To say Aubrey Plaza is in the middle of a breakout year is something of an understatement. Sure, she’s had career highlights such as “Parks and Recreation,” “Life After Beth” and “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” but nothing has allowed her to stretch her impressive creative talents as a prestige television series, and the two dark comedies she has hitting theaters this summer.
First off, Noah Hawley’s “Legion” is in serious danger of being ignored by Emmy voters in a sea of impressive Peak TV programming and if it happens it might even be a worse sin than “The Leftovers” being snubbed for its first two seasons. Plaza is simply transcendent as Lenny, a former drug addict who is a middle aged man and incarnation of an alien demon (aka The Shadow King) stuck in the powerful brain of David Haller (Dan Stevens). As Lenny (or The Shadow King, take your pick), Plaza plays with gender norms in the most subtle and, at times, in your face ways. It’s intensely fascinating and Plaza is so captivating you often can’t take your eyes off her.
One of the most thrilling moments of the season found Plaza engaging in an impromptu dance number to a remix of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.” During our conversation in this edition of the 4 quadrant podcast Plaza talks about filming that memorable moment and how her goal was for Lenny to put her “stink” all over David’s subconscious (if you haven’t caught it yet, it’s embedded below).
Plaza also talks in-depth about her new ensemble comedy “The Little Hours,” which also features Alison Brie and Dave Franco and opens in limited release on June 30th. We also discuss “Ingrid Goes West,” one of my favorite films of the year, which arrives on August 11th and also stars Elisabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson, Wyatt Russell and Billy Magnussen.
Lots of actor insists they hate everything they do, but Plaza wasn’t simply being humble. We tried convincing her otherwise, but she wasn’t having it. At least we think she wasn’t. In any event, it was a very fun conversation and if you’re a fan of her previous work or “Legion” this episode of the podcast is absolutely a must listen.
You can listen to this episode in the Soundcloud embed below or on iTunes. If you do listen on iTunes please rate, subscribe and share it with your friends!
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