Lennon Parham & Jessica St. Clair – Playing House

By starrymag | June 27, 2017

Q) What were your goals for Maggie’s character? 

 

Lennon Parham:    I’ll take this one I guess since I’m Maggie.  It’s always the relationship between Maggie and Emma because this friendship is the most important relationship in the show.  And so, in real life, Jess and I went through this incredible closening, I’ll call it, then Jess was diagnosed with breast cancer.  And then everything that happened after that, which she wrote such a beautiful article about.  So I think when we were talking about the season, we were looking at that, that friendship as the prominent – I mean it’s always the prominent relationship, and (how) display that they get even closer through this, and that, secondarily, how Maggie has kind of come to her conclusion that she might be ready to date or (look) inside of the life that she’s built with her family and kind of look into that sort of direction in her life. And then, we (wanted) that to also go a certain way.  So we wanted it to be the slow version that Mr. (Darcy), Pride and Prejudice version of a romantic relationship for her.  Jess, did you have something you want to add?

Jessica St. Clair:    Well I’m just going to say, with the larger thing that we deal with, which is Emma getting breast cancer, and kind of facing it with her best friend on her side, in our real lives, Lennon it isn’t just the person who gets sick; who gets affected by the whole thing.  It’s also their family and their friends.  And so, it’s a really life-changing experience because you really truly realize how precious life is and how we have this moment.  And so, we have to go for it. And so, we kind of – what we wanted to show is, for Maggie, is what it’s like to be a caretaker and also like how she is changed by the experience.  And I think what happens for Maggie is that she really gets bitten by the, as we call it, the F Yes life, but on USA, it’s the Hell Yes life bug. And so, whereas before, maybe Maggie would have been too shy to ask out this handsome British doctor that she has a crush on, she kind of just goes for it, post big C.  And so, you get to really see Maggie kind of living even more of her best life.  And that was what was really fun is to kind of bring a little romance and magic to Maggie’s life because she’s been doing the hard work of being a mom up until now.  So it’s fun to get to see her fall in love.

 

 

Q) So I was at the ATX Festival a few weeks ago.  And so, I heard you speak about the season premiere.  And I love this idea that you mentioned about women showing up for each other in times of need.  So in what way did that happen in your life, and how will it be a part of Emma and Maggie’s story this season?

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Well, so, in our own lives I always knew that I had a great group of friends.  But it takes you really needing help and needing to ask for it and accept it to realize how much people really love you and how much you really love them.  And when I got sick, when I got diagnosed with breast cancer, Lennon showed up within minutes of me getting the call through the doctor’s office.  And she didn’t leave my side for the entire year. And basically, my friends made a promise to me, which is that I would never be alone in this fight, not for one second, and that ended up being the truth.  I mean I was blown away by the fact that women just do what needs to be done.  And, in my case, I had a two-year-old that I was trying very hard to keep from being affected negatively by the fact that I was sick.  And so, these girls just rallied around me.  And they made it so that there was dinner on the table every single night, and not like Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Somebody was making me dinner, my family dinner, every night.  My house was cleaned.  My errands were done.  I was never alone in chemo.  It’s crazy because would I wish this on anybody?  No, but at the same time, I’ve got to see how beautiful my friends are.  And I think that every woman has felt that from their friends.  And I’m just so proud to be a woman.  I’m proud to have a daughter.  And I’m proud to know how amazingly kickass my friends are.  And that’s what we show on the show; exactly that.

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    And not just girls, obviously.  My husband, my father and all of my male friends were there for me as well.  But there’s a specific way that women mother each other that is truly mind-blowing.

 

Lennon Parham     And I think too – I was one of the friends here on the front line than on the ground.  But there was a real network of women, and they all have superpowers. So I was like, “Okay, if this is happening, I’ve got to call (Kristen).  If this is happening, I’m going to text (Brandy).  If this is happening, I’m going to call (Molly) in for the weekend.”  And everybody was bringing their superpower of joy or of being able to access doctors and ask for opinions or just show up and take you to lunch. And so, I think that’s the like village component that women have down that, you know, maybe we only really lean on each other in these really intense times.  But it’s happening on kind of another level at all-time.

 

 

Q)  How hard was it to make this cancer funny for this show? Was it therapeutic or was it difficult to live with it while outside of your character you acted out?

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Well, first of all, that doesn’t surprise me that you guys were laughing through it because I don’t know what it is, but in these high-stakes moments, some of the funniest things happen.  And so, really, like from the get-go, there were ridiculous. We realized the doctor thought that we were a lesbian couple because my husband wasn’t there at that time.  And we kept talking about our daughter and our insurance and all.  So that happened.  And Lennon told her that we were so happy I was going to get to keep my nipple because I’ve always been really proud of my nipple.  And suddenly, we’re discussing how I have the perfect ratio of areola to nipple.  And why is that happening?  That’s so stupid.  And then, Lennon ends up picking out my boobs because I have a panic attack about which one – which implant feels most like my own. So, as these things were happening, I was making a mental list because, as comedians, we’re always like looking out for what’s funny and ridiculous about life.  And so, I was making this mental list of things that were funny about it. When we got into the room and told the story, then other people were laughing.  And we’re like, “Okay, so it’s making our friends laugh.”  We were still worried about, would people have permission to laugh because it’s – even when we talk about it in the press you have to sort of give the audience permission to laugh about it. And I think once we started writing the scenes, and we realized that we were able to capture both the heartfelt moments and the funny moments within a scene, because we also wanted to be very authentic, because you don’t want to make a joke out of things either that weren’t purely funny.  We were obviously dealing with life and death.  So it was – we wanted it to be authentic, to be to our experience, and also, to be, what’s the word, optimistic, because for us, we decided that there was no way cancer was going to take us down.  And so – and I think that is my experience with most women who are going through breast cancer.  They have a real kickass mentality to them.  And they’re like, “Let’s just get this over with,” and then get back to the business of having fun.  And so, that’s sort of the journey we take our characters on because that’s the journey we were on.

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes.  And I’ll say, I from the beginning, you know, I mean I was next to Jess, so I wasn’t going through it.  But it did not feel funny to me at all.  And I was in a real like get-shit-done place, checking in with her and all that stuff. And so, when it came time to like talk about if we were going to write about it, I initially was like, “No way, like this isn’t funny, like we have a choice about what our character’s experience and why would we ever want one of them to get cancer, it’s the worst, right?”  But then, we started to think about like a person, a young woman, who was sitting on her couch, and just got diagnosed her within the middle of chemo, and that she saw her story, there were pieces of her story like authentically represented and reflected back to her, and that she would feel less alone, and that started to move us through it. And then, while we were doing it, I remember, in particular, we were writing, I think we were writing a scene where we (meet) the oncologist and it was really hard to improvise.  It was hard to write.  It was hard to edit. We just got- burst into tears.  We sat there holding each other’s hands and realized that there’s nothing else.  This journey was important to go on just for the two of us because when you’re in it and you’re going through it, you don’t really process it because you just have to get, again, get shit done.  So I hadn’t really moved through that emotion.  And I was able to do that in the process of writing the show.

 

Q) Since friendship is obviously the main, like the foundation of the show, and you guys have such a strong friendship, do you each have like two to three of your favorite fictional friendship, female friendship that’s kind of who you referred to?

 

Lennon Parham:    Totally.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Well, number one for both of us is Anne of Green Gables’ Anne Shirley and Diana Berry.  It all comes back to them.

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    What’s your number two, Lennon?

 

Lennon Parham:    I think I would have to say Laverne & Shirley.  We love – I mean (the grapes, they hyjinx) like the simple, funny situations that they get into just like, oh, running a diner, and it gets out of hand, like this idea that that is an entire half hour of television makes you happy.  And I have watched those episodes and still, they still hold up.  And number three would…

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Would you do Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, even though they’re like – they’ve been both fictional friends but also are real-life friends because they’re just between-the-comedy bad asses.

 

Lennon Parham:    So I remember – yes, I think that’s a great one because I remember how – like when they started hosting Weekend Update together and like how huge that was, and how like it took that whole segment like to the next level.  It made it like you couldn’t miss it because you couldn’t wait to see what they were going to say next.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    And you know what I love about them is that…

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    What I love about them is that they find each other so funny, you can tell how much they enjoy being with each other that it’s infectious.  And I love that about them.

 

Q)  This show, I think, particularly, and in the final moment in episode four, but the series in general shares a lot of DNA with Gilmore Girls.  I know you two are divided on this subject, but then, are you aware that your show is being compared to it?

 

 

Lennon Parham:    I think I’m the only thing standing between our show becoming Gilmore Girls.  It’s what I’m understanding.  I mean I have seen some of Gilmore Girls.  It wasn’t my cup of tea.  I guess I could watch more of it.  But I feel like, honestly, if I did, then people would say, “Hey, your show is too much like Gilmore Girls.”  And me not having watched it is like the only thing that is allowing us to say, “Oh no, we’re not doing that because Lennon has never seen it.”

 

Leah Thomas:        Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Also here – here’s the thing, Leah.  I have Gilmore Girls.  Lennon has RuPaul’s Drag Race.  I can’t really watch RuPaul’s Drag Race.  It doesn’t do it for me.  She really can’t watch Gilmore Girls.  And listen, this might be the only way we differ.  And that’s going to have to be it.  I’m going to have to accept that for the rest of my life.

 

Lennon Parham:    No, there’s lots – we both – there’s lots of differences.  We have lots of beautiful differences.  That’s what makes us so much better together.

 

 

Q) What was the most rewarding part or perhaps your favorite part of creating Season 3?

 

Lennon Parham:    I think, to be honest, this season, and this is before anyone saw any of Season 3, we got a chance to participate in some pretty amazing fan event.  And we haven’t ever done that before because we were always in production when these things were happening.  And so, we got to meet face to face with a bunch of our amazing Twitter, and Facebook, and just general fans in both New York and also in Austin.  And there, the connection that they feel to the material is so deeply rewarding because Jess and I always say like what we go to television for is comfort.  At the end of the day, I take out my heels and I want to dive into Call the Midwife or the British Bake Off, and get lost in a flan or whatever. And growing up, it was the same way.  I wanted to get lost in Keri Russell’s decision to choose Ben or Noel or get a haircut, you know.  And so, that these – that the people that we were meeting on the road are going through what we say when it starts to get really real, and that they come to our show for that comfort, is – I mean there just aren’t any words for me.  Yes, to bring that joy, to bring that representation, and that they connect to it, that they connect about the way that women are with one another.  That’s just – it’s phenomenal to me.

 

Jessica St. Clair:   We’re sort of letting it all hang out in this season, even more than we did in Season 1 and 2.  And the fact that our fans still connect to it and love us, works and all, just kind of makes you feel just good about being able to be your real self with people.  And that’s been a really cool thing.  Also, dressing up like a drag queen and performing Tina Turner’s Proud Mary to a crowd of drag queens was and always will be a highlight in my life.

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes, even though Jessica has a hard time with the actual show, she really very much enjoyed dressing like a man who dresses like a woman.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Yes.  I’ve never felt more beautiful.  And also, we figured – we found out why Beyonce wears a dance tight underneath a fishnet.  That’s a life lesson that I think we’re going to take with us for the rest of our life.

 

Lennon Parham:    We’re going to carry that with us for the rest of lives.  Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Yes.

 

Q) So I love Emma’s love story with Mark.  But I also like how at the end of the day it’s always Maggie and Emma still.  So how are you going to (remain) that dynamic now that Emma and Mark are a couple this season?

 

Jessica St. Clair:   It’s funny because we were – I guess I was really worried about what would happen when they got together because so many relationships like fizzle out once they get together.  But in our real lives, like Lennon and I are best friends and we’re comedy wives.  She’s my comedy wife.  And our husbands are also obviously super important to us.  But our husbands just accept that like my husband calls Lennon his other wife.

 

Lennon Parham:    Yes.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    And so, it’s like that’s what it is like for Mark and Emma and Maggie.  And there’s a great scene when our boyfriends, Mark and then Lennon’s love interest, Maggie’s love interest, they are – we’re supposed to meet them in the finale for dinner, and we basically never get there.  And Mark says like he just assumes like that we are always going to be an hour and a half late for dinner.  Like we’re just – so like that is kind of…

 

Lennon Parham:    Because when the two of us get together, all bets are off.

 

Jessica St. Clair:    Yes, exactly.  And I think like any true best friendship, the men in their lives understand that their friendship in a lot of ways comes first.  And they are in some ways along for the ride.  And once you find the guy that accepts that and supports it, then that’s a keeper in my book.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*