a show at church called portol where every school room was a different Port of Call and they would put on like a musical and I remember literally being beside myself in absolute Joy watching them perform and going oh I want to I want to perform in a church basement someday and I have performed in many Church basements and here we are here we are yeah right but I mean how old were you when you you decided you actually wanted that this is a realistic goal I can a realistic goal never but I I can I cannot remember a moment um in time where I didn't want to do this and I'll bet it's the same for you too I wanted to be on television I wanted to I remember being um very young going to a school basement and watching a play and all of the sudden the lights went down and then when the lights came up it was like this other world and I went oh I want to do that I want to do that but I wrote a letter to Universal studios in 1972 when I was 12 years old 12 years old yeah and I said I'm Jane Lynch from Dalton Illinois perhaps you've heard of me and um and and I said I want to be an actress and they sent me a letter back and it was the assistant to the casting director and said you know uh I i' love that you want to do this but we don't really uh you know cast people from the corn fields uh they they usually come to us and uh but we wish you the best in your career and it is a letter that would have shattered the dreams of most children but for me it it just seemed encouraging yeah it encouraged me and she and I to see my name dear Jamie she wrote dear Jamie and I thought and that that didn't insult me either oh no no no so let me see they got the name wrong and you were rejected and I was rejected you felt that was positive it was positive well that's kind of the energy you need to have in children you do yeah I'm a Weeble that wobbles but I don't fall down you remember Weeble what would what would you say was your what was everyone has a big break right what was your big break I would say it was probably best in show with Christopher Guest genius genius genius yes I was um actually in 1999 I did a bunch of commercials I don't know if you remember but it was the year of Jane Lynch uh maxium uh Chevrolet uh I did all sorts of stuff a bug spray um and uh I went into a a call back for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercial and at the call back and said director Christopher Guest now I knew and I had seen waiting for guffman of course I knew him at SNL and of course I knew you and I knew the synchronized swimming thing and you guys were just amazing and so I was very nervous but he cast me um in in in that commercial and then about oh probably three or four months later I was at The Newsroom having breakfast in Beverly Hills you heard of it I'm sure I was having a pancake the size of your head and in walks um Christopher Guest and he was going to the gym next door and he looked at me and went ah and so we talked a little bit he said um come to my office which was across the street about 5:00 in the afternoon and so I did and he basically offered me the part and Best in Show it's just Chris is Chris you know I I met Chris in '84 when we were Now cast as cast members of SNL and I've known him he's a very very close friend and one of the funniest human beings but it's so dry and so filled with irony and every element and one time when I was making this film Captain Ron hold for [Applause] Applause I me Captain Ron and uh Christopher said so Martin um what is this film you're making I said well it's called Captain Ron and I play a man who has two children who inherits a boat he said I didn't say spoil it for me he is the best he is and then we've also done Broadway not together but you together you just finished a r on Broad girl on Broadway yes and um thank you I love it would you do it again oh absolutely how about you do you love you know I would do it again but it is the eight shows a is a lot especially if you're doing a musical it's a nightmare you wake up and you're afraid to speak because you don't know what your voice so funny you get coffee and you slowly funny you make there goes lunch got a phone Dr Liv yes exactly need an injection shot up yeah um but how about backstage visits I learned hatred from I despise them yeah because of people's behavior they don't know how to lie I know great to see you up there that's my favorite no I well it's one thing if if it's your you know your your C's second cousin and they come back that was nice you know that's fine but when it's an actor yeah and they come back and say I don't know what to say oh I don't know how to lie oh you want to say you don't know how to act yeah right what don't come back why don't you do what we do when we see you you lie exactly no I don't go backstage like sometimes when you go see a play and they know that you're you're an oh you have to go back they'll come up to you and say you do you want to go backstage afterwards I won't do it because I know I I would learn to despise you because it would mean that you didn't like what you'd seen well that's only if they know that I'm in the audience they always do yeah they do yeah well I I I don't like it when people first of all we opened funny girl in the midst of covid oh no backstage visits that's true so it was yeah it was kind of nice and um we also we share so many things in our lives and I mean when you know when you're in Jane's company you just feel safe um but I also so reading today I didn't realize you come from Irish yes and I grew up you my father had a bro and I you know so I I know a lot how what was your Irish father like my Irish father was actually first generation but so you know his parents uh came from Ireland he was always had a song in his heart he was the happiest person loved a story he was just really a a great guy made up his own stuff made up nicknames for everybody and was there any uh yeah but not bad for him he he did a little bit he grew up around a lot of but he was quite absolutely he was he was a quite a a sober guy a jack of all trades knew a a a lot about everything he was a pretty I don't know if that's because he was Irish but he you know he was just a great guy yeah um my father uh sipped yeah yeah sipper well it was Jin and ginger know ice G beef eater Jin and ginger ale no ice cuz the Irish feel that ice can be addictive they don't want to they don't want to do that don't want to go there my dad's drink was 10 high whiskey which cost about .99 a gallon um and ginger ale so there must be something about ginger ale yeah yeah well also I think no truthfully the Irish don't because there was never ice you know oh is that right there wasn't like ice boxes and especially so that's why my dad was I'm going to have mine on the Rocks damn it I'm in America um we're in this show only murders in the building yes fourth season uh we have quite a cast and of course the great Merill Streep who you would work with I had in nor Efron's brilliant film jul jul jul and Julia uh what how is your experience with Merill well you know I I just love her I think she's truly one of the best actors we have yeah and um uh this was about 2008 so I was really nervous I remember walking up and down the streets of New York running my lines because I didn't want to F them up you know with Merill stre and uh I was just but I'll tell you the moment we dove into our scenes together and Nora Efron was the um uh director and uh Nora came up to me and whispered in my ear and said yes yes I was so relieved you mean just like you're doing it yeah it's good I I I like what you're doing I was really nervous about it and I just Dove off the cliff and nothing Merill does is half ass and she's playing Julia Child and there's nothing half ass about Julia Child she was woo and her sister was woo so we had to start out at that pitch and it was great it was really good tell the story about your mom at premere the premere of that movie yeah Julie Julia my mother came out and she's about 80 at this point to see the uh to come to the premiere and not my mother was Swedish and Irish and the Swedish one out which means she was always kind of not really impressed actually her mouth was a gape um and so we went to this uh we went to the premiere and I was walking the red carpet and my mother just was tagging along with me so she was walking with her purse of the the red carpet with me and all of a sudden we heard this Roar of the crowd go up and I look over and it's Merill had arrived and all of a sudden I feel This breeze go by me and it's my 80-year-old mother who who even when she was young and spritely walked very slowly and she just ran and she ran toward Merill Street and Merl Street went scared the hell out of her and and my mother said I'm Jane Lynch's mother kind of like spitting it out and and Merl said oh well it's very nice to meet you said something nice about me and but yeah oh I was and I remember I was I was talking to Ryan seest on the red carpet and when that happened talk to again a Ryan secret yeah and as I was talking to him and this was happening a bird down my head I'm serious you can see it look it up I've got bird poop and my mother running by me Everyone's a Critic it's just a but but uh only MERS you know and you di I died well that guy you died at the end of uh season 3 and like the letter from Universal it was a I celebrated it why did you celebrate it I celebrated it because I knew I was going to be in a lot of episodes the next the next season just a few the murder victim at the end of the season uh of only murders in the building that is the murder to be solved in the next season so there were a lot of flashbacks and I want to give to no no we can't reveal anything in fact I was talking to John Hof producer and I said what can we say and he said nothing nothing oh okay nothing so we might even snip some of this out don't repeat anything yeah you guys don't say anything okay no um but it it it was a joy just a real Joy well you're spectacular in the show you and no no no but I I mean it and Steve Steve and you work so brilliantly together it really is a delight I'm so glad you're here hey are you familiar with jelly roll I am actually oh my God the voice that guy yeah I'm so excited I there's an amazing uh interview we'll talk about with Howard Stern uh just a few days ago but anyway we'll be right back with jelly roll and more of J L [Applause]