Mary Lynn Rajskub – A Laughing Matter

By starrymag | January 12, 2014

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

 

A) I did work on the show “24” and I am doing work on a movie in Vancouver called The Wrong Element with Harrison Ford and Virginia Madsen.

 

Q) Can you tell us a bit about “Kelsey Grammer’s Sketch Show” that you are working on?

 

A) That is airing on March 13, a Sunday at 9:30pm ET. It is a series of short sketches that are thirty seconds to a minute long. It is based on a British show and I did that last year as opposed to doing a regular sitcom.

 

Q) How did you originally become involved on the show “24”?

 

A) I think I had gone out for “CSI” or some other show and had a really bad audition. When I got the call for “24” I didn’t really know what the show was because I had never really watched it. I got the material and it was a person, that was my character (that hadn’t really been written yet), talking to Jack Bauer and it was just “yes sir” and “no sir” and they asked me to come in on it. I was like there really wasn’t anything to the part and the audition was really far away. I was kind of scared since I had that bad audition for drama, but then meanwhile, I called my mom and said, “You have to audition for this show.” She was a huge fan of the show of “24” and she had been watching it from the beginning and she thought it was the coolest show. While she was saying that to me, I was getting tapes of it and I watched it and realized what a cool show it was and went in and read for the Executive Producer. He was like, “I know there is nothing on the page and there is nothing to this part yet, but that is how we do things.” Once I watched the show I thought it was really cool and understood the concept about how characters come and go and the different story lines. The producer liked me from the movie Punch Drunk Love and I really like the way they write for me since it is so fun to be a character like that on such a serious show.

 

Q) Will Chloe be making a return appearance on “24”?

 

A) Yes, you can. It’s going to be a couple more weeks. I probably should keep it a secret, but I’m driving to the set right now. Let’s put it that way.

 

Q) What is it like getting to work with such an amazing cast on the show?

 

A) It’s great fun! Something that Kiefer Sutherland said during a press thing is that he was surprised at how long he could do the character of Jack Bauer and it was so interesting to him. That is what is so cool because it is one day. I’ve gotten so much from doing this character. It feels like a movie and it’s really neat to see. Just the weird things that happen to people’s characters and everyone is so good (like what happened to Tony’s character). You don’t know where they are going to go with stuff and I love that Rico is back. That’s really cool!

 

Q) Do you have a most memorable moment from filming?

 

A) There are not one thing in particular, but kind of going off the last question, just working with Kiefer for the first time is really that intense. He really sets the pace for the show because he’s a producer as well so obviously he has done this from the beginning since it is his show. It really like gets you going to be working with him. My first day on the set, I had this technical stuff to say, which I can learn lines pretty quickly, but I wasn’t used to technical stuff. We did the first couple shots and then we had a break for twenty minutes and then came back. All those words just erased from my mind, and you can imagine some of the stuff that people have to say, and it was just gone from my head. I just froze because I couldn’t remember it and I was holding up the whole production. A couple hours later, Kiefer was like, “Don’t worry about it, it happens to us all the time.” I was thinking to myself, “Oh no, I’m not going to be able to do this because I can’t remember all of this technical stuff!” Then, you just get used to it.

 

Q) What has been your favorite project to work on and why?

 

A) I really loved working on the “Larry Sanders Show,” Punch Drunk Love and “24,” what I’m doing now is great. It just keeps getting better. I also like performing live.

 

Q) Do you stay in touch with anyone you worked with on the show “Veronica’s Closet”?

 

A) Actually, I used to be more in touch with the guy who played Bryce (Christopher McDonald) who was my boyfriend on the show and was also on the Larry Sanders Show. He is really great!

 

Q) You are a part of the comic duo Girls Guitar Club. How did this project get started?

 

A) My friend Sharon and I were working on stand up comedy. One night, she was teaching me some chords. The trick is, trying to strum and sing at the same time. I was in my kitchen trying to strum and sing really loud. We thought we had to do this at open mic immediately! We went to this pretty sincere open mic night for singer/songwriters and we were going to play our song. We were so nervous because it is a totally different thing trying to play music in front of people when you can’t really play guitar. We started making all these jokes about how we really didn’t know how to play guitar and that turned into its own act. It was pretty cool because it was pretty empowering. We were like, “if you don’t know how to do something, then just do it anyway!”

 

Q) You’ve gotten to work with Reese Witherspoon on two occasions, what was it like working with such a talented actress?

 

A) I was really impressed with her because she is really young, smart and savvy. She takes her work seriously, but not too seriously. It was cool to be around a woman like that who was the star of the movie. I think she’s really funny and charming.

 

Q) What do you do in your spare time?

 

A) Sometimes I paint or go to comedy shows. I don’t really listen to music that much anymore, but I’ll go to the movies. I just moved to Venice Beach so I am going to take up roller blading, sun bathing and beach volleyball. I’m going to work out at Muscle Beach and become a tarot card reader and one of those guys that throws sticks back and forth to each other.

 

Q) What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

 

A) Keep up the good work!