Discussion with NYFA Summer Camp Grad Aubrey Plaza

[Music] we're here to see audrey she's one of my favorite actresses i'm really super excited yeah hi aubry i'm just really excited yeah she used to get a knife i think she's really funny she's hilarious she's amazing funny on parks and rides she's gonna be a great person i'd probably ask her how she what techniques she uses to like transform from herself into a character what inspired her to do acting and how she got to where she is what advice do you have for like anyone starting coming from nightfall as well thank you thank you very [Music] [Applause] aubry plaza has performed sketch and improv comedy at the upright citizens brigade theater since 2004. she's also performed stand up and has appeared at the laugh factory and the improv she's played seth rogan's love interest in daisy in 2009's funny people directed by judd apatow she's also had roles in the comedy film scott pilgrim versus the world scott pilgrim and by the way i can't believe you asked ramona after i specifically told you not to do that i think you should lose the first line and the last line and all of the other lines and instead just walk up to the mic and meow really loudly no well i tried to be reasonable time after time it's never happened do you have like a computer system where i can just look it up no no we don't wear that computer there are people following him they're really people following him this is intense going 15 miles an hour you come to that launch set you take my hand and i'll show you who can't time travel what's your story about i don't know anymore actually it's my hope that if you're watching this video something incredible has happened now please help me in welcoming our very special guest aubrey plaza hello so i want to know when did you come back from that time machine and well you just have to wait for the sequel i know i want it to happen soon because the whole time i'm like saying oh my god she got to time travel and hopefully she's going to tell us what you saw and what not and yeah well successful is actually jurassic world i'm in that you just have to look really closely for me same director can you believe that director did this for i don't know what few hundred thousand dollars yeah it was under a million it was about like maybe 700 000 or something it was his first feature film and then he went on from if you don't know from that that movie to jurassic world spielberg saw that movie and trusted him with his franchise which is pretty insane and now it's like the biggest grossing movie of all time yeah yeah yeah and i'm not in it but jake johnson is which is cool because he gave him a part everybody give me a cart this is on the internet right now right right now but i i hope he hears that it's sincere it seems no i text him every day remember when i started in your movie and then you didn't give me a party and the other one that was a real big one um how did you get this part did the audition you or did he know you from the show did somebody force him yes at gunpoint no no uh so okay so the how i got into that movie was we actually had the same manager at the time and um colin the director wrote that script with this guy named derek connolly they're like a writing team they also wrote jurassic world and um they wrote it with me in mind so they kind of wrote it like with for me kind of and then gave it to me and i loved it and so it was a really easy process i didn't have to audition weirdly enough but i auditioned for most everything else that i've ever done but we're gonna get back to that yeah okay uh she told me by the way that the ending was not in the script and no the ending was not that ending was not in the script the script had um a different ending the time machine didn't work and it was super depressing and we shot when we were shooting the movie we didn't know that we were going to change it to that ending we shot the script version which was me running in the woods and then i see him on the time machine and he like tries to get it going and then it fails and then he gets arrested hauled off to jail i go back to seattle to my office job and there's like a party but i'm like crying i mean it was like really really depressing when we shot all of it and then but while we were but while we were shooting i like when we were on the lake and we were doing those um scenes like we had a conversation i remember colin and i specifically about like what if the movie ended and it worked like wouldn't that be what movies should be to you know i think they used to a lot of movies i feel like used to be like that and then i don't know independent films got really dark and like gritty and realistic and um so yeah so then when they submitted the movie to sundance they actually submitted it um with the original ending with the script and it got into sundance with that ending and then somewhere in between october and january when when colin was editing the film he just decided to try a version with us disappearing into thin air and um everyone loved it so much that they were like it let's just go for it um and then so they took a risk which is kind of an amazing story because he then went on to direct jurassic world and literally steven spielberg called him and was like i love it so amazing you know yeah take risks you see magic yeah magic wins magic wins so for the students here who you probably all know the high school students you were ones one of them yes so tell us i was one of you i did the new york film academy summer session in 2001 i was a film student and it was the i think the pro the program was at universal is it now here is it no no it's still unique oh it's still universal okay so yeah i totally did that i lived at the oakwood apartment i know what you're doing in there i know what you're doing so uh-huh and um yeah can you talk about what you took away from that experience yeah um yeah i really have to honestly say that that experience was i went on to go to nyu film school i got into tisch after that and um i used my knife movie to get into tish that was very helpful so that was something i got out of it and um and honestly like the my freshman curriculum at nyu like freshman into sophomore year i i feel like i learned more in this program than i did there because it was more hands-on and um i believe with filmmaking especially like it's like you have to do it and you have to just be like thrown into it and and that's how you learn and like sitting and like you know uh critiquing movies is one way of learning about movies but um i learned a lot more doing what you guys are doing can i tell you something uh you know that maurice cosa mark says his daughter did the summer program three times oh no i don't know and he said to me she did it and he said i love it because he said they walk into a room and they hand them a camera yeah you know and that's it by the end of the week they make a movie good or bad you made a movie then you can do another movie and you know so you're saying basically the same thing yeah just really totally that's um that is uh that's how i felt too just being you know being your age and and being and just giving an allotment of machines and i'm just being told you know to make something is the best way to learn i think and yeah so you you are in the orbit of comedy you've been in the orbit of comedy yes for a long long time and very good and um so were you always knew that this is really your beat did you always or did you kind of find it out as you went along and i said wait a minute i can actually with comedy yeah um i don't know it's so hard to i mean i guess um i was always kind of like a strange child um but i don't know i the first time i that i remember thinking like oh uh comedy is something i'm really into is well i grew up watching saturday night live that was like you know my favorite thing ever and my mom would let me watch that since i was a little kid but um i don't know i did a lot of community theater and i remember when i was like i don't know like 11 or 12 i auditioned for cinderella at the community theater and i really wanted to play cinderella and they gave me the part of the ugly stepsister and i was kind of devastated but then i had like this one musical number that was like the big comedy number of the show and um and i remember like once i got on stage and started doing and i thought like oh it's actually really fun to make people laugh so that was that was like you know and i don't know i just grew up i was really um like i said into into sketch comedy saturday night live and then i got really into like improv in high school and i was really um just really obsessed with like watching different sketch groups like um kids in the hall and mr show and the state and all those those that was like kind of my thing i really liked all that stuff so i always knew that i wanted to go to new york and study at the ucb theater but um but yeah i don't know and i was always you know like uh just like a weird person so i was like yeah yeah i could tell right away yeah yeah and let me ask you something and then she's so funny let me ask you something um comedy you know i used to work for ron howard and one time a first-time director we saw a rough cut her cut of the movie and nobody was laughing and after that ron sat with said and he said you know comedy is all about timing and where you cut the joke and so on and so forth but it's one thing to do it while you're editing the movie and you have so much control and another one we're in front of the camera and your timing i mean i look at park and recreation and all of the stuff that you did is impeccable and years and years of doing improv i did you suck at it first yeah i mean i still suck at improv i really do improv long form improv is so hard and i still get asked to do shows at um ucb and like sometimes i i lie and i say i have i'm busy because i'm so scared still yeah um but i but i'd make myself do it because it's so good for your brain to like get on stage and just make stuff up in front of people but yeah i mean i don't know i learned i feel like i learned from really good people and being on parks was a really big learning experience too because i got to work with amy who literally started the theater so did you know her before you were on parks and rec no i didn't um i interned when i was in college i interned at snl for one season page is that right i was a page also um which was actually after i interned okay weirdly um but yeah amy was she was in the cast when i when i worked there but i worked in the design office and i was just like in the shadows lurking and i didn't like talk to any you know i was like an intern i wasn't like talking to anybody in the cast so no i didn't know her i met her um day one they had us they had us do these like olympic promos for the olympics before we even shot the show and i showed up and that's when i met her they put us together on a swing set and they and we just started like playing our characters and then and now yeah i read or i heard you say that the character and park and recreation was based in one of your sisters are you guys still talking yes um no i haven't talked to her in 10 years she yeah i have two younger sisters one of them is um 18 right now and she's about she's actually about to go to film school at chapman university she goes this month which is pretty crazy and then my other sister who i was probably talking about in whatever you read natalie is she's 24. and um i didn't like totally base the character off of her completely but at the time when i was cast on the show she was you know like a teenager and i just uh remember you know like going back to delaware and like watching her with all her friends and all my both of my sisters are very like just strange the three of us are just i don't know how like to describe them but they're just really weird kind of weirdos so yeah i used a lot of her as inspiration i guess it always works yeah yeah yeah because if you're normal what's there to uh to do no just do your laundry or yeah normal things i don't know so when you first got it started what would you say was your your big break or your entrance into the business uh well my like entrance was very uh i mean i guess every as an actor there's so many different ways to get in and everyone has a different story there's no that's why it's so hard to be an actor there's no set thing that you can do but i can kind of pinpoint what happened to me because i was training at um ecb and it was right around the time like six 2006 2007 when um internet videos and like web series and all that stuff started like that was becoming a thing now it's like you know that's all it is but at that time it was like sketch groups were like just starting to like put out videos and and i got asked to be in a web series called the genie tate show which was written and directed by maggie carey who is bill hader's wife who then went on to direct this movie i was in called the to-do list she wrote and directed that but this was back when i was like i think i was like 19 20 ish um and she i was in one of her improv classes maggie and i okay and so she had this web series and it was about a soccer mom who was running a talk show from her minivan while she's running errands and they she cast me as like her delinquent teenage daughter who's like always in and out of rehab and i would harass all the guests that would come on and stuff so i did that and then um from that some agent saw it because there were other people like on snl in it and they noticed me and made contact with me and then i just was like harassing that person sending them emails sending them links to you know invitations to shows or whatever and then a while later that agent who wasn't working with me who was just like being nice to me was like judd apatow is having this you know wide casting search for his movie he's trying to find a stand-up comedian to play this part you should put yourself on tape for it um so i did that and that was just you know i was really lucky to be in the right time in the right place and i wasn't a stand-up comedian at the time i was just doing like live shows and stuff but he really liked my tape and then they told me like well we can't hire you because we have to hire a stand-up because we're going to be writing they have to write their own jokes and there's going to be a lot of live shows and stuff in the movie so then i just started doing stand-up and like taping myself and just pretending i was a stand-up comedian and then sending those tapes and then i did it so much that he finally was like okay i'll i'll bring you in to read with seth rogen were you doing like bringer shows um [Music] no wait those are the ones where you have to bring like 10 people yeah i did one of those it was mostly like just really you know like just small small shows and like queens or in a bar you know like just really little things and i would just have my friend tape them and they were really unofficial and whatever but yeah i was just pretending but you know the thing i was like looking today reading you know wikipedia looked at imdb pro the creating stuff you're always working you're always doing something you're always doing stuff and that i think is something that i hope the students here take away from it because anybody who thinks that something is going to fall their way you know doesn't understand that you have to just put it out there you know it's like you know when jonah hill was here was the same thing it was like he was in school and then he wrote little sketches and they did it in some cafe he did it on a friday night and he got better at it and the sketch became a little bigger and one day an agent was there for somebody else and saw him and said hey you know and this is how it is you know so you have to do make stuff up yeah the reason i bring up the genie tate show is because that day that i did that show like i actually had a thing in my head where i was like i don't want to wake up on saturday at like six in the morning go to hoboken like i don't want to sleep in and like not do that but i just did it and if i hadn't done that i really don't think that i would have ended up getting funny people because i can see how all that stuff led to it and i did i feel like i learned from ucb to always have like a yes you know their mission is yes and you say yes and then you add to it and that's kind of like how i try to like you know approach life and just it's true the more you say yes and the more stuff you you just never know who's going to connect you to who or what you know what's going to happen how did you like doing this stand up um it was terrifying um one of the scariest things i've ever done yeah i think it's like it's hard to get up and do it because of this opportunity that's what was driving you yeah well i did well i did it and then i they cast me in the part and then judd called me and was like you got the part in two weeks i'm gonna you're gonna come to la and we're gonna do like two months of shows just in pre-production and then we'll start shooting the movie so i came to la and like literally like the fourth or fifth time i ever did stand up i followed adam sandler and he made me do it he was like torturing me yeah and he just made me get up there so i yeah i kept doing it for the movie um and then after we shot the movie i still kept doing it but i haven't done it in a long time and every time i did it i always like wanted to run away and i always had a meltdown backstage and was like why am i doing this yeah this is the worst this is a nightmare yeah how was it working with judd apatow it was great i loved i loved working with him so much um i was really inexperienced i had no idea what i was doing and he's he's such a he's a he's really really great at um balancing like comedy and jokes with making all the characters feel really grounded and um and so i learned that from him like to how to keep both you know i suggest we open up uh the forum to students to ask questions because that's their opportunity that's why they came here all right hi my name is caitlin hill i'm a bfa student um bfa student what does that mean oh okay yeah i know high school okay okay okay now i know what that means um i was just wondering how do you like you do a lot of really funny material how do you get through a scene without like breaking out laughing do you have anything like trips um tips and tricks no i don't i i don't it was that was always a really hard when i was working on parks and recreation because everyone was always trying to crack each other up um but i can i have a pretty good poker face so i could i i kept together i can keep it together but one time the the hardest person i've ever had to work with that would make me laugh is fred armisen um hands down i cannot keep a straight face around him and when i did portlandia um the one sketch i did with him that where i couldn't say my line for like 45 minutes i couldn't do it and i ended up having to um pinch myself so hard that i started bleeding and so um i learned to just hurt myself like that's the only way that i cannot laugh is if i physically hurt myself yeah find another way yes okay just being honest hi um my name is victor valerio oh my god i'm really nervous oh my god don't be yeah i mean i've loved you ever since you've done stuff like the mystery team and everything and history yeah okay i don't know i don't remember that one okay my question is what would you say the difference is between working on a set like the mystery team like it's such a tiny tiny independent um almost kind of like a small tiny micro budget film and compared to like something like scott pilgrim versus the world which like a big budget bill oh man there's so many differences i mean the difference i think for me is always just the energy of the crew you know because when you have so many people involved like you kind of lose that like feeling that everyone is like kind of working towards the same goal and everyone's kind of in sync and i really like that about independent films like it feels like camp or something where everyone's like eating every meal together and i don't know there's like a group mind i think that happens on independent films you know which that's the biggest difference for me i think and but mo money mo problems okay hi i'm well watson and i was wondering what you did besides summer programs to make yourself stand out in the college admissions process oh that process was so um annoying um i what did i do well this program which i think helped me stand out more than anything because i had a 16 millimeter film to submit to do you guys still do shoot on 60 million that's awesome that's great i think that's really valuable because there's so little people that are touching film anymore um um and other than that i mean i did a lot of just you know like all the stuff that you're supposed to do like extracurricular activities um i also weird facts is i i was in 4-h my whole life growing up so i did a lot of community service which i don't know if that i don't i never know what actually ended up helping but i think that helps too and um i don't know letters of recommendation i don't know just like i don't know all of these just this you're good thank you okay my name is quinn um i i had a quick uh question about your improv training and uh how how was your journey so you got a ucb hoodie on yes i was uh wondering if has improv training helped you in any of your uh scripted roles as uh like the romantic type or uh any drama scene besides your comedy yeah definitely yeah definitely because i mean i don't know if you take classes there but um if you're not familiar with ucb the thing that i think i learned that stands out with training at ucb is that they they don't they focus on um finding the truth you know in every scene like when you're doing a scene there it's not about trying to make jokes and being funny like you're not supposed to try to be funny because people that try to be funny never are funny but people that commit to their characters like 200 percent and are just being really really truthful and reactive are always the funniest so i think that applies with drama too and nowadays improv i feel like everything that i go out for or like things that i work on they almost expect you to improvise drama too so i think it's really good training for both for sure okay thank you so much hi i'm jeremy i'm from the uh three weeks advanced program uh here in naifa three weeks the uh advanced uh digital filmmaking oh cool yeah okay uh where were your idols as a kid as a little kid i always was really into judy garland which like isn't like a comedy person but there was that was like someone that i really really liked just as a performer and um and all of the female cast members on snl like back in the day like um molly shannon and anna gasteyer and janine garofalo and lily tomlin and um bill murray i mean bill murray i know right now hi this is jacob i'm in the three-week film program uh i was wondering um since you work with so many people that are like really super awesome and like super famous you ever still get nervous like around them just as like a fan or like just because they're like a famous person or is it all like business i'm an actor now um no i totally get nervous totally get nervous yeah i'm like i completely get nervous like a normal person um but yeah it is weird to work on things with like such famous people but there's been i don't know there's like always like a couple people that i get that i'll get nervous around that surprised me like for like one time i met jeff goldblum and i don't know why that made me really nervous um oh god i don't know yeah i get nervous i'm nervous now [Laughter] i'm jonah and i was wondering how uh how the experience differs uh like on different sets and tv shows with different directors like how much does it differ i can tell you the difference between tv and like film for me is like on a tv set the director is it never feels like the director is like the most important person because tv shows have multiple directors so it's like really like the writers and like the creator of the show are like the people that i would go to but on a movie set the director's like you know got all the answers and like yes like so that's the difference that's one difference about things all right thank you i wore the shirt for you i know i thank you i love it i was wondering how you so successfully transitioned from being a filmmaking major at nyu to being like a full-time comedy actor um so well when i was in um high school i took um some acting classes in uh philadelphia because i grew up like 25 minutes outside of philly and i had an acting teacher who was a professor at the university of the arts and she told me she was someone that i really that helped me a lot with acting and she's a very important person for me you know when i was like your age and um and she she told me something really early on where she was like you know you don't have to if you're and if you want to be an actor you don't have to go to act you know you don't have to study theater necessarily i mean you can because which i also did i studied many i took many theater classes but she kind of told me like if you you you could also major in film and learn other skills you know and then also act at night or whatever so i kind of just decided that i wanted to go to new york and in school i wanted to study film production so that i could learn cameras and you know do writing and stuff but that i would always keep doing the acting thing on the side so um i don't know i just like want tried to do both because i i just want i always knew i wanted to be an actor but i didn't i didn't know how it was going to happen i and i don't think anyone does as an actor you just kind of like do as much stuff as you can and then you just see what happens so i don't know there's no i didn't have a plan i was just like going to new york just just hustling you know i i really would really hustled i that's all i can say i just i just try to do as much stuff as i could classes programs just you know hello hello my name is armando from the high school program my question is how was working with colin gavoro i mean at the time he was a first-time director um you said you loved the script but i don't know were you worried about how different it was gonna be or was your experience with that differently yeah i was yeah i was were i mean it was that movie that you guys watched was the first movie i was ever really like the lead in so it was a really scary experience for me and i was definitely worried at every step i was like so worried about it and because i'd never really had to take a character from the beginning to the end and have like a actual yeah like a transformation you know um but colin was great and i think that's why he ended up being plucked out of indy zone and you know taken into the spielberg land because he he's got such a he's so interested in act in the acting process and in um in really like having the those discussions about characters how they're feeling in every moment why they're doing what they're doing and not all directors are like that especially first time directors i find because first time directors are so preoccupied with everything that's going on there it's so crazy to be a director for a film you have eight departments that you're running and it's hard to remember that really when all is said and done and people are sitting in the theaters and they're watching the movie all they're gonna see is their performances and so much goes into making a movie but i think one quality and a director that i really like is when peop when directors are really able to take a step back from all of the chaos and then look an actor in the face and go like let's talk about what the truth of what is happening right now is and that's something that colin and i always did so i really that's why i really liked working with him and i think that's why he's you know who he is now but so yeah he was awesome oh thank you yeah you're great thanks hi hi hello i'm voices from the summer camp first of all nice movie i really like it thank you thank you i have a question okay okay okay like in the final scene when both are in the time machine and there is something that blows off in fire actually like when the like the edens actually both died or you actually do the time trial because oh you let it as interpretation okay wait a minute okay wait no we didn't you think we like evaporated and we died honestly i've never thought about that before but i think you're right i think we die you're totally right all right so it was a depressing film it was a surprising film you're right because the f the flame came out and then we disappeared i don't know i guess it's up for interpretation you're welcome no thank you it's giving me a lot to think about hi my name is zach i'm in the i'm in the digital filmmaking program well first of all my brother's a big fan of parks and rec and i'm sure he's gonna be jealous [Laughter] this is a bit of a weird question but there are um comedians like um let's see some examples like uh paul ryde jim carrey and bill murray who have all who start out with comedy and then branched into like other genres like genre have you ever thought about that yeah definitely that's something i think about all the time i honestly never thought i would be like be on a tv show i always loved movies and when you're on a tv show and it goes on for that long people can't you know people just see you as that character and it's it's hard to change people's you know perception perception of you and um yeah all my favorite people did that totally like even adam sandler um who was a really big for me like all of his movies were like so major for me billy madison and all those ridiculous movies i loved so much and then when i saw him do paul thomas anderson's punch drunk love that was like a big that was a big moment for me where i was like oh my god he's doing both um so yeah i i'm definitely always trying to find both um but it's hard i still you know i today i auditioned for a drama of feature film drama and i'm still auditioning you know it never ends it's like you just gotta always keep fighting to like change people's mind about you you know it's hard thank you yeah hi i'm siri uh i just wanted to ask you if you could go back in time which moment would you choose to go back to oh no i don't know like just any moment and ever um dinos dinosaurs i don't know i get think about it i would do cleopatra okay cleopatra [Laughter] yellow hello my name's wes and i'm in the acting one week thing okay one week okay the question that you've probably gotten a lot and it's probably really generic but how was it like working with chris pratt it was amazing pratt is like the mo the most fun guy ever he's like he's like andy except he's smart he's like andy but he's smart he's a very special guy and and he's a really good actor he's a brilliant actor and comedian so i loved working with him because also on tv sometimes you feel really robotic because um you're just doing so many episodes and you know you can't help but feel like i've said this before i'm doing the same thing i'm just you know whatever in every scene it's like the same um but with and with chris it was never the same like we would always he was always really interested in like finding new discoveries and surprising me with like different things you know he's like a really special dude that's why he's like the most famous person in the world right now hi so um you've touched on this a little bit but i just wanted to get a little more insight from an actress's perspective you have a lot of experience on different digital forms of media and i wanted to see how it compares to be on a web series or a tv show or on a film set i think the biggest difference between i mean being on a web series i that to me is like television kind of like those kind of things feel the same a little bit to me but it depends it depends on what kind of web series you're in i think because some of those also feel like movies so i don't know about that but the biggest difference between tv and movies for me is like the pacing is so different because when you're working on a film as you know there's so there's so much time that goes into like lighting a shot and there and you're just like waiting for your moment and for me the hardest thing on set in a movie is like um is to conserve my energy because if you know like you've got this like monologue to deliver or whatever and they're like setting it up for an hour you know like maybe you feel ready to do it now but then in an hour you're like i just ate like four cookies and i'm like crying i don't know how this happened and then and then you're supposed to do it then so like the it's like yeah it's like a weird film is so weird like that it's like you really have to be able to just like bring it like when the moment is there and when the film is rolling especially if it's film because you can't waste film um and so it's like intense because you're just like i gotta like deliver now all these people and then in television it's like you can do it a million times over and over again like on parks like there are so many like um there's so many outtakes of like especially aziz aziz was like the king of this where he would like just reset himself over and over again in movies you can't really go like let me take that again and then you do it again let me say you know but like he would just like we would just reset ourselves like we were like rope like robots because the there were there was no lighting setups at least when we shot our thing it was just like that we had three cameras you know also the amount of cameras is a thing like on television you have multiple cameras so like like you're able to just kind of like do whatever but in movies you're like always like you've got to be on your mark and you've got to know exactly like where the light is hitting you there's just like things like that that affect you you know that you have to like figure out how to not think about when you're working i don't know okay hi aubrey hi grant um my question is what's the difference between working on a big set with cameras and television or movies like parks and uh safe not guaranteed as opposed to working in the small space like at ucb on stage and in front sort of small in front of a small limited audience like that um i mean everything is different um everything is totally different because yeah i don't know it's when you're working uh when you're doing like a small thing at ucb it's like i mean it's different also because you're you know there's a live audience and there's like people watching you but when you're doing movies and stuff there's no audience so that's the difference there's no like energy that you're feeding off of and you know um but yeah i don't know they're totally different all right thank you so much do you have a preference doing live shows or film or television uh [Music] i like me i still really like movies i don't know why i think because i would just like the process of going like working on a movie and then like all the little things that go into it um but live shows are the best i mean live shows for me especially doing stand-up and improv they're so intense because they can either be the best feeling in the world or the worst feeling in the world you know when an improv show is bad it's like bad and like nobody wants to watch a bad improv show like that's just bad and um and it feels really bad but i do have to say that failing on stage in front of an audience is actually like something that i think is really good for any performer to like go through that process so i which i've done a lot i've like totally bombed but i'm thankful for that too because that's helpful too but i would prefer being on camera i think all right i don't know again yeah hi aubry my name is malou martins um i have a question for you as an actor like what is your um like preparation to get into character like what type of stuff do you do before coming in and on set and just delivering the lines like what do you do to prepare um well i have an acting coach that i work with and i've worked with her since funny people and judd actually set me up with her on that movie because i didn't have that much acting experience and he was concerned you know not about the comedy part but just about the other scenes and he was like he really wanted me to learn that process and stuff so um i have like i i break down a script and i do i don't know i don't do like a certain method or anything like that but i do have a way of of working that for me that's very personal like i um oftentimes like i just i use a lot of what's going on in my real my own life and um i always draw on relationships and things in my own life and i try to use them when in anything that i do whether it's like comedy or or drama and i usually try to you know work on that with my acting coach like in the weeks leading up to when i go off and then when i'm there i'm just like trying to forget everything that i learned and just let it happen yeah cool thank you yeah hi aubry hi i just wanted to ask you about like if you could do anything and be successful at it even if it's more than one thing what would it be like what are your wildest dreams one thing that people don't necessarily know about me is that i really am like pretty athletic and i'm into like sports and stuff so i'm like always growing up like i was doing a lot of like sports and stuff so um i guess like if i wasn't an actor i i would probably want to be like um like a professional skateboarder or like something really cool like that i read you on a basketball team yeah i am on a basketball team i would be like a professional basketball player except that i can't but yeah i play basketball um i'm on a team called the pistol shrimps you guys are all welcome to come our games are on tuesday nights we have an instagram at the pistol shrimps check it out our schedule's on there what kind of oh the basketball basketball straight up balling what's your what's your position i'm up the point guard look at you yeah look at that yeah i'm not you know the best player on the team but um i have a lot of heart okay okay thanks yeah how do you deal with like the publicity in the media and like what is the most ridiculous thing that's probably said about you it's a it's actually a really good question because that the the publicity media all that stuff is not something i ever thought about when i was you know your age and like trying to be an actor you don't think like oh like what's that part of it going to be like you know going on talk shows and doing stuff like that it's been a journey for me to figure out how to deal with that stuff i'm i'm not um [Music] i have i mean i can say that when i go when i do like publicity when i'm promoting like a movie or something and i have to go on talk show i don't have to do any of it first of all no one does it's not i mean maybe some people have to maybe some people okay all right i have to all right you're right well i don't have to re all right yeah i have to do some of it but so i try to just have fun with it because i think that one thing about the publicity stuff is for me is like once people start taking themselves too seriously and you know letting all of the that fame and that stuff you know like believing the hype about you know i think it starts messing with people's minds not everyone is capable of handling fame and those kind of things so it's tricky because you know it's like weird to have a lot of people know who you are so i try to in those you know situations i try to just always have fun and try to approach it from like how would i what would my high school version of myself think about me going on like letterman right now i'd probably be like that's crazy wear a hot dog costume do something weird it doesn't always work out for me you know because people you know they it's hard to like be you know like a version of yourself or whatever on those kind of things but i just try to have fun and have truthful things happen moments happen and not do anything too stupid but i fail at that too sometimes yeah since you have experience with film school and stuff have you ever thought about writing and directing or writing or directing your own film yes yeah i totally want to do that i've always wanted to do that um that's something that is always in the back of my mind at all times i think like i'll never be really fulfilled until i write something from on my own and direct something um that's when i was in high school that's all i did was i made i forgot about that answer maybe for an earlier question but i was always making movies like just stupid you know little movies and um and that that's something i definitely want to do but you know i'm just trying to like ride this acting thing out and it's hard to it's hard to do everything but yeah i want to do that for sure i think that especially now it's there it's a it's a lot about creating stuff for yourself you know the internet is great for that you can put anything out there that you want so i will do that can i ask you something uh it seems to me that you have started to work and hits as an actress pretty soon what would you say was the most contributing factor to having success early um i mean but i feel like i said it before like when i said i was in the right time at the right place because i only i've i literally went from nothing to being in funny people which that making that jump is crazy that just doesn't happen ever but um but you hustled for it i did you and i went and put yourself on tapes you studied yeah uh how to make films before yeah i don't know i just like try i just wanted it so bad i believed that it would happen too you know you have to be delusional you have to really i grew up in delaware that i didn't grow up around any you know hollywood people i'd ne i was just like you know watching like you guys just watching stuff on tv watching movies and just like thinking like that's what i want to do and so i just like was just i just believed it really strongly and then i just i wouldn't back down i would just i would really harass people you know um i would not in a bad way but like like the agent that i was saying that saw me in the web series like instead of just you know like not pursuing her i would just be really diligent about just sending her anything you know and i would just try to meet as many people as i can i don't know and they were constantly doing shows and making your presence known and yeah and anna and i think maybe the better answer to your question is is i always was myself like i never tried to i think that's one thing as as actors that people forget early on is that um the reason judd hired me and funny people i mean he really hired me because of my personality um i was playing a character um a lot of people would didn't know that at the time like because it was really close to what i you know like that my humor and what i was doing on stage and stuff so it was because of my unique personality that he was like i want that personality in my movie you know so i did i wasn't trying to be someone else at that time which i think is helpful and i think people forget in auditions you know when you're auditioning and stuff like you just have to be yourself and be you know be individual and like believe in that because people will respond to that if you try to be someone else then there's a million people doing that so i think that's one thing is to that i was always just being true to like my own sense of humor and what the kinds of things that i was interested in that's a great question my question for you is when you were pursuing acting did you ever like question yourself if it was the right thing to do and like now do you ever get like sick of acting and if so like how do you get back into it um yeah i questioned myself a lot i did even though it did happen really fast for me and i was young i did have i did have a very i had had a stretch of time in new york where i wasn't acting and i had graduated and i was broke and i was living in queens and i was waiting tables and you know i had even though mine was small but i had it so yeah during that time i was always questioning what i was doing and you know my family was very supportive but they were always telling me like you gotta have a backup plan you gotta have a backup plan you gotta have a backup plan what's your backup plan and um and i was always and i would always quote rosie o'donnell because i was really rosie o'donnell was another big person for me when i was in high school i read her autobiography rosie and um in her autobiography she like has this whole thing where it's like she says if you have a net you will fall into it so don't have a net because you'll end up being a dentist or whatever your backup plan is so i just always had that in my mind and so whenever i was doubting myself i'd always be like no like i'm just this is the only thing that can happen so it's gonna happen rather than like you know so which is crazy so you have to be a crazy person and um and then i forgot the other question okay hi i'm nicole how do you feel about being cast as like the same character over and over again do you ever want to break off from that um yeah you know i it's interesting like i've i've done when i got cast in funny people scott pilgrim and parks and recreation i got all of those jobs in one week wow um one week which is like insane and that doesn't happen to anyone it was which is why again i was in like the right place at the right time i don't know how it happened it just happened all of those characters were were kind of similar and i think parks especially like i said earlier i because i drew on so much of my person my own personality and they basically wrote that part for me it wasn't in the original idea of the show they wrote it based on a meeting that i had with their creators so april ludgate is me you know it's not me but it is me um and yes because of that you're put in a box and people don't believe that you can do anything else but um but i try all the time to play different characters this year i have i have um two movies that are going to come out in the next in january and in the spring where i play really different characters like not sarcastic or whatever you know but i had to really fight for them really hard and hopefully those those things will show people like that i can do other things but um it's always some it's something that i'm always fighting against but i don't i welcome it i don't i used to get really like annoyed when people be like you're always doing the same thing and i'd always be like well those are the parts that people are giving me i can't control anything i'm auditioning you know if like someone offers you a part as an actor you're like yeah i'll do it i'll do anything like i'm just trying to work so you know you only have so much control so um it's hard but you just gotta like keep hustling hi my name is nick and um i have a quick question um so if you wanted to be in any film franchise like which one or ones would you pick okay i really want to be catwoman it's like so bad i don't know i do really want to remake catwoman like the halle berry movie because i think i could make it really weird and like funny like guardians of the galaxy funny but still like badass that's what i really want to do i would do any franchise give me a friend i would take tape yourself doing that character and have your agent okay submit it just in a leather one piece sure risky move but i think you're right i'm going to do that tonight talk to talk i know don't just walk it okay all right girl okay so you heard it here first she's going to be the next catwoman that's right i will it's going to happen she pledged it here she told the universe here she wants it it's gonna happen and we are the first to know and why are we the first to know because even though she's this incredible actress she's really funny she's really sarcastic she's really cool and she still took the time to come here and pay back and spend time with us and i think for that we have to give her the most amazing standing ovation okay [Music] you

Channel: New York Film Academy

Views: 208,538

Keywords: nyfa, aubrey plaza, summer camp, new york film academy

Id: LfnnHuaQCtk

Length: 61min 26sec (3686 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 30 2016