Alison Becker & Beth Dover – Newsreaders

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What is in store this second season of “Newsreaders?”

Beth: We started out with a great episode called “Funk Dancing,” which I think was a great intro to Season Two. We had a “Car Testicle” episode and “World’s Creepiest Man Contest.”

Alison: There is an episode where I am going to be interviewing the heads of a sausage company. For that episode, I get to wear a dress made out of real raw meat. It was sausages, but I didn’t ask what kind of animal it was. It did not smell good!

Q) Alison, what made you originally want to be a part of “Newsreaders?”

Alison: The producers are so amazing. I’ve known Rob Corddry, David Wain and John Stern from other projects. I’ve known Rob Corddry through coming up in Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. I’m big fans of theirs and “Children’s Hospital.” I was just so excited when I found out I was playing this character that got to wear all of these insane outfits! There were wigs, tutus and glitter eyelashes. It was a girl’s dream! I love it!

Q) Beth, was there anything you added to your role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

Beth: I think maybe. There was one episode in Season One you can see she has a proclivity towards much younger men. I think I sort of ran with that and made her a little bit inappropriate sexually. But she still thinks she is hard hitting news woman. She’s very on the ball with that.

Q) Alison mentioned knowing Rob and David before. Beth, what was it like for you getting to work with them?

Beth: It was great! I’ve also worked with them before. I’m on “Children’s Hospital.” It’s great! It’s working with good friends, which is the best way to work I’ve found. I’m really lucky that I’ve gotten in with a crew of people that are hilarious and I respect so much. It’s been nothing, but fun and wonderful.

Alison: The directors that they pulled in…Jim Margolis directed a lot of the episodes and he is awesome. He’s from “The Daily Show” so he really understands the news format. We also had amazing guest directors like Paul Scheer and Alex Fernie. It was really just a collaborative process and we both got to work with our friends, which is a dream.

Q) You both have such great comedic timing. Has it been a natural ability for the both of you or have you worked to hone it?

Beth: The first inclination that I got that I might be a funny person was when I really bombed my Freshman year of theater school audition. I came home to my roommates and I took myself very seriously so I was crying to my roommates that I didn’t do very well. They kind of started laughing a little bit because my crying seemed funny to them even though I was legitimately upset. I find a lot of times in my life when I’m crying people will laugh at me. So, I thought maybe I should turn this into more of a comedic acting career.

Alison: I was always interested in editing and writing, but I didn’t really get into comedy until I was in college. I went to Georgetown and I was there around the same time as some other people who were interested in comedy. Now, we’re all kind of working actors. It’s me, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney and Mike Birbiglia. So, I just started doing improv together at Georgetown. I thought, “This is fun and easy and freeing and rewarding!” Saying something and somebody laughs…Since then, I’ve never looked back!

Q) Alison, you are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive when Newsreaders premieres each week?

Alison: I love it! I’m not going to lie. I love Instagram and Twitter. I’m not on Facebook because I don’t trust my time management skills. I love photography and I love Instagram because it is bite sized tidbits of peoples’ lives. It helps me keep up with what people are doing in a fun way where I feel like Facebook is a bit too much and too invasive. I like bite sized things. Getting fan feedback is so fun though. As soon as an episode airs, I’m on Twitter and seeing if people watched it and if they liked it. I love that and it makes me feel so good! If someone tweets, “You were so funny on the show,” that literally makes my day. Sometimes they will rerun shows, not just “Newsreaders” and I don’t know they are being rerun. So, someone will tweet me and say, “I’m watching you on ‘Parks and Rec’ right now!”

Q) What have been some of your  most memorable moments from filming Season 2 of “Newsreaders?”

Alison: The meat dress was definitely the most memorable, but it was not the most enjoyable. There was also a moment where I got to wear a dress made out of stuffed animals, which I really loved. I had a Tron outfit that has the glowy strips on it, which was really fun. It was all so amazing! Any time I would walk in for a fitting our wardrobe stylist would pull out the craziest outfits. He would pull out things and I would literally not be able to figure out if it was a shirt or skirt or a pair of shoes and I loved it!

Q) What do you think it is about “Newsreaders” that has made it such a fan favorite show?

Beth: I think one of the main things is all the people involved are hilarious. We have all the producers and awesome guest stars that are in comedy today that are doing this silly stuff. And I also think it’s fantastic to see a news show and the absurdity of how the news approaches things. We kind of trick you a little bit into thinking this is a real news program and then you start watching. I think it has a really great talent and there are just the funniest people in it.