Playing April Ludgate for four seasons on Parks And Recreation (with a fifth on the way in autumn 2012) has canonized Aubrey Plaza as the patron saint of malcontent interns. As such, it’s no surprise that the lead role in Safety Not Guaranteed—that of a disaffected, unpaid magazine employee investigating an anonymous newspaper solicitation for a time-traveling partner—was written with Plaza in mind. But the role also gave Plaza the chance to project a previously unseen vulnerability, as her character’s withering glares and cutting sarcasm are progressively broken down by Mark Duplass’ sincere, possibly insane wannabe Doc Brown. The A.V. Club recently spoke to Plaza about the challenges that drew her to Safety Not Guaranteed, how she responded to being serenaded by an alleged time-traveler, and what the future might hold for her Parks And Recreation character.
The A.V. Club: When Derek Connolly wrote the script for Safety Not Guaranteed, he envisioned you in the role of Darius. How did that affect the way you approached your performance?
Aubrey Plaza: [Joking.] Well, I decided to use myself, just physically and emotionally, for the movie, because I thought that was fitting.
I was flattered it was written for me, and I was so happy that the script was good and not terrible, because that would have been a shame, if he had written something with me in mind and it was the worst thing. And at the time, I was looking to do a movie where I used some different skills as an actor, and flex different muscles. I felt like this part was a really organic way to start out in a zone that people are comfortable seeing me in—a snarky, depressed intern—and then transform into a different person by the end of the movie.
AVC: Did you feel any additional pressure because you had to flex those acting muscles?
AP: Honestly, I felt pressure just being a lead in a movie. I have never done that before, so it was very scary to play the part in a movie where the weight of the film was on my shoulders. I never had to really think about a movie like that—usually I go in there, do a supporting role, be funny, and then get out of there. But this one, you’re kind of stuck with me. So figuring out how to make Darius track throughout the movie and have all of her emotional beats feel true and feel like they’re coming one after the other, and that she’s really going on this journey—that was a really big challenge for me. But it was one that I’ve been dreaming of my whole life. So I was very excited about it, but it was very scary.
AVC: It helped to have such a talented supporting cast surrounding you.
AP: Yeah, for sure. Jake Johnson was amazing—we’re friends, and we knew each other before we started the movie. And he was so good at taking such a douchebag character and making him likeable in a weird way. And Mark Duplass made it very easy for me to play off of him. His character is very tricky, and he deserves a lot of credit for tackling that character, because that could have easily gone the wrong way. He could have overplayed it, he could have underplayed it, he could have done a million different things wrong, and he really brought a vulnerability to Kenneth that I think the film needs. It just always felt real and like the characters were really connecting, and that Darius was falling in love with him, and the only way that was possible was because Mark was so good at playing Kenneth and good at drawing me into him.
AVC: Was it difficult to keep a straight face in response to some of Kenneth’s more outrageous eccentricities?