Interview: Call Me Kat's Cheyenne Jackson & Leslie Jordon on What's to Come in Season 3

Cheyenne Jackson and Leslie JordanLast week, Call Me Kat premiered on Fox, and SciFi Vision recently caught up with the cast during a roundtable interview to talk about season three and what’s to come, especially in their love lives. According to Cheyenne Jackson, who plays Max, his character is in the middle of having an existential crisis this season, and he’s eager for it. “They've kind of pitched me what's going to happen throughout the course of his year,” said the actor. “I can't get super into the weeds on that one, but there's some major life stuff happening that me, Cheyenne, as a dad, as a husband, as a performer, I'm really excited to get to jump into, stuff I've never been able to address, and stuff I've never been able to play. Of all the things I've been able to do, I'm getting to be able to do some pretty amazing subject matter. So, definitely the love life and all that plays a part of it.”

“Phil falls in love with a wonderful female impersonator that he goes to see named Queen Dicktoria,” said Leslie Jordon of his character to SciFi Vision. “It's John Griffin, who's just such a wonderful actor, and he plays Jaylen, who's Queen Dicktoria out of drag, and then I meet him out of drag and fall for him then, too. So, it's a really cute storyline.”

“In all my 40 years in working, I don't think I've ever had a storyline where I had a love interest,” the performer added. “I'm just the funny guy who comes with the zinger. So, it really throws me. I read that and go, ‘Oh my gosh! Are we going to kiss?! I've never kissed in front of a camera.’ It's just so well written.”

Cheyenne JacksonJordan continued to tell the site that 278 performers sent in audition tapes from all over Los Angeles to play the character. “I got teary eyed the other night…To me, that shows the interest not only in the show from these agents and everybody, but how interesting that character was when they read the scripts.”

During the interview, the stars told some great stories, and one in particular about cats. “The very first episode we did, Mayim had to sing to a cat,” explained Jackson to SciFi Vision. “She had to sing Katy Perry's “Firework,” and the cat's name was Firework. And what no one told her was that the cat didn't like to be looked at, didn't like to be touched, and definitely didn't like to be sung to. Every time Mayim would start singing…and the cat would [hiss]…Finally, we had to put the cat on the counter and Mayim had to sing across [the room].”

Jordan, who talked a bit about two cats who would always take off when the scene started, still loved having them around. “The more the merrier,” he told the site.

For much more, including how the series is finding its legs in season three, what they are most excited about this season, and much more, read the full transcript below! Be sure to catch a new episode tonight and every Thursday on Fox.


QUESTION:
    Leslie, how did they originally describe your character?

LESLIE JORDAN:    It was so short lived that they hired me to play the bartender...Actually, it was going to originally be a piano bar, and I was going to be the piano player. So, it was sort of a mix up of Cheyenne's character. That only lasted a day, because our creator, Darlene Hunt, said, “We're trying to cast Phyllis.” It was going to be three girls that cook that commiserate on everything. It would have been the Kyla Pratt character, the Mayim Bialik character, and then this new Phyllis, and I knew exactly where she was going, because when I read the script, I thought, “I want to play Phyllis! Phyllis gets all the laughs! I want the laughs!” She said, “Would you like on your cell phone just do kind of an audition.” I said, “I'll come in! I'll come in and audition.” So, I went in and auditioned for a show and that afternoon she called, and she said, “Well, he's now Phil.” So, there wasn't a lot of time to play other character, but I sure I'm glad it worked out this way, because I think it's more fun to have two girls and the gay guy commiserate. Three girls and it's like, you know, hen festival. You throw a gay guy in there and all kinds of fun stuff can happen.

QUESTION:    Leslie…you just have such a gift for comedy. Is it something that's just been an innate ability for you, or is it something that you've worked out over the years?

LESLIE JORDAN:    Well, I've told this story before, but when I was about six, I walked out of Sunday school and told my daddy that I was never going back to Sunday school ever again. He said, “Oh you love Sunday school. Why do you not want to go?” I said, “They laugh at me.” And he explained to me, I was about six years old, the difference between laughing at me and laughing with me. He said, “You've got this gift,” and he told me this Bible story about hiding my light under a bushel and said, “You've got to always, always let that shine.” So, I think it was just something that I innately had. I come from a family of clowns. I mean, we laugh, laugh, laugh. We'll go out to dinner, and I'll see a family sitting there having a whole meal and not even speaking. I think, “That's not us! Thank God that's not us!” We are a family of clowns, but I think it was just the way I am.

QUESTION:    I've loved you as Beverly Leslie and I certainly love you here in Call Me Kat just as much.

LESLIE JORDAN:    Well, thank you. I went to Washington DC last week for the Book Festival, the big National Book Festival, Meghan Mullaly and I. She got to moderate a panel, and I was the only guest on the panel! [laughs] We walked on stage. We hadn’t seen each other in all these years, not even laid eyes on each other. I said, “Well, well well...Karen Walker, I thought I smelled gin and regret.” And she said, “Oh Beverly Leslie, you look more like a woman every time I see you.” So, it was quite a reunion. It was a lot of fun.

QUESTION:    In a sitcom called Call Me Kat they obviously were focused a lot of time on Mayim's characters wants and needs and desires and dreams, and yet you guys have constructed somehow - I don't know how you do it in 22 minutes or whatever - a very rich cast and we feel like we know a lot of characters in this world. So, I wanted to ask you guys specifically, if you haven't been asked sort of for your characters before, what would make your characters happy? What would be the best thing for Phil? What would be the best thing for Max?...If it was called “Call me Phil” or “Call Me Max,” what would be the theme for those characters?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    I think what our show is really essentially about, and you kind of hit the nail on the head, is really what each of us really wants. I think it's about six people who are deeply flawed people who are just looking for a community. They're looking for a family. They're looking for happiness, and happiness doesn't look like necessarily what everybody thinks it does. That's why Kat has had this whole trajectory that she's had. I mean, for me, specifically, Max is definitely going through midlife crisis; he doesn't know who he is. He's in his 40s now, still working at the bar. He just wants to be happy, and he is aging, and he's feeling the tick of time. That's what I think we've done successfully in this season is really hone in on really the six of us and what we want out of life, and what I'm really excited about for Phil's character is we're finally going to start finding out about his personal life and dating as a lady of a certain age.

LESLIE JORDAN:    I think the beauty of this show is that they have over the last three years - and this is almost like our season. This is the premiere. You found that out with Seinfeld, Friends - a lot of shows didn't kick in until third season. It takes a while. But all our characters are so finely developed and developed towards each of our actor sills. I mean, no one else can do what Phil does. No one else can do what Max does. And I just love what we call a table read, which happens every Wednesday with a brand-new script, just to see where we're going with this. Because we've now got 22 episodes to have fun with, and we have gotten the best writers in the business. They have assembled a writing crew that seriously it's the best in the business. Each and every one of them have such a resume. So, get ready. Get ready.

QUESTION:    [The show is] supposedly set in Louisville. I was watching the first episode of season three, I thought, “Oh, I hope there's still something from Louisville there.” We watch like, “Oh is there a Muhammad Ali's shirt on somebody? Is there a Louisville Cardinals this or that?” So, even though they're gone, will you be able to continue the Louisville theme in some ways?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    I know that for the creators, they've definitely tried to pepper as much as they can for folks like you. Obviously, it's set there. I mean, I've never been there. I would love to go but, yeah, I noticed in costumes if I have a Cardinals hat, or whatever it is, even if it's just a reference to something like a local business or something, I know that we've definitely tried.

LESLIE JORDAN:    I exercised racehorses before I started acting. So, I was in Lexington, and you know what I want to happen. I want us all to come to the derby. I think they could have amazing publicity out of that if we all showed up in our hats and everything and did the whole Derby thing. I don't know if that woman still gives that big Derby party…I was around Louisville for quite some time. Then, also I'm involved now with Saddlebred horses and Louisville is actually decided to race horses. The Saddlebred which are the highest show horses, the Saddlebred capital of the world. I've been up there looking to buy a horse. They're very expensive. So, it's going to be fourth or fifth season before I get Saddlebred.

QUESTION:    What do you think we should all look forward to in season three in general? What are you most excited about on an appreciating about the new season?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Leslie really kind of got me going about in a train of thought…Shows take a minute, and we started this show in the middle of a pandemic. We've still yet to have a live audience. We have been the whole first season through masks and shields. We were just trying to figure our way out. When we came out, we got a pretty bad critical response across the board. I think a lot of it was fair. I totally think that that's just the way shows go, and shows take a minute. However, what we've been able to do over these last two years, like Leslie said, is with these showrunners and with these writers who are at the top of their craft truly create real people who are going through real things this season. Swoosie's character is dealing with issues that come with aging. We're dealing with Mayim's character who is trying to have a baby in her 40s by herself. So, we're still serving you up great comedy; we're still doing all these things, but I would make the argument that what we're doing is is on par with any multicam comedy on the air right now. I think we kind of got lost in the shuffle at the beginning because it took us a minute, but we found it, and I'm excited is for people to feel that. We're on set like, “Oh my god, it's finally great.” That's what I'm excited for people to experience.

LESLIE JORDAN:   I agree. It's like a new show. We want people that if you saw us early on, and you were like, “Maybe this isn't my cup of tea,” revisit us. Come see us now. Because if the indication of the response of just - It's so hard to not have an audience. It's like telling a joke at a party and nobody laughs. Sometimes we have script girls and stuff that will tell us, “You got to hold here, because we're going to put the laugh,” or they'll argue about where the laugh is going to be. And I say, “The laugh is going to be where we put it.” It's not like we're waiting on an audience. So, they're going to put the laugh where they think the laugh would be. What a crazy, crazy thing to be shooting a three camera with nobody there. But I think we're now at a point where we made the decision - and we were asked about it, if we wanted to audience, and because we have cats, you know, you can't have all those cats with an audience. They'd go crazy. We were just so used to working the way we're working, that we didn't have an audience this year. Will we the next year? I don't know. But we have so much fun just us, just our little group. And I think, “If I can get that cameraman to laugh over there, who sits there - he's been doing it for 100 years. If I can get that old curmudgeon to laugh -” And it'll happen. We’ll catch him off guard or something. So, I'm so proud is so proud of the show, right so people find it.

SCIFI VISION:    Can you tease a little bit about what's to come this season for your characters - their ups and downs of their love lives this season?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Max is really in the middle of, I think, an existential crisis. They've kind of pitched me what's going to happen throughout the course of his year. I can't get super into the weeds on that one, but there's some major life stuff happening that me, Cheyenne, as a dad, as a husband, as a performer, I'm really excited to get to jump into, stuff I've never been able to address, and stuff I've never been able to play. Of all the things I've been able to do, I'm getting to be able to do some pretty amazing subject matter. So, definitely the love life and all that plays a part of it. Kat is trying to have a baby. I think we've announced that Parker Young from United States of Al is potentially or one of her donors. So, there's a lot to unpack in that world.

LESLIE JORDAN:    Oh my gosh. Well, Phil falls in love with a wonderful female impersonator that he goes to see named Queen Dicktoria. It's John Griffin, who's just such a wonderful actor, and he plays both Jaylen, who's Queen Dicktoria out of drag, and then I meet him out of drag and fall for him then, too. So, it's a really cute storyline. I've never, in all my 40 years in working, I don't think I've ever had a storyline where I had a love interest. I'm just the funny guy who comes with the zinger. So, it really throws me. I read that and go, “Oh my gosh! Are we going to kiss?! I've never kissed in front of a camera.” [laughs] But it's just it's so well written. I mean, I got teary eyed the other night, because, like I said, this John Griffin is a wonderful actor. They put the word out that they wanted a love interest that was going to be in drag. They got 278 tapes from agents all over Los Angeles to play Phil's love interest. So, to me, that shows the interest not only in the show from these agents and everybody, but how interesting that character was when they read the scripts. 278 audition tapes that they waded through. And the reason I think that they hired John Griffin was he's not bitchy. You always think if there's going to be a female impersonator, she's got to be snappy and bitchy and “honey, honey.” It's not that at all. It’s so beautifully played. So, I'm really looking forward to that and seeing Middle America’s reaction. We'll see… [laughs]

QUESTION:    What’s up with Mayim getting all the guest star attention. Let's get some more American Horror Story vets.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    I'm working on that. I want Leslie Grossman to come on as my sister.

QUESTION:    I wanted to ask about the process of finding the perfect cowboy look for the premiere.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    I love a hat and I love a costume. I have six-year-old twins, and I share every step of the process, whether I'm playing an 80-year-old man one day, or a clown or whatever it is - wearing a diaper - whatever it is they asked me to do. But, yeah, I think the cowboy that whole kind of storyline is really fun. I grew up in northern Idaho, and now I'm kind of on the show looking like the people that I went to school with. So, yeah, we wanted to get a cowboy hat that was a little bit too big, like annoyingly too big, like, clearly, you've just got that hat that's brand new. So, we wanted it to be a little too big, a little too obnoxious, because Max is obnoxious towards the beginning of the season. So, yeah, Carla, who creates all these costumes, she knocks it out of the park, and I just show up and put it on.

LESLIE JORDAN:   And how did you shoehorn yourself into those jeans?...[laughs] I’ve never seen jeans that tight.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:   It’s a process. I have to lay down on the couch and say a prayer.

QUESTION:    Leslie, you did mention a little bit about your recent reunion with Megan Mullaly. Would you be open to a Karen/Beverly spin off if that was ever pitched?

Leslie Jordan
LESLIE JORDAN:    Oh my gosh, absolutely. But I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got a job that is going to last a long time. But wouldn't that be fun? Yes, I would absolutely be open. We talked about that. We said, “You know, wouldn't it be fun?” She had even come up with a Broadway show. She told this story that I had completely forgotten about. She came up with this idea called Karen: The Musical. And the funny thing is she never asked me, can I sing. I mean, I can kind of, but they were going to do a - she had this idea. She had already found investors, and she had found a producer and the director that went on to do something like Spring Awakening, this big director. She was ready to go, and the network put the kibosh on it, because they said, “Look, we're trying to sell the rights, the syndicated rights for the show right now, and God forbid it flopped. We can't have you guys out there.” But we looked at each other and thought we could still maybe do that - Karen: The Musical.

QUESTION:    You mentioned before the show's evolved since season one, and I'm always interested in the evolution, especially in this case, where it's changed showrunners in each season. Can you track it in those terms? Is it the case of where you can see, “Okay, there's now a new showrunner and the sensibility of the show has changed, the tone of the show that changed, the humor of the show has changed,” or is it subtler than that?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    It's everything. It's all of those things. It really began the way it began. We did the best we could, and there were definitely moments of magic and with Mayim's incredible physical comedy and Kayla's electricity and Julian's energy and Swoosie and Leslie just crushing it, definitely, although the elements were there, but we just were trying to find, I think, the tone. Also, the direct comparisons to Miranda were tricky, because that's a British show with a different sensibility and a different star. So, I think we were all trying to figure out, “what is this thing?” As new showrunners came in and put their own stamp on it, we slowly - I think it was kind of a slow process, but it needed to be, because during that we have, each of us, like Leslie said earlier, we have found our character's voice. For instance, in the first season, if we were in a group scene, if there was a line about, I don't know, just a show that somebody had seen like “Hey, anyone watch that?” They could have given it to any of us. Now they know each of our voices so specifically that we can all say, “Oh, no, no, definitely Julian would say that” or “I don't think Phil's character would.” We we have such ownership of these characters now. The ability and the chance to be able to play a character, for now in its third season, I just am so, so grateful to Michael Thorne and everybody at Fox - Charlie and everybody - the faith that they put in us, because they see what we're doing, and they see how far we're digging and what we're coming up with. So, I think it's been a slow progression, but I think it needed to be.

LESLIE JORDAN:    It's interesting, because we, as actors, sometimes are not privy to the writers room. They kind of come in on the days we do our run-throughs and stuff, and as an actor, I kind of like that. I don't want to get too involved with them. But I know that we have gotten to a point where, even as actors, we know, like Cheyenne said, who should be saying that line. It was only recently that we realized how few times we had all been in a scene together, like all of us sitting at the bar. We'd looked at each other and said, “Wow, this has not really been happened a lot.” And this season it does. We're together. We're we're together at the bar. When there's a problem, it's all of us there. When there's something going on, we're all there. It wasn't always like that. It was a story, the b story, and you had to have this character doing this. Now we're all really involved with one another's goings on, and we realize immediately, and Mayim is so generous. And I'm a line hog. Give me a line; give as many lines as you want, and she'll say, “I think Leslie would say this.” So, it's, “Okay, okay.” I will. She's so generous with that…Because she’s the lead, they think she should have all [the lines]. The other day we were taking a big group picture and I said, “Get in the middle!” She said, “No, no, you and Swoosie get in the middle,” and I said, “No, you get in the middle!” So, we took a picture where you barely see Mayim on the side, and here I am and Swoosie in the middle. I think what has happened is we're just having fun. Oh my gosh we're having fun.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    I want to just add one final thing to that; you just made me remember. The day before yesterday, Mayim and I had an epic shoot - many, many, many emotional, physical scenes. Physical comedy or whatever. I was watching her. Everybody knows Mayim to be a great comedian. Everybody knows that she's a great physical comedian, and that she's a brainiac, right? We call her like, she's half ninja, half Jewish mother and half computer, right? She just is this incredible thing. But I think she is underrated as is a dramatic actress. She was crushing these scenes and truly like so great, and that is what I'm really excited for people to see, that side of her, because we know she can do this, this, and this, and she did amazing work on Big Bang and all of that. But at this time in her life, who she is now, I don't know. It's a different thing. So, I'm excited for that as well.

QUESTION:    I was wondering if this season either you Cheyenne or Leslie were hoping to share more scenes with someone in particular, maybe someone who you haven't shared that many scenes with so far? And if you've got a chance to work with them more this season?

LESLIE JORDAN:    Him.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Yeah, same.

LESLIE JORDAN:    They've given us scenes, which is an interesting - this big butch, straight guy with a cowboy hat and there's a sweetness there, you know, that he kind of puts up with, because I'm kind of annoying, and I obviously have a huge crush on him.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    [laughs]

LESLIE JORDAN:    So, every time he comes around, I'm just giddy, and they've written really fun stuff for us.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Yeah, I would also say Leslie. I always hope that there's going to be stuff with Phil. And just the characters, Max and Phil, are so different, but Leslie and I are such buddies in real life. And we're both gay guys, so we have our own little special connection, and we’ve both been on American Horror Story, and we have our own world. So, definitely there is a little electricity with us in the in the scenes. You know, we put on our character hat and sometimes...that’s a story for another day, but anyway…

LESLIE JORDAN:    We talk dirty. [laughs]

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Yeah, we do. You have to have one person that can see you can still tell a blue joke to.

LESLIE JORDAN:   Especially this day and age; you get trotted right to HR. I’m just so open with all that; I’ll say things, and Mayim will say, “Stop! You can’t say that.” So, when I want to say something dirty, I’ll whisper it to Cheyenne.

QUESTION:    I know that you've both talked about it takes a little while for a show to get its legs and get going. I know part of that was starting out during the pandemic, which I'm sure effected how much you could see each other off set during that early time of filming. How has the off-camera relationships and dynamics shifted from the beginning of filming until now?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    We’re starting to finally be able to see each other outside of our little bubbles in our rooms. It’s still pretty locked down. I'm not going to lie; we still have to once we get out of our room, it's mask on down the hallway. You know, we share a hallway. Like I said, with Abbott Elementary, everybody has to be super respectful, but, in terms of our interactions, it's still unfortunately, it's still pretty limited to the soundstage…I can't wait until the day till you guys can all come to my house and be with my kids. My kids are constantly saying, “When is Leslie coming over? Where's Kyla?” My husband came for the first time three weeks ago to the show, and we're in our third season. But that's just the way it is. He got to see a run-through, and he got to finally meet my work wife, and then my other work wife, Leslie.

LESLIE JORDAN:   It’s so strange, because we’re allowed now to take our masks off now if we're at the table doing a reading when it's your scene. We're allowed to take our mask off on the set, like if it's just actors, because we've all been tested and retested, but the minute you step where the cameras are and everything, you have to be masked up. So, it's just crazy, and I'm the worst. I'm the one they yell at constantly, “Put your mask on,” because I just don't think in those terms and how can you act when you can't see somebody? All we've seen are eyebrows. It's just crazy.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    We did start our whole relationship over Zoom, everybody. It was like we were dating on these apps, and we were just like seeing each other's faces. So, we all fell in love just on Zoom kind of. So, then when we finally got to see each other in person, it's a deeper connection, because it's very intimate, Zoom. I can see behind you; I can see on your shelf. We're in each other's homes. So, it's been it's been really, really nice to slowly open that up a little.

MODERATOR:   Can you each of you just kind of sum up what's coming up for your characters this season?

LESLIE JORDAN:   So this season, Phil is going to have a love interest, and it's very interesting. He falls in love with a female impersonator, a female illusionist. We're not going to say drag queen, a female illusionist named Queen Dicktoria. And then Queen Dicktoria shows up out of drag at the cafe and he falls in love with Jalen. So, it's going to be a really interesting season for Phil.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:   And for Max, he is now at 40 really starting to get some modicum of success in his life. As we found out, he's been in mentally, emotionally and financial disaster, living in the basement hiding all of his secrets. But what he does have is this gift of songwriting. So, they've really kind of fostered that and that starts to go and go and starts to go, and he gets a little taste of what it feels like to make something of himself in the world. I think for so much of Max's life, he has only had to rely on his handsome face and his charm, and it's gotten him pretty far. But now, that's the end of the road of that. He's starting to get older, and he's still working at the bar. So, what they're really doing for him this season is some big emotional stuff. He's going to have to really face his demons. Ask himself why he is where he is in his life, and what is it going to take to be happy? Is he truly in love with Kat? Is he going to ever do anything about that? So, that's kind of Max's journey. I'm really excited to jump in that too.

QUESTION:    Cheyenne, something you said before about how these characters are looking for family…Individually, perhaps each one of these characters could in their own way be a little bit sad. Yet, through their absolute determination, to not be they have sort of found each other. I'm wondering does that does that make sense to you? It struck me as you were saying about that search for family.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Yes. I've always said that from the very beginning that I find each all six of us to innately have a sense of sadness and have a sense of loneliness, really looking for whatever it is it's going to complete them. Kat, whether it's a degree or her business, or affection from her mom. Like everybody, they're getting very specific about that. So, that is what I love, what they're really doing this year. It's really just people going through problems that the whole world is going through and done in a respectful and really funny way and finally writing for each of our own strengths. I love the idea of people finding their family. When I came out a queer kid in northern Idaho, I had to immediately - I wasn't in the church anymore. I had to find my own family, and I found a group of people in Spokane that kind of became my family, and that's Kat's Cafe. That's kind of it for these folks. I really think that's a universal, really special relationship

Call Me KatLESLIE JORDAN:    I think that people are going to really get ready for Swoosie Kurtz. Get ready for Swoosie. We know what a brilliant actress she is from all her past work. We'll get ready for Swoosie Kurtz this season. This is her big coming out, and they've really written for Sheila. They've done it for all of us, but I'll do a scene with Swoosie, and I forget my line, because I'm just watching her.

SCIFI VISION:    I wondered obviously they're trained, but cats are still animals. Do you have any crazy stories kind of something going unexpected in that regard?

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    Yeah, the very first episode we did, Mayim had to sing to a cat. She had to sing Katy Perry's “Firework,” and the cat's name was Firework. And no one told her was that the cat didn't like to be looked at, didn't like to be touched, and definitely didn't like to be sung to. Every time Mayim would start singing, she'd go “Baby, you're a..” and the cat would go [hiss]. Over and over. Finally, Mayim was holding the cat out. Finally, we had to put the cat on the counter and Mayim had to like sing across [the room]. Yeah, so the cat trainers do this little thing this little [noise] - it's like a little tap on on its nose, and they backup, and it's supposed to keep them in their spot. And a lot of times it does, but I don't know, I tried that on my kids, and it does not work.

LESLIE JORDAN:    [laughs] We have this one cat named Monty that is my favorite. And there's Monty and this other one and they’re like escape artists. They know that right when the scene starts they can take off or something. But they do respond. You can't train the cat like you said, but you can - they'll pop up, like you said, and give them a treat, and they will sit still on their little perch. But I love having them. The more the merrier.

QUESTION:    I love that this show tackles so many life lessons in a comedic and lighthearted way. For both of you, what is one thing that you've learned since you started working on the show?

LESLIE JORDAN:    I've learned to be more giving as an actor. I'm always the scene stealer. I'm always I'm the funny guy that comes with this thing, and I'm always showing [off]. But on this I can't do that. I have to give, and to be a worker among workers has turned into a wonderful thing. And I watch myself. I didn't like to watch myself at all, but I can watch myself now, because there I am just like being normal, like a normal human being.

CHEYENNE JACKSON:    ... I've never done a multicam comedy before. I come from the theater world, and I take my work very, very seriously. Tina Fey always told me “Comedy is serious business.” So, I take it all very seriously. When I got on this show, I just thought...They're always telling me “Cheyenne, your back, your head. You're in the way of the camera.” I wasn't aware of all the different things. And I had a judgment about what situation comedy was. I thought it was silly, and kind of maybe just not as serious as something like Succession or something. You know, I had a judgment about it. And what I've learned from being on the show is that this work is important. This work matters. There is an audience for this work, and we put our heart and our soul into these stories. Yes, we are not tackling the hugest pantheon of socio-economic things happening in the world or political upheaval, but what we're doing is providing joy, and we're providing escape, and our reach is far. Speaking of Succession, at the Emmy party the other night, the actress who plays Jerry wanted a picture with me! Me - from this show! And I was like, people watch the show and people love this show. We talked about it all the time on the show, but we feel like we didn't really get our fair shake the first season, and I get why. But now we're there. So, I've learned that what we're doing is important, and it makes people really happy, and what can be better than that?

Latest Articles