Aubrey Plaza is a lot like her "Parks & Recreation" character, April Ludgate: dry, super sarcastic and very to the point. In a mere 10 minutes, Plaza joked about being naked in her bathtub, warned me about giving her number to my friends and accused me of hanging up on her. Twice.
In Season 5 of the NBC series (premiering Thursday, September 20 at 9:30 p.m. ET), Plaza's April finds herself in Washington, DC, assisting her roommate Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) with a congressional campaign. She leaves her husband Andy (Chris Pratt) behind in Pawnee.
"Andy is just trying to focus on becoming a cop and he's kind of helping Leslie and all of the guys back at the parks department and that's pretty much all I know because I'm not so good at reading scripts," Plaza told The Huffington Post in a phone interview.
The "Parks & Rec" Season 5 premiere episode features some big DC names when Senators John McCain, Barbara Boxer and Olympia Snowe guest star as themselves. While she didn't have any lines with them, Plaza did meet them and said they were "really cool."
Read on to find out more about "Parks & Recreation" Season 5, Plaza's dream guest star and more.
I wasn't expecting you to call me directly, but I guess I can deal.
Don't give my number to your friends, OK?
I will not. So, I'm so excited you guys are back. What is April's life like in DC?
Well, she's stuck with Ben who is a dork and he's annoying. She's kind of having a lot of fun causing trouble and also has a lot of new responsibilities. You can kind of see her growing up a little bit. She really misses Andy because he's still back in Pawnee.
Yeah, but Andy comes to visit in the season premiere and your characters have a lot of personal ... alone time.
That's right. They would like to have sex with each other and they make that very clear.
Do you know if your character is in DC for a certain amount of episodes?
We don't know how long we're going to be there, actually. I wish I knew, but I don't.
Did you film with the senators? Did you meet them all?
I had no lines with any of the senators, but I did get to meet them all.
Was that fun? I mean it's John McCain, a former presidential candidate.
Yeah, it was really fun. They were really cool. Senator Boxer was really nice and Senator Snowe ... it was like actual real, politicians.
I talked to Nick recently and we played this game -- two truths and a lie. Can you give us some?
OK, Champion grows a fourth leg. Um, April has an affair with the president and Ben and Leslie go to China and don't tell anyone.
I have a feeling that's more lies than truths, but that's OK.
We'll never know because we're not playing the other part of the game, which is find out which was which.
[Laughs.] You brought up Champion and I wanted to tell you I watched the blooper reel and the Champion/Ann stuff had me in tears.
Oh. Yes. I always forget that there's a possibility of things that I say going into the blooper reel. So, I did not realize that was going to happen. I was mainly doing this really weird voice that was freaking Rashida [Jones] out, but it turned into something and now that's the official voice of Champion, the dog.
It's pretty funny, so thank you for that.
You're welcome. And thank you, Ann, for having a physical relationship with Champion.
Can we expect any April/Andy parties this year? The wedding and Halloween party -- it's always fun when creepy Orin shows up.
Oh yeah, there's a ton of parties. I mean, one thing about the cast and characters on our show is they like to party. If you watch the show then you know this. There's many times where we're all getting wasted and dancing celebrating something. That's definitely going to happen in Season 5. In fact, we've already just filmed a very special party, but I can't really tell you what it was in honor of.
"The Fight" is one of my favorite episodes of any comedy, especially when the characters are all drunk and giving confessionals.
I know, that's one of my favorite episodes too.
Do you have dream guest stars? I know Lucy Lawless is coming in to play a love interest for Ron Swanson. Do you have anybody you want to bring in?
Amy and I share the mutual desire to have Bill Murray come on our show and play Mayor Gunderson. We want that so badly. That is my one dream of a guest and I only want to use my dreams on that one because I want it really badly.
I think that the comedy world would explode. Well, the actual world too, not just comedy.
I know!
Have you put that out there before? Like Oprah and "The Secret"?
"The Secret"! I do "The Secret" all the time and I make dream journals, dream boards and all I want is for Bill Murray to be on our show. If the universe loves me then it will happen.
I hope that it does happen. Bill Murray is pretty awesome. I'm still holding out hope for "Ghostbusters 3."
He's the king. "Ghostbusters 3" should only happen if I'm a Ghostbuster. Otherwise I think it's a terrible idea.
I guess you're a big "Ghostbusters" fan.
Oh yeah. I'm a big any Bill Murray thing -- anything Bill Murray does fan -- also I can't speak English.
Are you looking forward to his new movie where he plays Franklin Roosevelt? [At this point the call is disconnected and Aubrey calls back.]
What happened!? You hung up?
I didn't hang up on you! I think you lost service?
I'm not moving! I've been naked in this bathtub for hours.
[Laughs.] I'm sitting stationary at my desk. [Disconnected, again]
Chris! The universe does not want us to have this conversation.
I see that. I don't know, was it not on your "Secret" thing?
Look, I don't have time for everything.
Anyway, I'll wrap this up in case the universe really does want to keep us apart. I cried during your movie ["Safety Not Guaranteed"]--
[Gasps.]
But I think it's because I ate too much wasabi.
Aw.
But I did like the movie.
Thank you!
Do you see yourself transitioning to movies?
Well, I did a bunch of movies last hiatus ... yeah, I want to do movies. I'm so happy on "Parks," but I always want to be doing different things and kind of challenging myself in different ways and tackling different roles. Yeah, so that will continue, I hope, for a long, long time.
And going back to "Parks" real quick -- are you at all worried about the show with "The Office" and "30 Rock" ending? Are you worried about "Parks" at all?
I've never had the feeling of total security in any job that I've had, so I don't know. I don't really think about it that much. I kind of just focus on having fun and being grateful that our show is happening at this moment -- just try to stay present and not worry myself too much.
That's a wonderful attitude. Do you have anything you want to add about Season 5 before we get disconnected again?
Um ... Jerry sucks more than ever.
I'm looking forward to it. That's all I really have ...
K, cool. Text me later.
"Parks and Recreation" on Thursday, September 20 at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
