Rashida Jones

Rashida Jones loves to dance. Amy hangs with her fellow 'Parks and Recs' alum, talking about doing a cappella at Harvard, memories from working on 'Parks' together, and how to accept bad feedback. Host: Amy Poehler Guests: Rashida Jones, D'Arcy Carden, and Retta Executive Producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-Berman For Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, supervising producer Joel Lovell For The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson and Belle Roman; audio producer Kaya McMullen, video editor Drew van Steenbergen, booker Kat Spillane Original Music: Amy Miles Use coupon code ‘EATCESAR10’ at Cesar.com for 10% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Amy Poehler?

  Hi, welcome to another episode of Good Hang. I cannot wait to have you hear this episode with the great Rashida Jones, the Anne to my Leslie, my wife for life. Rashida is just one of my best friends and she's just an incredible person and interview and she's so deep and smart and funny. And we're gonna talk about what it's like working together and we're gonna talk about our relationship to work and what makes a good gift giver and how much we both love music. We're gonna go deep and then stay real shallow, all at the same time. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. And, you know, we've been trying to do this thing where before I interview a guest, I

• 0:49Amy Poehler?

  get to talk to people who know them, who are fans of them, or who wanna just, you know, give me some ideas for what to ask them. So, we have gathered two great comedic actresses, Rheda from Parks and Rec, who played Donna Meagle, and Darcie Carden from The Good Place. So they're gonna help me get started.

• 1:22Amy Poehler?

  Hi, Hang Gang! You know, it only takes, it only takes three people to make a Hang Gang.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  To be a gang. That's right. Everybody knows that.

• 1:33Amy Poehler?

  We're talking about and to the great Rashida Jones today.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Wouldn't wanna talk about anyone else.

• 1:39Speaker 02

  Not one singular human being.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Honestly.

• 1:42Amy Poehler?

  It's kinda overwhelming because she does so many things well.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50Amy Poehler?

  She's, what is it called, a polymath? Is that the word?

• 1:53Speaker 01

  But what's the math?

• 1:54Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  It's so many maths. It's polymath.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, Aim. I was thinking like, she's so unique in that...

• 2:07Speaker 01

  There's not, she's not, you know, even to introduce her, I don't know how you, what you would even say. She's not, I mean, she's, there's so many things to list and not just in her career, but in her life. She's, she's so many things to so many people and she's so good at all of it. And yet, that doesn't bother me. I'm not like annoyed by that. As I'm saying it, I'm not like rolling my eyes. I'm like, she really does it all and she does it so well and in such an inspiring way.

• 2:36Amy Poehler?

  I agree.

• 2:37Speaker 02

  To me, she's the lawyer in the group. When people have like an outrageous idea or plan or think they can fix something in a certain way. I feel like Roz is the person that's like, okay, everybody relax. Here's what we're gonna do. Here's what we're gonna do. This is how we fix it. Or let me, let me just make a call or I feel like even though she, you know, she's not an attorney. She's the attorney of the group that she's in.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  Is that weird?

• 3:02Amy Poehler?

  No, that's really well said. What makes Rashida a good hang?

• 3:06Speaker 01

  Well, she's super funny and she also loves to laugh. So she makes you feel super funny. Right?

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Which is great. She's on it. She's really on it. She's just like, she's um sharp in like, in every way I can think of.

• 3:26Amy Poehler?

  Yes, and so, and like so stylish and cool.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 3:30Amy Poehler?

  Like, like beyond, it's actually oppressive.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  It's a lot. Somehow, it just doesn't make me feel shitty. Again.

• 3:39Amy Poehler?

  No, never, but I do, but I make myself feel shitty.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too.

• 3:43Amy Poehler?

  Sometimes I'm just like, damn it, like what, we're wearing Japanese pants now? No one told me.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  I know, but the thing is, is we're not, she is.

• 3:52Amy Poehler?

  She is, but all of a sudden I'm like, oh, all my clothes are small. They're supposed to be big. Like, do we have bangs? We don't have bangs.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  We don't.

• 4:00Amy Poehler?

  Big coats, little coats, okay.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  A bob? No, long hair now? Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, totally, totally. Glasses, small glasses, big glasses.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  Little coats. I don't know that she's ever done little coats. Maybe before I knew her, I've only seen her in big coats.

• 4:14Amy Poehler?

  The only, the only people on Parks doing little coats were Adam and Aziz. They had the littlest coats.

• 4:23Amy Poehler?

  I remember lifting up a coat and being like, whose coat is this? And it was Aziz's little coat.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  She's like a host, right? She's like a good host. She, and I think, um, maybe that's one of the reasons she's such a good hang is because she like really appreciates the, the hang portion. Like she's putting in the time to make the hang like pleasurable, right?

• 4:47Amy Poehler?

  Yes, like I don't feel a stressy vibe from her when she's hosting, for example.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, me too.

• 4:54Amy Poehler?

  Like I, I'm always working out on my, I'm always working out my own stuff, which is wanting to get things, like wanting it to be good and fun and being, and people coming over and saying like, hi.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:05Amy Poehler?

  And me saying, just a second. Like making them feel, making them feel stressed, even though I had the party.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Or like explaining something like, don't go in this room, or if you do, this is what's going on.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Or you gotta hold the toilet, the handle down.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  Yes, oh my god, totally, totally.

• 5:23Amy Poehler?

  Or and someone's like, can you, can I give you a hand? And you just go, no, that, that's okay. I just have a lot of things right now that I'm dealing with and everyone's, everyone looks at you and says, you did not have to invite us. You did not have to invite us.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  You begged us to come over.

• 5:39Amy Poehler?

  The other, the other question I had is, um, I want to talk to her about dancing because we dance a lot together. She's had a lot of dance parties for her birthday parties and you two are big dancers. Like you, you both like to dance. I know why I like to dance at parties.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:02Amy Poehler?

  Why do you like to dance at parties?

• 6:04Speaker 01

  I think about connecting with people while dancing. Like Amy, I can think of a wedding we were at where we didn't know each other that well. It was like early days of friendship and we just like danced at a wedding and I felt closer to you afterwards. I felt like, like, you know what I mean?

• 6:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we just, we just kind of pointed at each other and.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  And then afterwards we're like, we took a, we took a step. We took a, we leveled up. For people listening, Reda is really doing some good pointing right now.

• 6:30Speaker 02

  Um, I, I'm drawn to people who I feel really vibe with music and, and, and don't look crazy dancing, you know? There's not, like, especially like when we were younger, high school and college, like white boys with rhythm were.

• 6:55Speaker 02

  Like you couldn't get enough. Like I was just like, oh. And I remember, and I will say at one of Rashida's birthday parties, one of the most impressive dancers that I didn't see coming was Max Greenfield.

• 7:12Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  Max can move. Um, and the feeling that I got seeing him dance is the feeling I won't be able to have when they see me dance.

• 7:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I feel like if a good song comes on, both of you and Rashida would be the people I would look at, point at and be like, oh.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  I was just gonna say, the noise you would make would be like, oh. Oh. Oh. Oh shit.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Here we go.

• 7:51Amy Poehler?

  Okay, well, we're gonna, okay, this is perfect. We'll wrap it up with, uh, is there any question you think, uh, like anything you want me to ask Rashida?

• 8:00Speaker 01

  It's, it's, it's simple. It's a simple question, but I think my question for Rashida specifically is, when you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Or what did you see your adult life looking like? I think, what did you want to be when you grew up? Because I think because she, you know, like, it's such a unique childhood where, where it kind of was like the endless possibilities of what you could possibly do. And it seems like, you know, that maybe that's one of the reasons she does so much and is so good at so many different things. But the simple question I think is, when you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

• 8:33Amy Poehler?

  That's a great question.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  Mine would be, it's also a childhood question. What was the coolest thing that ever happened to you as a kid? Because she's been around so many cool things. What, what really was the?

• 8:50Speaker 02

  The thing that she remembers the most and was the most exciting for her.

• 8:54Amy Poehler?

  Hmm, that's probably gonna be hard to pick.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  I know.

• 8:59Amy Poehler?

  Because she was straight up-

• 8:59Speaker 02

  So you might get a few. You might get a few things.

• 9:02Amy Poehler?

  Like partying with E.T. and stuff.

• 9:06Amy Poehler?

  Well, love you guys. Thank you for checking in. I know it means a lot to squeeze this time in and Rashida's gonna be so grateful when I tell her that we chatted today, so. Come, come on this podcast and be a guest soon, please, and thank you.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Can't wait, can't wait. Hang Gang.

• 9:22Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much. Hang Gang, Hang Gang.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Love you guys.

• 9:27Amy Poehler?

  Okay, love you guys.

• 9:30Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Uber Eats is delivering game day deals because you can't watch eight hours of basketball a day on an empty stomach. I love to watch TV on my couch and then never get back up. And so, once I'm down, it's hard to, uh, to stand. And I definitely don't want to drive and get food. So Uber Eats delivers my food to me and then I shuffle over to my door in my pajamas and I grab the food. So whatever you're craving, Uber Eats has deals on all your game day favorites. You never have to miss a single buzzer beater. Get game day deals on all your favorites, only on Uber Eats. Order now.

• 10:10Amy Poehler?

  Rashida Jones is here. Hi, Rashida.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Hi, Amy.

• 10:15Amy Poehler?

  I mean, people should know that I call you Bones, so maybe if I call you Bones during the interview.

• 10:19Speaker 03

  Don't know.

• 10:20Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 10:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I call you Poles, Polos.

• 10:22Amy Poehler?

  Polos, so Poles or Polos and Bones?

• 10:25Speaker 03

  Polos and Bones.

• 10:25Amy Poehler?

  The new detective series.

• 10:28Speaker 03

  On CBS.

• 10:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, on Paramount Minus. Okay, um, Bones, I'm so happy you're here.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  I'm so happy to be here.

• 10:35Amy Poehler?

  Thank you for doing this.

• 10:36Speaker 03

  Please.

• 10:37Amy Poehler?

  On the way over, you just told me you were listening to something in your car.

• 10:41Speaker 03

  I was listening to, um, I'm really into frequencies right now. You know, there's like a lot of- Stuff, theories around like the frequency of sounds and how it impacts your brain and your mood. There's ones for anxiety, for sleep, for happiness, for abundance, whatever, but I was listening to one for road rage.

• 11:01Amy Poehler?

  Because you have road rage?

• 11:02Speaker 03

  I do.

• 11:03Amy Poehler?

  I've seen it in action.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:05Amy Poehler?

  Because we leave each other Marco Polos and I've seen you in real time get mad.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:12Amy Poehler?

  For people that are listening that don't know, Rashida and I have been friends for many years. It's gotta be over 20 now.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  20 plus.

• 11:20Amy Poehler?

  Over 20 plus. And whenever we see each other, we just jump in. Like, we talk a lot about, we just kinda jump into the deep end.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, always.

• 11:31Amy Poehler?

  We get into feelings, we get into what we're trying to work on, what we're excited about. Like, we just get right in there. We don't do a lot of small talk, you and I.

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Not a lot of small talk.

• 11:41Amy Poehler?

  And I feel like you are that way, or I can speak for myself, I feel like I'm more and more that way with the people that I'm closest to and the people that I'm not particularly close to are the people that I say like, "What movies do you like?"

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Right, yeah. And I find, I don't know about you, but I find that my tolerance for small talk has changed. Like, I used to, I used to like it and feel like it was, it was just kind of like a way to tiptoe into a conversation and now it feels like, "Why bother? Let's just get into it."

• 12:08Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 12:09Speaker 03

  Let's not waste time.

• 12:10Amy Poehler?

  What are you afraid of?

• 12:11Speaker 03

  What are you afraid of?

• 12:12Amy Poehler?

  What are you working on?

• 12:13Speaker 03

  Yeah. Exactly. No, no, not, not your actual job, but your self, your inner self, what are you working on?

• 12:20Amy Poehler?

  What's your love language? What's your attachment style? Tina and I had a good convo about, we were laughing, talking about Harvard. Fuck Harvard. Yeah, fuck Harvard. Fuck Harvard. So, for people that don't know, what is your relationship with Harvard and what was your relationship with Hasty Pudding?

• 12:35Speaker 03

  Oh, interesting. I was just thinking about this last night, actually. Well, first of all, I just wanna say, I'm very happy that you have this podcast because I'm just gonna say, I have been encouraging I've wanted this from you for a very long time.

• 12:48Amy Poehler?

  Thanks bud.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Okay, sorry, I just had to say that.

• 12:50Amy Poehler?

  Thanks, Dee.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  Okay, Harvard, Hasty Pudding. Yeah, I mean, I went to Harvard.

• 12:55Amy Poehler?

  Yay.

• 12:56Speaker 03

  I was in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

• 13:00Amy Poehler?

  But they didn't allow women.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  At the time, women couldn't perform. I was a manager, I was manager of the Woman of the Year event, which you've been.

• 13:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  I'm sure I have not, thank you so much, Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

• 13:14Amy Poehler?

  What?

• 13:14Speaker 03

  I'm actually like the only alum, but anyway.

• 13:18Amy Poehler?

  Wow, we need to correct that, whoever's listening.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, anyway, and then my senior year, Mimi, my friend Mimi, who you know, we were the first women ever to write the music for the musical in the like, whatever, 400 year history of the show.

• 13:32Amy Poehler?

  But you, no one was allowed to sing it because it was written by women?

• 13:34Speaker 03

  I couldn't sing it, no, of course not.

• 13:36Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, and then when I went back for Class Day, that was kind of like the one thing I snuck into my spee-- well, actually it was very political, but the one thing about school I snuck in was like, make it co-ed.

• 13:46Amy Poehler?

  I mean, enough's enough.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  And now it is.

• 13:48Amy Poehler?

  It is, right?

• 13:49Speaker 03

  It is, finally.

• 13:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that seems so silly.

• 13:52Speaker 03

  It's so silly, but I will say it was really fun and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about production, because it's legit production. You travel to New York and Bermuda and everybody has to like chip in and work on tickets and costumes and like, you know, we got to like, we had an arranger who arranged for like a full orchestra, it was so cool.

• 14:12Amy Poehler?

  And you, I know from us being friends, you started, you were started going to raves.

• 14:17Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, I was raving, I was raving.

• 14:19Amy Poehler?

  Rashida was raving during Harvard.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  I was.

• 14:21Amy Poehler?

  And that almost took you down.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  Almost took me down, but luckily, or took, yeah, took me up and then way down. But then I joined an a cappella group and everything was fine. Acappella saved my life. But I would say the most surprising thing is probably that what I have left from the whole experience is the people.

• 14:41Amy Poehler?

  Including Mike Schur.

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Including Mike Schur.

• 14:44Amy Poehler?

  For those people who don't know who created Parks and Rec and The American Office, he was Moe's and worked--

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Good Place.

• 14:52Amy Poehler?

  Good Place. Good Hank Good Place. And he, wow, do you think he's gonna sue me for that? Good Hank Good Place?

• 14:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, he's very litigious.

• 15:01Amy Poehler?

  And he's working on a million other things, and you and Mike met at Harvard. Where did you guys meet?

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Freshman year, we did a play together called Love, Sex and the IRS, where we were, the play started with us making out.

• 15:15Amy Poehler?

  Wow. Lucky him.

• 15:18Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 15:19Amy Poehler?

  I mean,

• 15:22Amy Poehler?

  he must have been like, the day when they were like, and here's your make out partner, it could have been anybody. He must have done a quiet fist pump.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  I mean, he did it while we were making out, it was so awkward. I mean, that's the thing is you just audition for shows, especially in college, and you're just like, who you get is who you get. Like, the fact that we met freshman year is nuts.

• 15:45Amy Poehler?

  I'm having these like, memories of when we were in, all of us were in high school and college, and we'd have to do like make out scenes with just people on stage.

• 15:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:55Amy Poehler?

  And how, I guess, exciting it was.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, so fun.

• 16:00Amy Poehler?

  I know. I mean, you've had to do quite a few love scenes in TV and film.

• 16:04Speaker 03

  I have, yeah.

• 16:06Amy Poehler?

  And any tips or thoughts about that?

• 16:09Speaker 03

  It's so weird, but also comedy make out is so different than serious, serious hookup, you know?

• 16:15Amy Poehler?

  You're right. I mean, like a real genuine, our friend Catherine Hahn has had to do a lot of sex scenes.

• 16:21Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:22Amy Poehler?

  And like a genuine, like baby girl, five orgasm sex scene is so intense. It is.

• 16:31Speaker 03

  This is my baby girl dance.

• 16:34Speaker 03

  I will be your father.

• 16:37Amy Poehler?

  That makes me stressed.

• 16:39Speaker 03

  It's stressy, it's fully stressy, yeah. I'm not, I'm not good at, I'm not the person to ask, because I always feel stressed and weird about it. Because the best case scenario is that you do it and you sell some sort of chemistry, but like, it's all above board and professional. That's the best case scenario, which is like, seems impossible.

• 17:01Amy Poehler?

  Also, I did hear an actor's tip one time that I thought was interesting, which is if you want to get chemistry with someone, and actually Parks and Rec did this really well, which is the camera became the gaze, right? So like, you know, I, I, it caught me looking at Ben, when played by Adam Scott, when, when Adam wasn't looking, and it created this vibe, and vice versa. It was so much easier than direct eye contact.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 17:26Amy Poehler?

  But I heard some trick that if you want to get chemistry with an actor, look at them when they're not looking at you. Like, don't try to do it with them at all. Just project all this fantasy stuff on them when they're not paying attention to you.

• 17:41Speaker 03

  Does that work in real life?

• 17:42Amy Poehler?

  Um, I've tried. And the answer is no. The answer is a hell no. Um, okay. Okay, so do you think some of your best acting was in Parks and Rec when you had to pretend that you didn't know who Genuine was?

• 17:58Speaker 03

  You know, it's still one of my biggest complaints. I remember we did the table read for that. And I was like, no, no, no one's gonna buy it because I don't buy it, okay? Pick anybody else on this cast to try to play that in an honest way. It is so unfair that you're making me do this. It really, yeah, it still hurts.

• 18:19Amy Poehler?

  Because how familiar are you with Genuine?

• 18:22Speaker 03

  We were married.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  I mean, you know, I live in 90s R&B. That's where my heart is. It's not here. I mean, it is with you, but for the most part, it's not present. It's in 90s R&B. So he's a very important figure.

• 18:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I just want to talk for a second about your relationship to music. Because it's so, it's an amazing combination of deeply familiar and personal because of your family and the work you've done since you were a little kid, like the way music has surrounded your life. And then as an adult, knowing your relationship to music, you kind of come in as like, I don't know how else to explain it other than a deep appreciator of it. Like you, you know it and can do it, and also you deeply appreciate it. It's kind of closest to like an art historian or something. You know how art historians love art and they know it and they also know how it's important? I feel that you are that way about music.

• 19:28Speaker 03

  That's really nice.

• 19:29Amy Poehler?

  What is your relationship to music?

• 19:31Speaker 03

  Music to me is the kind of thing you can't, there's something inherent about it that you can't explain why it has the impact that it does. You can break it down, you can talk about frequencies, you can talk about combinations of notes, you can talk about BPMs, but at the end of the day, the way it makes you feel is something that's just very hard to explain, you know? In a way that feels... If you don't believe in God, like the closest to an unknown that's outside of us. Like you can tap into something outside of us in a way that like even I love movies, but there's a visual aspect. So you don't like use your imagination as much when you're engaging with the thing.

• 20:08Amy Poehler?

  Well, do you think then you're like an oral, A U R A L learner more than a visual learner?

• 20:12Speaker 03

  I am, I am. And in fact, it's a shameful thing, but I took a lot of piano when I was little and I love playing piano. But I never really learned how to read properly because I learned so well by ear. So I play these like Chopin Polonaise, like big pieces by ear. I wouldn't, I couldn't read it because I was like just picking it up, you know?

• 20:34Amy Poehler?

  Whoa.

• 20:35Speaker 03

  I know. It's sort of like, it would be nice to have a balance of both, but you know, it's definitely way more our, our role.

• 20:42Amy Poehler?

  Oral.

• 20:42Speaker 03

  Oral.

• 20:43Amy Poehler?

  Oral.

• 20:43Speaker 03

  Oral.

• 20:44Amy Poehler?

  Oral.

• 20:45Speaker 03

  Oral.

• 20:45Amy Poehler?

  Oral Roberts. Remember him? I feel like we've had some hard ass laughs. And I was trying to think the other day, like places that we've laughed, deep laughs. And it's, it really does add years to my life. I know that. And I, I wonder if you could tell the story about when we were on Parks and it was, because we talk about it, we've talked about it before. When we were on Parks and it was the first season, it was the hunting episode. And just kind of set up, we were shooting that whole week way far away, somewhere in California. You know, I don't even remember where.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Neither.

• 21:27Amy Poehler?

  And we had to do a scene with Nick Offerman. And that, I think about it sometimes, the way that laugh came, it was like,

• 21:34Speaker 03

  Giggles.

• 21:34Amy Poehler?

  It was giggle, giggle, orgasm city. But, um, but, but, uh, don't worry, we'll cut that. But,

• 21:42Amy Poehler?

  but, um, what do you remember about it? What do you?

• 21:46Speaker 03

  Well, I remember we were, he maybe ate something weird and we were trying to give him Ipecac.

• 21:51Amy Poehler?

  So Nick Offerman playing Ron Swanson ate something, yeah, I don't remember actually what happened in the show.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  I think I was like determined as a nurse, I was like, you have to throw up, like you can't.

• 22:02Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 22:02Speaker 03

  You're gonna get sick. And he's like, I'm fine.

• 22:04Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  And I, we were trying to get this like liquid in his mouth and you know, it's Hollywood, so um, things that happen like on camera don't actually happen in real life. So it was written that we like hold him down and he's resisting us and we give him this, this thing, but like you don't know, you don't know how small you are. Cause I think both of us like, I'm always like, I'm like a tall person, right? Like I ask people if I feel tall.

• 22:35Amy Poehler?

  But I'm not.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  And I'm not, and I'm, and I'm.

• 22:37Amy Poehler?

  How tall are you?

• 22:38Speaker 03

  Five, three and a half.

• 22:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, I'm five two.

• 22:41Speaker 03

  And, and, and Nick is solid.

• 22:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  He's a solid dude.

• 22:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he's like a midwestern, corn-fed dude.

• 22:48Speaker 03

  Dense and like, and muscular and he, we were trying to hold him down and he was whipping us around with such ease, like we couldn't, we actually, the both of us could not hold him down. And he was like, literally he'd just go beep and we would just fly off the bed in each direction. We could not stop laughing.

• 23:08Amy Poehler?

  We each had one arm.

• 23:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:10Amy Poehler?

  And he would, it felt like just the flick of a wrist.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  Cause he was being gentle, he was being gentle.

• 23:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't fighting for his life.

• 23:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, no.

• 23:20Amy Poehler?

  And we could not get him to stay down.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Could not, could not.

• 23:23Amy Poehler?

  And I remember that feeling. Also, I think there's something fun about wrestling, like.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  There is, so good.

• 23:29Amy Poehler?

  It's so good and being thrown around is so fun.

• 23:32Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 23:33Amy Poehler?

  And he was throwing us around and I feel like I just, like if I was to picture it in my mind, you were just like like I could just see going past me and your hair going wah and then your legs going wah and me, me, and I just remember like, Rashida, like I've never seen you. Flying by, which can't be true.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  I feel like we were tumbling all over the floor. Like every time we got back on the bed, we were like and we were, we were kind of like in each, we were both trying to be like on top of him and then like just flipping over really quickly.

• 24:06Amy Poehler?

  And I think too, because Nick is such a lovely, gentle guy in general, we knew there was something about us that knew we weren't gonna get hurt.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  It was safe, yeah.

• 24:14Amy Poehler?

  But he was making like grunting bear sounds.

• 24:18Amy Poehler?

  It was really, really, really.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  It was really fun.

• 24:21Amy Poehler?

  That was a really, I mean, I'm trying to think of like, there was so many good crack up moments, crack up moments. I'm a hundred years old.

• 24:27Speaker 03

  What a crack up.

• 24:28Amy Poehler?

  But I'm just like, I was like.

• 24:30Speaker 03

  There's that spot in, in Andy and April's house, remember where we could never get a scene done? Just that one, that living room.

• 24:39Amy Poehler?

  Dead spot. Yeah, it was haunted.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. And then I remember there was one time you were like, Rashida, because I could not get through it. But I really, it felt like haunted. It did not feel like it was my fault.

• 24:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I'm sorry I said that. There was, I, a couple of times I would see bloopers for the show and I'd be like, Amy.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  No, but those days were so long.

• 24:55Amy Poehler?

  They were.

• 24:56Speaker 03

  They were long and it was fun until it wasn't. You're like, oh my God, it's Tippi, we just want to go.

• 25:00Amy Poehler?

  I know. And the, and there was a scene for people that care. There was, there was a, a spot in that, on that set where anyone who stood there couldn't get their lines. And then of course it became self fulfilling prophecy in many ways.

• 25:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:16Amy Poehler?

  But there was just a lot of, um, deep laughs and deep, um, and deep laughs off camera. Like one of the things, one of the things I treasure, and there's so many things I treasure about my friendship with you, was that we would be talking like this and we'd be just talking and talking and just like talking about our day and talking about life. And then they would just go, action. And then we would just talk like Leslie and Anne. And we'd do our scene and be like, we kind of, I'll speak for myself, kind of knew it, kind of didn't.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  Right.

• 25:47Amy Poehler?

  And then they'd, then they'd cut, they'd work on it and we would just go back to talking. Like it was like a dream job.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  We filmed in between our conversations.

• 25:56Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  And also I think I remember very clearly in the pilot because we had already been friends for years when we shot the pilot. And they were doing one of those spy shots and we were in your office and we were talking and it was like, you know, other people were like, oh, this is great. Like this is a thing that really works. Their friendship, we're really going to be able to sell it. And we're like, uh, duh.

• 26:15Amy Poehler?

  Duh. No kidding.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  What do you mean?

• 26:17Amy Poehler?

  I mean, they really did base the entire show at the end of the day. On the fact that Leslie and Anne were, you know, each other's number one.

• 26:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 26:26Speaker 03

  Not hard to do.

• 26:27Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 26:35Amy Poehler?

  I mean, we've talked about this before, but we, when we first started the show, I think it was like, it was kind of like, we were trying to figure out who was gonna play what part. And who was gonna come on board. And, um,

• 26:51Amy Poehler?

  and kind of like, the beginnings of that show were,

• 26:56Amy Poehler?

  I'll say a little clumsy.

• 26:57Speaker 03

  Crunchy.

• 26:57Amy Poehler?

  Crunchy.

• 26:58Speaker 03

  Crunchy. Can we talk about it?

• 27:00Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I'd love to.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  Oh, my god. Yeah, it was crunchy.

• 27:03Amy Poehler?

  Because I think for, I don't think a lot of people know this, for the beginning, I think we both were worried that we had taken each other's part.

• 27:12Speaker 03

  Like, yes.

• 27:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  So, I had been on hold for this untitled thing that was gonna, that Greg and Mike were gonna write.

• 27:22Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 27:22Speaker 03

  And I had done a year on The Office, and they let me go, which made sense. It was, it made sense.

• 27:29Amy Poehler?

  You had such a tough job there because

• 27:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:31Amy Poehler?

  everybody wanted Jim and Pam.

• 27:33Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 27:33Amy Poehler?

  And then guess who shows up? A very likeable, cool, and everyone was like, oh, no, wait. I love Karen.

• 27:39Speaker 03

  It did not feel that way. People did not like me. Like, fans were not about it. But they had to create tension for the relationship to be earned later. So I was the third point in the triangle, it's fine. I like, accept it. But, anyway, so Mike was like, we're working on this other show. I'll put you on hold. We don't know what it is yet. Remember, people thought it was like a spinoff of The Office for a second. But anyway, so they kept like, kind of decide, like, changing the, the char, the main characters of the show. When they pitched it to me, the boss was a, was a guy. And they didn't know if they were gonna cast me or not. But I remember, you were extremely pregnant.

• 28:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  We'd just gotten back from Italy.

• 28:18Amy Poehler?

  You and I were in Italy?

• 28:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:20Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 28:20Speaker 03

  We were in Italy, and it was very hot.

• 28:23Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 28:23Speaker 03

  And a day later... You were like, let's go to lunch. I need to talk to you about something.

• 28:28Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember where we went?

• 28:29Speaker 03

  Pastiche.

• 28:29Amy Poehler?

  Pastiche.

• 28:30Speaker 03

  Yes, I do.

• 28:31Amy Poehler?

  In New York City.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  I do.

• 28:32Amy Poehler?

  Oh, God, and I said, let's talk about something.

• 28:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:35Amy Poehler?

  Oh, dear.

• 28:35Speaker 03

  Oh, dear. No, no, no, you.

• 28:37Amy Poehler?

  And I was like, I want you to raise this baby with me.

• 28:41Speaker 03

  It's yours.

• 28:42Amy Poehler?

  This baby is yours.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  I know, that's impossible.

• 28:43Amy Poehler?

  And you need to accept it.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  Um, but you, no, I actually hold this, this moment as like a gold standard of friendship and being able to take care of your oneself and the person that you love at the same time. I really do, Polos, because it was, what you did and how you did it was very hard because you took me to lunch and said, I'm so sorry, but they offered me the part. Both of us thinking it was the same part I was on hold for. Being created by a friend of ours. And so I immediately started crying in Pastiche. And you held my hand and you were so warm and you were so, there was something about it where you were like, I know, I'm sorry, buddy. But you also, you didn't like do the thing that I sometimes do where I'm codependent where I'm like, I know, I suck, I'm the worst

• 29:27Speaker 03

  person, I don't even deserve it. Like, whatever I would say to try to make the other person feel better, which doesn't work, you didn't do that. You like held your space and you also comforted me at the same time, which was like a very beautiful thing.

• 29:40Amy Poehler?

  I wonder what Cher's version of this is?

• 29:44Speaker 03

  Let me tell you.

• 29:44Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 29:45Speaker 03

  Because I left him a message almost immediately because I'm not shy. I was, and I was like, oh, I'm such an idiot for thinking I could even be on this show. Like, anybody wants me on this show, of course I'd get this. Like, Amy is like a, you know.

• 29:57Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God, what a mean part of yourself to be.

• 29:59Speaker 03

  Very mean, very mean. That's a, that's a person we're trying to, um, to not invite to the dinner party anymore. But, um, so I, I called him, I was like, hey, would love to talk to you. He was on a plane and he landed and he's like, uh, I was like, mhm, you want to, you want to tell me what's going on? Because it would have been really nice for you to tell me and not Amy to tell me that I wasn't getting this job. And he's like, no, no, no, back up. We changed the boss. It's a woman and Amy's playing the boss. And I was like, you, oh, my God, like, we might be working together?

• 30:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it kind of went from, oh, no, to, oh, my God, we might be the two women on the show.

• 30:37Speaker 03

  And I still wasn't cast because I still had to do a bunch of chemistry reads after that, but, but that became, you know, this huge possibility of like my life being the best, from the worst to the best.

• 30:50Amy Poehler?

  God, I'm sweating even thinking about that.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  He wasn't, they had, they just hadn't decided things and they, they were trying to build around you, I think is what happened, around that character. So I think they had just done that. And I think you wanted to tell me as soon as possible.

• 31:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  Because we were so close.

• 31:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Which was the right instinct. And Mike decided to get on a plane, which was his instinct.

• 31:12Amy Poehler?

  And he just flew for hours.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  He just, he wasn't even going anywhere.

• 31:16Amy Poehler?

  He just went to different cities and he never got off the plane. And that's what execs do. That's what a powerful person does, is they get on the plane.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  They just get on as many planes as possible. My phone was off.

• 31:26Amy Poehler?

  But I have to say, you were very good and, and you've taught me a lot about handling feedback. Because like you, you know, even recently, like you reached out to friends about giving, give me some feedback on something.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:40Amy Poehler?

  And I thought about, wow, I mean, I, I'm always trying to process taking, like, like we talked about, like just figuring out who I can get feedback from. And I love your feedback. I trust it. I respect it. The way you give it is very caring and loving. But feedback from the wrong person.

• 31:59Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Not great.

• 32:00Amy Poehler?

  Nightmare.

• 32:01Speaker 03

  Nightmare. Well.

• 32:03Amy Poehler?

  How do you handle that?

• 32:04Speaker 03

  I will say, you know, it's, I, part of me was doing it because my little inner critic, that person that was at the table, is so loud and mean and unreasonable. And so I look to people who love me and can tell me that that's not always the person I should be listening to. So weirdly, my friends sometimes are like a stand-in for my highest self, when I can't do it for myself. So that's, I was sort of looking for that. And it's funny because I was looking for feedback about the things that kind of bring me joy and the parts of my work that my friends see light me up. The point is, I was very targeted about it. I, I asked people that I love and respect and that's, that is the thing to do, I think. I also think that if you are going to get feedback from people,

• 32:49Speaker 03

  because a lot of us get unsolicited feedback.

• 32:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  Bill Hader once said to me, it was when I first started writing and he was talking about notes, because I did not understand that process. I didn't really start writing until I was like in my 30s. And he said, you know, you should take the note and not the solution. And that's, that's what I feel like with feedback and people's like, aggregate the kind of like common threads. And they keep like, okay, I'm getting a kind of similar thing in this area where people seem to think I'm this thing. What does that actually mean? And where's that, where's that coming from for me? And is that something I feel like I can fix or investigate as opposed to being like, that person has a problem with me? And then also, as we know, everybody's just thinking about themselves all the time.

• 33:32Amy Poehler?

  A hundred percent. And what do you do when you're, because you're writing all the time, producing, directing, when you get a note that you deeply disagree with? How do you handle it in real time? Do you push back? Do you say, let me think about it? Do you?

• 33:46Speaker 03

  I most likely go, that's a really good point. I'll, I'll address that. And then most of the time, if you don't, it doesn't, if you make the rest of the thing good, it doesn't matter.

• 33:56Amy Poehler?

  It's so true. Like, it's the advice I always try to give people that are starting out, which is, don't fight every battle in real time, because execs want to feel creative. And they want to feel like they're part of it. And if you, they get embarrassed.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 34:11Amy Poehler?

  If you're like, what a dumb ass note.

• 34:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:13Amy Poehler?

  Why would you say it's just such a stupid thing?

• 34:15Speaker 03

  And also, it's a waste of energy, because it's such a long process. And if you're like, using all of your, you know, currency to fight back with everything, you're going to be exhausted. You're not going to be able to be creative. Whereas if you go, yeah, good, great idea. Let's, we're going to figure out how to solve that. You know?

• 34:30Amy Poehler?

  But then you don't do it.

• 34:32Speaker 03

  Sometimes, sometimes it doesn't make sense, because the thing they're asking for isn't, is, you know, completely contradictory to the other thing they're asking for. That happens a lot. So you can't do both. Again, it's like, if you, if somebody's having a problem with an area of the script, or like a theme of the script, or a character, you know something's wrong, but they're never going to know how to fix it. You have to do that.

• 34:53Amy Poehler?

  When I gave you some feedback recently, one of the things that I said that you love to do is dance.

• 34:58Speaker 03

  I was going to bring that up.

• 34:59Amy Poehler?

  I want to talk about dancing.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 35:01Amy Poehler?

  The importance of dancing in your life. And

• 35:04Speaker 03

  And our lives.

• 35:05Amy Poehler?

  And our lives. And I want to tell you something fun about this show. So, we do this thing, like a little secret, like talking behind people's backs, but in a good way. Which is before I interview you, I do a little Zoom with people and ask them what I should ask you.

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 35:21Amy Poehler?

  So, I, before you came today, I zoomed Reda and Darcy and was like, you guys, I'm talking to Rashida. What should we ask her? And we all started talking about dancing. Because we were talking about how we love doing it with you, how we've done it so much with you, how we've had the joy of like doing it with you over and over again at birthdays. And it was so fun to talk about because it's like what a lot of people associate with you.

• 35:46Speaker 03

  That's nice.

• 35:47Amy Poehler?

  The feeling of dancing and the feeling of like what it feels like to be good at dancing.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 35:54Amy Poehler?

  So, what's your relationship to it? What does it do for you?

• 35:57Speaker 03

  Well, I will say when we first met, we, I felt like we got right into dancing right away. Like, we were, we'd go out in New York and we would dance. Like, it was almost like that was the way we got to know each other. Like, we sat and talked, but also we just went and danced. And there, again, there's something, there's something that's so, that feels so instinctive, non-verbal, like, just being in your body, I think, is somebody who like, probably is in my brain too much. It's such, it's a relief to dance. It's such a relief to dance.

• 36:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 36:31Speaker 03

  And I don't even know how to describe it. I just want to be dancing all the time.

• 36:37Amy Poehler?

  Me too.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  And you know that. Just want to be dancing all the time.

• 36:39Amy Poehler?

  I think I'm a little, I think that I, my, especially in social, you know, like, at social events, I get a little anxious and I need to express it somehow.

• 36:51Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 36:52Amy Poehler?

  And the chatting and talking, like you said, the small talk makes me feel crazy.

• 36:55Speaker 03

  Yes. Yes, I would, and there's nothing worse for me than being in a small talk conversation and seeing the dance floor and hearing a song and being like, I can't believe I'm not there right now. And some, I have very rudely been like, excuse me, and just run to the dance floor because I cannot miss a good song. And Darcy and Reda and you have all been to my birthday party. So, I used to have an annual birthday party. That was the Pajama Jammy Jam. And there were very strict rules. They were Come in your pajamas.

• 37:25Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  You can't not, you will not be let in without your pajamas. I only serve cereal and pizza and candy. And this is not a party for socializing.

• 37:34Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 37:34Speaker 03

  There will be no talking in a corner. You're there to dance.

• 37:37Amy Poehler?

  You have to dance.

• 37:38Speaker 03

  You have to dance. And people stuck to the rules. And the people, like the diehard people who want to be there to dance, you could tell. Like, there is like a, there's certain people who are like that, and there's some people that are not.

• 37:50Amy Poehler?

  I remember in those early years, too, people saying, "I don't really like to dance. Should I come?" And I'd say, "No."

• 37:54Speaker 03

  No. Yeah, don't come. It's fine. We'll come, we'll hang out some other time in a different way, but that's not this.

• 38:00Amy Poehler?

  We'll have a cup of coffee outside of a deli sometime, but not, not this.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  Not this. And it is like, it is a marathon. Like, we get there, we are on the dance floor, DJ Tendaji is messing it up.

• 38:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:15Speaker 03

  Like, every era, just crushing it. And we're just there for six and a half hours with a couple of water breaks. Like, we just don't even talk to each other.

• 38:22Amy Poehler?

  No. But, um, Reta was so funny, she was like, Reta was saying like, "The thing I love the most is when white, when you find out a white guy can really dance." And she said Max Greenfield.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:33Amy Poehler?

  Max Greenfield really brought it.

• 38:34Speaker 03

  Also, Ben Schwartz, great dancer.

• 38:36Amy Poehler?

  People should know that, John Ralphio.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  Great dancer, and also like, understands 90s R&B and 2000s R&B in like, a deep, deep historical way. Also, like, there's, it's great, because it's such an equalizer to wear pajamas.

• 38:48Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  It's not like, and I, and I, you know, if you want to wear like, a sexy pajama, okay. But that's not really the point. The point is to be comfortable and, and be kind of uniform in the sense that you can really focus on the dancing. I sound like extremely strict about this, and it's not, it's actually fun. And the way we're talking about it makes it sound like it's not fun.

• 39:08Amy Poehler?

  You're talking to a person that I think rules are what make things fun.

• 39:14Amy Poehler?

  I hear somebody laughing in this room, I don't know why that's funny.

• 39:19Amy Poehler?

  Rules, rules are boundaries, right? Everything has like, you know, you can't just be like, come whenever and anybody can come or whatever. It's like, that's a nightmare.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:29Amy Poehler?

  If someone's like, from seven to eleven, or we're going here, or like, that, I feel seen, like, taken care of. Somebody said, I'm gonna do this thing, it's gonna go like this, then you can have your feelings about it. But this is what, like, it makes me feel like people are taken care of themselves.

• 39:44Speaker 03

  Very swim lesson, yes, yes.

• 39:46Amy Poehler?

  Okay, swim lesson.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  I just remembered, my high school friends also, all up in the.

• 39:50Amy Poehler?

  All of your high school friends, and I know all of your high school friends because of those jammy jams and your college friends.

• 39:55Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 39:56Amy Poehler?

  And they're amazing.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  Thank you, thanks.

• 39:57Amy Poehler?

  And they're so fun. But, talk to us about Swim Lesson for a second, because, yes, tell us what Swim Lesson is.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  Well, to your point, it's a, it's a movie about a swim teacher, Bill Marsh, who has taught over 5,000 kids from like, ages two to five, and he has a very particular way of teaching. But, but part of that is the sort of boundary, his boundaries that he sets with these kids. So he's like, you can have all the feelings you want, but you have to stay in the pool. It's an eight-day intensive program. And, the hope, and, and actually the outcome, most of the time, very, very, very most of the time, is that the kids have these breakthroughs. And they go from crying and screaming and vomiting and running out of the pool, to really enjoying being underwater and actually swimming a little bit. And it is this sort of parable for what it is to be alive.

• 40:49Speaker 03

  It's the first of many, many, many times that you will face something that you don't understand, that you're scared of, that you don't know how to do, and you make some progress, and you feel good about yourself, and you push through that. And, it's both the pushing through it and the learning something new that makes you feel, that gives you self-esteem.

• 41:08Amy Poehler?

  And you and Will McCormick directed it, produced it.

• 41:11Speaker 03

  It's a short documentary.

• 41:12Amy Poehler?

  Beautiful, short doc, winning a ton of awards, and it's, yeah, where can we see it?

• 41:18Speaker 03

  You could see it on YouTube, on the LA Times, um, channel on YouTube.

• 41:22Amy Poehler?

  Highly recommended, it's so incredible. We got to screen it, I got to see it when you screened it at Pixar, which was very special.

• 41:28Speaker 03

  That was so awesome.

• 41:29Amy Poehler?

  And I don't think a lot of people know about your tenure at Pixar, like, you, I mean, that, of the, like, you know, it, it's almost impossible, Bones, to get a full. You know, I just have to do little snapshots of your wide and illustrious career because you have done so many things. You do so many things so well. And because you're a curious person who likes to challenge themselves, you also are just doing new things all the time. And on top of the million places that people have seen you act and the things they've seen you write and direct, I don't think people also know that you had a stint at Pixar where you were writing. And you just have this way in which you

• 42:14Amy Poehler?

  you kind of are of the world. You really want to experience a lot of things.

• 42:19Speaker 03

  Thank you for saying that because for me, it's like a, I don't want it to be a problem, but it's like I see myself as a generalist. Almost, you know, like where I don't, I sort of do like a little like a tiny little dive into all these areas. But like, a lot of people, by the time they're 50, have done a deep dive into one area. And I feel grateful that I haven't totally done it. But then in some regards, I'm like, hmm, had I spent all of those hours doing one thing, would I be like that kind of, you know, would I be like a, you know, virtuosic in one place? I think also, I mean, the truth is, you know, my beloved father, who passed away a couple of months ago,

• 43:02Speaker 03

  he, the bar of what he accomplished in this world is so high. It's unfairly high for anybody. And thank God for him because he really did like change culture. And so if I were being honest, like, you know, he was a great dad and he loved me and he was so encouraging and he was so proud of me. But at the end of the day, like, I'm looking at this person who's accomplished things that are like unimaginable and I can't not let that enter my orbit. So yeah, my standards are stupidly high. And unfairly high to myself. So that's like also something I'm thinking about as I approach 50. I'm like, okay, how do I let go?

• 43:47Speaker 03

  That was his life. I'm so glad he let it. And that's not my life. And what is my life? And also, what do I find kind of like joy and connection? And what do I feel good at doing in my life? That has nothing to do with that. And also, like, I do feel like this, there's this like hat trick where like the oppression of like only being one thing and being like domestic, you know, domestic and whatever, knocking out the house. We've done the opposite, which is like the oppression of like having to do everything and then pretend like it's all easy and we're all fine with it. Like, it's impossible. It's an impossible standard.

• 44:25Amy Poehler?

  And I, like, one of the reasons why I want to do this podcast is as I've watched so many men do the bare minimum.

• 44:33Speaker 03

  Is this, is this your bare minimum?

• 44:35Amy Poehler?

  I'm truly giving 25%, which is, for most people, is 75%. But it's like enough is enough. Enough with the 100%.

• 44:44Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 44:44Amy Poehler?

  And enough with improving ourselves and listening to stuff about how we're supposed to get better and better and better.

• 44:50Speaker 03

  But it will make the rest of our life very interesting.

• 44:53Amy Poehler?

  Well, yeah, I mean, we're all gonna live on a farm together and, you know, like, right? We're all gonna live on a farm together.

• 44:59Speaker 03

  100%.

• 45:00Amy Poehler?

  So Darcy and Rheta had two questions for you.

• 45:02Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 45:02Amy Poehler?

  They're kind of the same question. And then I'm gonna finish with a question that we're asking everybody on Good Hank. So the question they had for you, which is kind of a cute question, because it kind of got, came off of us hanging out and talking about how Rheta described you as like, you know, like Rashida can be the lawyer of the group, which I love. So true. Which is like, wait, hold on. But it got us talking about who, little Rashida. Like, what did little Rashida want to be when she grew up? What was her, what did she want her job to be?

• 45:37Speaker 03

  Well, Rheta is partially right. I wanted to be a lawyer.

• 45:40Amy Poehler?

  Really?

• 45:41Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm. I wanted to be a lawyer or a judge or the president.

• 45:48Speaker 03

  No thanks. No thanks to that one. But yeah, I wanted to be a lawyer or a judge.

• 45:53Amy Poehler?

  Did you know anyone that was a lawyer or a judge?

• 45:55Speaker 03

  My grandfather was a lawyer and my uncle is a judge.

• 45:59Amy Poehler?

  No way.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  My uncle, Richard, is a judge.

• 46:01Amy Poehler?

  And you saw him, did you ever see him in action? Like see him bang a gavel and like judge?

• 46:07Speaker 03

  No, but he, his brain is just that. He's got that brain. He's just like, he's like, he's parsing all the details and he's putting the facts together and he's like assessing. I love that.

• 46:18Amy Poehler?

  Do you think you would, like you make a good jury member? Do you think you're able to be?

• 46:22Speaker 03

  I don't.

• 46:24Amy Poehler?

  Me neither.

• 46:24Speaker 03

  I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it would be, I'm too emotional for that.

• 46:30Amy Poehler?

  Same.

• 46:31Speaker 03

  Judge is different because I think you're, like you are considering emotion that's in there. I mean, obviously you're considering facts, but I think I like the idea of being the adjudicator of right and wrong. Which is something I'm like trying to let go of as I get older because there's so much gray and like it's so boring to think that you know morally what's the right thing for anybody, you know? But I think I liked it, like as a kid, you know, like you're always trying to suss out like where your boundaries are and like what's good and what's bad. And I think I liked the idea of like really enforcing that.

• 47:05Amy Poehler?

  You know, we did a fun jokey thing on Parks and Rec where we took a picture one day on some like courthouse steps, me, you, Catherine Hahn, Adam Scott, Paul Rudd. And we looked like we were in a nineties drama called Philly Justice. That's what we called ourselves. And then because it was whatever, season seven of Parks and we were probably phoning it in at that point, but we ended up pretending that we used to be in that show and we did a whole text chain.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  The writers took time off writing the show and wrote an entire episode of Philly Justice.

• 47:41Amy Poehler?

  That's right. The writers wrote an episode that we filmed.

• 47:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 47:45Amy Poehler?

  That I have a copy of, that I keep wanting to put on like TikTok or something. I know.

• 47:49Speaker 03

  Really? I want to see it.

• 47:50Amy Poehler?

  Oh, so good. Morgan Sackett, our producer, sent me the full thing. And you play Angie Martinez.

• 47:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:56Amy Poehler?

  And she's a lawyer.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:58Amy Poehler?

  Right? She's a lawyer?

• 47:59Speaker 03

  She's a young, she's like a young second year law student or something, yeah.

• 48:04Amy Poehler?

  Um, and there's a bunch of scenes where you object to things and you throw things down.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  Not in the courtroom?

• 48:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you're not in a courtroom. And, um, you, I think you and Han have like a, a...

• 48:17Speaker 03

  Rivalry?

• 48:17Amy Poehler?

  No, I think you're in love.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  Oh, we are?

• 48:19Amy Poehler?

  I think you guys, maybe you yell at each other and then you kiss at some point, I forget.

• 48:23Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 48:23Amy Poehler?

  I've got to get that out there on the internet so people can see it.

• 48:26Speaker 03

  That was really fun.

• 48:27Amy Poehler?

  But it's so fun and there is a side of you that a hundred percent I could see going in and, and putting a briefcase down.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm not going to law school, but yeah, I think some part of me thinks I'm a judge. Isn't that just a testament to how much downtime you have on a set? That we created an entirely new show?

• 48:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. We had a, yeah, we had time for a whole other show that no one ever saw. Um, okay, and then the last question, good hang. So we're trying to figure out how to like continually self-regulate here and, and find joy in all different places. And like, I'm asking everybody to talk about what gives them relief. What is the thing they go to and they want to like laugh, check out, tune in, take a load off? It's small or big? But I feel we, like, we learn a lot about somebody by what they laugh at. What's yours?

• 49:23Speaker 03

  Well, contrary to what we just talked about, which is I, I love good music and I love, you know, I, I love the emotionality of listening to great music. Nothing makes me laugh harder than really confident, really bad singing. Like, like sincerely confident, bad singing.

• 49:46Amy Poehler?

  People that know that they're doing a bad job?

• 49:48Speaker 03

  No.

• 49:48Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 49:49Speaker 03

  I'm not laughing at them. I just like the, the, the gusto in which people like I would watch the first couple of seasons of American Idol with friends, like appointment television, sit down, not like when it got to the good people, but like those first five episodes where people were just coming in hard with like no musicality whatsoever.

• 50:10Amy Poehler?

  And they were super cocky.

• 50:11Speaker 03

  Super cocky. There was one girl who it was like what she did was actually musically amazing because she was tone deaf. She went to like six different keys in like 20 seconds, like just kind of brilliant, but didn't know.

• 50:25Amy Poehler?

  And nailed it and walked out being like, I got it.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  Nailed it. She said she was like Mariah Carey. That's what she said.

• 50:30Amy Poehler?

  That's so interesting that you say that because there must be some like psychological part of you that likes the way people are approaching

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:38Amy Poehler?

  music as something that you revere

• 50:40Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:40Amy Poehler?

  so badly.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:42Amy Poehler?

  Like it must be a huge release.

• 50:43Speaker 03

  It is. It is. And to that point, I remember there's David Wynn and I once I pitched this bit to him. It did not go well when we did it at comedy at Sketch Fest, is that what it's called?

• 50:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 03

  Sketch Fest, where I was like, let's do California, California, what was it?

• 50:59Amy Poehler?

  Dreaming.

• 50:59Speaker 03

  California dreaming. I'm like, but let's do it like super genuine, sincere, come in like with a guitar, like start singing and then I'm going to come in with the harmonies and they're going to be totally wrong. It was funny in concert, but like it was a release. It was like a feeling like, oh, I don't have to sound good.

• 51:15Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 51:15Speaker 03

  I could just go for it.

• 51:17Amy Poehler?

  Do you ever, you ever seen that Domingo sketch on SNL?

• 51:19Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 51:20Amy Poehler?

  That's kind of like when they

• 51:22Speaker 03

  They do a great job.

• 51:22Amy Poehler?

  When they like come in so off.

• 51:24Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 51:25Amy Poehler?

  They're on purpose.

• 51:26Speaker 03

  How do they do that? I wonder if they, somebody coached them how to sing badly because there's good singers singing badly.

• 51:32Amy Poehler?

  I know. Like it's, it's satisfying to watch like Ariana Grande not get the note.

• 51:37Speaker 03

  Yes. But they're, but, but it's not like, sometimes when really good singers sing badly, they're like, and you could tell they're good singers. They're actually doing a good job convincing people they're bad.

• 51:48Amy Poehler?

  When you do karaoke or see people sing karaoke, do you like it when they're off?

• 51:54Speaker 03

  That's a little bit more painful because it's in person.

• 51:56Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 51:57Speaker 03

  You know.

• 51:57Amy Poehler?

  So, uh, uh, to do, just to get, get it down to the nitty gritty. It's like being with friends, watching on TV, someone that comes in and like buckle up. And then they just start singing.

• 52:11Speaker 03

  Whale.

• 52:11Amy Poehler?

  Roar by Katy Perry and they get it way wrong.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 52:15Amy Poehler?

  And then they leave being like.

• 52:16Speaker 03

  Nailed it. Yeah.

• 52:18Amy Poehler?

  Suck on that.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  Who don't, who are so confident were like, if you laughed, they wouldn't crumble. Like I would, I don't want, I'm not gonna want to hurt anybody's feelings.

• 52:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. That makes me want to watch old American Idol.

• 52:30Speaker 03

  I'm gonna send you some because I found them again. I found like the girl that knocked my socks off.

• 52:34Amy Poehler?

  Let me just look at her before we go. Because we can do this now. I have a laptop.

• 52:38Speaker 03

  It's deep in like a cut, it's like at a supercut of like.

• 52:42Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember her name?

• 52:44Speaker 03

  I don't, but it's like.

• 52:45Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember what she sang?

• 52:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, she's saying, she's saying Phil Collins, Take a Look Against All Odds. And she came in, she was like, people say I look just like Mariah Carey and I sound just like her too.

• 52:54Amy Poehler?

  Is this her?

• 52:54Speaker 03

  No, that's not her.

• 52:55Amy Poehler?

  Oh, you sure?

• 52:58Speaker 03

  Oh my God, that's her.

• 52:58Amy Poehler?

  Okay, okay. Oh my God.

• 52:59Speaker 03

  That's her.

• 53:00Amy Poehler?

  Sorry, we gotta listen to this before we go. Oh yeah, she said she looks like Mariah Carey. She doesn't not look like Mariah Carey.

• 53:05Speaker 03

  No, she does. She's cute.

• 53:06Amy Poehler?

  She's cute.

• 53:08Speaker 03

  We gotta turn it way up.

• 53:11Amy Poehler?

  You would not think that this is gonna go badly, like.

• 53:13Speaker 03

  That's what I mean. She's cute and she's wearing a shawl.

• 53:15Amy Poehler?

  She's wearing a shawl. She has really cute hair. She's like, she definitely, like she wears cute jeans. And she's a little too close to the judges, which is already making me nervous. Like she's standing too close to the table.

• 53:27Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 53:27Amy Poehler?

  Which she doesn't have a good like.

• 53:29Speaker 03

  Here she goes. You ready?

• 53:30Amy Poehler?

  Here she goes. Okay, hold on. Stand by.

• 53:35Speaker 03

  The end she goes off watch.

• 54:02Speaker 03

  Like, that's like acrobatic. That's hard to do. Like, I could, I've tried to imitate that. It's hard to do.

• 54:08Amy Poehler?

  That is very, very good. You're right. That's very, very satisfying to watch. Because, you're right, she's kinda good. She just not, she's, she's not hitting any notes.

• 54:20Speaker 03

  No, she's not hitting any keys. And within that, she's hitting all the keys. Which is amazing. Like, it's really hard to do.

• 54:27Amy Poehler?

  She's also doing something that I like when singers do, where she's holding her throat as if that, like, she's like, "I'll get it."

• 54:32Speaker 03

  She's so nervous. I mean, she's so nervous, you can tell. But she's like, she's like, "This is not going well." She knows, she starts to figure it out.

• 54:39Amy Poehler?

  Wow, that is really satisfying. I'm gonna hold on. I'm gonna send that to myself, so I can watch it again. Because that's so good. Also, um...

• 54:49Speaker 03

  Take a look at me now.

• 54:51Amy Poehler?

  Now, 'cause you're just an empty space. And you're coming.

• 55:01Amy Poehler?

  And then one part she goes, "La!" She gives a little shout, too. Um, she didn't seem to be, um, feeling like it was going badly, though, so...

• 55:10Speaker 03

  Really? I think she, I think she was like, "Uh-oh." Maybe too late. But she was like, "Uh-oh." Because she was, I think this was like, "Please stop." "Please stop." "Please just stop."

• 55:20Amy Poehler?

  How funny would it have been at the very end? She ended and went, "Uh-oh."

• 55:26Amy Poehler?

  That would've been so funny, if she said, "Uh-oh" at the end. All right, love you, Bones, thanks for doing this.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  Love you, Bones, that was fun.

• 55:36Amy Poehler?

  All right, thank you so much, Rashida Jones. You were the best. I love you. Thank you for doing this for me. I don't think you had much of a choice. But, thank you for doing it anyway, and I will do anything for you. Um, we talked a lot about music, and it makes me think that before this episode is over, I feel like I need to just ask Chappelle Rohn if she'll come on again. Chappelle? Chappelle, are you there? Are you listening?

• 56:02Amy Poehler?

  We've been reaching out to your team and I'm assuming that no answer means a maybe. And I'm excited about having you on. I just think you're the best. I just love your music and everything that you're doing for the music industry. And I kind of started this podcast to talk to you and when you come on, I'm gonna end it. So I haven't told Spotify that yet, but you will be my last guest. So Chapel, come on soon because I'm tired and I'd love to wrap it up. So, thank you, everybody, for listening. Thanks for hanging and we'll catch you next time.

• 56:38Amy Poehler?

  You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaia McMullin, and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.