Rashida Jones

Speaker 1 Hi, welcome to another episode of Good Hang. I cannot wait to have you here this episode with the great Rashida Jones, the and my Leslie,

Speaker 1 my wife for life. Rashida is just one of my best friends, and she's just an incredible person and interview, and she's so deep and smart and funny.

Speaker 1 And we're going to talk about what it's like working together, and we're going to talk about our relationship to work and what makes a good gift giver and how much we both love music.

Speaker 1 We're going to go deep and then stay real shallow all at the same time. So it's going to be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 And, you know, we've been trying to do this thing where before I interview a guest, I get to talk to people who know them, who are fans of them or who want to just, you know, give me some ideas for what to ask them.

Speaker 1 So.

Speaker 1 We have gathered two great comedic actresses, Retta from Parks and Rec, who played Donna Meagle, and Darcy Cardin from The Good Place.

Speaker 1 So they're gonna help me get started.

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Speaker 1 Hi, hang gang.

Speaker 2 You know, it only takes only takes three people

Speaker 1 to make a hang gang.

Speaker 2 To be a gang.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 2 Everybody knows that.

Speaker 1 We're talking about and to the great Rashida Jones today.

Speaker 3 Wouldn't want to talk about anyone else.

Speaker 4 Not one singular human being.

Speaker 3 Honestly.

Speaker 1 It's kind of overwhelming because she does so many things.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 3 yes.

Speaker 1 She's, what is it called? A polymath? Is that the word?

Speaker 3 But what's the math?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 4 It's so many maths.

Speaker 2 Polymath. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, AIM.

Speaker 3 I was thinking like,

Speaker 3 she's so unique in that there's not, she's not, you know, even to introduce her, I don't know how you, what you would even say. She's not, I mean, she's, there's so many things to list.

Speaker 3 And not just in her career, but in her life, she's, she's so many things to so many people and she's so good at all of it. And yet, that doesn't bother me.
I'm not like annoyed by that.

Speaker 3 As I'm saying it, I'm not like rolling my eyes. I'm like, she really

Speaker 3 does it all and she does it so well and in such an inspiring way.

Speaker 1 Agree.

Speaker 4 To me, she's the lawyer in the group. When people have like an outrageous idea or plan or think they can fix something in a certain way, I feel like Ra's the person that's like, okay, everybody relax.

Speaker 4 Here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do.
This is how we fix it. Or

Speaker 4 let me just make a call. Or I feel like even though, you know, she's not an attorney, she's the attorney of the group that she's in.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Is that weird? No, that's really well said.

Speaker 1 What makes Rashida a good hang?

Speaker 3 Well, she's super funny and she also loves to laugh. So she makes you feel super funny,

Speaker 2 right?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Which is great.

Speaker 3 She's on it. She's really on it.
She's just like, she's

Speaker 3 sharp and like in every way I can think of.

Speaker 1 Yes. And so, and like, so stylish and cool.
Totally. Like, like beyond cool.
It's actually oppressive.

Speaker 2 It's a wild.

Speaker 3 She somehow doesn't make me feel shitty.

Speaker 1 Again, no, like never.

Speaker 1 But I make myself feel shitty. Sometimes I'm just like, damn it.
Like what we're wearing Japanese pants now. No one told me.

Speaker 3 I know, but the thing is, is we are not. She is.

Speaker 3 She is. But all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, all my clothes are small, they're supposed to be big.

Speaker 1 Like, do we have bangs? We don't have bangs, we don't work,

Speaker 1 little coats, okay,

Speaker 2 no, long hair now, okay, okay, okay, yeah,

Speaker 2 glasses, small glasses, little coats. I don't know that she's ever done little coats, maybe before I knew her, I've only seen her in big coats.

Speaker 1 The only people on parks doing little coats were Adam and Aziz.

Speaker 2 They had the lowest coats.

Speaker 1 I remember lifting up a coat and being like, whose coat is this? And it was Zaziz's little coat.

Speaker 3 She's like a host, right? She's like a good host.

Speaker 3 And I think

Speaker 3 maybe that's one of the reasons she's such a good hang is because she like really appreciates the

Speaker 3 hang portion. Like she's putting in the time to make the hang like pleasurable, right?

Speaker 1 Yes. Like I don't feel a stressy vibe from her when she's hosting, for example.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Me too.

Speaker 1 Like i i'm always working out on my i'm always working out my own stuff which is wanting to get things like wanting it to be good and fun and being and people coming over and saying like hi yeah and me saying just a second like making them feel making them feel stressed even though i had the party

Speaker 3 or like explaining something like don't go in this room or if you do this is what's going on

Speaker 2 or you got to hold the toilet down the handle down yes oh my god

Speaker 1 or if someone's like can you can i give you a hand And you just go, no, that's okay. I just have a lot of things right now that I'm dealing with.

Speaker 1 And it means everyone looks at you and says, you did not have to invite us. You did not have to invite us.

Speaker 1 The other question I had is,

Speaker 1 I want to talk to her about dancing

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 We dance a lot together. She's had a lot of dance parties for her birthday parties.
And you two are big dancers. Like you, you both like to dance.
I know why I like to dance at parties.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 1 Why do you like to dance at parties?

Speaker 3 I think about connecting with people while dancing. Like Amy, I can think of a wedding we were at where we didn't know each other that well.
It was like early days of friendship.

Speaker 3 And we just like danced at a wedding and I felt closer to you afterwards. I felt like

Speaker 3 you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 That I mean we just we just kind of pointed at each other and

Speaker 2 then afterwards you're like we took a we took a step. We took a we leveled up.

Speaker 3 The people listening, Rhetta is really doing some good pointing right now.

Speaker 3 I am drawn to people who I feel

Speaker 4 really vibe with music and

Speaker 2 don't look crazy dancers, you know?

Speaker 4 There's not like, especially like when we were younger high school and college, like white boys with rhythm were

Speaker 4 like you couldn't get enough. Like I was just like, oh,

Speaker 4 and I remember, and I will say at one of Rashida's birthday parties, one of the most impressive dancers that I didn't see coming was Max Greenfield.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 Max can move.

Speaker 4 And the feeling that I got seeing him dance is the feeling I won't be able to have when they see me dance.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I feel like if a good song comes on, both of you and Rashida would be the people I would look at, point at, and be like, oh.

Speaker 3 I was just going to say, the noise you would make would be like, oh,

Speaker 2 oh,

Speaker 2 oh,

Speaker 2 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

Speaker 2 shit!

Speaker 2 Here we go.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, we're going to, okay, this is perfect.

Speaker 3 We'll wrap it up with uh is there any question you think like anything you want me to ask rashida it's it's simple it's a simple question but i think here my question for rashida specifically is when you were a little kid what did you want to be when you grow up or what did you see your adult life looking like i think what did you want to be when you grow up because i think because she you know like it's such a unique childhood where where it kind of was like the endless possibilities of what you could possibly do.

Speaker 3 And it seems like, you know, that maybe that's one of the reasons she does so much and is so good at so many different things.

Speaker 3 But the simple question, I think, is: when you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Speaker 1 That's a great question.

Speaker 4 Mine would be: it's also a childhood question.

Speaker 4 What was the coolest thing that ever happened to you as a kid? Because she's been around so many cool things.

Speaker 4 What really was the

Speaker 4 thing that she remembers the most and was the most exciting for her?

Speaker 1 That's probably going to be hard to pick.

Speaker 3 I know.

Speaker 3 Because she was so happy. So you might get a few.

Speaker 4 You might get a few things.

Speaker 1 Like partying with E.T. and stuff.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 Well, love you guys. Thank you for checking in.
I know it means a lot to squeeze this time in, and Rashida's going to be so grateful when I tell her that we chatted today.

Speaker 1 So come on this podcast and be a guest soon, please. And thank you.
Can't wait.

Speaker 2 Can't wait. Hang gang.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 Hang gang. Hang gang.
Love you. Hang gang.
Hang gang.

Speaker 1 Okay. Love you guys.

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Speaker 1 Rashida Jones is here.

Speaker 3 Hi, Rashida. Hi, Amy.

Speaker 1 I mean, people should know that I call you bones. So maybe if I call you bones during the interview.

Speaker 3 They'll know. Yes.
Yeah, and I call you poles, polos.

Speaker 1 Polos. So poles or polos and bones? Polos and bones.
The new detective series.

Speaker 1 CBS. Yeah.
I'm Paramount Minus.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Bones, I'm so happy you're here.

Speaker 3 I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1 Thank you for doing this. Please.
On the way over, you just told me you were listening to something in your car.

Speaker 3 I was listening to,

Speaker 3 I'm really into frequencies right now. You know, there's like a lot of

Speaker 3 stuff, theories around like the frequency of sounds and how it impacts your brain and your mood.

Speaker 3 There's ones for anxiety, for sleep, for happiness, for abundance, whatever. But I was listening to one for Road Rage.

Speaker 1 Because you have Road Rage?

Speaker 2 I do.

Speaker 1 I've seen it in action. Yeah.
Because we leave each other Marco Polos and I've seen you in real time

Speaker 1 get mad. For people that are listening that don't know, Rashida and I have been friends for many years.
It's got to be over 20 now. 20 plus.
Over 20 plus.

Speaker 1 And whenever we see each other, we just jump in. Like we talk a lot about, we just kind of jump into the deepest.

Speaker 2 Yeah, always.

Speaker 1 We get into feelings. We get into what we're trying to work on, what we're excited about.
Like we just get right in there. We don't do a lot of small talk.

Speaker 3 Not a lot of small talk.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I feel like you are that way, or I can speak for myself. I feel like I'm more and more that way with the people that I'm closest to.

Speaker 1 And the people that I'm not particularly close to are the people that I say, like, what movies do you like?

Speaker 3 Right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I find, I don't know about you, but I find that my tolerance for small talk has changed.

Speaker 3 Like I used to, I used to like it and feel like it was a, it was just kind of like a way to tiptoe into a conversation. And now it feels like, why bother? Let's just get into it.
I know.

Speaker 3 Let's not waste time.

Speaker 1 What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of?

Speaker 3 What are you working on?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 No, no, not your actual job, but yourself, your inner self. What are you working on? What's your love language?

Speaker 1 What's your attachments to that?

Speaker 1 Tina and I had a good convo about, we were laughing talking about Harvard. Fuck Harvard.

Speaker 2 Yeah, fuck Harvard. Fuck Harvard.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So for people that don't know, what is your relationship with Harvard? And what was your relationship with Hasty Pudding?

Speaker 3 Oh, interesting. I was just thinking about this last night, actually.

Speaker 3 Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm very happy that you have this podcast because I'm just going to say I have been encouraging. I've wanted this from you for a very long time.

Speaker 1 Thanks, bud.

Speaker 3 Okay, sorry, I just had to say that.

Speaker 2 Thanks, Dean.

Speaker 3 Okay, Harvard, Hasty Pudding. Yeah, I mean, I went to Harvard.

Speaker 3 I was, yay, I was in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

Speaker 1 But they didn't allow women.

Speaker 3 At the time, women couldn't perform.

Speaker 3 I was a manager. I was manager of the Woman of the Year event, which you've been.
Yeah. I'm sure I have not.
Thank you so much, Hasty Pudding Theatricals. What?

Speaker 3 I'm actually like the only alum, but anyway.

Speaker 1 Wow, we need to correct that, whoever's listening. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Anyway, and then my senior year, Mimi, my friend Mimi, who you know, we were the first women ever to write the music for the musical in the, in the like, whatever, 400-year history of the show.

Speaker 1 But you, no one was allowed to sing it because it was written by Reddit.

Speaker 3 I couldn't sing it. No, of course not.

Speaker 2 Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And then when I went back for class day, that was kind of like the one thing I snuck into my speech.

Speaker 3 Well, actually, it was very political, but the one thing about school I snuck in was like, make it co-express. I mean,

Speaker 3 and now it is.

Speaker 2 It is, right? It is.

Speaker 1 Finally.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that seems so silly.

Speaker 3 It's so silly, but I will say it was really fun. And I learned a lot.
I learned a lot about production because it's a, it's legit production.

Speaker 3 You travel to New York and Bermuda, and everybody has to like chip in and work on tickets and costumes.

Speaker 3 And like, we had, you know, we got to like, we had an arranger who arranged for like a full orchestra. It was so cool.

Speaker 1 And you, I know from us being friends, you started, you started going to raves.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, I was raving.

Speaker 1 I was raving. Rashida was raving during Harvard.
I was. And that almost took you down.

Speaker 3 Almost took me down, but luckily, or took, yeah, it took me up and then way down.

Speaker 3 But then I joined an a cappella group and everything was fine.

Speaker 3 A cappella saved my life.

Speaker 3 But I would say the most surprising thing is probably that what what I have left from the whole experience is the people.

Speaker 1 Including Mike Scher.

Speaker 3 Including Mike Scher.

Speaker 1 For those people who don't know, who created Parks and Rec and the American Office, he was Moe's and worked. Good place.

Speaker 3 Good place. Good hang, good place.

Speaker 1 Good hang, good place.

Speaker 1 And he, wow, do you think he's going to sue me for that?

Speaker 3 Good hang, good place? Yeah, yeah, he's very litigious.

Speaker 1 And he's working on a million other things. And you and Mike met at Harvard.
Where did you guys meet?

Speaker 3 Freshman year, we did a play together called Love, Sex, and the IRS, where we were this. The play started with us making out.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Lucky him.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 1 he must have been like

Speaker 1 the day when they were like, and here's your makeout partner. It could have been anybody.

Speaker 1 He must have done a quiet fist pomp.

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 3 he did it while we were making out. It was so awkward.

Speaker 3 I mean, that's the thing is you just audition for shows, and especially in college, and you're just like, who you get is who you get. Like the fact that we met freshman year is nuts.

Speaker 1 I'm having these like

Speaker 1 memories of when we were in, all of us were in high school and college, and we'd have to do like makeout scenes with just people on stage and how

Speaker 1 I guess exciting it was. It kind of exciting.

Speaker 3 So fun. I know.

Speaker 1 I mean, you've had to do quite a few love scenes in TV and film.

Speaker 3 I have, yeah.

Speaker 1 And any tips or thoughts about that?

Speaker 3 It's so weird. But also, comedy makeout is so different than serious, serious makeup.
You're so right.

Speaker 3 You know, you're right.

Speaker 1 I mean, like a real genuine,

Speaker 1 our friend Catherine Hahn has to, has had to do a lot of sex scenes. Yes.

Speaker 3 And like

Speaker 1 genuine, like baby girl five orgasm sex scene is so intense.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 3 This is my baby girl dance.

Speaker 2 I will be all falling.

Speaker 1 That makes me stressed.

Speaker 3 It's stressy. It's fully stressy.
Yeah. I'm not, I'm not good at, I'm not the person to ask because I always feel stressed and weird about it.

Speaker 3 Because the best case scenario is that you do it and you sell some sort of chemistry, but like it's all above board and professional.

Speaker 3 That's the best case scenario, which is like seems impossible.

Speaker 1 Also, I did hear an actor's tip one time that I thought was interesting, which is if you want to get chemistry with someone, and actually Parks and Reck did this really well, which is the camera became the gaze, right?

Speaker 1 So like, you know, I, I, I, it caught me looking at Ben when played by Adam Scott when

Speaker 1 Adam wasn't looking, and it created this vibe, and vice versa. It was so much easier than direct eye contact.

Speaker 1 Totally, but I heard some trick that if you want to get chemistry with an actor, look at them when they're not looking at you.

Speaker 1 Like, don't try to do it with them at all. Just project all this fantasy stuff on them when they're not paying attention to you.

Speaker 3 Does that work in real life?

Speaker 1 I've tried, and the answer is no.

Speaker 1 The answer is a hell no.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay, so do you think some of your best acting was in Parks and Rec when you had to pretend that you didn't know who Genuine was?

Speaker 3 Do you know it's still one of my biggest complaints? I remember we did the table read for that. And I was like, no, no, no one's going to buy it because I don't buy it, okay?

Speaker 3 Pick anybody else on this cast to try to play that in an honest way. It is so unfair that you're making me do this.
It really, yeah, it still hurts.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 1 how familiar are you with genuine?

Speaker 3 We were married.

Speaker 3 I mean, you know, I live in 90s RB. That's where my heart is.
It's not here. I mean, it is with you, but for the most point, it's part, it's not present.
It's in 90s RB.

Speaker 3 So he's a very important figure.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I just want to talk for a a second about your relationship to music because it's so, it's an amazing combination of deeply familiar and personal because of your family and the work you've done since you were a little kid, like the way music has surrounded your life.

Speaker 1 And then as an adult knowing your relationship to music, you kind of come in as like,

Speaker 1 I don't know how else to explain it other than

Speaker 1 a deep appreciator of it. Like you, you know, it and can do it, and also you deeply appreciate it.
It's kind of closest to like an art historian or something.

Speaker 1 You know how art historians love art and they know it and they also know how it's important. I feel that you are that way about music.

Speaker 3 That's really nice. Thank you.

Speaker 1 What is your relationship to music?

Speaker 3 Music to me is the kind of thing you can't, there's something inherent about it that you can't explain why it has the impact that it does.

Speaker 3 You can break it down, you can talk about frequencies, you can talk about combinations of notes, you can talk about BPMs, but at the end of the day, the way it makes you feel is something that's just very hard to explain, you know, in a way that feels,

Speaker 3 if you don't believe in God, like the closest to an unknown that's outside of us. Like you can tap into something outside of us in a way that like even I love movies, but there's a visual aspect.

Speaker 3 So you don't like use your imagination as much when you're engaging with the thing.

Speaker 1 Well, do you think then you're like an oral AURAL learner more than a visual learner?

Speaker 3 I am. I am.
And in fact,

Speaker 3 it's a shameful thing, but I took a lot of piano when I was little, and I love playing piano, but I never really learned how to read properly because I learned so well by ear.

Speaker 3 So I'd play these like Chopin-Polonaise, like big pieces by ear.

Speaker 3 I couldn't read it because I was like just picking it up, you know?

Speaker 2 Whoa.

Speaker 3 I know. It's sort of like it would be nice to have a balance of both, but you know, it's definitely way more aural.

Speaker 2 Aural. Aural.
Aural Roll. R-R-L.

Speaker 1 feel like we've had some hard-ass laughs. And I was trying to think the other day, like places that we've laughed, deep laughs.
And it really does add years to my life. I know that.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I wonder if you could tell the story about when we were on parks and it was, because we talk about it, we've talked about it before.

Speaker 1 When we were on parks and it was the first season, it was the hunting episode.

Speaker 1 And just to kind of set up,

Speaker 1 we were shooting that whole week way far away somewhere in California, you know,

Speaker 1 I don't even remember where.

Speaker 1 And we had to do a scene with Nick Offerman. And that, I think about it sometimes, the way that laugh came, it was like giggle.

Speaker 1 It was giggle, giggle, orgasm city. But,

Speaker 2 but, but, uh, don't worry, we'll cut that. But,

Speaker 1 but, um,

Speaker 1 what do you remember about it? What do you want?

Speaker 3 Well, I remember we were, he maybe ate something weird, and we were trying to give him Ipecac.

Speaker 1 So Nick Offerman playing Ron Swanson ate something.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't remember actually what happened in the show.

Speaker 3 I was like determined as a nurse that I was like, you have to throw up. Like, you can't.
Right. You're going to get sick.
And he's like, I'm fine. Right.

Speaker 3 And we were trying to get this like liquid in his mouth. And, you know, it's Hollywood.
So

Speaker 3 things that happen like on camera don't actually happen in real life. So it was written that we like hold him down and he's resisting us and we give him this

Speaker 3 thing. But

Speaker 3 like you don't know,

Speaker 3 you don't know how small you are. Cause I think both of us, like, I'm always like, I'm like a tall person, right? Like I ask people

Speaker 3 if I feel tall. And I'm not.
And I'm not. And I'm, and I'm how tall are you?

Speaker 2 Five, three and a half. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm five, two.

Speaker 3 And, and, and Nick is solid. Yeah.
He's a solid dude.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's like a Midwestern corn-fed dude.

Speaker 3 Dense and like and muscular. And he,

Speaker 3 we were trying to hold him down and he was whipping us around with such ease. Like we couldn't, we actually, both of us could not hold him down.

Speaker 3 And he was like, literally, he'd just go, beep, and we would just fly off the bed in each direction. We could not stop him.

Speaker 1 One of us, we each had one arm. Yeah.
And he would, it felt like just the flick of a wrist because he would fly across.

Speaker 3 He was being gentle.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he wasn't, he was doing like he wasn't fighting for his life.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, no.

Speaker 1 And we could not get him to stay down. Could not, could not.
And I remember that feeling. Also, I think there's something fun about wrestling.
Like, there is.

Speaker 3 So good.

Speaker 1 It's so good. And being thrown around is so fun.
Yes. And he was throwing us around.
And I feel like I just, like, if I was to picture it in my mind, you were just like, wee!

Speaker 1 Like, I could just see you going past me and your hair going,

Speaker 2 and then your legs going, going me

Speaker 2 and me

Speaker 3 and I just remember like Rashida like I never see you flying by which can't be true but I felt like we were tumbling all over the floor like every time we got back on the bed we were like

Speaker 3 and we were we were kind of like in each we were both trying to be like on top of him and then like just flipping over really quickly.

Speaker 1 And I think too because Nick is such a lovely gentle guy in general we knew there was something about us that knew we weren't going to get hurt.

Speaker 2 It was safe.

Speaker 1 But he was making making like grunting bear sounds.

Speaker 1 It was really, really, really. That was really fun.
That was a really, I mean, I'm trying to think of like, there was so many good crack up moments, crack up moments. I'm 100 years old.

Speaker 3 What a crack up. But I'm just like, I was like, there was that spot in

Speaker 3 Andy and April's house. Remember where we could never get a scene done? Just that one, that little damned.

Speaker 2 It was a dead spot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It was haunted.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then I remember there was one time you were like, Rashida, because I could not get through it.

Speaker 3 But I really, it felt like haunted. It did not feel like it was my fault.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm sorry I said that.
There was, I, a couple times I would see bloopers for the show and I'd be like, Amy.

Speaker 3 No, but those days were so long.

Speaker 2 They were.

Speaker 3 They were long. And it was fun until it wasn't.
You're like, oh my God, it's Tempia. We just want to go.

Speaker 1 I know. And the, and there was a scene for people that care.

Speaker 1 There was, there was a, a spot in that

Speaker 1 set where anyone who stood there couldn't get their lines. And then, of course, it became self-fulfilling prophecy in many ways.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But there was just a lot of

Speaker 1 deep laughs and deep and deep laughs off camera.

Speaker 1 Like one of the things, one of the things I treasure, and there's so many things I treasure about my friendship with you, was that we would be talking like this.

Speaker 1 And we'd be just talking and talking and just like talking about our day and talking about life. And then they would just go action.
And then we would just talk like Leslie and Anne.

Speaker 1 And we'd do our scene and be like, we kind of,

Speaker 1 I'll speak for myself, kind of knew it, kind of didn't.

Speaker 1 And then they'd, then they'd cut, they'd work on it, and we would just go back to talking. Like it was like a dream job.

Speaker 3 We filmed in between our conversations. Yeah.
And also, I think I remember very clearly in the pilot because we had already been friends for years when we shot the pilot.

Speaker 3 And they were doing one of those spy shots and we were in your office and we were talking. And it was like, you know, other people were like, oh, this is great.

Speaker 3 Like, this is a thing that really works. They're friendship.
We're really going to be able to sell.

Speaker 2 And we're like, uh, duh. Duh, no kidding.
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 I mean, they really did base the entire show at the end of the day on the fact that Leslie and Anne were, you know, each other's number one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Not hard to do.

Speaker 1 No. And

Speaker 1 what, I mean, we've talked about this before, but we, when we first started the show, I think it was like

Speaker 1 it was kind of like we were trying to figure out who was going to play what part

Speaker 1 and who was going to come on board.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 kind of like the beginnings of that show were,

Speaker 2 I don't say a little clumsy.

Speaker 1 Crunchy.

Speaker 3 Crunchy. Crunchy.

Speaker 3 Can we talk about it?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I would love to.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was crunchy.

Speaker 1 Because I think for, I don't think a lot of people know this. For the beginning, I think we both were worried that we had taken each other's part.

Speaker 3 Like,

Speaker 2 yes.

Speaker 3 So, so I had been on hold for this untitled thing that was going going to, that Greg and Mike were going to write. Right.
And I had done a year on the office and

Speaker 3 they let me go, which made sense. It was, it made sense.
I was.

Speaker 1 You had such a tough job there because

Speaker 1 everybody wanted Jim and Pam. And then guess who shows up? A very likable, cool, and everyone was like, oh no, wait.
That's Karen.

Speaker 3 It did not feel that way. People did not like me.

Speaker 3 Like fans were not about it, but they had to create tension for the relationship to be earned later. So I was the third point in the triangle.
It's fine. I like accept it.

Speaker 3 But anyway, so Mike was like, we're working on this other show. I'll put you on hold.
We don't know what it is yet. Remember, people thought it was like a spin-off of the office for a second.

Speaker 3 But anyway, so they kept like kind of decide, like changing

Speaker 3 the main characters of the show. When they pitch it to me, the boss was a guy.
And they didn't know if they were going to cast me or not. But I remember you were extremely pregnant.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 We'd just gotten back from Italy.

Speaker 1 You and I were in Italy. Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's right. We were in Italy and it was very hot.
That's right. And a day later,

Speaker 3 you were like, let's go to lunch. And you talked about something.
Do you remember where we went?

Speaker 1 Paste.

Speaker 3 Paste. Yes.
I do.

Speaker 2 New York City.

Speaker 3 I do.

Speaker 1 Oh, God. And I said, let's talk about something.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And you said,

Speaker 2 no, no, no.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I want you to raise this baby with me.

Speaker 3 It's yours.

Speaker 2 This baby is yours.

Speaker 1 I know that's important and you need to accept it.

Speaker 3 But you, no, I actually hold this moment as like a gold standard of friendship and being able to take care of your oneself and the person that you love at the same time.

Speaker 3 I really do, Polos, because what you did and how you did it was very hard because you took me to lunch and said, I'm so sorry, but they offered me the part.

Speaker 3 Both of us thinking it was the same part I was on hold for.

Speaker 3 Being created by a friend of ours. And so I immediately started crying in pesties.

Speaker 3 And you held my hand and you were so warm and you were so, there was something about it where you were like, I know, I'm sorry, buddy, but you also, you didn't like do the thing that I sometimes do where I'm codependent where I'm like, I know, I suck.

Speaker 3 I'm the worst person. I don't even deserve it.
Like whatever I would say to try to make the other person feel better, which doesn't work. You didn't do that.

Speaker 3 You like held your space and you also comforted me at the same time, which was like a very beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 I wonder what.

Speaker 1 Sure's version of this is.

Speaker 3 Let me tell you. Okay.
Because I left him a message almost immediately because I'm not shy. I was, and And I was like, oh, I'm such an idiot for thinking I could even be on the show.

Speaker 3 Like anybody wants me on this show. Of course I didn't get this.
Like Amy's like a, you know, oh my God, what a mean part of yourself.

Speaker 3 Very mean, very mean.

Speaker 3 That's a person we're trying to not invite to the dinner party anymore. But

Speaker 3 so I called him. I was like, hey, would love to talk to you.
He was on a plane and he landed and he's like,

Speaker 2 I was like,

Speaker 3 you want to tell me what's going on? Because it would have been really nice for you to tell me and not Amy to tell me that I wasn't getting this job. And he's like, no, no, no, back up.

Speaker 3 We changed the boss. It's a woman and Amy's playing the boss.
And I was like, you,

Speaker 3 oh my God, like we might be working together?

Speaker 1 Yes. It kind of went from, oh, no, to, oh, my God, we might be the two women on the show.

Speaker 3 And I still wasn't cast because I still had to do a bunch of chemistry reads after that.

Speaker 3 But, but that became, you know, this huge possibility of like my life being the best, from the worst to the the best god i'm sweating even thinking about that i wasn't they had they just hadn't decided things and they they were trying to build around you i think is what happened around that character so i think they had just done that and i think you wanted to tell me as soon as possible yeah because we were so close yeah which was the right instinct and mike decided to get on a plane which was his instinct

Speaker 1 And he just flew for hours.

Speaker 2 He just went to doing it. And he never got off a plane.

Speaker 1 And that's what execs do. That's what a powerful person does is they get on the plane.

Speaker 3 They just get on as many planes as possible.

Speaker 2 My phone was off.

Speaker 1 But I have to say, you are very good. And you've taught me a lot about handling feedback

Speaker 1 because, like, you, you know, even recently, like, you reached out to friends about giving, give me some feedback on something. Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 I thought about, wow, I mean, I'm always trying to process taking feedback, like, like we talked about, like just figuring out who I can get feedback from and I love your feedback I trust it I respect it the way you give it is very caring and loving but feedback from the wrong person oh yeah not great nightmare nightmare well how do you handle that I will say you know it's I part of me was doing it because my little inner critic that person that was at the table

Speaker 3 is so loud and mean and unreasonable and so I look to people who love me and can tell me that that's not always the person I should be listening to.

Speaker 3 So weirdly, my friends sometimes are like a stand-in for my highest self when I can't do it for myself. So that's, I was sort of looking for that.

Speaker 3 And it's funny because I was looking for feedback about the things that kind of bring me joy and the parts of my work that my friends see light me up. The point is.
I was very targeted about it.

Speaker 3 I asked people that I love and respect. And that's, that is the thing to do, I think.
I also think that if you are going to get feedback from people, because a lot of us get unsolicited feedback.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Bill Hayter once said to me, it was when I first started writing and he was talking about notes, because I did not understand that process. I didn't really start writing until I was like in my 30s.

Speaker 3 And he said, you know, you should take the note and not the solution. And that's, that's what I feel like with feedback and people.

Speaker 3 It's like aggregate the kind of like common threads and then you can be like, okay, I'm getting a kind of similar thing in this area where people seem to think I'm this thing.

Speaker 3 What does that actually mean? And where is that coming from for me? And is that something I feel like I can fix or investigate as opposed to being like, that person has a problem with me?

Speaker 3 And then also, as we know, everybody's just thinking about themselves all the time.

Speaker 1 100%. And what do you do when you're, because you're writing all the time, producing, directing, when you get a note that you deeply disagree with?

Speaker 1 How do you handle it in real time? Do you push back? Do you say, let me think about it?

Speaker 3 Do you.

Speaker 3 I most likely go, that's a really good point.

Speaker 3 I'll address that. And then most of the time, if you don't, it doesn't, if you make the rest of the thing good, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 It's so true. Like, it's the advice I always try to give people that are starting out, which is don't fight every battle in real time because

Speaker 1 execs want to feel creative and they want to feel like they're part of it. And if you, they get embarrassed.
Yes. If you're like, what a dumbass note.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Why would you say it's just such a stupid thing?

Speaker 3 And also it's a waste of energy because it's such a long process. And if you're like using all of your, you know, currency to fight back with everything, you're going to be exhausted.

Speaker 3 You're not going to be able to be creative. Whereas if you go, yeah, great idea.
Let's, we're going to figure out how to solve that.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 1 but then you don't do it.

Speaker 3 Sometimes, sometimes it doesn't make sense because the thing they're asking for isn't. is you know completely contradictory to the other thing they're asking for.
That happens a lot.

Speaker 3 So you can't do both.

Speaker 3 Again, it's like if you, if somebody's having a problem with an area of the script or like a theme of the script or a character, you know something's wrong, but they're never gonna know how to fix it.

Speaker 3 You have to do that.

Speaker 1 When I gave you some feedback recently, one of the things that I said that you love to do is dance.

Speaker 3 I was gonna bring that up.

Speaker 1 I wanna talk about dancing. Okay.
The importance of dancing in your life.

Speaker 1 And our lives. And our lives.
And I want to tell you something fun about this show. So we do this thing.

Speaker 1 like a little secret, like talking behind people's backs, but in a good way, which is before I interview you, I do a little Zoom with people and ask them what I should ask ask you.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I,

Speaker 1 before you came today, I zoomed Retta and Darcy and was like, you guys, I'm talking to Rashida. What should we ask her?

Speaker 1 And we all started talking about dancing because we were talking about how we love doing it with you, how we've done it so much with you, how we've had the joy of like doing it with you over and over again at birthdays.

Speaker 1 And it was so fun to talk about because it's like what a lot of people associate with you is the feeling of dancing and the feeling of like what it feels like to be good at dancing.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 1 So, what's your relationship to it? What does it do for you?

Speaker 3 Well, I will say when we first met, I felt like we got right into dancing right away. Like, we were, we'd go out in New York and we would dance.

Speaker 3 Like, it was almost like that was the way we got to know each other. Like, we sat and talked, but also we just went and danced.

Speaker 3 And there, again, there's something,

Speaker 3 there's something that

Speaker 3 feels so instinctive, non-verbal like

Speaker 3 just being in in your body i think as somebody who like probably is in my brain too much it's such a it's a relief to dance it's such a relief to dance yeah um

Speaker 3 and i don't even know how to describe it i just want to be dancing all the time and you too just want to be dancing all the time i think i'm a little

Speaker 1 i think that i my

Speaker 1 Especially a social,

Speaker 1 you know, like at social events, I get a little anxious and I need to express it somehow. Yes.
And the chatting and talking, like you said, the small talk makes me feel crazy.

Speaker 3 Yes. Yes.
I would, and there's nothing worse for me than being in a small talk conversation and seeing the dance floor and hearing a song and being like, I can't believe I'm not there right now.

Speaker 3 And some, I have, I have very rudely been like, excuse me, and just run to the dance floor because I cannot miss a good song. And Darcy and Retta and you have all been to my birthday party.

Speaker 3 So I used to have an annual birthday party that was the pajama jammy jammy jam. And there were very strict rules.
They were, come in your pajamas.

Speaker 3 You can't not, you will not be let in without your pajamas. I only serve cereal and pizza and candy.
And this is not a party for socializing. There will be no talking at a corner.

Speaker 3 You're there to dance and dance only. You have to dance.
And people stuck to the rules. And the people, like the die-hard people who want to be there to dance, you could tell.

Speaker 3 Like there is like a, there's certain people who are like that and there's some people that are not.

Speaker 3 I remember in those early years too people saying i don't really like to dance should i come and i'd say no no yeah don't come it's fine we'll come we'll hang out some other time in a different way but that's not this have a cup of coffee outside of a deli sometime but not not this not this and it is like it is a marathon like we get there we are on the dance floor dj tenjaji is messing it up

Speaker 3 like every era just crushing it and we're just there for six and a half hours with a couple of water breaks. Like we just don't even talk to each other.
No.

Speaker 1 But Rhetta was so funny. She was like, Rhetta was saying, like, the thing I love the most is when white, when you find out a white guy can really dance.

Speaker 3 And she said, Max Greenfield.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Max Greenfield really brought it.

Speaker 3 Also, Ben Schwartz, great dancer.

Speaker 1 People should know that, John Raffio.

Speaker 3 Dancer. And also like understands.
90s R ⁇ B and 2000 R ⁇ B in like a deep, deep historical way. Also, like there's, it's great because it's such an equalizer to wear pajamas.

Speaker 3 It's not like, and I, I, and I, you know, if you want to wear like a sexy pajama, okay, but that's not really the point.

Speaker 3 The point is to be comfortable and be kind of uniform in the sense that you can really focus on the dancing. I sound like extremely strict about this, and it's not, it's actually fun.

Speaker 3 And the way we're talking about it makes it sound like it's not fun.

Speaker 1 You're talking to a person that I think rules are what make things fun.

Speaker 1 I hear somebody laughing in this room. I don't know why that's funny.

Speaker 1 Rules, rules are boundaries, right? Everything has like, you know, you can't just be like, come whenever, and anybody can come or whatever. It's like, that's a nightmare.

Speaker 1 If someone's like, from seven to 11, or we're going here, or like that, I feel seen, taken care of. Somebody said, I'm going to do this thing.
It's going to go like this.

Speaker 1 Then you can have your feelings about it. But this is what I like.
It makes me feel like people are taking care of theirself.

Speaker 3 It's a very swim lesson. Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Okay. Swim lesson.

Speaker 3 I just remembered my high school friends also all up in the the all of your high school friends.

Speaker 1 And I know all of your high school friends because of those jammy jams and your college friends. Yes.
And they're amazing.

Speaker 3 Thank you. Thank you.
And they're so fun.

Speaker 1 But talk to us about swim lesson for a second because,

Speaker 1 yes, tell us what swim lesson is.

Speaker 3 Well, to your point, it's a movie about a swim teacher, Bill Marsh, who has taught over 5,000 kids. from like ages two to five.

Speaker 3 And he has a very particular way of teaching.

Speaker 3 But part of that is the sort of boundary,

Speaker 3 his boundaries that he sets with these kids. So he's like, you can have all the feelings you want, but you have to stay in the pool.
It's an eight-day intensive program.

Speaker 3 And the hope and actually the outcome most of the time, very, very, very most of the time, is that the kids have these breakthroughs and they go from crying and screaming and vomiting and running out of the pool to really enjoying being underwater and actually swimming a little bit.

Speaker 3 And it is this sort of parable for what it is to be alive.

Speaker 3 It's the first of many, many, many times that you will face something that you don't understand, that you're scared of, that you don't know how to do, and you make some progress and you feel good about yourself and you push through that.

Speaker 3 And it's both the pushing through it and the learning something new that makes you feel

Speaker 3 that gives you self-esteem.

Speaker 1 And you and Will McCormick directed it, produced it.

Speaker 3 It's a short documentary.

Speaker 1 It's a beautiful short doc.

Speaker 1 It's winning a ton of awards. And it's, yeah, where can we see it?

Speaker 3 You can see it on YouTube, on the LA Times channel on YouTube.

Speaker 1 Highly recommended. It's so incredible.
We got to screen it. I got to see it when you screened it at Pixar, which was very special.
So awesome.

Speaker 1 And I don't think a lot of people know about your tenure at Pixar. Like you, I mean, that of the many, like, you know, it's almost impossible, Bones, to get a full,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 you know, I just have to do little snapshots of your wide and illustrious career because you have done so many things. You do so many things so well.

Speaker 1 And because you're a curious person who likes to challenge themselves, you also are just doing new things all the time.

Speaker 1 And on top of the million places that people have seen you act and the things they've seen you write and direct, I don't think people also know that you had a stint at Pixar where you were writing.

Speaker 1 And you just have this

Speaker 1 way in which you

Speaker 2 You kind of are of the world.

Speaker 1 You really want to experience a lot of things.

Speaker 3 Thank you for saying saying that because for me,

Speaker 3 it's like a, I don't want it to be a problem, but it's like I see myself as a generalist almost, you know, like where I don't, I sort of do like a little dot, like a tiny little dive into all these areas, but like a lot of people, by the time they're 50, have done a deep dive into one area.

Speaker 3 And I feel grateful that I haven't totally done that. But then in some regards, I'm like, hmm, had I spent all of those hours doing one thing, would I be like that kind of, you know,

Speaker 3 would I, would I be be like a you know virtuosic in one place I think also I mean the the truth is you know my beloved father who passed away a couple months ago

Speaker 3 he the bar of what he accomplished in this world is so high it's unfairly high for anybody um and thank god for him because he really did like change culture and so if i were being honest like you know he was a great dad and he loved me and he was so encouraging and he was so proud of me.

Speaker 3 But at the end of the day, like I'm looking at this person who's accomplished things that are like unimaginable and I can't not let that enter my orbit. So yeah, my standards are

Speaker 3 stupidly high, like, and unfairly high to myself. So that's like also something I'm thinking about as I approach 50.
I'm like, okay, how do I let go?

Speaker 3 That was his life. I'm so glad he let it.
And that's not my life. And what is my life? And also, what do I find kind of like joy and connection?

Speaker 3 And what do I feel good at doing in my life that has nothing to do with that?

Speaker 3 And also, like, I do feel like this, there's this like hat trick where like the oppression of like only being one thing and being like domestic, you know, domestic and whatever and knocking out the house.

Speaker 3 We've done the opposite, which is like the pressure, the oppression of like having to do everything and then pretend like it's all easy and we're all fine with it. Like,

Speaker 3 it's impossible. It's an impossible standard.

Speaker 1 And I, like, one of the reasons why I want to do this podcast is as I've watched so many men do the bare minimum.

Speaker 3 Is this your bare minimum?

Speaker 1 And this, I'm truly giving 25%,

Speaker 1 which is, for most people, is 75%. But it's like enough is enough.
Enough with the 100%.

Speaker 1 Sure. And enough with improving ourselves and listening to stuff about how we're supposed to get better and better and better.

Speaker 3 But it will make the rest of our life very interesting.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, I mean, we're all going to live on a farm together, and you know, like, right?

Speaker 2 We're all going to live in a farm together, right?

Speaker 3 100%.

Speaker 1 So, Darcy and Reda had two questions for you. Okay.
They're kind of the same question. And then I'm going to finish with the question that we're asking everybody on Good Hang.

Speaker 1 So, the question they had for you, which is kind of a cute question, because it kind of came off of

Speaker 1 us hanging out and talking about how Retta described you as like, you know, like Rashida can be the lawyer of the group, which I love. So true.
Which is like, wait, hold on.

Speaker 1 But it got us talking about who, little Rashida, like, what did little Rashida want to be when she grew up? What was her, what did she want her job to be?

Speaker 3 Well, Rhetta is partially right. I wanted to be a lawyer.
Really?

Speaker 3 I wanted to be a lawyer or a judge or the president.

Speaker 3 No thanks. No thanks to that one.
But yeah, I wanted to be a lawyer or a judge.

Speaker 1 Did you know anyone that was a lawyer or a judge?

Speaker 3 My grandfather was a lawyer and my uncle is a judge.

Speaker 2 No way.

Speaker 3 My uncle Richard is a judge.

Speaker 1 And you saw him, did you ever see him in action? Like see him bang a gavel and like judge?

Speaker 3 No, but he, his brain is just that he's got that brain. He's just like, he's like, he's parsing all the details and he's putting the facts together and he's like assessing.

Speaker 1 I love that. Do you think you would like you make a good jury member? Do Do you think you're able to be?

Speaker 3 I don't.

Speaker 2 Me neither.

Speaker 3 I don't think so. I don't think so.

Speaker 3 I think it would be, I'm too emotional for that. Same.
Judge is different because I think you're like you are considering emotion. That's in there.

Speaker 3 I mean, obviously you're considering facts, but I think I like the idea of being the adjudicator of right and wrong,

Speaker 3 which is something I'm like trying to let go of as I get older because there's so much gray and like it's so boring to think that you know morally what's the right thing for anybody, you know.

Speaker 3 But I think I liked it, like as a kid, you know, like you're always trying to suss out like where your boundaries are and like what's good and what's bad. And I think I liked the idea of like really

Speaker 3 enforcing that.

Speaker 1 You know, we did a fun

Speaker 1 jokey thing on Parks and Rec where we took a picture one day on some like courthouse steps me you Catherine Hahn Adam Scott Paul Rudd and we looked like we were in a 90s drama called Philly Justice.

Speaker 1 Yeah. We called ourselves.

Speaker 1 And then because it was whatever, season seven of Parks, and we were probably phoning it in at that point, but we ended up pretending that we used to be in that show and we did a whole text chain.

Speaker 3 The writers took the time off writing the show and wrote an entire episode of Philly Justice. That's right.

Speaker 1 The writers wrote an episode that we filmed

Speaker 1 that I have a copy of that I keep wanting to put on like TikTok. Do you really?

Speaker 2 I can't see it.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's so good morgan sackett our producer sent me the full thing and you play angie martinez yeah and she's a lawyer yeah right she's a lawyer she's a young or like she's like a young defense attorney or like

Speaker 1 something yeah um and there's a bunch of scenes where you object to things and you throw things off

Speaker 1 yeah you're not in a courtroom and um you i think you and han have like a

Speaker 1 rivalry no i think you're in love i think we are i think you guys maybe you yell at each other and then you kiss at some point i forget oh my god i just got to get that out there on the internet so people can see it that was really fun but it's so fun and there is a side of you that a hundred percent i could see going in and and

Speaker 3 and putting a briefcase down yeah i'm not going to law school but yeah i i think some part of me thinks i'm a judge Isn't that just a testament to how much downtime you have on a set?

Speaker 3 That we created an entirely new show.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we had time for a whole other show that no one ever saw.

Speaker 1 Okay, and then the last question, good hang. So we're trying to figure out how to like continually self-regulate here and find joy in all different places.

Speaker 1 And like, I'm asking everybody to talk about what gives them relief. What is the thing they go to and they want to like laugh, check out, tune in?

Speaker 1 take a load off. It's small or big,

Speaker 1 but I feel we like we learn a lot about somebody by what they laugh at.

Speaker 1 What's yours?

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 3 contrary to what we just talked about, which is I love good music and I love, you know, I love the emotionality of listening to great music. Nothing makes me laugh harder than really

Speaker 3 confident, really bad singing.

Speaker 3 Like sincerely

Speaker 3 confident. bad singing.

Speaker 1 People that know that they're doing it.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 I'm not laughing at them.

Speaker 3 I just like the the the the gusto in which people like I would watch the first couple seasons of American Idol with friends like appointment television sit-down not like when it got to the good people but like those first five episodes where people were just coming in hard with like no musicality whatsoever.

Speaker 1 And they were super cocky.

Speaker 3 Super cocky. There was one girl who

Speaker 3 It was like what she did was actually musically amazing because she was tone deaf. She went to like six different keys in like 20 seconds, like just kind of brilliant, but didn't know

Speaker 1 being like, I got it.

Speaker 3 She said she was like Mariah Carey.

Speaker 1 That's what she said she was.

Speaker 1 It's so interesting that you say that because there must be some like psychological part of you that likes the way people are approaching music as something that you revere so badly.

Speaker 1 Like it must be a huge release.

Speaker 3 It is. It is.
And to that point, I remember there was David Wayne and I once, I pitched this bit to him.

Speaker 3 It did not go well when we did it at comedy at sketch fest is that it's called sketch fest where i was like let's do california

Speaker 2 california yeah what was it california

Speaker 3 dreaming california dreaming i'm like but let's do it like super genuine sincere come in like with the guitar like start singing and then i'm going to come in with the harmonies and they're going to be totally wrong It was funny in concept, but like it was a release.

Speaker 3 It was like a feeling like, oh, I don't have to sound good. Yes.
I could just go for it.

Speaker 1 Do you, have you ever seen that Domingo sketch on SNL?

Speaker 2 Totally.

Speaker 1 That's kind of like when they great job. When they come in so off.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 How do they do that?

Speaker 3 I wonder if somebody coached them how to sing badly because there's good singers singing badly. I know.

Speaker 1 It's satisfying to watch Ariana Grande not get the notes. Yes.

Speaker 3 But it's not like sometimes when really good singers sing badly, they're like,

Speaker 3 and you could tell they're good singers. They're actually doing a good job of convincing people they're bad.

Speaker 1 When you do karaoke or see people sing karaoke, do you like it when they're off?

Speaker 3 That's a little bit more painful because it's in person. Okay.
You know, so

Speaker 1 just to get it down to the nitty-gritty, it's like being with friends, watching on TV, someone that comes in and is like, buckle up.

Speaker 1 And then they just start saying

Speaker 1 roar by Katy Perry and they get it way wrong.

Speaker 1 And then they leave being like, nailed it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Suck on that. People who don't, who are so confident were were like, if you laughed, they wouldn't crumble.
Like, I don't want, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's good. That makes me want to watch old American Idol.

Speaker 3 I'm going to send you some because I found them again. I found like the girl that knocked myself off.

Speaker 1 Wait, let me just look at her before we go. Because we can do this now.
I have a laptop.

Speaker 3 It's deep and like a cut. It's like at a super cut of like.

Speaker 1 Do you remember her name?

Speaker 3 I don't, but it's like.

Speaker 1 Do you remember what she's saying?

Speaker 3 Yeah, she's saying, she's saying, Phil Collins, take a look against all odds.

Speaker 3 and she came and she was like people say i look just like muri carrie and i sound just like her too is this her no that's not her oh you sure

Speaker 1 oh that's her okay okay oh my god okay sorry we gotta listen to this before we go

Speaker 1 oh yeah she said she looks like maria carrie she doesn't not look like mariah carrie she's cute she's cute

Speaker 3 You gotta turn away out.

Speaker 1 You would not think that this is gonna go badly.

Speaker 1 That's what I mean.

Speaker 2 She's cute.

Speaker 3 She's wearing a shawl.

Speaker 1 She's wearing a shawl. She has really cute hair.

Speaker 1 She's like, she definitely, like, like she wears cute jeans and she's a little too close to the judges which is already making me nervous like she's standing too close to the table

Speaker 1 which she doesn't have a good like here she goes you're ready here she goes okay hold on stand by

Speaker 3 at the end she goes off watch take a good look at me now

Speaker 3 Like that's like acrobatic, that's hard to do. Like I could, I've tried to imitate that.
It's hard to do.

Speaker 1 That is very, very good. You're right.
That's very, very satisfying to watch because you're right, she's kind of good. She just not, she's

Speaker 1 not hitting any notes.

Speaker 3 No, she's not hitting any keys. And

Speaker 3 within that, she's hitting all the keys, which is amazing. Like, it's really hard to do.

Speaker 1 She's also doing something that I like when singers do where she's holding her throat as if that, like, she's like, I'll get it.

Speaker 3 She's so nervous. I mean, she's so nervous, you can tell, but she's like, she's like, this is not going well.
She knows. She starts to figure it out.
Wow, that is really satisfying.

Speaker 1 I'm going to hold on.

Speaker 1 I'm going to send that to myself so I can watch it

Speaker 2 because that's so good.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 take a look at me now.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 you're just an empty space

Speaker 2 and you come and fade

Speaker 2 and then at one point she goes

Speaker 1 she gives a little shout too

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 1 she didn't seem to be um feeling like it was going badly though so really I think she

Speaker 2 was like uh-oh

Speaker 3 maybe too late, but she was like uh-oh. Because she was, I think this was like, please stop.

Speaker 2 Please stop.

Speaker 3 Please just stop.

Speaker 1 How funny would it have been at the very end? She ended and went, uh-oh.

Speaker 2 That would have been so funny.

Speaker 1 She said, uh-oh, at the end.

Speaker 1 All right, love you, bones. Thanks for doing this.

Speaker 2 That was fun.

Speaker 1 All right. Thank you so much, Rashida Jones.
You were the best. I love you.
Thank you for doing this for me.

Speaker 1 I don't think you had much of a choice, but thank you for doing it anyway, and I will do anything for you.

Speaker 1 We talked a lot about music, and it makes me think that before this episode is over, I feel like I need to just ask Chapel Roan if she'll come on again. Chapel, Chapel, are you there?

Speaker 1 Are you listening?

Speaker 1 We've been reaching out to your team and I'm assuming that no answer means a maybe

Speaker 1 and I'm excited about having you on. I just think you're the best.
I just love your music and everything that you're doing for the music industry. And I kind of started this podcast to talk to you.

Speaker 1 And when you come on I'm gonna end it. So I haven't told Spotify that yet but you will be my last guest.
So chapel come on soon because I'm tired and I'd love to wrap it up.

Speaker 1 So thank you everybody for listening. Thanks for hanging and we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 1 You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler.
The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite.

Speaker 1 For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spilane, Kaya McMullen, and Aalaya Zanares. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss Burman.
Original music by Amy Miles.

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