Jodi Long – Sullivan & Son

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I have an indie movie that is coming out called A Picture of You. The Loew’s AMC picked it up in New York and it opens on June 20th. I just had a new novel come out called China Doll and I did the Audio Book for it. They got a really good review in the Washington Post. In August, I’ll be going to Chicago to the Goodman Theatre to do a new play called The World of Extreme Happiness. It’s an extremely intense dramatic role. Everyone plays a couple roles in it. Then, we’ll be moving it on to the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.

Q) What can you tease us is in store this season on “Sullivan & Son?”

A) Ken Jeong is back as my son-in-law. In this particular episode, which is called “The Big O.” Ok Cha has her own brand of advice regarding that. In one of the episodes, Roy Wood, Jr. and I square off in a contest of who can eat the hottest food – Korean or an African American from the South. Billy Gardell is coming back, John Michael Higgens is coming back and Kunal Nayyar is coming back. Kunal’s episode is really funny! And as a surprise, something I have been talking to Steve [Byrne] about for the last two seasons (and he’s really wanted to do this for a while), Margaret Cho is coming on the show! I don’t know what the script is, but that will be coming up! We’re all excited about that. I’ve talked to her and seen her, but we haven’t worked together since “All American Girl.” So, it is going to be so much fun!

Q) Since the show is comedically driven, how much improv do you get to add to the performance?

A) I’m an actor so I really abide by the script. There is a not a lot of improv, per se. It’s mostly that someone will come up with a better line on set. That always goes by the writers. It’s not something we just do on the spur of the moment. It’s a collaborative thing. That’s really how we work with the writers. Of course, on tape day, things change fast and furious. So, if a joke hasn’t gotten the kind of response that they want there we have four different endings or four different lines. Whichever one is the best ends up in the episode. We pretty much stick to it. Sometimes people will throw something out and they’ll like it so much they’ll use it. But we usually get to pitch.

Q) What is your favorite aspect to portraying Ok Cha?

A) She takes no prisoners. She really has her own sense of the world and it’s funny, Valerie [Azlynn] said this to me the other day because I had this pretty funny line, “Jodi, when you’re saying these lines I look at you and I think, ‘Where is Jodi? She’s not even there!’ You’re like channeling someone else.” And it’s true. Once I get into the whole thing, that character just takes over. So, it’s not like I’m not doing a lot of things consciously like the way I walk in the show. Because I don’t walk like that. Our walks differ and she’s more crotchety. I don’t walk like that. I’m a yogini! I’m a dancer! I’m very elegant. So when you ask me what it is, I go, “Gee, I don’t know.” I watch some of the stuff and I just look at myself and go, “How did I come up with that?” It wasn’t conscious. It sort of just comes out. There is a certain sort of stalwartness to Ok Cha that I like. There is also some strength, but sometimes that strength is overbearing.

Q) What do you think it is about “Sullivan & Son” that continues to make it a fan favorite program?

A) I think we’re edgy and sometimes it is like, “Oh, I can’t believe they said that.” And the surprise of that I think makes people laugh. They are like, “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe they just said that!” I was just talking to another reporter and I was saying that “Scandal” was a fun show for me because even though it is very soap opera-y, part of you feels like it is a guilty pleasure what you’re seeing. You can’t believe they just did that. With our show, I think it is, “I can’t believe they just said that!” Whether it is Ok Cha or Hank because he is being racist or walking the line, I think people think those things, but they would never say it. They are expressing what you would never say. I think that’s what is sort of fun about the show. Not just with our characters, even with the other characters you know somebody who is sort of naively dumb as Owen or someone as unaware as Ahmed. Also, I think the relationship between Jack and I…And it comes out in one of the episodes where you think, “They actually have a sex life like that?!” We have a sex life. That’s talked about. How often do you actually get that?