21 Minutes of Alison Brie on ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’

21 Minutes of Alison Brie on ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’

[Music] [Applause] thank you so much for being here thank you for having me I’m so happy to meet you you as well you as well and tell me so you grew up here in La what was that like yes I did it was great honestly it was the best of both worlds I grew up in South Pasadena which is like Hollywood adjacent you know we’re far enough away so you’re not in it all the time it really looked and felt like a small town and I had that like normal high school theater experience but I think because it looks like such a cozy small town any Town USA they shot a lot of movies there so you still had that La feel of uh you know the house from the movie Old School was like a block from my high school and when I was in Middle School I remember walking home one day with my big binder with like my drawings all over the binder and a frantic PA you know some frantic assistant on some movie stopped me and was like let me see that that notebook oh my God this looks like a real teenager’s notebook can I buy this off of you for $10 and I was like my notebook’s going to be in a movie oh my God and I and I gave it to them for I made that was my first you know flirt with Show Business your first flirt with it and did you feel like you got the bug in did you sneak on sets you know I never snuck on any sets but actually where we are now on this lot I used to come and watch shows tape live just like you guys wow all right one of my my um my best friend’s older sister worked for krock which is like the coolest alternative radio station in La and so she would get us tickets to go to tapings for shows like Home Improvement and friends like I was in the audience for friends I will never forget the episode that I saw It’s the episode where Chandler and Monica are already hooking up but nobody knows and then he has to kiss all the women every time he says goodbye it was a great episode iconic I was there you could hear my voice laughing I love that tell me how did you get into acting like what gave you that that passion to want to act well I was a real ham when I was a kid so my parents could hardly get me to shut up I think it was a lot of singing and dancing around the house and so they put me into a program when I was real small you know like six or seven years old and I had a perm uh the early 90s and uh I did a program in loses through the Jewish Community Center a summer program where a summer theater program for kids where um we basically did all of these Disney um Productions Snow White Cinderella The Wizard of Oz they would rewrite them completely and write all their own music for them and every kid that auditioned got apart it was this whole big summer theater program my first role was in The Wizard of Oz I played Toto um I had no lines but I had a lot of barks and my mom made the costume she sewed knee pads into the knees I was literally on hand and knee a barking for for one night well in paid off you’re amazing and we know it it all led to this moment somehow it kicked it off right we brought it back nothing you said and you you grew up dancing you love to dance now what’s this you used to sneak in a labrary and dance please tell me this story I’m so glad you brought this up because I still kind of can’t believe you know you do some things when you’re like a kid in a teen that you’re like God I can’t believe I had the nerve when when I was in Middle School our library our school library had these two rooms in the library that were you know glass rooms study rooms with tables in them and you could sign them out for recess and lunch to study I assume but you know that was the fine print no one ever specified that so I would sign them out for lunch and then invite my best girlfriends and the boys that we had a crush on that’s adorable and we would just slow dance with them like this in the library to TLC just got Red Light Special on oh that’s a good song but keep but you had to keep like a full arms distance and but it was sexy I have to do it about two times and then they were like you’re not allowed to do that in here so you got caught with it yeah because the rooms were glass like who was like like what was this ruse like once I got everybody in there the whole library was just like what’s happening what are you guys doing I think it’s adorable that’s creative I was like why can’t we have dances exactly every day of the week you should that’s for sure and you just turn 40 yeah and wait so you we got to see you in the gym now how you do all of this I can’t do one pushup let let alone a pullup Jesus and you’re doing it effortlessly guys I got to keep my pull-ups my chin-ups you know it took me years to be able to do even one so now they’re like a real point of Pride for me I I love turning 40 I in like the best shape of my life I feel great I feel the most confident I’ve ever felt feel like the chinups have a lot to do with that my trainers honey that is good you’re so strong and then these weights how many pounds is the weights you’re lifting let’s see let’s take a look you doing some up at 40 I can’t do any of that 40 PB 40 for 40 God you know I have a great trainer Jason Walsh and uh yeah he’s keeping everything high and tight you know clearly I I want to be like you oh my God and well we do have something in common we both have cats how many cats do you have I have two we have two oh my God what’s your cat’s names our cats are named Otis and Max Max is a girl little Maxine curled up oh my God we were a real cat I’m so happy to hear you’re a cat person God they not enough of us but um yeah I agree yeah cats get a bad rap people think they’re aloof let me tell you we call our cats names as we’re going to sleep and they come running down the stairs and they curl up in our arms and we all spoon in like a Quadro spoon at night I’m not exagger or they sleep on my legs and then I’m paralyzed just kind of like I don’t sleep well but the cats are cute you know what I mean yeah mine always steal my spot they steal my spot I’m I’m I find myself at the very edge of the bed the cats are in the middle Dave’s like and and I’m just like get a SLI um but yeah the cats rule the house we recently bought them some you know new like cat towers Mount the cat mounts yes they love them the they’re the best I’m looking at multiple of them going up in my house and I’m like I bet I give us two years until the whole house is like a cat maze I’m with you you should do that ctio I’m I’m all for the cats well we going to check this out for sure and this isn’t your husband’s first time directing you what is that like you know it’s incredible we we’ve worked together a couple times as actors and then he directed me for the first time um in his directorial debut the rental and that was really fun it was like really freeing to be on set with him as a director and I didn’t write that or produce I didn’t have any hand in anything else so I could just be there to kind of support him directing and he’s so good at it which is great and then this movie it was just like that next level because we wrote it together we were just so in sync on everything you know I trust Dave more than I trust anyone yeah and at this point especially we’ had so many conversations about this script and about this character that we really can communicate without words a lot of the time you know he comes in and gives a look and I give a look and give a thumbs up and then we do it again just a nice kind of uh a lot of telepathy going on which was great that is cool I’d imagine that could be awesome yeah it seemed like it would move quicker since you guys know each other so well do you feel like it’s a you know you guys flow differently guess so I mean Dave’s the boss so we’ll do as many takes as Dave wants but yeah things do Mo not just not quickly so much as smoothly like B and think because it takes a certain type of chemistry you know for an actor and a director to work together sometime like I prefer actor directors so I was Imaging like it has to be something cool well it’s great because Dave is an actor he knows how to talk to actors too he’s so like in the mindset of what you’re thinking about yes now I have to ask this last thing so you ran through the film naked you wasn’t nervous oh tell me about that I love being naked Jennifer I’m a bit of a nud no Jennifer [Applause] me I have some nude scenes I have some nonsexual nude scenes in the movie there’s a streaking scene and it’s a nod back to my days in college I went to Cal Arts um and my time at Arts a great school I got an incredible education and also it’s an art school um so I think they wanted all the students to have the freedom of of just expressing themselves and clothing was optional everywhere except the cafeteria you’ve got to be sanitary so in college I really like to streak a lot and as you recent as last year I like to streak a lot so we just Incorporated it into the movie I think it’s kind of like for in this movie it’s a real expression of Joy embracing who you really are I think that’s why I like being naked maybe if you like it we love it and we love you thank you for being here I have to ask you have you ever been mistaken for somebody else yes I have and I can’t even believe that you just told that story because it just happened to me and honestly it doesn’t happen all that often oh okay but while I was shooting apples Never Fall in Australia let me set the scene set the scene for me we’re shooting in this part of Australia the Gold Coast I had never been to Australia and where we shot was totally beautiful and wonderful and also um had a bunch of these cabaret shows like very sexy cabaret shows and one of them was called Draculas and it’s sort of like sexy vampire themed uh cabaret show yeah that gives you this the idea you can see the people behind me um yeah there’s a lot of sort of like half- naked vampire people singing songs and doing funny sketches so this place was right around the corner from where we were staying our apartments and it had a huge billboard and we passed it every day on the way to work and the whole time we got to go to Draculas and on my last night in Australia we finally went okay and I went with some of the cast and so we get there and all the people at Dracula’s all these actors are in character the whole time as like sexy vampires so you’re walking in and they’re like you know and and we’re waiting in line oh my gosh yeah there it’s like it is actually a little scary there was a moment where I kind of thought what am I getting myself into and so it was very out of character when one of them came up and they were like ooh you’ll never see the light of oh my God are you that girl from you’re from TV and I was like yes I am they were like you’re on TV and I was like I am and then kind of like you were saying she was like I don’t believe you how do I know I was like you don’t believe me you’re the one that brought it up up first of all but I am I don’t know how to prove it to you we had like a long back and forth about it and then she’s like okay I believe you I’m so excited so now I enter this place and it’s like a labyrinth it’s sort of like the haunted house ride at Disneyland like you get on a ride you pass staircases and they’re all filled with these actors in character and I’m like is it in my head or like are some of these actors like sense like they’re recognizing me and I feel like you know I’m so embarrassed um so I get to my seat and this young shirtless boy vampire comes up to me so nervous and he’s like excuse me are you Anna Kendrick and I said no no okay you not and he was like it’s like he already had it planned out I mean all right yeah he’ already plan he goes but I love you in Scott Pilgrim versus the world and I said what’ you say thank you sometimes you just got to go with it said it was a great performance M I’ve never been better give me five for that I mean see if it’s a compliment it’s a compl so you know it’s all the same and it’ll be a memory they’ll never forget and now he might watch this show and you’ll get it right time yeah okay and I want to hear this so you in a you’re in a singing group now well yes I sort of am in a singing group again so I have a cover band with my best girlfriends and basically we started this a decade ago these are my my two best friends Juliana Gill and Serena falo we’re all actresses we started this thing a decade ago with our uh friends this band called Jon Street station there’s sort of like a bluegrass band and you know it was sort of like a way to pass the time we’re actresses there’s a lot of downtime we wanted to have something creative and fun to do so this is a picture from we just did a 10year reunion show so back in day we used to play The Viper Room and like Hotel Cafe these little venues around La New York and now this band that we play with they have since moved all over the world I mean one of them lives in Finland flew in for a 10year reunion show it went off without a hitch we did it in Highland Park which is actually where I’m from so things every it all felt really full circle and it was so fun I love that so do you get nervous though that’s a cool idea like do you get nervous performing with them now since it’s been years get so nervous okay I couldn’t even believe like I perform for a living but leading up the buildup to this show and first it was all about selling the tickets you know what I mean so we were all that’s all we were concerned with and my friends are texting me we sold out the venue and we were like we’re sold out and then we were like we sold out see like I didn’t sleep is scary at the same time oh my God I didn’t sleep the whole week leading up to doing it do you ever I mean of course you don’t because you sing all the time you know mm- when I get in the wings of the stage I forget the lyrics I don’t know my intro sometimes I put take myself off the program y’all it gets real real I right before you don’t feel like that right before I walk out oh my God I canel the whole event and then soon as you hit the stage it’s like oh this is home then I’m a rock star rockn to be y’all make us believe we are rock stars okay you guys in two shots of Whit Sky I totally agree okay Dad now this I haven’t done you almost crowd surfed I did now Jennifer not doing that okay you know to the show we get you’re you’re amped up Right In the Heat of the Moment I sort of threatened to crowd Surf and I started to do it and very quickly sensed that this audience could not hold my full weight they could not hold my full weight and I so I kind of jumped back onto the stage nobody got hurt but you can see you made it off the stage and you I did my bandmaid faces Johnny was excited like don’t do that but my girlfriends were very nervous literally every single person we saw this photo after the fact and all of their faces were you know so look at my friends really believe stage was going sir well I’m glad you didn’t because you’re here will you stick around for a little bit oh my goodness well Allison we’ll be right back and we’re back with Allison green apples never fall it’s so good can you tell us more about it thank you definitely it’s uh based on a book by Leanne morard so she wrote big little lies was also made into a show um it follows this tennis family the Delany uh the parents played by Sam Neil and Annette Benning have gone into retirement um and a mysterious stranger enters their lives and then the mom disappears and you know the whole family starts to unravel it’s a little bit of all the adult children trying to figure out what happened to their mom and who’s responsible and I her it’s a tennis family so did you cuz I remember when I did the movie Sandy I was like my uncle was a professional golfer so I had to train and learn how to golf totally and then I had a under a stand in who didn’t know how to golf and then I had to step in and golf for the stand in y’all got that okay so did you have to learn how to play tennis for this yes I did of course I grew up in a tennis family my mom my dad my sister my grandfather all played tennis um my sister went to tennis camp I rejected the sport completely I chose to never play it growing up I was at a total disadvantage going into this I don’t know why I wonder if I was just being rebellious like art kid Lear um and I used to just believe I was totally unathletic but in my adult life I’ve been like embracing my athletic side so I was really excited to learn how to play tennis for the show and we started out I started taking uh tennis lessons immediately we get to Australia we’re practicing with like a tennis pro and then very quickly I think everybody realized that I me personally I only have one very short scene play playing tennis on the show and they were like you’re not going to get there we’re just going to teach you choreography and so you went through all of that and didn’t have to I thought I was going to come home like really good at tennis and then we got to the set and they were like you know what actually we can do for you Allison uh is just put in uh a ball later like a CGI ball so then so then I get home I’m talking to my sister the other day and is this is such a random Community Connection but she was like oh my God I ran into Joel Mel’s wife today at the market and you know they play a lot of tennis I said that you and I should go play doubles against them and I was like what I was like I can’t play tennis I can only mime tennis really good with no ball well see you must have fooled them with they threw the ball in there cuz now your sister think you can play for real that’s true the show’s really selling it for real okay well that’s good it still works out but you say you wasn’t athletic but okay what you learn how to surf in Australia so would that be considered athletic yes it would thank you for saying that see you know who got this I’m less athletic and More Adventurous you are I feel like at this point in my life I’m just like yeah let’s try it so yeah in Australia we went surfing it this is only because of one of our amazing directors Don shadforth who was she was being very adventurous so she invited a bunch of the women from the cast and we all went together this great group of women at 5: in the morning on our one day off to learn how to surf we had this incredible surf coach her name was Tracy she had to be 70 years old this is like the most badass woman I’ve ever witnessed I’m picturing surfing lessons like it’s going to be like Point Break with Keanu Reeves like we’re going to be on the sand for an hour just like how do I pop up I’m board um but no Tracy takes us out on the sand barely five minutes she’s like so you going to get up you got to put your feet up and we’d kind of get on the board and she’d be like you’re too far forward you’re too far back got to be I know it’s I do a terrible a forgive me um but truly it was 3 to 5 minutes on the beach and then we were in the water but actually it was great cuz it didn’t give you time to be scared and like I don’t know what you’re going to learn standing on the sand do you know what I mean like we learned it in the water and honestly it was scary it’s scary being in the ocean and the waves are the baby weight like you could see the real Surfers way far out like surfing the big waves and as those waves got much smaller then we would swim out to get on them but it was so nice to have a Tracy cuz she’d just be like I’d be just waiting forever not wanting to go and she’d be like Alison you’re up kind of pushed me right out threw you right on that there and I got up a few times you braving you bad ass I want to be like you if you like this video smash that like button and subscribe to the Jennifer Hudson Show YouTube channel check your local listings or visit Jennifer Hudson show.com to see when you can watch four episodes in your area and don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter

We love it when our friends come to visit… and it looks like some of them just can’t stay away! If you didn’t catch Alison Brie on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” the first time around, check it out right here.

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