Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - D’Arcy Carden

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Ted Danson always treasures his time together with dear friend D’Arcy Carden! In this episode, you’ll hear them talk about D’Arcy’s grandma’s crush on Ted, how D’Arcy went from nannying and improv to starring on TV, their memories of getting cast on “The Good Place,” and performing on Broadway. Bonus: Ted asks D’Arcy about the purpose of life. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.

Oh, poor Darcy Carden. I haven't met her yet, but she's playing this, I guess, a robot in the good place. Welcome to Where Everybody Knows Your Name. If it's your first time joining us, happy to have you. And if you're a regular, nice to know you're out there listening. Thank you. Today on the show, I have the joy of speaking with an old co-worker of mine. And by that mean, yeah, maybe I shouldn't say old co-worker, a very young, nimble co-worker of mine, the delightful, and maybe I shouldn't say nimble. Anyway, the delightful Darcy Carden, who you may know as Janet from The Good Place. I remember the second week of shooting

with Darcy on The Good Place, who played the universal computer that knows all in the world of The Good Place. And I thought, oh, poor Darcy. What a boring part. She's just going to be playing this computer all the time. Turned out, she became the major breakaway hit of the show and is just a remarkable actor. And it was so much fun to catch up with her. And I'm just delighted to introduce you to Darcy Carton. Hi, friend.

Hi, friend. Hi, friend. But you walked in and said that you threw the first pitch out. And I say that in every room that I walk into. That's all right. I don't know this story. Will you tell me? Yeah. I was two years ago, I was filming A League of Their Own in Pittsburgh, which is a baseball

TV show. And I, and, and, you know, the, the pirates contacted me to throw out the first pitch, which was like a lifelong dream. Really? Yeah. You had that dream. Well, this is a funny thing. I'm going to go like this. Is that scary? Okay. I moved the microphone. Um, my dad threw out a first pitch in the eighties or nineties. And I remember thinking like that's the coolest thing that anybody's dad has ever done. See, this is why I love doing a podcast. I learn things about you even though we've hung out and worked together every day for four years and all of that. I know.

Wow. I know. We had this cool picture of my dad like mid-pitch and I just remember. And he must have been nervous or something because he didn't invite us he just did he like went after work one day that was his pirates as well this was the oakland a's okay yeah oh my god and why him i understand you because of the tv show he my dad had a um a music magazine a bay area music magazine right called bam magazine in like the 70s 80s and 90s so he was like he was like a music industry guy and also a big a's fan i wonder if that had anything to do with it anyway he would

i mean that it was um it was really exciting but he i don't know i mean weird things like that would always happen to my dad he was like um in that world without being like a hollywood guy you know he was kind of like zealot would appear in the most amazing yeah places totally he he um he would yeah just sort of he he's like a really um likable friendly outgoing guy people just liked him and so and because he was in the music business and like the magazine business in the 70s in the 70s and 80s which was where that was the time that was it yeah he had to do cool things now let me go to you go to me back to the the pitching part you as uh you know well no was it overhand or It was overhand. It was. Okay, let's see.

Historically, in that period, women's baseball. It was overhand for pitch. Yeah, it was all overhand. Yeah. But what did I do? I did overhand. That's amazing. Because I played softball through high school, and I pitched a little bit. And actually,'s had i'm a pretty good pitcher but there's a point when you're playing softball where you go from being

like like all you need to do to be a good pitcher is be accurate and get it across the plate and hit the you know like just be accurate yeah and there's a point i think around like age 13 where all of a sudden girls are like whipping it and i wasn't really a whipping it type of picture so then i was like i'll be a first base so i think for the pittsburgh pirate pitch i think it was overhand and how did you do i let me tell you i did fine but i still have like a little bit of shame because i think I was so afraid of throwing it. First of all, have you ever done this? No.

Okay. No. Okay. I mean, thank God. It's like I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube of people doing this, and you can see they get either like overly confident or nervous. And they throw, I mean mean they throw to a different continent they throw so far the wrong way and I was thinking like oh don't you know just because I think oh I can do this I know how to do this I was in you know I was shooting league of their

own at the time so we were we were I want to say rehearsing yeah playing practicing all the time um so I was really nervous about getting too excited and throwing it like the wrong direction. So I kind of wimped it a little bit. It was, it was. Did it go over the plate? Yeah, I guess. It just wasn't that good.

It was, it was fine. But you know, I'm so, I am so competitive about sports. I really wanted to like blow everybody's mind. And then when it just kind of went, I wanted to like take the microphone and be like but i could do better hey everybody you want to see that again like you just want it you want a second chance right away but it was really fun and my whole cast came and watched and it was really a cute day they came to pittsburgh so we were all in pittsburgh shooting and so yeah it was just like a glorious little sunday and everybody came and we had like a box and everybody got a little drunk and it was really

fun that was a really good memory sweet yeah can i go back yeah beep beep beep okay so let me just get this out of the way my understanding is that you never watched any of the cheers episodes when they aired live am i is that right you didn't did you don't be mad at me i um yeah not really my my older sister laney when were you born 1980 okay yeah so i was so i was so when i started cheers you were two yeah so what was i going to do? Be a little two-year-old toddler watching goddamn stuff alone? I don't know. You could have found a way. I guess you're right.

My grandma, Anita, and my older sister, Lainey, they would watch it. And to me, it was like a grown-up show. It was, in a way. I guess for a four-year-old. And Lainey was just a couple years older than me, but that was very in line with Lainey. Like being a little adult and like watching TV with grandma. And I'm like, you don't understand these jokes. And then, and I'm sure everyone you've ever met has told you which family member had the biggest crush on you.

But my grandma Anita was really into you. Really into you and George Michael. And let's, can we go back and just say how old your grandmother was when uh she was watching shoes 20 yeah i think i think somewhere maybe 30 yeah okay good 25 it was so over the years it's so funny to watch hey i think you're really good on shoes then hey my older sister hey my mom yeah my grandparents just love you i know which is great i know you know sure i know yeah no one wants to hear that no you love it are you a little embarrassed to be sitting here talking with me with headphones on knowing we're being recorded

a little bit a little weird just because we just i i um love nothing more than talking to you. Like when I think of our four years on The Good Place, we had so many scenes where it was just the two of us. I know. And what, you know, listeners, you may or may not know this, but there's so much downtime when you're shooting a show that if we had three scenes to shoot that day, we were probably sitting in our chairs next to each other for hours.

But also when you're doing that, you are kind of keeping the mood of what you're about to do. So I never, did we, I have trouble having deep, deep conversations knowing that in a second you're going to be pulled up. We're ready for you, totally. Yeah, that's true. That's true. But we, but I, but I, yeah, that's true.

But I do love, I just love talking to you a lot. But we've never really done headphones, microphone talks. And here's the best part about doing a podcast. I know I love you. I know a lot of kind of maybe surfacy things about you. But I don't really know your history. Right. Because why would I ever?

Why would we ever? Yeah. Yeah. But you have this amazing music background. I know. I mean, your daddy was in that world. You know? I know.

It was really, it was just, what a cool way to grow up. I mean, it was, I mean, I almost can't think of a cooler way to grow up unless like your dad was Walt Disney or something. Mine, no. No? No. A Walt Disney character. Yeah, but that would be cool too.

It was just such a fun, I mean, getting to be a kid and going to concerts all the time and being in, but kind of being hidden. It wasn't like my dad was a rock star. My dad wasn't, I don't know, who am I even thinking of, Tom Petty or whatever. So we could kind of just be in backstage or be in the background and observe everything. It just was cool. And as an adult, I mean, I appreciated it when I was a kid, but really as an adult, looking back, the fact that my parents really included my four siblings, my three siblings, the four of us, was really cool. I love that your first concert was Huey Lewis in the news when you were four. At four, you were so much more hip than I am. I know. And I'm sure that was like, again,

my older sister who's two years older. So she would have been six. i'm sure that was like again my older sister who's two years older so she would have been six i'm sure that was them thinking she was old enough for a concert and me just being like i gotta come too mom i know all the songs and tell me tell me i'm sorry these are things i just found out about you there's a there's a weird a weird little uh huey lewis story that oh good with we and we saw him in concert a bunch he was that that was like a really good bay area band and they were really friendly with my parents and i think my parents had sort of come up with them at the same time um so they have a lot of great huey lewis and the news stories but at this one so this was my first concert and again i'm like four so don't quote me on it as far as I don't I don't fully remember this but all my everybody around me did um that apparently Huey was not pleased with his performance and was kind

of bummed in the in backstage so after the show you know there's like a green room and everybody's hanging out but everybody's like where's Huey where's Huey and everyone's like oh he's kind of he's kind of you know taking a moment because he didn't he didn't love that show and a few minutes later um he comes out he comes like down down the hallway and i'm holding his hand and he he basically was like like i cheered him up little four-year-old darcy had like gone in to whatever the hell he was but just coincidentally or had you heard i don't think i couldn't have known that right i couldn't i mean that's what it seems like in my mind that little like superhero kid was like i'll cheer him up with a with a the good ship lollipop song or something like that but i think i really just probably had no you know great story yeah yeah yeah i um and he was always really great to my family

like it was if there's just it was such a fun thing to sort of um check in with getting to see somebody on stage so you know i mean what a cool thing getting to i love i think i'm like still addicted to seeing concerts i will i i can't resist even though parking sucks and tickets are expensive and like you know there's a work day the next day. I like have something inside of me where I feel like I can't miss it. So I, I go to everything. And I think that has a lot to do with the way I grew up. It was like our, almost like church or something. Like we, it just was, we, we, I don't know.

I don't know what that was, but I, but I still definitely have that. God, that's so wonderful. I had, I had the opposite. I, you know, I grew up listening to classical music that my mother would put on the record player or South Pacific. Yes. Oklahoma. Yeah. And that was it.

I had no pop culture. Right. I was the guy who was, I went to Stanford and I was halfway to Monterey for this, I don't know, concert somebody told me about. Halfway there, I went, oh, you know, this is a long drive and I'm tired. I'm turning around. Oh, no. And I totally missed the Monterey Pop Festival. The only person.

The only person. I'm tired of this. It's not that long. Two hours, maybe. Yeah, two hours. Ten. I also was at a freshman dorm party and Janice Joplin, who I didn't know and probably not that many people did at that time because it was a freshman dorm party. And I guess, you know, she came and sang and I was this close as I am to you right now.

And my reaction was, wow, she's going to fuck up her voice. She's screaming. The 60s went right over my head. It was wasted on me. Yeah, that's good. That's probably good. And that's why you're here today. Yeah.

Stanford for basketball. Yeah. But sort of. Kind of. Yeah. Stepped out on the court, looked around and went, oh, shoot. Uh-oh. Turned around. Yeah.

Walked out. Yeah. Very sad. Yeah. Well, again, look where you are now. It was my gauge, though, on what was worthwhile in life. Oh, sport. I think I grew up in the acting world loving ensemble.

Me too. I really love ensemble. I mean, there are many reasons why I'm not Tom Cruise. Not just my love of ensemble. But I do truly love my lot in life. I love it. I'm exactly the same. And I credit a lot of that to sports too, of just loving being on a team.

Yeah. We're cool. We're so cool. But we're tall, which is why we're so cool. Exactly. I mean, not to get ahead of myself, but I really, okay, I'm basically talking to the listener, not to you, because I can't look at you when I say stuff like this, but like getting, okay, listener, imagine getting cast in a show like The Good Place. I had never met Ted

before. I loved him forever. And then not only is he incredibly nice and incredibly cool, but he like, this is a weird thing that i couldn't have even expected you love he guys he he loves acting you love acting there's something that like i honestly could cry right now and i don't want to because sometimes you make me cry without even meaning to it wow but it's like it's not it's such a gift to remember why we do this because it's it's not if you're gonna spend your life acting there's so much bad about it there's so many ups and downs there's so much no yeah yeah and um to remember the sort of like childhood love of acting when you're on a big Hollywood set, like the good place is, is such a gift. It's hard to even put into words. It's, it was such a gift. And it really,

I feel like it, you, you shaped, you like reshaped me. Now look at me and keep going. I want to see if you cry. Nah, you're not crying. You know, same, same back to you, by the way, you know what I love and you are full of it. Enthusiasm, you're not crying. You know, same back to you, by the way. You know what I love, and you are full of it? Enthusiasm. You know, enthusiasm for life, enthusiasm for acting, and the willingness to say yes, you know, are some of my favorite qualities in people, and you're chock full of that.

You're the same. Really, like, I mean, just the, I cannot tell you how lucky I feel that we got to work together. Me too. Really. I mean, yeah, you changed my life. Although I was a little thinking, ooh, poor Darcy Carden. I haven't met her yet, but she's playing this, I guess, a robot in The Good Place. I think she's going to get bored very quickly. Yeah, very one note. And it turns out to be one of the most iconic parts on television.

I love that. I love that so much. Just so you know, I was dead set against Shelley Long playing Diane Chambers, too, when I first met her. I thought, oh, no. This is not right. No, right. And she was like through the roof, really.

Oh, yeah. Wait, let's go back a little bit. So I... Hey, I'm running this. Okay, sure. Let's go back a little. Okay, i'm running this okay sure let's go back okay go ahead so you asked about um cheers and while i didn't watch it um as a as a kid as a two-year-old yeah as a two-year-old i am jason my lovely husband who you know and love i do um we watched it during the pandemic you even took a photo and sent it to me of you guys sitting on your counter yeah it was eating dinner watching church you know you like need it everybody if you

if you if you go back to you know 2020 march whatever like you just needed something to get through the day you needed something to look forward to so we decided we didn't want to binge it we wanted to watch one episode a night which which is not long. That's like 25 minutes. But we would make dinner and we would sit down and watch one episode. And it was one of my favorite things that we would do. We would walk our dog and we would watch Cheers. Those were like the two things I would look forward to all day. What a time. What a time. And it was great. And it was, and I would have to resist texting you every day like, holy shit, Ted, you're good. Like you're real good. You know what I did when I saw the pilot? What? I pulled Jimmy Burrows aside and started crying because I thought I was so bad. Oh my God. And he looked at me for about two seconds, then started laughing and walked away in the opposite direction. Never addressed me.

Yeah. Just started laughing and walked away. Yeah. And when, and what a thing, like, I mean, we could talk about Cheers for hours. I know, I know, I know. But what a thing to be a part of. Yeah. I mean, holy crap.

It dawned on me years after the fact, holy moly i got to play sam malone yeah and basically you know you did a play it was like a play i mean it's one room sometimes two sometimes three but you were i mean we that's the other thing jason and i would watch and marvel at like that it was like you guys were doing a 30 minute play and we felt like yeah i'm so jealous what that's incredible in the beginning the first three or four years no one messed up a line it was just we were doing a play don't mess up the line yeah that changed yeah i bet yeah that's gonna change um yeah but we just were in love with each character and and your chemistry with shelly and you i mean it was just

i also got like a weird like 80s crush on you and i was like why that can't happen she's looking at me and crying again um yeah by the way this is the right time to say my wife marries themebridge and loves you so much so much and said to say hi i love her so much. And said to say hi. I love her so much. Actually, for the rest of the podcast, let's just get our calendars out and figure out when we're going to have dinner. We are. Yeah. So how did the little girl that pulled Huey Lewis out of his funk and also went backstage at Annie at age six and gave the lead actress a pat on the fanny like good job maybe a slap more than a slap yeah

i think i really spanked her did you i really i saw annie and it was one of the first big plays i had ever seen big musicals and i and i tend to still to this day get really like lost in whatever i'm watching like i really go to a different planet and so when we were backstage meeting the cast the the, the wonderful, amazing actress who was playing Miss Hannigan was sort of like bent over talking to a little kid. And I walked up behind her and I smacked her hard on the butt kind of to be like,

I'm an orphan too. Like kind of like I'm in this world with you, that poor woman. I'm sure she was like, get this kid the hell away from me. But she played along. Or maybe it's her favorite story. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then how did you go? All right, so get us to when you first start, oh, I'm getting paid to act. Or, oh, I want to go off and be funny. I mean, I read that you were into musical comedy and you explored that. But what happened when you went, oh, this is what I want to do. And I want to make people laugh and I want to be that. The laughing thing. It's funny because I went, you know, I started acting young.

Like I was doing community theater and plays anywhere I could get my hands on it. That's not how that, you know what I'm saying? But it wasn't, I guess looking back, I was often getting cast in funny roles, but I wasn't really thinking that I was the funny actor. Right. And went to school for Shakespeare and- Where'd you do that?

Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland, boom. Where they have the shakespeare festival and it was it was really a heavily shakespeare-y education yes um and then right right after college moved to new york with the intentions of of doing theater and yeah and i had done a lot of musical theater and was loving it and and had a bunch of friends that lived in new york that were doing musical theater and that were on broad and had a bunch of friends that lived in New York that were doing musical theater and that were on Broadway and that really felt like that was what was going to be my um path or my goal at least and and and you know it's like it's hard

as you know and as every actor knows and as everybody knows like it's just a hard career and and really the first year of living in New York, all the audition, nothing was going right. I was having like a great time, but nothing was happening for me at all. Like some creepy student film somewhere and like, you know, some weird, it just, nothing was happening for me. God, I wonder where the footage of that is. Or how famous that creepy kid is now. I don't think he was famous. I don't know. i just went somewhere and uh and um and then a friend took me to see a show at the

upper citizens brigade in new york and truly like in a life-changing way watched their show their like flagship show askat and signed up for class the next day and describe yeah you see me it's yeah it's like it's an improv and it's a comedy theater and school right um founded by amy poehler and three dudes that you also know how cool is that i know i know um ian roberts matt besser and matt walsh and um yeah it was just it was it was like what a scene it was so i mean every i would say like every third actor that you love maybe every fifth actor that you love in a comedy on tv came from ucb it's just it was like this amazing wealth of talent. And, but, but when I started there, it wasn't like that, it wasn't a sure path to TV at all. It was, it was just like a really cool comedy theater that I was, that I was hyper fixated on and wanted to kind of get to the top of.

That was, it was almost like my, my, my, um, my career goals shifted to just this theater. And how did you serve, how'd you feed yourself? I, yeah. Because that doesn't pay in the beginning at least. Yeah, it didn't pay at all. And I was a really good nanny. I was a waitress and I was a temp and I was a lot of things, but then I, when I started nannying, I was like, oh, but I love this. I love nannying. So I'm going to just quit all those other jobs. And instead of, oh God, I remember temping at all these offices and I had this like this, this little black suit and all these little button up shirts. And I would get a temp job at some hideous office and I would have to put on my suit and it was like putting on, I don't know, like putting on my, my death.

Your funeral outfit. Yes, exactly. I just was like, it felt like a costume. I, I, I, it didn't look good. I just hated it. It wasn't me. And I would walk into these offices and do my little job. It just was like soul sucking completely. So when I was nannying i was like really happy so that's that's how i and how long did you do that i did that um for like 10 years while you were going in the evenings exactly so i would nanny during the day yeah and then i would do shows and rehearsals at night and and and ucb was so all-consuming that we would like i was a part of one sketch team that would start our tech rehearsal.

So this would be once a month. We would start our technical rehearsal at midnight. We would start it at midnight after all the shows were done. That was the only time the theater was free or something. Although thinking back, I'm like, well, it was free during the day. Everybody's just asleep, I guess. Yeah, yeah. So, and then i would wait

when i think of my we would do your tech rehearsals what do you mean like my my sketch group that i was in yeah um some of which let me just think real quick brandon scott jones who was on our our show the good place um wonderful wonderful one of my best friends a bunch of um uh chris kelly a writer who created the show the other two like a lot of a lot of really cool talent came from from that theater um and uh yeah so we would and i would be doing shows there every night it was when i think of my 10 or 11 years in new york i think of somehow and this is why you live in new york in your 20s i think i just never slept i would sleep for like five hours.

I'd come home. I, we lived in Brooklyn. So it was a far, you know, I would travel far to go nanny. I just never slept. And I would pack a gigantic backpack full of like nanny stuff into like

rehearsal stuff into what I was going to wear for the show that night into a different pair of shoes and maybe an umbrella. And I just jump on the subway. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah yeah i know it's fun though it was really fun next what happened next then i then you know new york was great um but this is pre-jason this is during jason so you met jason at ucb i met him when I was doing UCB. I met him when I was doing UCB. And did he know what he wanted to do? Was he doing it? We actually met doing a play.

So he was an actor and I was an actor. We did a play in the Bay Area, just a random play. Well, he was living in LA and I was living in New York. And then I guess the fast forward version of that is when we started dating and moved to New York. And his day job was working in like a production house so he was doing producery things and that's what he was falling in love with and when he he was a great actor i loved acting with him i miss acting with him but he um i have this memory of him producing like a little web series that we were in and on the days that he had to do the acting

he was like miserable he loved producing you know and then he'd be like oh shit okay what are my lines like and then he kind of realized oh maybe i really like producing and that's what he's been doing now for so long but um but it was i mean we were struggling struggling and figuring it out together. And it's fun. How do I say this? Like there have been some wonderful, crazy, exciting, extravagant moments in our life in the last five, six, seven years. And it's very fun to look at him and be like, remember when we lived? Yeah. And the walk up of a, you know, top, the top floor of some shitty little apartment. You know, we had a bed that touched like all four walls.

The tiniest little bed. It's nice to be able to look at him. It is. It is. And if you have the, if you came into it, I think for the right reasons, which is passion and I've got to, and this process is, whatever this tribe is I want to join is everything. Yeah. Because that doesn't go away. I mean, don't you still feel that way about going to work?

Yes, totally. Yes, completely. Yeah. Especially when you're surrounded by people that feel that way too. Yeah. Which you tend to do, I think. That's what you attract. Yeah.

You know, at a certain point you attract that if that's what you tend to do i think that's what you attract yeah you know at a certain point you attract that if that's what you love i think so and i mean i almost i i not to say i don't have time for it because i love to act and you know money's great it's fun when they pay you but um i would rather not do it i would rather not do it if it wasn't with people that feel that way. It's so, it's such a heartbreak. It is. It is a heartbreak. Yeah. Trying to think if I'm really that pure.

I know. No, I think you are. Okay. Okay. You are. You surround yourself with, yeah. I, I, I've been. You think, I know you think about that because we've talked about it.

I know you think about that when picking things and saying yes to things. I think God knows I'm not great with choice, the acting God. Yeah. Because I usually do what is next offered to me. And by and large, I've been blessed by amazing writing, which attracts really good directors, which attracts great casts. And I've led a kind of magical life that way. I don't have a stack of scripts going, hmm, I'll do this one. I kind of don't believe that, but I know you're telling the truth. No, no, it's true. I'm sure stuff gets weeded out by my agent or my manager or whatever,

but by and large, uh i'm blessed that way i really am you don't have to say that any project but do you when you look back are you do you have a movie or a show where that was offered to you that you didn't say yes to that year no yeah i mean that you didn't that you're like damn it no i have no i have no regrets. I mean, yes, I'm a joy junkie. So I train myself to be joyful, even if I have to fake it to make it. But I always do about of the hard, this is terrible. This is going to sound like I'm making a comparison. I'm not. But one of the hardest jobs I ever did was CSI. Yeah, I bet. It's just really, really, really hard because you didn't have room to be funny. Right. Because if you're funny at the end of the scene, which is where you sometimes can improvise some funny stuff at the end of scenes, then the audience forgets about the perforated gallbladder

that the guy tied up. And so they went, no jokes again, no jokes again. No, please. Yeah, and the things you're memorizing are not, it's almost like a different language. If I had to say vaginal tear or blood splatter, you know, it was like, really. And they were really good at making uh prosthetic uh

charred people oh wow you know yeah to stare at while you're talking how many years did you do that i did it four and i the people were wonderful the cast is great the writers were sweet and kind the you know the world watched it yeah uh but it was it was hard. I need to be silly. I know. You're really good at being silly. Give me silly, please. I know. I know. You're really, really good at being silly. All right. Let's jump just around. Let's talk about the good place. Okay. I love it. I mean, to me, it's one of my favorite things I've ever been blessed to do.

And that's also so exciting to hear because it was my first thing, really. Yeah. And I was like, holy shit, this is amazing. I love, like at my first meeting with Mike, I was like, I think this guy is incredible. Oh, do that. No, do that. Do how you got there. Oh, yeah, how I got there.

Okay, I'll do that really quick i you know i would i had moved to la and i i'd been here for a few years and was auditioning here and there but nothing just just your regular shit i wasn't getting anything i wasn't getting anything i had a teeny little part on a show called broad city i really i really wasn't like the tv was not happening for me right um and i did an audition oh yeah i i got audition, and I was excited that I knew you were attached. I knew Kristen was attached, and I knew it was Mike Schur, and I knew some of the writers from Parks and Rec. And I remember thinking, like, this would be the dream. And, of course, I won't get it.

Like, I don't get anything. But I would like to do a really good job in this audition and maybe make Mike Schur cast me in some little bit part in a different season or whatever. So I really worked on it so hard. That's the other thing I had. I mean, this is a side note, but I have one of my worst qualities is not committing fully to auditions because it's so sad when you don't get them. That it was like this weird little self-fulfilling like not fully committing so then my heart doesn't hurt when i don't get it i could

have gotten it but i just didn't prepare yeah and the good place getting the good place after working so hard was like a really good lesson i was like oh so it works when you when you put in there okay cool um yeah so and did you prepare for the role of janet is that where you came i did So it works when you put it in there. Okay, cool. And did you prepare for the role of Janet? Yes, I did. But if you remember, the scripts weren't out. You and Kristen were basically the only people that knew anything about where the show was going. So the scripts were like dummy. They weren't real.

It was some fake scene. I was like an operator. Was it a fast talking scene so they could test whether you could do janet yes like looking back on it it was perfect it was like i worked at a hotline for broken dolls and i needed to give the person advice on how to fix the doll and different you know different options and never getting flustered and never never it was it was a great scene it would be fun to like you know to put it out there somehow um but but every audition i had maybe three or four of them just went so well that i was sort of stunned afterwards like like how could that have gone better it's i'm not going to get this role but like what could i have done that really worked they laughed i felt good like

it just was so good and easy and then then, yeah, getting that getting that call. How long did you have to wait? Oh, this is great. Well, very long. Maybe five years is what it felt like. I'm sure it was like a week, you know, but it was just staring at my phone. I had some, I'm going to say it, shitty little writing job at some weird little some pop culture show that i refused to even watch i hated it so much you know just some i was really not you know my career was not happening and i and i would just stare at my phone waiting for something for a call to let them know that for them to let me know that i didn't get it so you were you went negative you went dark yeah totally oh yes completely completely i bet i'm like what was the percentage of light i i bet there was like a

sliver yes a sliver of maybe maybe or even just a good compliment it's not going to be you but they actually loved you and he knows your name now it's some something to get me by um but okay so you know a week or two of of waiting and and when we would be at home i was trying to distract myself so jason said why don't we watch this season of fargo let's just watch let's just watch tv let's just watch tv watch tv watch tv so we started watching fargo and who's comes on the damn screen with this handsome man in front of me, Ted Danson, playing a character that I'd never seen you play. She's crying again. Tears are just streaming. You were so good and so charming and so heartbreaking.

And all I was thinking was like, I want to work with this guy. This is not doing what it should be doing, which is distracting me. I'm watching this guy. I was positive though that that was opening the crack of positive open a little more yeah yeah and then you know truly watched an episode of fargo closed the computer got settled into bed and then got a call at like 11 p.m from really yes 11 yeah i think it would it was from an agent and i don't think they were like supposed to tell me yet i think it was supposed to be a morning call.

But they were giving me sort of vague. It wasn't like this is 100%, but they were like, be ready tomorrow. And I'm like, what does this mean? And we had champagne, and we screamed. Oh, how wonderful. It was great we are two of our best friends lived upstairs paul and lucia who created the show hacks but they were they also were same as us just kind of like struggling and right um and we knocked on their door at like 11 p.m and

they popped champagne and we oh how sweet it was great we were all in our pajamas and screaming and it's really really good. Yeah. You have generous friends because sometimes it's- Yes, totally. Oh, you got that? Oh, good. Good for you. Wow.

Surprise, but good for you. Yeah. Well, they did fine. Yeah. And then it was quick. I was the last person to be cast. So then I probably met you and the rest of the cast the next, I don't know, two, three days later. And did a table read and we were off.

I was terrified. Were you? Yeah. I had no idea. I mean, Kristen Bell somehow adopted me in her brain and was so sweet and supportive. And I had met with Mike, who was very complimentary and very sweet and very real. And then I listened to him pitch the idea to me for an hour. And he's one of the brightest people.

And a lot of people are bright, but his brain is also encyclopedic. He's just- Yeah, he's extra. Yeah. So when he pitches a story, there's no sort of or kind of yes you could be flipping the page looking at it and going wow wow yeah he doesn't miss any details every second of something yeah and i just listened quietly for about an hour and then my manager uh and i were listening and we both kind of looked at each other.

It was like, all right, I have no idea what this is, but I want in. Let me in, please. I want in. Yeah. I didn't understand how to be, how Michael, my character, the architect, could be funny when you didn't know his secret. Right. Because usually audiences, it's, there's a triangle,

right? You, I'm talking to you, Darcy, but the audience knows yada, yada. Totally. And they laugh because I'm misleading you or I'm this or I'm that.

But there was no triangle. Right. So you. Including my own cast. Yeah. Not my cast. I hate that. No, it is.

cut that. No, no, don't cut it. They're cutting it as we speak. There's the truth. All right. I'm going. Yuck, yuck. Cut that. Yuck. No, don't cut it. They're cutting it as we speak. There's the truth. All right.

I'm going to talk about myself in third. Ted made a mistake. Ted made a mistake. And Ted is sorry. He's really upset. No, that was the other thing. For people that don't know, the four other cast members, other than Kristen and Ted, Manny, Will, Jamila, and I did what the what the season looks like after about episode

three and i almost don't want to i'm sure people know whatever it's been years whatever we didn't we didn't know the big twist yeah so so um yeah so not only right not only did the audience not know and not only did our characters not know but we your fellow actors didn't know what a fucking insane thing that was or directors directors who would come and direct. And give you advice. And you'd feel so rude because they'd come and say, I think you should play this. Right. And I'd slowly.

Look at one of the writers. Surreptitiously look at one of the writers and go, how do we deal with this? Who's going to tell them? Yeah, totally. That was the most amazing. I mean, God, what an amazing thing to be a part of something that a twist that really worked that really twisted the twist worked i think people went online and talked about it and then at the same time netflix started airing the first season yeah it was this convergence of

luck it was that kind of blasted us out there it really blasted us what a thing it felt like there was i remember there was like it must have been like, it must have been, I think it was like, again, in my mind, it was like the next day after Netflix released it. But of course it wasn't. Let's say the next week where I was like, oh, I think everyone in the world watched it. I just was, I went from, yeah, I just, I feel like every person I would run into on the street would say, I watched the show. What was that like for you? Because you went from people not knowing you very much, right? To getting blasted with people loving it, knowing you and really appreciating you. What was that like? It was. Because it's not always easy. Yeah.

It was not. It may have been like the easiest version of it because it was so pleasant. Yeah. I think the Janet character is such a pleasant, lovable character that I do think that people tend to... If I had played some evil villain or, I don't know, a jerk or something, I think I might have received a different energy. But just people were nice about it. And I tended to feel like people that watched that show

were like nice and smart. You know what I mean? It was like a nice, smart group of people that would watch it. So they always seemed to be pretty nice. Although I have a lot of people show up who I wouldn't have pegged as necessarily smart with a bow tie and a sweater, but hard hats and this and that.

People who love it. Yeah. And then kids. Kids. That was something that I could have never guessed or expected is just the amount of kids. Yeah. Before The Good Place,

I had to spend 20 minutes describing to people what cheers was that it was a show in the latter half different century yeah 20th century and then kids yeah loved it and because michael had the bow tie and janet had the little purple suit we were almost like i always I always think of. We were Halloween characters. Exactly. We were. Yeah, we were. Yeah. Yeah. There was almost like a Mickey Mouse quality.

Like little kids just sort of. Yeah. Hey, let me just say. What? You're spectacular in The Good Place. You are. You really, truly are. And I remember the day that you were so popular and so good. And'm the writers or at least that's how they describe

it so we have to give her something spectacular to do and they did the episode where you were playing all the different characters we we all to hide from the bad place folks went into your what do you call it void void yeah you have to watch it. Because it sounds a little weird. I know. Impossible to explain. But you had to end up, Darcy had to play all the different characters, all of us, Kristen, Ted, all of us. And you were alone in a room that was pure white walls, white ceiling.

It was hard to even stand in the room. Without getting dizzy. I remember turning to you once, the room without getting dizzy i remember turned to you once the beginning of you shooting that whole week by yourself going this is fucked up exactly ted it's so funny that you have that memory wait were you about to say something else yeah it's i can't even remember my name when i step into that sound stage you know it's so like you know it's cool that conversation got me through the entire episode because that was day one. And Ted is basically in the first minute or two of this episode. And then I'm in this white room by myself for the rest of the time. crazy and then hearing you not just my friend and and you know fellow actor but ted danson who's done a million things and who's you know who i love and respect as an actor saying hey this is

fucked like this is gonna be hard and you said you're gonna forget basically your objective like you're gonna forget what you have to remember what you're doing did i give you advice you gave me no but you give you give really good advice you give advice that i you because you don't give advice not only you're not crying right now it's just not true no you do people take my advice and do the opposite it's good that way i'm it works sir i really i listen to your advice and i take it because you're not like, come sit down. Let me tell you everything I know. You're just talking to me like my friend.

You really, because being in that white room by myself, my instinct would have been to like get through the lines and, you know, it's so technical. It's almost like it's not even acting. It's more technical than emotional. But the scenes were emotional. And so you just said, remember what these scenes are about and remember who you're talking to. And I swear to God, that got me through the whole week. You gave me other advice on other things that I took.

Didn't work out as well. It did work out. Oh, good, good. After when we were sort of winding down, you and I were like having coffee at Crafty and Crafty is where we have snacks. And you were sort of like, hey, whatever you do next, make it be as far away from Janet as possible, which was such good advice. Are you sure you don't just think of these things? No, I also don't have a very good memory. You've really made an impact, sir.

Good, good. I'm glad. Because a lot of the things that were coming my way around the time of Good Place being done were Janity type characters, peppy and perky and happy. And I think it would have been literally like robotic. I mean, people don't have much of imagination you know what i mean she does robot really well yeah you gotta cast her and she prefers acting by herself in white rooms let's do it easy you don't have to pair more either

um and uh yeah anyway so then the next role i took was league of their own and and i and she was very very very greta gill was as different from Janet as I could get. And I really credit you so much with helping me figure that out. Thanks. You're welcome. The Good Place. Yeah. The Good Place, which is truly, truly about ethics and what it means to lead a purposeful life. Would you add anything to like the headline of the show? That's one of the things I took away

and looked at myself, which is leading a purposeful life. is this me being purposeful in my living? Let me ask you, how's your purposeful life going? For real. Yeah. And purposeful doesn't mean you're, you go to the UN and save the world. Right. It means, are you doing something that, what you, you describe it? Well, I feel like purposeful is there's always like more to do. So like when you say, how's your purposeful life? My first instinct is small, which is maybe okay. But there's so much good to do. And sometimes I feel like I'm doing good in a very small way or with a very small group. My good could be so much bigger. And maybe that's everything. Maybe that's even

if I was going to the UN and all that. Maybe I could still be doing more and bigger, but, um, I, I think that's an area that, um, I'd like to be bigger. I'd like, I'd like for my small, my purposeful small life to grow. And, um, yeah, I hear you. And when I want to beat up on myself, that's kind of how I think, you know, I'm not doing enough and dah, dah'm not doing enough and but i do also believe that which is what we talked about in the good place too i mean it's it's not like the good place invented this right this is probably ethics 101 or something but you you don't know the ripple effects you don't know the ripple effects of you just walking in the room today right or down the street or whatever you have no idea whether you looked and smiled at somebody whether or not that changes yeah ripples and so i think it's about just being conscious to try to try to do a little bit better

yeah i like that i like that and i totally believe in that and i do think that is one of the things that this show made me sort of kind of put into words and into my brain, which is just like when faced with the option of doing good or doing bad, doing good. And when you can do a little bit better, do a little bit better. Here's what I have trouble with. There are a lot of things where it's easy to be a little bit better. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. But that includes caring for liking and listening to people who are stupid as batshit as far as I'm concerned, which right away knocks

me out of the conversation of a purposeful life. I have, you you know you're forced to discover how judgmental you are i know you know and this ties into the good place i think because if you're going to be ethical if you're going to be purposeful you got it that includes everything you and everything in the world you have to try to step up to the plate yeah my one of my favorite things of failure when it comes to the good place in ethics was the celebrity tip. You're in a cafe and

they're making you a coffee and there's a tip jar. Do I quietly put my celebrity tip, which is large, while their back is to me making the coffee no i wait ted wait until they see me drop the 10 20 whatever in there and you know this one is really that's tough i know i don't even i mean i guess okay because i've actually i've really

thought about this one and and especially when we were on the good place we kind of played so many games like this where we would come up with these real world scenarios and what would you do and what is the right thing to do. But the thing is, okay, so yes, I'm the same way where I'm like, I want them to see me put the tip in because that makes me feel good. Yeah. But then you go, okay, so the right thing to do is actually, you know, put the 10 in, the 20, the whatever, the 100. I don't know. I don't know what kind of money you have. The 50 cents and and when their back is turned so that it's it's you know it's it's really for the good of of giving them the thing without without any credit but then here's where i'll go a step further maybe okay wait let me just think. How can I put this into words? If they see you do it, maybe there's like a moment between the two.

No, no, no, no, no. I think any way that I could explain this is just to help the celebrity tipper. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's no way around it. It's a karmic wash. You gave somebody money they probably need or certainly deserve. What about if they say, hey, later they're telling their spouse at dinner, well, guess who came into the coffee shop today?

Ted Danson. Remember him from your favorite show, The Good Place? And guess what? He gave me a huge tip. Doesn't that make you feel good about someone like him would actually care enough to put in like they're they're it's bringing good into the world in a bigger way like they're uh no okay no as i'm saying and the person's husband is probably our asshole i know i know i never liked that guy never no i know i know have you okay i'm bouncing here we go all

right so you i saw you last because we had lunch in in New York and you had to then run off and go do your Broadway play. Yeah. That evening. How was that? It was really cool. Oh my God. Wait, this is, okay, I'm going to, this is another little ethics thing that I, okay,

I'm just going to tell the story. Feel free to cut it. I was doing this Broadway play and it was just a short little run called the Thanksgiving play. It was like a 10 week run. And I got this sweet little video from Ted on this app called Marco Polo that we love where you make little videos and send them. And he was in a Broadway house. He was about to see a play and he turned the camera on himself with a big smile. And he showed the playbill where there was an article about me and a picture of me. And he was like, look, it's you. I'm so proud of you. Okay. I thought it was so sweet. And then two hours later, after he's done with the play, I get another one from him that was like, I'm such a piece of shit you i just sent you a

video showing you that i'm in new york seeing a broadway play and not seeing yours and it's a good thing i did because you was thinking it i do believe no no no no no no no no no no no she's not crying no i'm not crying the truth is and then you said let's go to let's go to breakfast you know tomorrow so so we we got to spend good time and that's actually what i said i said i no, no, no. She's not crying. No, I'm not crying. The truth is. And then you said, let's go to, let's go to breakfast, you know, tomorrow. So, so we, we got to spend good time.

And that's actually what I said. I said, I don't care if you see my play. I just want to sit and hang out with you. Um, and then. So what was it like to play? Yeah,

it was, um, scary. I hadn't been, I hadn't done a play in like over a decade. A lot of lines. So many lines, four actors split, you know, quarter, I don't know, down the, down a decade a lot of lines so many lines four actors split you know

quarter I don't know down the down the middle two four ways um um a month of rehearsal okay was that enough did you I think so yeah yeah um this is something that like really messed with me that I bet would have messed with you too. In rehearsals. Okay. So we were doing a comedy. It was a really funny show. If we would say, if I said something in a rehearsal that got a laugh from the producers and the director, it immediately sent me into a panic because I knew I would have a hundred more of the, I'd have to do this a hundred more times just in rehearsal alone. And because we come from, because we do comedy, the whole thing about comedy is like keeping it fresh and keep changing it up and surprising. Right. And you do that with, with, you know, when it's for the camera, you can do five, six, seven takes and they can be a little

bit different each time. And maybe you'll get the, the you know camera guy to sort of chuckle behind the camera but the idea that like i it worked in this moment and that means i'm gonna have to do it exactly like that yeah it really yeah it was it was um it was uh i i panicked i really like had a really hard time with it i had to talk to the cast and the director and i said like is it cool with you guys if i if something works can i just not do it again until we open to which they were like no you have to do it that's not how this works we need to all know the rhythm and you know so so i got that was something that was like a very big challenge for me that that ended up being a blessing and and really fun

and a cool way to sort of flex another comedy muscle of of like you know um timing and details right i have no right to talk about plays it's been so long that i've been on stage but there's all there's such a different rhythm and you when you're in front of a camera, you can go for it and discover and, no, that didn't work. Again, I keep doing it. But the rhythm kind of a play is finally, oh, you got it. You understand it. Then there's a hill down where everything sucks. And then hopefully it comes up and opening night, bam, through the roof, great. But it's a different, you have to go through what you just described of, oh, this is deadening.

Yes. And when you're in that down slope, it feels like there's nothing you can do. And that's for the entire sort of like rehearsal and play process. But just on a nightly basis, once the show was up and running you know if i noticed especially because this was like a comedy comedy like a lot of a lot of jokes a lot of laughing if someone in the audience sneezed on the end of a funny line i knew it wouldn't get like you you know you get that into it where it's like okay someone coughed right before he said the funny part so they're not going to hear that so that means the next thing. So I better bail and do this and do that.

But which was kind of fun, actually. Because then you're engaged. Because when you're rehearsing, you don't have an audience except those people who are desperately hoping that their words are funny and all of that stuff. But the audience is just guiding you and yanking you around and doing new things to you. So that does make it a little bit more spontaneous for you for sure and it was that was the way to keep it fresh and and and i had a great time and my biggest takeaway from it was just like i i can't wait to do it again some you know i want it i definitely yeah i liked it i really liked it i loved it it's it just took me back to you know real childhood like

doing plays with friends when you're a kid is the most fun thing I could possibly imagine. And that wasn't so different from this, you know? Yeah. I think I told you my story, which I won't bother, but I got so scared. No, all right. I was at the Atlantic Theater.

It's a good one. Atlantic Theater, which is this amazing theater in New York that feeds a lot of things into Broadway. Everything they do kind of ends up there. And they're friends of ours, Neil Pepe and Mary McCann, and they're just great people. And so they asked all the company members, but also me, I'm not a company member, to do this celebration, three or four or five weeks of all the playwrights. It was the 25th anniversary. So they got 25 playwrights that they had been working with and said, write anything,

20 minutes long. Doesn't matter. You can write an opera, you can write a monologue, you can write a scene, it doesn't matter. And then all these actors would come in and they would do five of these a night for a week. And then they'd switch out to a new group of playwrights and do five of them every night. And you got about one day of rehearsal with Neil Pepe, the artistic director. And then off you went. And I saw somebody the week before me. When I flew into New York, I went to see that week's plays. And I saw somebody go up

on a line and I thought, oh, well, somebody will whisper the line very surreptitiously from the wings. No, it came from the lighting booth over a microphone, you know, the line you just missed. And so I thought, oh, I better think of something clever to say if I go up. And I had a monologue. It was a 20-minute monologue. And I so psyched myself. It was a wonderful monologue about the man who is talking to the audience and tries to remember what horrible thing he's trying to remember and he can't. And he goes through his day in front of the audience and then realizes that when he gets

home, his wife says, can you take this down to the basement? And as he goes down to the basement, he realizes that a literal hell with stalactites and stalagmites and hell is in his basement. Great. The real hell. And then he horrified and he goes back out to walk the dog. And by the time he comes back in, he's forgotten.

So every day is his cycle. Jeez. Right. So 20 seconds in to my little opening night. I'm going to throw up. Yeah. I went totally blank. And it was like sticking my finger 20 seconds in.

Sticking my finger into a light socket. And my whole body went, you know. And my heart raced in that split second it's like fuck i can't believe that happened oh my god my daughter's in the audience do i cry no don't cry i could get up and leave oh shit i can't believe this and then i remember to ask darcy for the line so i say darcy really the person's darcy what happens next great that's so charming like I'm in charge yeah well Darcy the stage manager has just sat down behind the desk with you know her cup of coffee and 20 seconds in right the clown splits my line spills her coffee thumbs through to find

out and she gives me the line that I just just said before I forgot it. Got that one, hon. Yeah. I said, actually, it's the next line, Darcy. I mean, I would be so charmed. Okay. So then she gives you the line. She gives me the line and I'm off and running. Okay.

And I have so much adrenaline, so much anger, so much just craziness in my body that it probably was a brilliant performance because this guy discovers he has hell in his basement. So he has a right to be upset. My poor daughter had to walk me around the block with like two liters of water. To just calm your body down. Yeah, totally. That's not natural. I was just vibrant. Yeah.

The next day, Neil Pepe, the director said, hey, why don't you come in half hour early and we'll just go over the lines. Let's just go over it. I don't know. I mean, the thing is, hearing the way you handled it, it is the perfect way that puts the audience at ease. Sure. Because I've been on the stage screwing up a line and I've been in the audience screwing up a line. And that is as much stress for the audience as it is for the person on stage, right? When it's just, you can

tell. Yeah. Car wreck, car wreck. Yeah. And when you, you know, hey Darcy, what's the line? That's so charming. But I- It was Darcy, by the way. That's so weird. I know. So when you met me, were you like, I have a bad connotation? No, I just made that up. It was Marcy. It was Marcy, by the way. That's so weird. I know. So when you met me, were you like, I have a bad connotation? No, I just made that up. It was Marcy. It was Marcy. Oh, okay. Similar. You can understand my confusion. This is why I'll never do theater again.

I had a moment on stage for this play where there was like, it was a real, it was like a really clippy comedy, right? We were just like, it was the, the rhythm was there and, and, you know, we and we weren't screwing up lines a lot. But on this one night, there was like a pretty big dead pause and my brain went, ooh, who screwed up? And I looked around. I was like trying to, what did we just say? What's coming up next? And my thought was, how can I help this person get out of this situation?

And then I see all three sets of eyes staring at me. I realized it was my line. It was my line. It was my line. Somehow, you know, somehow I had just gotten off and then I said it and then it was fine and we were off and moving, but it is such a weird and also, oh yeah, yeah. There was also, so a little bit after that, there's a moment where I'm staring at the back of the stage at the, you know, upstage. And the only thing running through my mind was, you are on Broadway. You just made that mistake. This isn't a, like, this is not some little nothing that you are on Broadway and you fool.

You just made that mistake. But it was okay. And then I never did it again. How many reviews? Do you really want to know? Yeah. Great. Fantastic.

Yeah. give me a quote uh you know actually now that you say that like i didn't really my my um you know just your people your your um your reps do this where you get like an email that kind of have pull quotes about you do you get that uh if there's a review and it's like this is this was positive they said blah blah, blah, blah. So now that I think about it, here's something that I do. This is weird, and I'm sure this is my ADHD brain in full effect. And I did this for The Good Place too.

When we would get reviews, I would open them. Okay, so imagine my little laptop. I'd open them, but I wouldn't read them, but they'd be a tab. So they would be like one. I would have I would have the review on my laptop ready to read, but I wouldn't read it for months. I wouldn't read it for months. I don't even know why. I can I think I can handle it, but I just couldn't do it. And so I remember having like reviews of that Janet's episode up for like a year before I got to them. Yeah. So anyway, they were they were, you you know it was it was really i felt very uh embraced and like welcomed and

wonderful yeah it was it was i felt really good it was really really nice it was nice i kind of couldn't quite believe it can i tell you some of my reviews yeah it was after cheers it was becker and to some degree i think it's a truism that after something massively successful there are some folks out there especially if the press loved you and the you know cheers yeah they were kind of laying in wait yeah i'd like to think that that's the case yeah but mary and i it was premiere night, but Mary and I were in New York because I had just done all the press, all these shows for two days. And then we were in a car being driven to the airport to fly back to L.A. for opening night party and watch the show. Fun. And I watch Mary. I'm happy. I'm content.

I've done my job. And why is Mary slowly moving this stack of newspapers onto the floor? You know, I went, oh, okay. Yeah. Let me read them. You know, she stutters for a minute and then hands them to me. Here was my favorite headline. Too tepid Ted.

And then the sentence went on. But too tepid Ted stuck in my memory. The other one was Mr. Thinks He's So Wonderful Danson. Yeah. These people didn't like me as much as you do. Oh, no. But it was just, it's hammered in my brain. I will never forget Toot, Tap, and Ted.

No, the other one is worse for me. Thinks he's wonderful. Yeah. My mom basically said that to me one time. About me? No, not about you. She thinks you're great. Something similar.

Like, okay, wait, what was the line again? It was thinks he's so wonderful. Yeah mr thinks he's so wonderful yeah thinks he's so wonderful dance yeah i just remember i don't even remember what it was having to do with but it was you know your mom can say whatever she can call you a brat she can moms can can moms can get you but there was something about you're not as cute as you think you are. That really stuck with me. It might have been the meanest thing she's ever said to me. But also, good, good to remember. I've said this on the show before, but my mother, when asked how she felt about my success on Cheers in the early days, she said, well, I'm happy for him, of course, but it's a little foreign to me because I come from a long line of people who believe in the quiet, no, the nobility of quiet failure.

Wow. Wow. Wow. That'll stick with you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's really good. That's a great quote.

Yeah, that's the best. All right, let me ask you another question, and then we're about at the hour mark. But first off, I adore you. The feeling is so mutual. We have you on camera, by the way. So when you were professing your love with tears in your eyes, we do have that. You might see. I do think I got a little teary in my right eye on the corner. The downstage eye.

The camera's there, right? No, I really. but i want to ask you one more i want to know but i want to know about my cosmic heart yeah yeah i mean in general you know i here's here's i feel very lucky okay and as and i think that's when i think about my heart i think i like i can be a little boohooey but then if i zoom out it's it's very easy for me to see that i am so unbelievably lucky and grateful. And I get to, it's like as simple as like live my dreams. I got, you know, think of that, me telling you that I got to watch you on Fargo and all I could think of was I want to work with that guy. I just want to work with him he's so good I just want to be on a set with him and and get to work with him and I've gotten to have that experience with not just you

um but I gotta tell you Ted and I've said this before and other people have said this too you're the best actor i've ever worked with in scenes together you and me one-on-one no your resume is very short no i have i've worked with really good people that's true though but no i um you are the best scene partner no don't even don't go towards the microphone you are the most um connected and committed and uh surprising and inspiring actor i have ever worked with and when i got to be in scenes with you one-on-one i'm not kidding when i got to be in scenes with you one-on-one you made me a better actor in real time for real you you alone this is tough okay just so you know i have complete editorials but at least i know you heard so i'm keeping this in i am definitely keeping this in you really are you're so special yeah you you're deflecting but uh okay thank you thank you so much. I really, and I adore you too. Here's something about you that wherever I go,

especially in our world of actors and writers and directors and stuff, people, I'm not looking at you either, but I'm not crying, but it's hard to look at people directly. I know it is hard. Sorry. But the ripple effect you have of what you put out in the world, people love you. People are ferociously care about their relationship with you and with Jason. You mean a lot to a lot of people that are out there working in our world. And that's something that, hey, I didn't interrupt you. That's something that is a ripple effect that is a purposeful part of your life. You care about people. You care about your friends.

You're fiercely loyal. And that does have a ripple effect. Cool. I love that. Thank you so much. I'll take that. Really, really enjoy sitting here talking to you. I love you.

Yeah. Marcy or Darcy? Well, I'm Darcy. Darcy. Yeah. There are Mar marcies out there for sure and that one this is too tepid ted signing off i love you so much i just couldn't love you more i fucking love you

darcy carden everyone What did I tell you? The best, right? She has a podcast, too, called WikiHole. It's a wild ride into the Internet's most interesting and interconnected Wikipedia entries. Actually, I'm holding something back. I was on her podcast and had the best time with her. So it really is fun. That's it for this week's show.

A special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a friend. Subscribe, rate, and review. And you can always watch full episodes of this podcast on Team Coco's YouTube channel, if that is your thing. And I recommend doing that, actually. I'll be right back here next week where everybody knows who you name. See you soon. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, sometimes.

The show is produced by me, Nick Leal. Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alyssa Graw. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gann, Mary Steenburgen, and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarro. We'll have more for you next time where everybody knows your name.