Rashida Jones And Amy Poehler On Parks And Rec Casting

On Tuesday, Rashida sat down with Amy to speak about their friendship on and off display screen. Nevertheless, though they started working collectively on Parks and Rec in 2009, you may not know that the 2 have been severely shut for over 20 years. Talking about how their offscreen chemistry translated so nicely, Amy mentioned, “They actually did base the whole showcase of the truth that Leslie and Ann have been one another’s primary,” to which Rashida mentioned, “Not that onerous.”

However regardless of the pair’s longstanding friendship, Amy revealed that again when the present was nonetheless within the casting phases, issues have been much more rocky than you may anticipate. “The beginnings of that present have been… I’ll say slightly clumpy,” Amy mentioned, as Rashida nodded in settlement, saying, “Crunchy. It was crunchy.”

For those who want some context, Amy performed the present’s protagonist, chirpy authorities official Leslie Knope: deputy director of the Division of Parks and Recreation within the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana. Rashida Jones, who you may additionally know because the daughter of the late music legend Quincy Jones, performed Ann Perkins, “good friend and exquisite nurse,” in Leslie’s phrases. And whereas to followers, Amy and Rashida have been solid completely of their respective roles, it appears like there was some confusion throughout the begin of the present. “For the start we each have been anxious that we had taken one another’s half,” Amy revealed.

Rashida dove into the story, launching again to 2008 when she was “on maintain” for an untitled Michael Schur challenge, aka, the man who produced The Workplace, and later created Brooklyn 9-9. Michael and Rashida had turn out to be shut in school, and have been each mates with Amy, who was “extraordinarily pregnant” on the time. Rashida defined that Mike pitched the present to her within the early phases of improvement and that the “boss” character (who would finally turn out to be Leslie) was initially written to be a person.

She then recalled that after she and Amy had arrived again from a vacation collectively, a day later Amy gently advised that they go to lunch. Ominous a lot? “Oh god, and I mentioned, ‘Let’s speak about one thing,’” Amy remembered.

“You took me to lunch, and mentioned, ‘I’m so sorry however they provided me the half,’” Rashida defined. “Each of us considering it was the identical half I used to be on maintain for, being created by a good friend of ours. And so I instantly began crying, and also you held my hand, and also you have been so heat. You have been like, ‘I do know, I’m sorry buddy.’ However you held your house, and also you additionally comforted me on the similar time. Which was a really stunning factor.” Rashida referred to as the second a “gold commonplace of friendship” and praised how Amy took care of her with out placing herself down.

However fortunately, the misunderstanding didn’t final lengthy. “I’m wondering what [Mike] Schur’s model of that is…” Amy started earlier than Rashida rapidly interjected, saying, “Let me let you know! As a result of I left him a message like, virtually instantly, as a result of I’m not shy.”

Though Rashida was fairly stern with Mike about not being knowledgeable about shedding out on the position, Mike rapidly set the report straight. “He was like, ‘No, no, no, again up, we modified the boss. It’s a girl, and Amy’s taking part in the boss.’ I used to be like, ‘You — Oh my god!’ I nonetheless wasn’t solid, I nonetheless needed to do a bunch of chemistry reads, however that grew to become like this large chance of my life being…one of the best. From the worst to one of the best.”