This Will Only Hurt a Little(36)

I knew I had to call Craig and tell him. He was in Chicago by then, studying acting at DePaul. Even though we weren’t really talking much at that point, he was the only one who would understand. We loved Noah Baumbach and had watched that movie together a million times.

“What do you think I should do?” I asked. “Do I say something to him?”

He laughed. “Yeah. I think if it feels right, just say how much you love that movie. Jesus. This is so cool. Break a leg!”

At the audition, the casting assistant brought me back to the office where they were reading people. She walked in ahead of me and announced to the room, “This is Busy Philipps, everyone!”

I was ready. Noah and Carlos laughed heartily at all the right places as I did my reading, and afterward, as they clapped, I gave an awkward little curtsy/bow.

“That was really great, Busy,” Noah said. “Thanks for coming in.”

As the casting director showed me out, I thanked them and waved goodbye again. The door was almost closed when I put my arm out and stopped it.

“Wait,” I said, half stepping back in. “I don’t know if you’re allowed to do this kind of thing, but this might be my only chance, so can I just say that Kicking and Screaming is my favorite movie of all time? Seriously. I’ve seen it a million times. And Mr. Jealousy, too. And I’m just such a huge fan of yours and this has been the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me so I just wanted to say that . . . OKAY, ’BYE!”

“Ummmm. Thank you?” Noah said with a smile. “That’s really nice. Great work, Busy.”

I flew back to campus, high on the whole thing. Later that day, Lorraine called and told me that not only did they love me but there was something a little strange that they were hoping I would be up for doing. Apparently, NBC hadn’t officially green-lit the pilot, so Imagine wanted to put together a table read with all of their first choices in order to prove they should shoot it. I was so excited I could barely breathe.

Two days later, I drove to NBC, where I met the other actors cast in the read-through: Adam Scott, Nia Vardalos, Carlos, John Lehr, and a few others. Noah worked with us for a couple hours and then, in the afternoon, the executives at NBC filed in and we did a table read of the script. Afterward, I walked with Adam (who I’d just met that day) to the parking lot. I asked him what he thought was going to happen and he looked at me, “Oh. They’re not picking this up. No way.”

He was right, and I was really crushed for about ten seconds, until Lorraine told me that the head of casting for NBC, Grace Wu, had been very impressed with me and wanted me to come in and have a general meeting with her. General meetings generally feel like bullshit to me: I’ve been on a million of them. I’ve always thought that mostly they don’t lead to anything, but that agents and managers like to set them up to prove they’re actually doing something on your behalf.

But as it turns out, my meeting with Grace Wu was fairly productive. Especially the moment when she looked at me and said, “We have this pilot called Freaks and Geeks. I’m going to give you the script. You should read it. I think it could be a great fit.”

? ? ?

A week later, I drove to the Pacific Palisades armed with my audition scenes (commonly called sides) for the lead character, Lindsay Weir. I was brought in directly for the producers and director.

“Busy Philipps, everyone!”

I did my best Lindsay Weir, even though I was mad at myself for not managing to get the tears to roll down my cheeks in the scene where Lindsay tells Sam about their grandmother dying. When I was done reading, Paul Feig, the creator of the show, said, “Hey! That was really great, Busy! We actually have this other character. She’s probably not in the pilot you read, but we’re adding her to the show. Will you take a look at this and come back in and give it a shot?”

I took the new sides and stepped outside into the waiting area. I looked over the scenes. In one, Kim Kelly, the character they wanted me to play, was trying to mess with Sam Weir by asking him if he wanted to kiss her, and in another she was being a bitch to Lindsay. I spent about five or ten minutes looking it over, but honestly, it was getting late and all I could think about was how long it was going to take me to drive back to LMU on the 405. I kind of shrugged to myself, and when the casting director, Allison Jones, came back out, I told her I was ready.

I read the scenes once for the guys. The director, Jake Kasdan, laughed silently (I have come to know over the years that’s the way he laughs), and producer Judd Apatow gave an approving “HA!” and then I thanked them and left.

The next day, Lorraine heard that I was the first choice for Kim. THEY WERE PUTTING A PIN IN ME! But they needed to secure the rest of the cast before they pulled the trigger. Since Kim Kelly was a new character and technically a guest star for the pilot, they weren’t going to test the part in front of the studio and network, which is what series regular characters have to do.

Two weeks later, my agents and Lorraine called me together to tell me I’d been officially offered the part of Kim Kelly on Freaks and Geeks. Lorraine had actually talked to Judd, who wanted to make sure we knew that they imagined the part would be a series regular, but that for the pilot, it would just be a guest star.

My agents were feeling like maybe we should hold out a few more weeks and see if I got any test offers for bigger parts, since I was already doing one guest star on a WB pilot called Saving Graces. But Lorraine really loved the show and thought it would be the right move for me. Personally, I had no idea. I couldn’t really tell tonally what the show was; it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen on TV, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I’d been going on all of these auditions for teen shows and this was just so different. Lorraine said to take the weekend to think about it.