Ellie Kemper says she felt lucky to have been granted her dream job.
Ellie Kemper says she felt lucky to have been granted her dream job.
The star of new Netflix comedy The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt talks to Lydia Jenkin about her solo breakthrough.
Not many young actresses can say that the head of a network commissioned a comedy show around them, but that's exactly what happened to Ellie Kemper.
Having honed her skills in improv troupes and done her time as an intern on Conan , she got her break starring in NBC's American version of The Office, as secretary Erin Hannon, before being cast in Bridesmaids.
And she did a bang-up job, because Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, saw a spark in Kemper's on-screen presence and asked revered 30 Rock comedy writers Tina Fey and Robert Carlock if they'd be interested in writing a whole new show for Kemper to star in.
NBC ended up selling the show to Netflix, as it felt like a more appropriate home for the offbeat comedy series, and it's become one of the SVOD service's premiere shows as it launches in Australia and New Zealand. But it all began because Fey and Carlock saw immediate potential when they met the remarkably bubbly 34-year-old Kemper for drinks, even if she was pretty nervous about meeting two of her comedy heroes.
"The first I knew about it, I was in New York, and my agent called and said, 'Ok, well I've set you up for drinks with Tina Fey and Robert Carlock tomorrow night,' and I was like, 'What?! A heads-up would've been great!' I get really nervous about these things. I started re-watching 30 Rock in case they were going to quiz me," she laughs.
That first meeting was simply to get to know each other and toss around ideas, but a few months later, Fey and Carlock had struck on an idea.
"I met with them again, this time for dinner, for actual food, and they had the idea for the pilot already, and that was exhilarating.
"I wasn't sure if they were serious about the premise initially, because I thought, that's kind of a dark premise for a comedy, but they were."
Indeed, the titular character Kimmy Schmidt has spent the last 15 years locked in an underground bunker with three other women, convinced by a shadowy minister that the world is experiencing an apocalypse.
When they're found, Kimmy decides to start her life over in New York, and the show somehow manages to bring out the sunny, funny and bizarre aspects of her harrowing experience.
"When I read the scripts I went, 'Ah ha! That's how you make a comedy out of a tragedy -- leave it to those two'."
Understandably, she also felt an immediate affinity with Kimmy, this young woman who tackles life with an incredible exuberance and can do attitude, coupled with an endearing desire to help people, an inquisitiveness for everything that's developed while she's been underground for 15 years, and a surprising set of combat skills.
"I felt like, not only do I get who this character is, but I felt like she played to my strengths. Obviously she has faced a more adverse set of circumstances than any other character I have played, but the end result was sort of the same, in that she's this very strong young lady who is determined to triumph."
Instead of being broken by her time in the bunker, Kimmy is delighted to come out and find that the world is still here for her to enjoy -- which Kemper says is not an entirely unlikely scenario.
"Doing some background reading about women to whom similarly horrible things have happened, there is a common theme, I think, of them emerging still hopeful, still optimistic, still believing that there is good in life, and I think it has to be that spirit that gets someone through those kinds of experiences in the first place.
"So that's the miracle of Kimmy, that she refuses to let the bad things dictate the circumstances of her life."
Of course one of the joys of the set-up is that the show can tap into a wonderful sense of 90s nostalgia, because that's the world that Kimmy remembers. One of the only books she could turn to for advice or encouragement in the bunker was a volume from The Baby-Sitters Club, which happens to be a treasured set of books Kemper enjoyed when she was growing up in St Louis, too.
"This is a little mortifying, but I did love them. I came home to my parents house a few years ago, and all the Baby-Sitters Club books were gone, and I was like 'What did you do with them?!' Mum had given a few of them away and I wasn't happy."
That gap in Kimmy's pop culture development is obviously a deep well for jokes to spring from, too.
"There's this line where she's like, 'I'm sorry I don't know Hanson's current hits,' and that kinda sums it up for me," Kemper laughs.
Apart from making jokes about long dead fashion trends or old technology, much of the most hilarious material in the show stems from Kimmy's interactions with her deluded and super-wealthy new employer, Jacqueline, played by one of Fey's long-time collaborators, Jane Krakowski, and her newfound flamboyant flatmate, Titus, played by Broadway star Tituss Burgess.
"That man makes me laugh so hard," Kemper says of Burgess.
"I feel so lucky that I get to work with him. The first week of shooting, I was sitting on his lap during a break, and we were taking selfies, and he was just making me laugh uncontrollably, and I wet my pants from laughing.
"I didn't tell him, I just leapt up, but I was like, 'I think that's a good sign'."
Kemper's fellow St Louis native Jon Hamm of Mad Men (who taught her drama at high school) appears as a special guest later in the season, once again proving his comedy skills, and Fey also has a guest role, both of which were highlights of the series for Kemper.
"It was thrilling -- at least it was for me, probably not for them. But there was this one scene where Tina shoves me, and I was just like 'This is so fun! This is a good job, being pushed into a wall by Tina Fey!' I feel extremely lucky to have been granted such a dream job."
Who: Ellie Kemper What:The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Where and when: Available on Netflix now
