I'm actually really proud of how I believe people perceive me in this industry. I worked really hard to be seen in a certain way. I think I get a lot of respect for what I usually do. I find that comedic world completely fulfilling and wonderful and they're all my best friends.
Lizzy CaplanI really unfortunately don't have tons of hilarious Sundance stories, because really I am not the biggest fan of hanging out, but the reason why is because I never go see other people's movies and I think that's the way to do it.
Lizzy CaplanI feel more confident in being able to be funny if I'm comfortable with the people I'm around. When you're friends with them, it just makes it all the better. Plus, shooting a movie, you're sitting on your ass for hours at a time, so if you have somebody there to mess around with and have fun, then it's great.
Lizzy CaplanI find that working with friends is always the goal, even if it's just one person. Because the comedy community is kind of insular, it's easy to run into people you've worked with, even if you worked with someone on something for a day, or whatever. It just makes it more comfortable.
Lizzy CaplanIf you think too much about nudity, it can be anxiety-provoking because it lives on the internet forever. I've only taken my clothes off on that one other show, and yet, if you were to Google Image me, it would seem like I do this all the time. As an actress - and as an actor, too, but it's worse for actresses - you constantly get picked apart for how you look. Obviously, being picked apart with your clothes on is slightly less terrifying than when your clothes are off.
Lizzy CaplanEverybody hangs out with everybody, which is very strange for a cast this large and this young. We're all cool and down to earth and not caught up in this maniacal business at all.... Everybody really, really likes everybody else.
Lizzy CaplanOn True Blood โ I've never told anybody thisโbut I was so nervous and I was so drunk that after I shot the scene I was going up to the crew members โ and I had just met all these people the day before โ and I was going up to all of them like, 'You got a boner! You do! You've got one!' It was horrible. Horrible!
Lizzy CaplanI think it's necessary to identify with anything - with any character you play, there's got to be something in common, so you can link up to that person, even if it's like one tiny thing. But it's equally fun to play somebody completely different, and trying to find what that thing is to make it.
Lizzy CaplanIt took me a long time to realize that being a girl is so much more powerful than being a guy, but I really saw myself as boy for a long while.
Lizzy CaplanI had a bat mitzvah, was confirmed, went to Jewish summer camp, I go to temple for the High Holy Days. I think, like most people in their early 20s, I kind of strayed away from it. I think once I have a family I'll be back into it
Lizzy CaplanIt's a different thing with cable TV. You don't have to have your characters be lovely again by the end of the episode. And in this era of the male antiheroes on cable TV, you don't even need to make them likable; you just need to make them compelling. As opposed to film, where it's still those basic tropes of good versus evil. But for women, I don't think that has been widely seen yet.
Lizzy CaplanSave the Date' feels like a quiet story about two sisters and the men in their lives, kind of reminiscent of the quieter rom-coms of the 1990s; it's very character-driven and not as wedding-focused.
Lizzy CaplanI usually don't know how to fight hard for roles. I've certainly sent a passionate letter or two... which always leads nowhere.
Lizzy CaplanI was a late bloomer. I'm not one of those girls who's like, "I love my body! Hey, everybody, come look at my body!
Lizzy CaplanIf I was on Game of Thrones, I think the nudity and sex questions would probably get irritating, but this is a show about sex.
Lizzy CaplanI wanted to see myself as something different, and I wanted to convince people that I was capable of something other than what they would expect from me.
Lizzy CaplanI'm extra harsh on pilot scripts, which is difficult because pilots, generally, are not that great. You have to imagine the whole series instead of just that one script, and I have a really hard time doing that.
Lizzy CaplanI've always been really selective. I just didn't have the right to be as selective in other years, I guess. It's very difficult to commit so much of your life to go shoot something that you think sucks, so I'd rather do nothing than go work on something that I really hate. Obviously, there are moments where you have to take jobs for money, everybody needs to pay their rent or whatever.
Lizzy CaplanIt's too scary in television. It's scary to sign a six-year contract for something that you don't necessarily know about.
Lizzy CaplanI'm really awkward when people recognize me. I'm not good at it, and for the most part it hadn't happened to me until 'True Blood,' and then, all of a sudden, it started happening all the time.
Lizzy CaplanThe family you were raised in, the time period you were born in, and the part of the country you're in absolutely shape your view on sex, which shapes a huge part of anybody's personality.
Lizzy CaplanOn Masters of Sex, especially in the pilot, everybody was showing up word-perfect, and youre expected to show up word-perfect.
Lizzy CaplanIn fact, the first time I ever got naked on TV was the biggest confidence booster of my life.
Lizzy CaplanI never get recognized for 'Mean Girls.' I can be walking around with Daniel Franzese, who's in the movie and a friend of mine, and people will come up to him and start freaking out and have no idea who I am.
Lizzy Caplan'Party Down' is the most fun I've ever had working in my life. We shoot 10-episode seasons and we shoot it in 10 weeks, so it's very brief: 4-day episode shoots. You never get sick of anybody, and it never feels like a drag. It's way, way, way too short.
Lizzy CaplanI've played a different type of character in a different type of thing, for the most part. It's not like you can't mine tons of fascinating stuff from any character that you play, and I've always been fascinated with women and relationships, but this has been a completely different experience, for sure.
Lizzy CaplanIf you meet a girl who has slept with 100 guys, you will think something of her you wouldn't think of a guy who slept with 100 girls.
Lizzy CaplanI really like doing television shows, and I anticipated doing a comedy, because thats the place I feel the most comfortable - those are the risks I want to take.
Lizzy CaplanI feel lucky because most of my friends aren't married. So I don't feel that, 'oh, step on it, you're thirty.'
Lizzy CaplanI've been a feminist since the day I was born. I wanted to play football. I didn't want to play with dolls; I wanted to play with boys and didn't understand why I couldn't.
Lizzy CaplanWhen you're shooting a network television show it inevitably starts airing a few episodes in, and depending on the ratings and the response from the public, you find yourself tweaking your performance or the scripts go in a different direction.
Lizzy CaplanThere's definitely a luxury to the fluidity of not being a mega-star. I've done a ton of really, really odd, off-the-wall movies. There's this movie I did called 'Queens of Country' a couple of summers ago that is so bananas, and if I was at a certain level, I probably would not have done that movie.
Lizzy CaplanI really like doing television shows, and I anticipated doing a comedy, because that's the place I feel the most comfortable - those are the risks I want to take. But it was always really hard for me to find a script that I really liked.
Lizzy CaplanI don't think you should be allowed to eat in a restaurant if you haven't waited tables at least once. It's so irritating when I see people being rude to waiters, like, it makes me want to slit their throats! Like, really? You're really this inconsiderate?
Lizzy CaplanIt's weird, It's really weird to be called a breakout star. And some people are referring to my show as the new 'Friends', which I can't really even wrap my head around
Lizzy CaplanFor the past few years, I've been more selective than I have any right to be, but I think that's finally starting to work in my favor. I think I get way too much credit for making what people consider to be smart choices, but it's only because I made a decision to stop worrying about making money.
Lizzy CaplanWhen you get seen in one particular way, it can be paralyzing. You start to believe it's all you can do.
Lizzy CaplanI'm still waiting to hit it big. But there was the moment when I didn't have to work at the restaurant anymore, which is the milestone for every actor. When your job is just to be an actor and not to have to do anything else.
Lizzy CaplanI'm also 31 years old. It's not like I'm some kid who can be slapped across the newspaper pages like some harlot.
Lizzy CaplanThere is a certain expectation of girls to eventually grow up and behave and fall in line. I've always bucked against that.
Lizzy Caplan