Fancast Interview: Elizabeth Perkins Gives More Inside Dope On Weeds

By Quendrith Johnson
Fancast.com

The fourth season of Weeds aired on June 16 , and for a limited time you can watch Showtime’s acclaimed outlaw hit on Fancast. Series star Elizabeth Perkins continues her interview, discussing her relationship with Mary-Louise Parker, this season’s special guest, Albert Brooks, Mary Kate Olsen, and the inside dope on show creator Jenji Kohan. To catch up on yesterday’s installment, click here. [Watch this season's opener here.]

Do you have any scenes with Albert Brooks who is on the show this season?
I didn’t have any scenes with Albert. I am very upset about it. He is my hero - my comedic hero. I have studied and memorized every movie he ever made. So that was a big disappointment. I am begging them to write something for Celia, where she runs into him in a dark alley.

Let’s lobby for that, here - what would you want to have happen between them?
I think you’d have a horrible verbiage attack on each other, then end up in each other’s arms. I just want to have sex with Albert Brooks, okay?!

Okay, we’ll put that quote on the record. Working with Matthew Modine must have been great, right?
There’s no nicer human being than Matthew Modine. If you looked up the definition of ‘Nice Guy’ in the dictionary, there would be smiling Matthew. They made him such a slimy (land developer). Maybe they made him slimy because he’s so nice.

Off screen do you and Mary-Louise Parker talk about your roles?
We both talk about how we wish we had more scenes together. We talk about that all the time. They don’t write us together very often. And she is probably my favorite person to work with. We get along really well; we really understand each other’s energies — although we work in completely different ways. The minute we hit the stage, it is like playing a great game of tennis every time you work with Mary-Louise. It is like a great volley. I miss that. She is so smart at what she does; there is nothing you can not serve to her that she wouldn’t hit the ball. Then it becomes fun.

The druggie roles that Mary-Louise and Justin Kirk (Andy Botwin) had in “Angels in America” are kind of an extension in WEEDS; did she bring him in?
Absolutely. She loved working with him so much in “Angels in America,” when they were searching for Andy Botwin, his name immediately came up. She really campaigned for him. I don’t think it was hard work, because the minute they met him, he was Andy. And he is Andy. I can not imagine anyone else playing that role, seriously.

When Mary-Kate Olsen made an appearance in Season 3, did you guys all hope she’d get the munchies and kick her eating disorder?
(Laughs) We don’t talk about those things around here! We can not mention anything like that around here. I don’t know what you’re talking about! I think she did a great job with what she was given: an innocuous role, a God-loving stoner. That could go any way you want to play it. She did a great job.

Do you ever talk to Jenji about how you want Celia to be on the show, or does she just say ‘here’s what’s happening with her’?
The truth is, I’ve wanted them to give Celia a drug habit for a very long time. So they know that this year. I think we might be working toward that, which is so much fun for me to play. I hope it is a hard drug. How often in your life to you get to play someone who goes through this many changes and lifestyles? In just three short years, I’ve gone from double mastectomy to an alcohol problem to a divorce to an affair. You never get to act out this insanity in your real life — do it on camera!

What about the way Celia announced the cancer?
That’s what I love about Jenji, there is no lead in. There’s no apology. There’s no like ‘how do I make this palatable?’ I loved the way there was debris smashing through the roof of their house. Jenji writes these moments that kind of take your breath away. It’s like when you go through life and things happen, and you say to yourself: ‘God, if that was in a movie, I would never believe it.’ Jenji puts those things on camera, and they are instantly identifiable, even if they are off the wall, because bizarre stuff like that really happens.