yes please(52)
People wince . . .
LESLIE (CONT’D)
Nope. It’s at home.
Relief again.
LESLIE (CONT’D)
So I will just say this. The things you have done for me—to help me, support me, surprise me, and make me happy—go above and beyond what any person deserves. You are all I need. I love you and I like you.
BEN
I love you and I like you.
Do you see the kind of maniac I am working with here? I have been shoulder to shoulder with a wonderful writer and excellent boss who loves big emotion as much as I do. Nightmare!
Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I’m proud that Mike Schur and I rejected the idea that creativity needs to come from chaos. I like how we ran our writers’ room and our set. People had a great time when they came to work on our show and that mattered to us. I like to think the spirit we had on set found its way onto the show. We used to leave enough time for “fun runs,” improvised last takes where the actors could try out all the brilliant ideas they had been thinking about for the whole scene. Ninety-nine percent of the time these scenes were longer and less funny than what was written. But it made the actors feel funny. It kept the crew laughing and on their toes. It felt fun and alive and warm. Most days I was handed an amazing script that allowed me to stand in front of people I really loved and tell them how much I loved them. I got to work with the best writers and the best directors and the best producers. I won’t miss memorizing those tongue-twisty “talking heads”25 but I will miss everything else. This kind of job is magic. It comes around once or twice in a lifetime if you’re lucky. And thank god, because it’s all-consuming and sometimes work should just be work.
25 Note from Mike: I’ll miss writing them and then watching you try to memorize them. Made for great blooper-reel material.
David Letterman liked the show and I received a steady paycheck for six years. That’s about all you can ask for in life. Anyway, I’ve moved on. I’m working on a new HBO show called Farts and Procreation and it deals with some pretty dark stuff . . . whatever, no big deal.26
26 Note from Mike: I bet you win an Emmy for the role of Detective Janet Toughwoman, Special Ops, Fart Squad Delta.
MY CASTMATES
AND FRIENDS
RASHIDA JONES (ANN PERKINS): Rashida is my old friend and chosen sister. She is my wife for life. I loved the scenes where it was just Ann and Leslie figuring out a problem. I would go sit on a fake apartment set and be friends with Ann and then go sit in my real trailer and be friends with Rashida. It was so easy to play being in love with Ann because next to my mom and my possible future daughter, Rashida Jones is the prettiest person I have ever met. She is also beautiful inside. We had so many deep conversations about our real lives in our fake offices. Rashida can speak on everything from Rodarte to Rodin to Rhodesia. I am so proud of the real friendship that Leslie and Ann had on-screen. It was important to both Rashida and me to show two women who supported each other and seemed like they would actually be friends.
?My favorite moments on set: Rashida and me singing and dancing between takes.
?A lot of people don’t know: Rashida shares my obsession with miniature fake food.
?I laughed the hardest: The time Rashida and I (Ann and Leslie) had to try to pin Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson) down and feed him medicine in the “Hunting Trip” episode.
NICK OFFERMAN (RON SWANSON): I met Nick Offerman in Chicago in 1997. He had dyed his beard bright orange and his hair was shaped into two devil horns. He looked terrifying. He was doing a production of A Clockwork Orange with some cool theater company. Nick has real theater training and complete control over his instrument. This is why Ron Swanson is one of the best characters ever to be on television. He can do stillness like no other. He is incredibly professional but also giggly. We both talk about how much we love our jobs at least five times a day. He adores his wife and takes nothing for granted. He is someone I would run to when the zombies attack because he can build a boat and is great company.
?My favorite moments on set: Blocking scenes with Nick in Ron’s office.
?A lot of people don’t know: Nick is crazy for his two poodles.
?I laughed the hardest: The time Ron Swanson tried to push Leslie up onto a podium while the entire cast was slipping on ice in the episode “The Comeback Kid.”
AZIZ ANSARI (TOM HAVERFORD): Aziz was a UCB wunderkind who had already had his own sketch show, Human Giant, before he joined Parks. He is a keen observer of the human condition and a lot sweeter and quieter than you would imagine. Like Tom Haverford, he is a total foodie and part-time culture vulture. Aziz and I spent a lot of time together building the world of Pawnee in those first couple of seasons. We stood together in a dusty pit and did our first television promos with a bunch of wild raccoons. We once shot a scene where Aziz had to run the length of a golf course and he barely broke a sweat. He has the stride and work ethic of a long-distance runner.
?My favorite moments on set: Hearing my kids call Aziz “turkey sandwich.” I think it’s because he was eating a turkey sandwich once? Either way they think he is hilarious.
?A lot of people don’t know: Aziz went to business school.
?I laughed the hardest: The night Aziz and I spent shooting in a van during the episode “The Stakeout.”