Jane Lynch Career Retrospective | Conversations at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation

is there something that you wish you knew when you were starting out I wish I didn't hadn't had to suffer and I'm sure you all feel that the the the insecurities and I I I almost want to say we waste so much time but I think that that's kind of the gig being a human being is that we go through this um suffering and we get uh uh conditioned by society and then we spend the last part of our life kind hopefully letting all that stuff go but you know I have uh two grand nephews I you know get videos from them and it's you know nothing has touched them yet they're a year and a half and and one's the other guy's an infant and there's the Wonder you just see everything is brand new to them and exciting it's just so such a joy to get these videos from them and see them you know they're so open and free we are chatting a little bit backstage and talking about you growing up in Chicago and that's sort of where I want to start um grew up Southside Chicago right right far south a town called Dalton yeah familiar really so what was what was your childhood like I mean do you remember you know kind of like the early interests and hobbies that were kind of occupying you at the time and and also of course you know what gave you the first itch to start performing I don't don't remember a moment where I didn't want to be an actress i i w love television I watch TV all the time I would get the TV guide from the Chicago Tribune on Sunday and I'd pull that out and I'd start marking what I wanted to watch I would watch television into like the middle of the night um so and then I love doing plays I remember the first play I went to was very young so that the um the memory is almost kind of Misty but it was in a high school the local high school and it was in the uh gymnasium and the lights went out and when they came up it was like this whole world and I remember there was a bird in a cage a kid playing a bird in a cage and I wanted them to free the bird I was so invested in it and and you know from the the very first I I I saw the theater as being such a magical thing and um of course I love television too and I wanted to get on into that box and be a you know Brady Bunch sibling yeah which ironically we'll get to that because you have a Brady Bunch connection but you know was that a family affair like did you watch TV as a family growing up it was yeah and it was you know you know those the old people in the audience it was appointment television there were uh um in Chicago it was channel 3 or Channel 2 5 7 9 11 was our public uh television and then we got channel 32 that was in uh in black and white it wasn't even in color and the socks the Chicago white socks uh their games were um on do are you from Chicago yeah yeah you know um the socks were on and I was a big baseball fan yeah Southside and but I didn't like the socks because they were in black and white on channel 32 so I became a Cubs fan because they were In Living Color on WGN Channel 9 but you know I didn't I didn't go out into the neighborhood and tell everybody I was a Cubs fan I didn't cuz you you know the Rivalry was real um so yeah yeah you know there wasn't um my wanting to be an actress it was baffling to my family was like you want to do what they do on television and you know what you can't do that you know I mean was it just because it was just so it was such a weird thing to want yeah yeah nobody else wanted it um nobody we didn't I didn't have any friends who wanted it it was just my parents thought it was very weird and and I remember I was about 12 and um I was doing guys and dog at uh at durksen Junior High and Ron Howard came Ronnie Howard came into town or maybe he was Ron at that part at that point and he was promoting Happy Days and although I am a big lesbian I was in love with Ron Howard I couldn't get enough of him he moved me he because he was I don't know if you read his book The Boys oh it's so good he was so wholesome and so wonderful and he wouldn't make me kiss him I just knew that he would so I want I wanted I loved him so much and so he was on WGN radio and I called in and I had the tape recorder you know how press play and record and and I recorded it and I said I'm 12 I'm in sixth grade and I want to be an actress and he said stay in school he said do do plays in school and I said I'm in guys and dlls with the heaviest Chicago accent I've ever heard and he said that's really good and so I was just so excited that I got to meet him and I had it on um tape and I really took it to heart that he told me I could do it you know so I I knew I would do it and you know who I worked with about three days ago Ron Howard on on only murders in the building did you does he know this story I mean oh he does and the funny thing is he's uh I was on Jimmy Fallon during um doing Glee and um I I was on Jimmy Fallon and Ron Howard I wrote a book about you know how I was in love with him and um uh he Ron happened to be doing another show in U 30 Rock so I'm I'm out there with Jimmy and we're having our interview and who comes in with flowers but Ron Howard I know it was those was so great he said I don't understand your crush on me said I it's it's really confusing me so anyway it was really nice to see him the other day he was so so lovely um in addition to Ron Howard were there any other actors at the time that you were like that's John Travolta I fell in love with him too and and the Olivia Newton John Crush was so heavy that I had to like go okay what's going on here yeah and so when they announced Greece was going to be with both of them I almost imploded I remember I was at the I was at the grocery store and I looked it was on a um uh it was on like a a Star magazine or something you know John TR and olivan John are going to do gree and I was like oh my God and I saw it probably a hundred times that and a Sound of Music too I saw that's a great I mean that's a great therapy story I don't know if you've had but that's you could really unpack a lot really yeah um well in Beyond just you know Idols you know yeah like that I mean where there where their performers that you saw specifically like that's Carol Bernett Carol Bernett of course yeah yeah Carol Bernette the Carol Bernett show again we would remember the tape recorder play record we would record the audio the audio of of the Carol Bernett show and my brother and I would act it out so all we someone's saying yeah who's doing that yeah you know you know um and so I thought and one of the things I loved about her was that it was the Carol Bernett show but it was you know five other people and you might as well have called it the Lyall Wagner Harvey Corman because she gave every but she was so magnanimous and so generous and she didn't want it to be just about her and I love that I and I I don't ever want it to be just about me I don't want to be alone up there you know I I love uh the back and forth I love being part of an ensemble and so you know I I watched that and I I think it was a Preposterous fantasy to think that I ever get to do that or meet her which of course now I have because my dreams have come true um uh but uh yeah that's I knew I wanted to do that sketch and um I wanted to make people laugh and I wanted to you know do it with other folks be part of a group so yeah so how did how did it become a serious thing for you I mean that you knew that this is okay this is what you actually want to do your life to when when was that happening I mean you went to school for theater right yeah I knew in high school I wanted to do it and and I I was cast in a one act um and I remember at the audition everybody laughed I played the king starting this pattern of playing men's roles um I played the king in a um a a play called The Ugly Duckling and I got a lot of laughs at the audition and then when I got the part in the first day of rehearsal I got zero laughs and I quit I said oh I'm going to join the tennis team and my mother was like what are you doing you this is what you want to do and the director came up what what are you doing I said no I just I don't I was so afraid and so I kind of got the reputation in high school as a quitter and I didn't get cast again right yeah so that was hard until God spel our uh theater arts class did a production of gods spell and everybody had to be in it so so yeah got it roll yeah so but that taught me a lesson to that you know I walked away from it because it meant that much to me I was so scared so I vowed never to be scared again and I I never say no every once in a while now I'll say no but for the most part I'm like yep I'm in I'm in well you know to transition sort of to your early working career that was a question I have for you was there definitely a period where you felt like you had to say yes to everything that you couldn't be choosing well yeah I was afraid that if I said no to something that I never be asked again um so I ended up doing a lot of silly things but they were all fun all you know and I ended up I got really lucky I fell in with a really group great group of improvisers and sketch comedy people um this is after college and everything in Chicago and we came out here and we started doing a show at The Tamarind which is now it was UC UC the one on right right Franklin yeah yeah on Franklin and we would do a show called The Beachwood C uh Palace Jubilee and we would do different sketches and that's how I met like all the groundling people will frell and Anna gasty and and um Chris Katan and um Jennifer kulage they would come over and do stuff with us and and Molly Shannon yeah yeah yeah well I want to talk about Chicago especially you know as we were talking about this a little bit back to Stage too but Chicago is like you know the birthplace of American improvisational comedy uh it is in my opinion where you go if you want to learn how to do it knows and I I've I was comedy adjacent I would call it lot a lot of improov friends um so tell me about like finding that kind of community there because I think that's what's so special about Chicago improv improv is that it really is its own you know kind of bubble and Community within well I didn't know that I wanted in fact I I really improv still scares the hell out of me um I I was a classically trained actress at that point um I went to Cornell and I got I was in their professional um training program and we learned you know we learned how to fence and we learned how to uh we did ballet three times a week and and we did Shakespeare and um you know all the the classical stuff and um and and we also did um uh Sam Shepard and you know we did a variety of stuff but it was kind of a classical training program and so um you know I was had the as my friends and I have the arrogance of the classically trained so but when I got to Chicago I I joined a shake spare company and I by the time I left um I remember the guy said to me don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out that kind of a thing um yeah I was U um pretty arrogant but um but I would in order to get into the professional companies uh you had to audition for them so I'm talking like the Goodman the step Mo at that point there wasn't having General they were called generals so it was Goodman Northlight uh oh God I can't think of any other but there were like three others um um Victory Gardens and uh you you would get on the phone and you would call and it would be busy so you put it on redial you call call call then finally someone picks up and you get an audition so you have to do a classical monologue and a contemporary monologue and every once in a while they'd say you know sing 16 bars of something so um one of the auditions that I got was a second City audition for the touring company um and I thought well I don't know that I know how to do this but I went to it cuz I said no to nothing and um I I improvised and I thought I was terrible and they invited me to be in the company and uh I started touring with Second City and I loved it well first of all it wasn't improv the touring wasn't improv so much it was set scenes and I just love sketch and um uh yes right isn't it yeah it's the best and you know it's so great uh a second City you don't have you're playing a bunch of different characters for the for like the hour hour and a half show and you're basically like throwing on a wig maybe a sweater to to indicate the character so um it it's you know kind of simple in terms of the the um stage craft of it but that it's all in the character and I worked with some really great people Greg Hollman um oh Steve caral Steven colar was there so I worked with all those guys it was it was a really kind of fertile time there a guy named Mike McCarthy who was so wonderful too um Jill tally I don't know if you know these people but the Bonnie Hunt I was her understudy I know I got to do her stuff her stuff was amazing I understudied her on Main stage so I got to do some of the best conceived female roles because it was kind of a a boys game at that time um so yeah uh and am I off track oh so so I got that job and that kind of opened up the whole world for me and something you know and this is I'm giving you all a recommendation now because I was really excited about uh prepping for this there's a show you're in in Chicago at the new I theater called the the real life live Brady Bunch created by Joey Solway and and and Faith she was Jill back then she's Joey now and Faith solay her sister and Faith was our piano player at uh touring um company so we were really good friends we came out of the closet together too a little bit of making out but yeah yeah of course yeah Chicago improv I mean you know you're figuring it all out yeah um but the Prem little light petting yeah the premise was but we we were we were friends [Laughter] we've been there uh but the you the premise of it is that it's just truly the scripts the scrips from the we loved the Brady Bunch and it was a um do you know the Brady Bunch young lady no you have to watch this it's it's a very wholesome show and we and nobody has a childhood like The Brady Bunch it's it's no nobody pitches a fit in front of their parents goes up to their room slams the door and a second later they're like you want to talk talk that didn't happen in any of our houses so we loved it and hated it at the same time so it but we did it with great affection um and we actually went to you know um uh secondhand stores and got 1970s cloes all they all smelled it was just terrible back the smell backstage was terrible and we used the actual scripts from The Brady Bunch Jill would watch it on TV and put it on um a what probably beta tape or something at that point and um she would pause it and then type it up pause it and type it up so uh that's how we started got the scripts and um she asked me do you want to be Carol or Alice and I was like oh I got to be Carol I want to be the mom and my best friend Mary who actually looks like Alice was Alice and so it was and then we had like you know these 28-year olds playing eight-year olds yeah yeah yeah and um incredibly it's all on YouTube I encourage everyone to find these and Jill did or faith did the music so you know all the incidental stuff she did the actual actual stuff and it was a hit the first night we did it we did it at the annoyance theater on Broadway that's where the first one Broadway in Belmont is where it was actually and there was a line around the theater and like up a block for people to get in and it was such a fire hazard it was this horrible building and we put we found old couches and so we threw old couches you could and and so people were like lounging on these old couches and these smelly chairs and you were allowed to smoke cuz it's it's mcnp here you're allowed to smoke and drink so everybody was loaded everybody's smoking we were drunk um plug your ears and uh but but the show was it was just I remember uh the when the lights came up and they revealed us in our first scene and my heart was pounding and the audience was like screaming we had to stop we had to just stop and pause and let everybody get over themselves because it was just too much the wig the terrible wigs the awful clothes and you know the kind of overly Earnest acting oh it was such a it was such a highlight of my life it's truly incredible it's a beautiful little time capsule beautiful thing yeah uh but then let's let's start talking about you know I imagine that didn't pay very well the annoyance theater if at all the annoyance theater didn't pay got a ticket for but we went to New York and we all got $900 a week because Jill knows how to push a deal right yeah and then came to LA old at the time and she like got us in at the Village Gate in New York and we had like a professional Broadway um uh producer and we got each of us got $900 a week which was just crazy money um so another very early film roll kind of a blink and you miss it almost I just rewatched the film The Fugitive yes you play a doctor that uh uh an old colleague specialist yes a colleague of Harrison Ford's a colleague of Harrison Harrison for you're helping solve the case yeah the the liver sample mystery yeah yeah yeah what was that I mean that's that's a big first thing right I mean what was that I wor with him yeah one scene with Harrison right with Harrison Ford yeah and um I I had a couple of scenes and one was cut but uh I ended up having I think I ended up having two scenes in the movie but it was pivotal so um we were were shooting this and um uh Harrison was not happy with the script and he said Jane I think he actually called me Janie he said Janie we're going into my trailer and we're going to rewrite this and I said okay and um so it was raining out and he uh took me you know by the arm under his umbrella and we went into his trailer and we we reworked it because it didn't make any sense um and we made it make sense and um we ended up you know kind of having a really great scene together and I don't know what made him think that I would be able to write this with him I mean the natural improvisational skill guess yeah I have no idea I mean he he had just met me that day right yeah he said you're coming with me yeah and you don't say no to AR and he was so nice he was so great he was terrible to everybody else but but he was he was really nice to it was it was a it was a bad day for him that day he would he had had it with some aspect of the shooting the the thing and uh uh but he was he was really sweet to me and I was probably 30 so you know yeah baby actor yeah but and around that time you were doing a lot of commercials and TV work and and there was one commercial that was also very pivotal right the frost yeah that was in that was in LA but I did a lot of commercials in Chicago too but I was in LA and uh it was 1999 and I probably you know this if you're an actor that I don't think this happens so much anymore but you'll notice you'll watch commercials and there are the same people in them this is how it used to be and then you you kind wear out your welcome and you don't get another commercial for the rest of your career but it was the year of Jane Lynch 1999 and I I had I had the nexium commercial I don't know if you're familiar with my work in the nexium commercial uh but it bought me a house and um uh so yes I I went to um an audition it was a call back for a Kellog's Frosted Flakes commercial and I walk into the room and it's Christopher Guest is the director so I had seen waiting for guffman and I remember just falling a part I saw it at the Angelica in New York and um I the people in the row with me too we were all like L we were all there by ourselves H laughing laughing um so I was just thrilled and and I got the got the role um and I did a Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercial with Chris and at lunch he said to me um you know I do movies and I'm like yeah yeah I know and and he said maybe we'll get to work together again and within about 6 months yes but 6 months I ran into him at a restaurant maybe he wasn't even six months I ran into him at the um Newsroom on um in in Beverly Hills I think it's gone now uh and um he said oh yeah yeah yeah I forgot about you but come to my office and I he gave me the part with with uh Jennifer kulage I mean that was definitely the first thing that I that like made its impact on me that I saw you I was such a huge fan of those films yeah and like I mean talk about finding an ensemble that is like I mean he picks the best players yeah and the people that he knows are the most Adept at that and what he's asking them to do I mean what is it like to come into that kind of I mean guffman was really the first of that iteration of it obviously SP you go back to spinal tap was probably the very first one Rob Riner directed but you know guffman and then I feel like Best in Show really exploded yeah Best in Show was yeah but that was a well I mean I loved guffman I wasn't in it but I think it might be my favorite because I you know being of the theater yes and you you know that we're going to Broadway no you're not no you're not um oh I was going to say something and I lost my train of thought anyway go ahead but right after that you did A Mighty Wind about three years later so back on oh I was going to say um about um Chris doesn't audition people he said he can tell in like a minute and 60 seconds whether someone can do this he said he can just tell just by sitting with them yeah now so when you're improvising for Christopher Guest I mean there is there's there's a script in the sense that there's an idea of where script but no dialogue right so was that is that less I mean you're probably not as terrified about improvising was then yeah in the beginning that yeah it's still kind of a challenge like knowing you know you have once I knew the drill yeah so uh the drill is that you um you do all of your work at home mhm and some people actually like Fred Willard came up with lines yeah yeah God bless him and he would give you your lines to set him up for his joke so that's how he worked uh Chris did nothing he he just showed up and he didn't he would work on his character but I actually would get some like uh I would like uh get some I don't want to say catchphrases but I figure out how the person talked and I would you know my the way I worked on it was um you know you overpack John Michael Higgins always says for these things you overpack you really do your homework on the person because you really H it's almost like if I can compare it to Jazz you you really have to know how to play your instrument in order to earn the right to improvise so uh we we really had to pack heavy for these things and but like I said Chris barely did anything and he was genius but I I worked pretty hard on it um so and so did uh uh Jennifer so uh we kind of bonded on that it was our first time and we were in Vancouver together and we hung out a lot and when you hang out with Jennifer you kind of have to to be her caretaker there's just you know oh you forgot your wallet I'll go out in the rain and get it um oh oh she shows up outside and it's pouring rain and she's just got on a sweater you're like well here take my coat and I'll go get us an umbrella but she was so much fun she's just just just an otherworldly human being um so we figured our stuff out uh on our days off we would kind of work stuff out and I mean that's such an interesting I mean to then you did it again with A Mighty Wind and then for your consideration mascots you know is it does he kind of does he put you with people that he thinks you're going to Vibe with or is it really just about like your character makes sense with this character and that it does but I think he does like mixing it up you know like I I got to work with Fred Willard and uh for your consideration and um what Katherine um uh Katherine O'Hara came up to me after our first scene uh CU I set him up for all the jokes that he wanted to make I didn't get in one word and she came up to me said you have just been warded oh yeah he was a gem just a gem yeah yeah so good um I would say so this I was reading your Wikipedia page and I this is what I didn't know until this week um you were originally in The Aviator playing Amelia aart Amelia aart and that scene was cut yes it was so that kind of sets up you know as an actor how do you deal deal with stuff like that the rejection I mean does that did you find out about that and you're like look I had to ask you if I was cut know fair you didn't call Marty and be like what the [ __ ] so that was Martin scorsi so I showed up and it was really I think I had one line where I say that Leonardo DiCaprio you know be careful up there I really think that's all it was and um so yeah I didn't suffer that too much but she would know would know the best right she she knows about being safe yeah so that was 200 navigation yes yeah so 2005 I feel like another big breakout performance for you was 40-Year-Old Virgin a real scene cealing role oh um I just turned 40 so rewatching that it's like horrifying imagine that's old yeah uh cuz I was also 21 when it came out um but what I mean that that is also like a funny crew a funny Ensemble how much of that was you know as Lucy gooy I would say it was Lucy gooy but there was a script for sure and this was a character that Steve Carell had created when he was at Second City and um so uh he had done Anchor Man with um um uh Jud Jud Jud was the he wasn't he didn't direct that foro virgin was his first direct yes that's correct so um I uh and I have to thank um Steve's wife Nancy walls who said you have so many men in your your um movie you've got to read Janee for the store manager which of course was a Mansel um and uh so he and I improvised that whole thing in the um in in the you know where I'm coming on to him and inviting him that I I'd be happy to take your virginity from you so that happened in the audition so that was that was fun so you know and then we uh we improvised it of course and you know and it was like I said there was a script too but you know that again someone you've known for a long time is that did you that camarad that that history help that moment we didn't work together too much in Chicago but we we he was actually in a different touring company but we crossed paths on stage a couple times so we knew each other socially and um but yeah that does help it does there's um just the I guess just a trust you know there's a a trust and and you throw him the ball and he's going to throw it back right so yeah um another performance that I really love there's a moment in this movie I I've rewatched the clip several times it's Julie and Julia you're playing Julia Child's sister play by merold stre obviously when you show up you're rival scene is one of the funniest thing yes just unbridled Joy from both of you you're both tall giant women just screaming at the top of your lungs just like geese it's beautiful oh very happy to hear that because that was the thing that you know um um Norah Efron is very close to her sisters um especially deia her younger sister and um so it was so important to her that because these sisters they were so close and they were such they're from Pasadena believe it or not they sounded like they were schooled in England but they weren't they were very upper class um and had kind of that elocution lesson um accent and the sister and I'm forgetting her name uh she is 6'4 in 1948 or something like that and Julia was 6 fo two um so and they're in Paris with these tiny people so there's some really funny funny photos of the two of them but they they loved each other and they were they were not only big you know physically but they they the their Jah Dei was just off the charts they just they loved each other they loved laughing and and she was really Nora was really uh excited about that aspect of it so that was the first we shot something that was the first day though that we shot that no I just saw NOA going know she was so happy and I had just met Merl stet I mean she's Merl Street I mean you I would be excit I would act that way if I got off a train and saw Street well I was really really nervous but you know you just get over it and she was so available to that level of you know joy and happiness and so it yeah it was it was great is there to talk about how nervous you were with Mill stre was there anyone one else at that stature to you that you were like when you worked with them maybe for the first time you're like oh waa this is Ned Benning and I didn't even work with her but I did um uh we were in the same movie and I could not get over myself she was so nice to me and she was we were kind of sitting like this and you know we were kind of small talking and I just couldn't I couldn't stop thinking this is an atting and I was such a big fan and she was so kind to me and you know wanted to just be normal yeah and I could not I was I remember I was trying so hard to relax that I was literally sitting in my chair like yeah could not get over it oh but like working with somebody I mean Merl stre of course that was but once it's you know you're really just two actors diving into it but it's that suffering ahead of time going oh my god um I'm trying toing to be on the same level well I'm working with Steve Martin now and I was a big fan of his as well and he's so good and and that was I was nervous and he was great um and and now it's old hat working with old Steve um yeah at anytime they're like big stars um especially you know like Carol Bernett going back to my childhood where it was still in the Preposterous fantasy that I would ever get to do what they're doing and meet them work with them and here I am trying to you know I'm like I'm I'm we're p a mono a mono and it's you have to step outside of yourself and go this is just absurd and wonderful when did you learn to accept that you were kind of on the same I don't know that I've completely accepted it yeah yeah it's still kind of it still kind of knocks me yeah knocks me over well to get back to the filmography a bit another TV show great Ensemble show party down which came back yeah like that's I mean when a show comes back that's a pretty big deal yeah exactly cuz that shows that there's an audience for it and the people are actually listening to that audience I mean what was that like that crew I mean again like some of the funniest people well no one no one was established as a star yet so Adam Scott this was he had done a couple of things and Ken Marino had you know did the state with um um all those guys uh who else was in it uh Lizzy Kaplan it was not Lizzy Kaplan yet um uh and and you know we were making it was star's first it was their second show they were doing what was that big biblical one that they did Kirk Douglas's I am Spartacus yes they were doing Spartacus and party down those were star Stars didn't it was having you know didn't know who it was it was trying to find to find its identity and they left us completely alone and our showrunners too were doing Cupid on ABC at the time so they couldn't be there a lot so it was basically Fred Savage was a director and Brian Gilbert was a director so it was the five of us or six of us and the directors and and the crew and we no notes right we just we were making this in a bubble and we were having a blast yeah I was going to like having no no I mean I've heard I've heard from people like when a showrunner is present and they're all the time and available that's great is it the opposite also great well showrunner protects you you know and and our show Runners weren't there a lot because of cupid so um but they we didn't need protection right you know it was like they were there though I mean they were watching all the takes and stuff they were working very hard but they had to be in Chicago doing that show so we were like on our own and it was so much fun yeah um so the next show The Big Show is Glee yes um Emmy Nom Emmy win three nominations um as Sue I mean what I mean that first of all one of my favorite memes is Sue Sylvester it's the I will create an environment so toxic so toxic that works in every a friend of mine just got back from Italy and she posted I'm going to create a room that's so air conditioned that's how good of a namee it is it works in every situation what I mean can you talk about like getting that role and first working with Ryan Murphy well I had known Ryan for about 10 years at that point I did um popular I I I did a crazy crazy role unpopular you know Ryan is got an imagination and I did this crazy show and uh then he invited me to be on Glee Glee was already ready to go and almost cast and um it uh Kevin Murphy I forget the guy who was ahead of fox he said um Kevin Riley said you need a um you need a a villain and Ryan said um it will be she will be Sue Sylvester and she will be played by Jane Lynch I don't know if that actually happened but I like to think that it did and then it was um um uh why am I forgetting names um Ian Ian uh what is Ian's last name uh huh Ian Brennan Brennan thank you got to he gave me life I mean forget his name anyway I was uh Ian Brennan was the um basically the creator of Glee and um he wrote all of my lines he completely created the character and um so he is the one who came up with I will you know I will create a an environment so toxic all that stuff I'm not carrying uh picture ID anymore because people should know who I am I mean smell your armpits that's a smell of failure and it's stinking up my office I could go on and on and on and then one um we said I sold my house and um I uh salted the Earth so nothing would grow there for a hundred years because they asked me to pay their closing costs so Ian brenon thank you I mean it's really fun to play the villain I imagine I mean especially coming if doing a comedic villain too I mean you can really dial it up yeah exactly and then we I would I mean from the one of the first lines in the pilot um I was passing out coffee to everybody I was like trying to get in everybody's good graces and I said um um uh something about how I I like my coffee done a very specific way I like it to be scalding and that gives you such an idea there's nothing middle of the road about this person yeah like it's scalding so after glay you kind of transition a little bit you I want to talk about Hollywood Game Night and and then of course the weakest link as well which is currently on you're producing um I mean what about a game show is really fun I mean I I feel you're you get to play a different version of a character really especially with we with link I mean that's that's very much a character I like to think yeah it is it is you seem much nicer yeah even backstage she was very kind I have my moments you saw a couple of them yeah um I was for Hollywood Game Night sha hay I had been to um Sha's house for one of his game nights and they are epic every room is a different game and he's made them up he's made all the games up and you go from room to room and it's Cutthroat I mean I'm pretty competitive it I was scared right I was I was frightened by U these games and all the people that were um invited and then he he came up with this idea and we were having dinner one night he said would you want to host it it's it's 6 on the air we're going to do six on the air and I said No and then I and and then I called him the next day and I said well that was a stupid thing to say of course I'll do it and um and I loved it I loved doing it yeah it was a blast and so that led to the weakest link the link weakest link which you know again like I you're kind of playing a villain B I mean very fun yeah how do you I mean first of all I mean the show is associated with the previous host who was so terrifying I mean oh yeah she she's for real yeah and brsh so that she's got she's like a Harry Potter um villain she is is serious as a heart attack yeah so and and they they and the the it was a completely different game in that way that the um contestants were afraid of I mean the fear was real so and I I have more of I think a twinkle in my eye right I mean you're they'll they'll recognize you so that I think that there's a little bit of a comfort there you I mean how do you play I guess with the levels of how how cutting or or poking you can be well I think the uh the most important thing to do is to make them feel you know to to let them just focus on playing the game as well as they can and they know that I'm going to insult them and they they know the drill and I have a executive producer named Stuart kof and and he uh is in my ear and um and I'm deaf in one ear so uh when I wear the earpiece that if you only talk to me if you have to because if I'm listening to you here I'm not hearing what's going on but anyway he will give me some lines like he'll say yeah I don't God I don't I can't even think of some of them but the some of them are so vicious and I'll be I can't say that I can't say that and then he's giv me some delicious ones too so I'm very grateful to him in having him in my ear um I also want to talk about you know you're you're so prolific in your voice acting work in animation and also narration and I do a lot of Animation you probably don't know but yeah yeah I live in Santa Barbara and um there's a tiny studio and um I have like the guy was basically retired he was a rock and roll guy and he's probably in his 70s and I brought got him back into business I said keep this thing open cuz I do a lot of Animation he was like all right so I mean what's what's the appeal to you I mean I mean imagine it's easy gig especially if you're do it yeah it is easy it's it's not like big lucrative or anything but I love it I love it it's uh uh you know I have like maybe three voices and um I just kind of decide in the moment which one I'm going to do and I'm like a machine I move fast I I'm pretty pretty good at it and so when you get to be you know it's if you do a session with me it's over really quickly right so I think that's why I get a lot of work but I it's not like I have a lot of different voices or anything like that I'm no Tom Kenny I have if saying three is being generous with myself I have one and a half different voices well you you youve established yourself make it sound like you have more yeah we'll say that um I also want to talk about returning to the stage doing Broadway yes um I mean was I mean talk that's that's such an achievement for an actor I mean was that something that you always saw as a goal that you want again another preposterous fantasy come true yeah um well I started I did uh two months I think of Annie in 2013 I played MIss sanan and I loved it I loved I loved the actor's life I loved the um you're doing nothing else except you know kind of uh you know pampering yourself because you have you know a show so it's just it's the greatest thing and uh so I enjoyed doing that and so when the funny girl I mean I grew up with funny girl I grew up listening to musicals my mother loved them and we really bonded on um uh funny girl and as I started getting jobs in Show Business my mother would always call and leave a message and go who taught her everything she knows so I got to sing that song was great yeah I mean do I mean talking about Glee and also A Mighty Wind and and incorporating music into your acting work I mean what I mean were you always kind of like loving to sing and and write I mean did you ever write songs do you ever want to just be a singer or was this I've written terrible songs that are usually funny like improv not improv but sketch comedy I always ended up doing a song right yeah but was it always something you wanted to do to be able to do yeah um do you all know Kate flanner who played Meredith the drunk in the office she's a really good friend of mine and we met in um Chicago and she is she sounds like a 1950 Studio singer she has a voice on her she's also a great harmonizer I have an okay voice but I'm a good harmonizer and um so we started singing together back in uh like in Chicago when we were doing the real life Brady Bunch together she played Alice for a while and um so when we came out to LA we would do um uh we do benefits you know just the two of us would sing like a duet and then we decided to put a show together and we've been touring together for now since like 2013 we have a Christmas album called a swinging little Christmas we got a band the Tony Guerrero quintet uh their bunch of Orange County guys that are like Master jazz players and you know if you can play jazz you can play anything so we do a um kind of a late 50s early 60s swinging Christmas and we do the show every year all over the country and yeah so it's great I mean you know kind of talking about a performer's life I mean you do so many different things I would say you're genre fluid in a way you've done so much genre fluid um David hemson the the the writer of the holdovers described himself to me as John R fluid when I did an interview with him so w I like that um but you know you've done TV you've done movies you've done uh stage and again like talking about touring with a band I mean was is it kind of is that what you always sort of Saw yourself doing you kind of a Renaissance woman away where you're doing a little bit of everything or is it kind of the byproduct of being a working actor and needing it's a byproduct yeah I never you know I there's something in me that always rebelled when someone would say you have to have goals I I it never felt right to me and now I I I like people say how do we I become an actor like I asked Ron Howard I I I don't have an answer I said first of all if I have an answer it's don't have any goals don't don't have any goals and just stay right and you just stay open to what I mean it's not like you're going to sit on your butt all the time but you have to have a little faith in the world that it's going to it's going to roll in at your feet what you what you need and a lot of times we're so busy writing out our goals and there's something right in front of us you know so that's why I said yes will it there was no there's no plan to my life like I the my Memoir is called happy accidents because that's what it feels like it it feels like um the less I plan the better I am yeah so it's just about keeping I mean it's a yes and kind of yeah mentality about life first rule of improv right yeah what what is being delivered to you what's in front of you yeah I mean when you look back on a career I mean do you did you have a moment when you're like this that you can identify as like this is when I made it or yeah like the the turning point right I mean I think I just in terms of like um uh people knowing who I am probably best in show but there was a time in 2000 that was like 2000 but in 2005 I was doing this show called um oh God uh love something International what was that love spring interational yeah love spring International which was it was on Lifetime and it was a bunch of sketch comedy people we were at the wrong station uh the wrong Network and it was really funny and we only did about seven or eight episodes but it was it was party down fun it was that kind of a thing and I was having a blast and then I was doing um going to do Talladega Nights and uh uh voo virgin had just come out and I what I was doing an independent movie called I I do and I don't which was another uh didn't end up doing you you probably never heard of it but it was so much fun but I was going from job to job and loving and Ensemble stuff loving it and going my God I'm having a life it felt so good I felt like I I I had didn't have any doubts in myself I knew that when I I was showed up I was I was G I never had like performance anxiety I knew I was going to be great you know I never had I never had any doubt whereas I I kind of had that before but I realized I was just in a really beautiful flow of life and really enjoying it and were you m able to maintain that kind of optimism I think so yeah yeah yeah I mean I think also you know to talk about the people you've worked with you've worked with so many incredible people and so many incredible people multiple times yeah did getting to a point in your career where you're kind of working with the same regular collaborators kind of boosts that yeah know you know like we're all in this together we've all like you know again like to bring it back to Chicago Kate Flanery you know you go back very far with her and look where you are today so like when you're watching kind of like your cohort rise alongside you is that also it is it's really nice you know like all the people in party down now have really big careers it's really nice to see and um yeah it the whole thing of being a part of an ensemble and and and you I remember uh um Adam McKay said um the best joke wins and so even though it was a tell and nights was Will frell's movie you know uh sometimes I got the the joke you know and sometimes he would give it to me right you know it was uh yeah it's just really yeah cool I mean do you does that affect now how you pick a project who else is involved because there are people that you want to work with yeah I I I I I I usually don't say no to anything but I'm also really lucky that everything that I'm invited to do is is quite good yeah yeah I mean not saying no is it part of is it kind of the actress mentality of like I want to work I need to work or I don't have that anymore yeah I mean you you seem like you're just excited to be busy I am and but what's interesting right now is I always have some like if you was what are you doing now Jane I don't have anything right this is the first time in a long time that I oh yeah I'm want to go to New York and do this and that but I just finished only murders in the building and I don't have anything and and it's okay yeah you I mean are you like you're ready for the vacation how long what lasts before you're like this is not okay well you know during the uh strike um I was like it's kind of nice to take some time off it was great but by the end of the strike I was ready to go back to work for sure yeah how you know in terms of how you pick a a project or a role Beyond you know the people that you're working with I mean what kind of jumps out to you in a really good script that you're excited about when well I guess if it's you know first of all if it's you know somebody I know who's directing it and maybe this it's not on the page I you'll do it anyway because you know that it'll be on the page at some point um uh it you know it's it's a lot about what's on the page has there been can you think of a script where you like that really really surprised you by how how well written or how great the character was on the page oh yeah um Sophie Lennon for um uh marvelous Mrs masel yeah yeah yeah I I read that I remember yeah I remember seeing the poster the the billboard um on Sunset Boulevard and I was like I want to be in that show and it it was like within a week I'm powerful you guys I don't know how it I don't know how it happened know I wonder if I'm powerful or if there is just a um trajectory to life that you look at something and it looks familiar because it's coming your way so I don't know exactly how it is yeah I don't know what what you know what comes first the chicken or the egg and that but anyway and then they sent me this script and you know I mean this is a a character who has a uh it's in the late 50s and she's playing uh kind of a Phyllis Diller character which is in in those days um female Comics had to make jokes about how ugly and fat they were and how um uh you know they had to be kind of like ugly yeah and and that's what Phyllis Diller did and who was a very beautiful woman and so I kind of Phyllis Diller was my impetus because I I like could hear her voice in this and then she becomes this she's an actress you know she she fancies herself kind of a classically trained actress not like unlike myself back in 1982 in in Chicago at the Chicago Shakespeare company and she um you know feels like she is above this thing that she feels she was forced to have to do and she's she's quite um you know I I I you know she's educated and and massively insecure and I thought of uh not that this character is actually um massively insecure but I thought of the the baroness in The Sound of Music ellar Parker so she was kind of my my role model for um for uh Sophie Lennon the the actress right and so I mean I saw it was one of those things that's on the page and already I know what I'm going to do right I mean I knew how I was going to play that and so they put me in the fat suit and I'm up on a stage and and it's like an audience this many people background and I'm supposed to do my act and so Amy and Dan don't know what I'm going to do and so they had they had they weren't even there um I think I think Dan was directing it so Dan was there but Amy wasn't even there um and so they were videoing it and sending it to um Amy and she was like yeah yeah that's fine that's fine and I didn't know they were doing that but I just went up there and did it I did like a show for these the background artist and uh you know nobody had seen me do one ounce of it yet right so I was like you know it was a I thought pretty ballsy on my part that I just went up there and did it I was like I'm either doing it or I'm not doing it and I and I came all the way from California to New York I got to do it yeah I mean does that did that take you back at all to like your stage work back there and oh yeah where you just go out on stage and go I've got this character that I'm going to work on that I'm working on and I'm going to do it now yeah I mean it's crazy because I can't imagine that show without you in it and maybe it's the maybe it's the Julie and Julia picture it's a very period specific yeah that's right yeah like again like kind of insecure villain that is like so fun to watch know exactly where it comes from um and but just so much to pull so much interiority to pull out as an actor oh yeah which I feel like you know comedy can be very surface level and so maybe you it can then it's not funny then it's not comedy but you know Amy and Dan are oh they're great writers yeah oh my God how about Alex in that can you see anybody else playing Alex ste's part yeah she had audition like three times I heard I was like what and they knew her from the Gilmore Girls yeah she's a I I can't and can you imagine anybody not you know the everybody's perfect for their roles yeah absolutely you know have you looking back on like maybe a specifically a particularly challenging role like maybe maybe a scene I mean it could be even a guest performance or something but like even when you're reading it and you're you're working through it and like were there moments where you're like this is not coming together and I can't figure it out exactly do you and do you have tactics for when something like that happens when you fa when You Face an acting challenge of trying to to figure out where you're supposed to be you know what always and then I it keeps me safe from that is that I always go to the truth of what's going on in the character and if it's not working how does truth not work so I won't feel bad badly about it it might be the wrong Truth for this but I'm going to bring something real and if it's if I if it's you know if it's not on the page it's not on the page then it's not your fault but um yeah I I I guess I was I have a lot of confidence I really do and I not in everything but in this I do like I I understand emotional truth yeah and I have a I you know that is the thing that I always try to carry into everything I do and you're you're safe when you do that yeah you know are you someone who like will go to a writer to ask for like if it's not on the page yeah you try to investigate where it is yeah yeah well I will I will ask it seems to me that this person is is if struggling with this and if the writer's like yeah that means that they didn't think too much about it but most of them really do appreciate that you know you know they want they want to talk about it yeah you know when I when I talk to writers I'm very I'm especially in television I'm fascinated by like the kind of the symbiotic relationship between actors and writers because on TV you know you sh you sign up for a project and three years from now it could be your character could be doing something insane that you're like where did this come from right yeah Glee the last season Glee I was Pepe Lew in the last season they shaved my head in the last season and I made the mistake of saying Ryan I'm a little bored right now and he went oh all right lady yeah yeah too confident it was great it was really fun but you know sorry I'm sort of lost train thought there sorry I went off no no it's fine oh so the the relationship with a with a writer and an actor you know I I always like to ask the writers even though it's sort of a hack question like how are you with improvising from your actors and coming up with new ideas because I feel like especially from my experience knowing actors in Chicago who did a lot of theater that was collaborative with the writer a lot of the actors were used to coming up with their own character details and figuring out like The rhythms of how you talk to one another on stage and that's something that I think is like part of the the theatrical experience of figuring that out but when it comes for working on screen how does that relationship work with the actor and the writer where you're like I have an idea or like or maybe they pick up on something that you're already doing that recognize shows up yeah that that happens where you know I like you're in the you're doing something and you say what if I mean you don't want to go off on it crazy thing but and also I would say like sometimes a director will say hey if you want to improvise this you can it's like I'm either improvising or I'm you saying your lines right I I kind of can't do both and even if I do have an idea for something I'm going to set it I'm I'm going to actually work craft the line um I'm not going to just go right um but I I I think that um especially on Glee because Ian wrote so specifically that there were a couple of things where I wanted to change some references like the he always came up with funny names of schools and I said what if we call it blah blah blah and he said nope um so I'm curious like you know kind of just generally speaking you know you talked about getting some great advice from Ron Howard yeah um has been other pieces of advice throughout your career from people that you've looked up to or even just people that you surprised would offer something like that Harrison Ford told me to make sure I keep my mouth shut he said I don't care how smart you are you look stupid with your mouth open because I guess we were doing I was like anyone that was an eventful day with r it was I thought it was great advice though and is that you do every if your your mouth is a gape you look dumb yeah yeah yeah I was supposed to be a liver specialist have you have you extended have you neologist yeah exactly have you extended that advice to other actors or any no I haven't okay cuz I feel like that's a pretty valuable that's a pretty good one now let me think if I got if I've got any advice from anybody oh my gosh well you know you kind of learn watching them like I learned a lot watching Merill street she um and she was playing a huge character the the the Julia Child character and her 100% commitment to that oh it was just a joy to watch yeah just just a joy to watch and now she's on only murders in the building and I haven't worked with her but I watched her do a couple of scenes I was sitting at the in video village where you can watch the monitors she's she's [ __ ] amazing she her choices are all and and she's not playing a big but she makes these huge weird totally grounded in the truth um uh choices and she's she makes everybody else better she's just yeah she's really our best she's really a great actor and I can't imagine watching that just in person yeah like that experience of watching something that we just get to see on screen yeah I mean what is that watch her do it every time every time it's motivate it's not like she's doing it completely different but it's lived every time right yeah oh she's just amazing and she's so beautiful she's um uh Mike Nichols uh said once that it looks like she swallowed a light bulb cuz she's so lit up I mean she's yeah yeah yeah she's something um have is there is there a a TV show or a movie that you made that you were so very very excited about and then the excitement didn't kind of pan out yeah I do and I don't don't that with that independent film that I told you about oh we had so much fun making it it was about um uh uh what you know if you're Catholic and you're getting married you pre Canan is that what it's called PR counseling yeah right so I I I was a alcoholic drunk pre Catholic with my husband who was just we were just awful people and we were kind of um uh shepherding this young couple Brian Ken and I forget the girl's name alxi but anyway this was like 2006 and um it was it was hilarious and we made [ __ ] up and we had so much we were a Catholic too so we knew all this stuff and we knew the silly songs and we had so much fun and it it it was not edited well it was an independent film so people probably wouldn't have you know but it maybe could have gone to you know the film the festivals or something but it was it was just terrible it it was it it it broke broke all of our hearts when we were watching like yeah we had no Pace yeah yeah it was really that was very sad I mean how do you come out of something like that well usually disappointment I usually walk away from a project and sometimes I don't even see it okay and um but this I loved this this was a hard one that and I can't think of anything else that I was like disappointed with right well because everything else has been just a wild success speaking of walking away from a project I mean when you're I I love asking this question of actors you know when you're in a role I mean you're playing still Sylvester for SE several years do you do you leave it work at work do you is it like a 9 to-5 thing you can turn it away you can okay do you have a specific way of like kind of shutting that off or is it just the the nature of to do yeah yeah um in terms of like improvising I mean I would love to hear more about like what makes what improvising as a skill gives an actor when it comes to even just reading a line that's written for them and and interacting with other people on set I mean you can tell me how it work how it's helpful on stage how it's helpful on film but I feel like there's there's something spontaneity and in really being open and um uh willing to be thrown off your game and as long as you're rooted in the truth of something that's the first thing I go for is where is this person emotionally and then you can't go wrong right you just can't um I when I was in um uh uh I was probably in the touring company it was around that time like 1987 I was a host on the first Home Shopping Network uh that was in Glenco Illinois and I did the it was 24 hours it was called America shopping place and I did the like 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. and we took Live phone calls oh wow wow imagine who's calling you in Glenco Illinois Glenco Illinois and to get there I had to rent a car and there was this company called rent and I would drive like a 1978 Pacer to to do this and I had to hold forth on cubic zirconia tennis bracelets for 15 or 20 minutes talking about the touting its you know um its its virtues so I learned on my feet right how to to fill a moment and we had fun I had a co-host and she was a blast there was a guy too and we we really enjoyed oursel but I really learned how to you know listen and I learned more about improvising doing that oh than than anything else but I will say this about Second City improvisation is um it's a very masculine form and there are some like Bonnie Hunt is brilliant at it but it it's kind of a male thing it's kind of you you want to get to the orgasm if you will you want to get to the joke excuse my French as a little girl up here she probably doesn't even know what that means um so it's like you kind of want to joke joke joke joke joke and the Christopher Guest kind of improvisation is more feminine it meanders and he doesn't want joke joke joke right he he wants Behavior he wants you know people kind of rooted in the truth who know how to make a situation funny but he yeah he doesn't care about the joke in fact he will roll his eyes and and not care for it like I've seen you know people come in and they're like blah they'll have it like s like you Fred Willard God bless him that's what he does Best But he you you you you have to be that level of expertise for for for Chris to let you get away with coming in with your jokes pre-planned so um it's more of a Meandering and once I learned that that was the deal like I learned that in beston show that you know he also runs the camera forever so you know you can really just take your time and breathe and you know you I always had some stuff just in my back pocket ready to go to say um but you really got to you know kind of lay it out and and he put it all together in editing so they're two different kinds of things but I mean and they're both great yeah and but I wasn't good at the Second City kind of like let's get to the joke yeah I mean that I mean comedy in general is so male dominated I'm curious you know especially coming from Second City which is I mean kind of notoriously at this point m not anymore it's really yeah there three men and three women in yeah but you know in the in the early days in the early days for sure what was it like navigating those spaces I mean it was it I mean is it kind of I didn't notice it because I don't feel like a girl right you know I don't I don't go through life I'm kind of genderless I always kind of have been so what what is it like being a woman in comedy I don't know yeah yeah I mean that's the best answer honestly um you know kind of as we wrap up I I wanted to know we've talked about advice we've talked about all the people you've worked with you know how would you like to be remembered I mean is there a role in particular that you're like that's what I want people to think of when they think of me first no I've never had thoughts like that no but is there I mean do you have your favorites for sure that you hope or um favorite it's all well Sophie Lennon I think yeah yeah yeah yeah and and I'm loving doing um uh SAS Pataki in uh only murders in the building and thank you I'm in the uh the murder victim this season so I'm in it a lot more oh I to spoiler alert um they'll forget say will come out till next year um so I'm in a lot of flashbacks I'm a ghost oh it's so fun it's so fun and and they've given me and now again like it's on the page they have kind of expanded who she is deepened who SZ is and she's kind of guess she's just kind of wonderful she's um doesn't have like a cynical bone in her body she's ah I just have loved playing her yeah is there a role that you would want to go back to I would love to go back to Sue Sylvester yeah yeah you know like about 10 years 15 years has passed and she's a little more stealthy [Laughter] I always thought Sue Sylvester is the star of her own movie and in her head yeah and there's narration and there's literally some episodes where I have Nar narration where I'm like I am like a gazelle you know I I would love that and now she's a little bit older and you know and to see how that is yeah what do you think she's doing now oh she's so deep in her narration she's so deep yeah she always yes absolutely not just glee club now anything that has innocence and goodness in it I will destroy you um is there something that you wish you knew when you were starting out I mean even even be even as a kid yeah oh gosh I mean what do you wish you could go back and I mean I think about this myself like if I could go back and tell my 12-year-old self a that I'm sitting here and doing this insane do you have anything like that where you've had moments where you're like oh my God if I only knew I wish I didn't hadn't had to suffer and I'm sure you all feel that the the the insecurities and the I gosh it it you know I I I almost want to say we waste so much time but I think that that's kind of the gig being a human being is that we go through this um suffering and we get uh uh we get um uh conditioned by society and then we spend the last part of our life kind hopefully letting all that stuff go but you know I have uh two grand nephews um and I you know get videos from them and it's you know nothing has touched them yet they're a year and a half and and one's the other guy's an infant and there's the Wonder and you have it too you're young enough to have it too you're probably starting to get conditioned but um stay exactly as you are now at that allow yourself to have that smile you know that um you just see everything is brand new to them and exciting and and you know no one has told them oh no don't do that that's you know Boys Don't Cry and and it's just so such a joy to get these videos from them and see them you know they're so open and free and untouched right well I do you feel like part of being an actor is trying to get back to that yeah yeah I do and I I just love the whole metaphor of life being like a play you know um I mean Shakespeare had it he said we're all men and women merely players and we're on a stage and we're and you know when like you say when I'm done uh with a a role like can I walk away from it yeah and it life should be that too like we undergo these these pains and these sufferings and these and and these disappointments and it's just a part of the play MH it's all part of the play right can you think of anything you haven't done that you're desperate to do no no bucket list items no it's like I have no plans I have no goals there's nothing I want to do vacation maybe I do what vacation yeah I do well I don't like taking vacations I'm a cancer I stay at home I love I love being at home um yeah I I mean I'm I'm married to someone who's as as much of a monk as I am you know I go to bed at like 7:00 and I'm up at like 4: which I'm not thrilled with getting up when it's dark I wish I could sleep a little later but I can't um and uh she's the opposite she goes to bed at around one and then she doesn't wake up and she has to like force herself out of bed at like 10 o'clock going like oh I wish I could sleep like that but you know um we and we're perfect for each other you know we we both kind of just exist in our in our own world's but together right which is kind of nice I mean when you're not working I mean what what's your downtime like what's your I mean do you watch television is it something you're just like no I I watched it too much I think as a kid that I'm done with that yeah I never watch television how do you turn your brain off uh YouTube okay I my algorithm is just feeding me what is what is on Jane Lynch's Al near-death experience okay nonduality um uh philosophy uh there's a show called new thinking alow are you familiar with Jeffrey Mish love go home and get on on that subscribe to that channel he's a um uh uh he's just an amazing guy he's a he's a he's an ascendant being is what I think he is but he's an interviewer and he interviews um people that are uh in the Paranormal and also uh the remote viewers from Stanford do you remember that there were these remote viewers and they were part of the military and they they would actually through visualization uh go to enemy territory and you know it just pretty amazing stuff um I think that uh Shakespeare says there are more things in Heaven and Earth htio than are in our philosophies I think there's a lot more that goes on with us than we know and I'm very interested in finding out what that is yeah yeah I mean a curiosity I think is so important to be an actor yeah like a sense of of what's what's out there what what else can I learn yeah I I have I have great emotional curiosity like um and I I like to try to figure out where people are coming from right yeah and and yeah and then when you see like a kid and how pure they are it's just pure joy just you know just I love the opposite of Sue Sylvester it's amazing but you you scratch the surface of Sue and it's it's there yeah yeah yeah yeah well thank you again so much for this long lovely conversation what a thrill to jat with you today C I've really enjoyed talking to you and and yeah you're you you've got a genuine curiosity about me and I I appreciate that so much well thank you so much um Everybody Jane Lynch thank you [Applause] [Music]