Roll the Clip!

The cast of Community shares some secrets about Thursday’s season finale. Or… not.

Hollywood.com has an interview with Alison Brie from Community; here are the highlights:

We’ve seen you do a lot of comedy (Community, Hot Sluts) and in that work the humor seems to come from of your composure and dead pan. How did you develop that? Was it from a particular influence?

Hmmm, good observation! I don’t know where this started exactly. I’m sure a lot of my comedic sensibilities on-screen just come from my day-to-day sense of humor and the way I joke around with my friends. I’ve always surrounded myself with funny and bizarre people and in turn developed a repartee with most of my friends and colleagues that involves one or both of us slipping back and forth between deadpan and total zaniness. Danny Pudi is a major culprit of this, as we spend most of our time together on set doing very specific odd-ball bits behind the camera that nobody else can really quite grasp.

Also, I think it’s important in comedy to be able to define your role in any particular bit; are you creating the comedy or reacting to it? On ‘Community’ we have so many comedic geniuses on the show and everyone gets a chance to go real broad at times and have big physical comedy moments and at other times it is merely your job to play it straight while someone else flies off the handle. I think some of my favorite moments on the show have been reacting to Ken Jeong, who is friggin’ hilarious and can improv and take a scene to it’s very limits and all I really have to do is keep a straight face, which isn’t always that easy. I suppose I also have to credit my college, CalArts, for giving me lots of practice at maintaining conviction behind your own character’s intention in a scene – so when Ken’s ranting and raving and everyone on the crew is losing it and just cracking up, I’m able to stay in character and focus…most of the time!

As of now, you’re regularly balancing cerebral drama in Mad Men with absurdist humor in Community. Which do you prefer? Which comes more naturally?

I cannot pick a favorite! (terrible answer, I know) The truth is that as different as the shows are from one another, and they couldn’t be more different, they are equally fulfilling. The real gift is the opportunity to do both at the same time, which is also a wonderful challenge and great practice! I suppose the comedy comes a bit more naturally to me, but that is one of the things that makes doing both projects so great. We have so much fun on the set of ‘Community’, joking around and trying to find new ways of making things funny. On ‘Mad Men’ the challenge is often to find and articulate the depth and nuance of a character’s emotions in a given situation. The struggle is what makes that fun and the fearlessness and freedom that I find on the set of ‘Community’ help inform the work I do on ‘Mad Men’, and vice-versa. After 3 years of working with such delicate specifics on ‘Mad Men’, it is easy to find comedic twists and turns on ‘Community’ while still giving the character some depth and perspective.

TV Fanatic has the scoop on how this season of Community is going to end – with a Greendale prom:

“We’re definitely going to give the fans something worthy of a finale,” said producer Dan Harmon. “We follow the school year, so we get to do prom. It has to end with a prom-bang, my homage to a Dawson’s Creek-y vibe.”

Overall, “the last couple of episodes satisfy all the urges you have about Community. We’re batting cleanup with the drama, the sap and the comedy, as well,” Harmon added.

NBC announced season finale dates for a variety of shows that extend all the way to Tuesday, May 25 with the season’s climactic episode of “The Biggest Loser” (8-10 p.m. ET).

Community last episode of the season (and we are still hoping that NBC will renew the show for a second season) is Thursday, May 20, 8-8:30 p.m.

Source: RBR

Watch the cast in the videos posted below with Jack himself talk about working with the group, and the role he played. The clips are taken right from the episode, to get a look at what kind of drama Jack Black’s “Buddy” will bring to the study group.

Jack Black on Community [1:45]
The cast talks about working with Jack Black on the set of Community:

Guest Star Jack Black [2:51] Jack Black talks about his character ‘Buddy’ who really wants to be part of the ‘in crowd’ aka the study group.

Read more: monstersandcritics

Here’s a clip from next week’s episode Community Episode 12:

Episode Two of a new web series by GCC film student Abed Nadir.