I wanted a half-hour, single-camera comedy with a great lead where I could be No. 2 or 3 on the call sheet, and it was going to get on the air. Those were my criteria, and they sent me 'Cougar Town.' I read it and loved it.
I knew I wanted to be a performer, but I didn't know I would specifically be in film. I actually never thought I would be in film. I always envisioned being on the stage.
In 'Badlapur,' my character's name is Jhumli. It's a special film for me because I got a chance to work with my favourite director, Sriram Raghavan. I'm a huge fan of him.
In TV, you get so many different opportunities, and especially, you get to try something different you don't get to do as a normal person, then great.
I wanted to send a message to the television industry that excitement is not made of car chases.
I think my own strengths are in television production.
Shooting a movie should be fun! It's not a real job. It can be hard, but at the end of the day, we're dressing up and playing pretend.
You know, my problem with most screenwriting is it is a blueprint. It's like they're afraid to write the damn thing. And I'm a writer. That's what I do. I want it to be written. I want it to work on the page first and foremost. So when I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script.
My background is on the stage, so when I'd write movies, they'd be a lot like plays.
If the script is telling the story well, that is your inspiration, and you do not need to go somewhere else.
I couldn't read a screenplay without puking.
Our dream as actors is to tell interesting stories about interesting people.
It takes two years to make a good film.
The thing that made 'M*A*S*H' so good was the fact that we did have those relationships off-camera and took them on-camera.
My most frequent collaborators at S.N.L. are the incredibly gifted writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider!
The comedies are not a million laughs on the set. Its business and the dramas are business as well, really. When I'm writing it I struggle more with drama because I started out in comedy.
I wrote stories from the time I was a little girl, but I didn't want to be a writer. I wanted to be an actress. I didn't realize then that it's the same impulse. It's make-believe. It's performance.
The first thing I did for TV was a pilot for CBS.
When I was in 'Billy,' I always knew that I wanted to do something in performing. I always knew that I wanted to have a future in the performing arts. I had no idea that it was going to be acting in movies.
It was interesting to write ad films and scripts for TV shows before I moved on to writing a feature film. That helped me grow as a writer, and I also found out how long I could sit in front of a computer and see something through.
When you're doing 22 shows on network television, the writers are going on vapors towards the end and, as an actor, you're just trashed by the end.
They can't make any of these talented young actors Fletch. You might as well make a movie called Chevy Chase.
When I create a TV show, it's so that I can write it. I'm not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people - experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they're not writing scripts.
When you sit down to write a film, you direct it in your head. If you are writing a scene, you are watching the scene. And maybe it's different when you are writing a novel because you are thinking of it in terms of being read. But films are only consumed one way - through the eyes and the ears.
What I do know is how difficult it is in this industry to get a show on the air. There's so many different stages: getting a script bought by the network, then getting a pilot made and having that pilot go to series, and then, when that series gets on the air, having people watch it.
