Snark and Recreation
Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza has deadpanned her way to the top.
By Alexis Swerdoff
Photographed by Jiro Schneider
On a recent Saturday night, Aubrey Plaza found herself in a Palm Springs hotel room, in bed with her Parks and Recreation costars Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones, eating cookies and watching YouTube clips of Jason Bateman. Describing what most comedy fanatics would consider a dream come true, Plaza recalls, "Yeah, it was fun."
The 26-year-old actress -- best known for playing sullen assistant April on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and for her roles in Judd Apatow's Funny People and this summer's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -- is the queen of the understatement. ("This is my boyfriend,
Derek, and this is Derek's boyfriend, Ben," she famously deadpanned on an early Parks and Rec episode.)
A wide-eyed ingénue quality coupled with her Debbie Downer delivery has made her one of the most buzzed-about young Hollywood comediennes -- and perhaps seeing a little bit of themselves in her, the elder Jones and Poehler have taken the fresh-faced Delaware native under their wings. "I don't know what I would do without them," Plaza says.
Although she's not going to win the most spirited camper award anytime soon, Plaza doesn't walk around with an animated rain cloud hovering above her head. Describing the dynamic on the Parks and Rec set, she gushes, "The vibe is so positive. There's such a family dynamic. It's like Amy [Poehler] and Nick [Offerman] are the parents, and the rest of us are all their weird children." She laughs, "I don't even know what that means."
After finishing up season three, Plaza has several projects in the works, about which she must keep mum for now. She will say, however, that she would like to do "an un-comedy" next. She's also been writing her own material. "I've realized from being here in L.A. for a year that I'm too impatient to wait around for the perfect parts to be written for me." One of the scripts she's working on takes place in Sweden, so this past May she went there by herself for two
weeks, and just wrote. "I came to the conclusion that I can only write when I'm in a strange country alone," she says, "And when I get back home, I'm back to watching Bravo and eating SpaghettiOs again."
The 26-year-old actress -- best known for playing sullen assistant April on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and for her roles in Judd Apatow's Funny People and this summer's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -- is the queen of the understatement. ("This is my boyfriend,
Derek, and this is Derek's boyfriend, Ben," she famously deadpanned on an early Parks and Rec episode.)
A wide-eyed ingénue quality coupled with her Debbie Downer delivery has made her one of the most buzzed-about young Hollywood comediennes -- and perhaps seeing a little bit of themselves in her, the elder Jones and Poehler have taken the fresh-faced Delaware native under their wings. "I don't know what I would do without them," Plaza says.
Although she's not going to win the most spirited camper award anytime soon, Plaza doesn't walk around with an animated rain cloud hovering above her head. Describing the dynamic on the Parks and Rec set, she gushes, "The vibe is so positive. There's such a family dynamic. It's like Amy [Poehler] and Nick [Offerman] are the parents, and the rest of us are all their weird children." She laughs, "I don't even know what that means."
After finishing up season three, Plaza has several projects in the works, about which she must keep mum for now. She will say, however, that she would like to do "an un-comedy" next. She's also been writing her own material. "I've realized from being here in L.A. for a year that I'm too impatient to wait around for the perfect parts to be written for me." One of the scripts she's working on takes place in Sweden, so this past May she went there by herself for two
weeks, and just wrote. "I came to the conclusion that I can only write when I'm in a strange country alone," she says, "And when I get back home, I'm back to watching Bravo and eating SpaghettiOs again."
Your Comment
Posted at 2:18 on Dec 03, 2010
i love aubrey but is she snarky in real life, or is she really nice?