What is Chelsea Peretti watching?

The Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress plays a kooky therapist on Hulu/BBC One's Am I Being Unreasonable? and loves British comedies.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 1.16

what are they watching? is an interview series for my newsletter in which I chat with a television actor about television itself. This time around I had a chat with iconic comedy actress Chelsea Peretti, who you probably know as Gina on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or most recently, as a kooky therapist in a guest role on a tvscholar favourite series, Am I Being Unreasonable? (Hulu/BBC One). We happen to be Instagram mutuals, and chat about everything from how she and Jordan Peele don’t necessarily watch the same shows, what she adds to her popcorn, to what she advises on my career plans.

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I am obsessed with Am I Being Unreasonable?. How did you get involved for its second season? We love Daisy May Cooper.

I love her so much. There are very few people in comedy that…sometimes I'm like, am I a hater? No, when I love people, I love them so much. Chris Farley had that feel, Danny McBride. I remember seeing Bridesmaids and I had never seen Melissa McCarthy before and I was like wait, who is this? I felt the same about Daisy. She has such a great mix of two things I love which is hard comedy but also vulnerability. My producer on my movie recommended her show and she knows my taste really well, so I watched it and I'm just like, this is feeding my soul. The perils of female friendship in such an extreme light, looking at how scary intimacy can be. Obviously it's got so much more going on than that, but that core theme was so fascinating to me, and I hadn't really seen it explored in that way.

Absolutely. Did you ever watch her other show, Rain Dogs?

I haven't really seen that one, but I watched a little bit of This Country and I thought it was so cool and funny, and she wrote it with her brother!

Where did you pull inspiration to play a kooky therapist?

I’ve had so many different experiences in LA with therapists and couples therapists. It's weird because in LA a lot of the therapist websites will be like, “has experience with celebrities,” and that gives me the creeps. I'd rather you don't, and I just think it's a weird thing to put on your website, like some weird sub-species. You're like, I know how to deal with them in their habitat, but that's kind of how LA is. I guess everything has that weird tinge of Hollywood. I remember going to the Writers’ Guild health clinic and they had pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the wall while you're getting a pap smear. It's infused into everything you do. But yeah, definitely had some strange, strange couples therapists.

I once had a therapist basically fall asleep in our session…

I know a couple people that have had a narcoleptic therapist. I honestly can't think of a worse field to go into. What would be a good field for narcolepsy, maybe a librarian?

Working at a sleep clinic?

But then you're like, I'm not sure how you were sleeping. I myself was asleep.

[Michel laughing]

When my parents got divorced I remember going to a therapist for that and they had me play in a sandbox. I thought it was ridiculous at the time, even as a kid. Like, obviously I know you want me to act out my feelings about my parents in this sandbox. So I think I've had a lifelong fascination with therapists, and the idea of bad therapists, because there are a million bad therapists working on any given day.

Perhaps you pull inspiration from that for Call Chelsea Peretti, your podcast where you provide callers with advice.

One of my best friends is like, you give the absolute worst advice. Well, it is funny to do that! When we were in school she’d say she’s so stressed about this test, and I'm like, why don't you cheat, you know? Or I just went through a breakup, and I'm like, why don't you wear a mini skirt and go to a club?

Sometimes people need bad advice to figure out what they really want?

Take what you need and leave the rest.

Okay so I have a bit of a confession: I’ve never really watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine aside from episodes here and there, although I know it’s a comfort show for many. A few years out from the series finale, what do you look back and reminisce on?

I remember seeing this interview with Sharon Stone, where after her crossing legs moment, she went from not famous to hard famous, to people trying to grab her hair on the street and stuff. I remember when we had gotten picked up for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and went to the upfront in New York the cast was like, our whole lives are going to change forever. And then it was much more of this slow build. Life did change a lot but in a way where you're getting acclimated as it changes.

What I miss is the camaraderie. Was it Elton John who said a candle in the wind? Maybe that's a bad analogy. But each project feels like that, where you have all these people together for this little flash of time, and then you're all thrown hither and yon, and you may never all be in the same space again. But when you're in it, you're like this is a long 12-hour day, and then before you know it, it's over. I miss all of us joking around on set and those little moments where you're like, having coffee with Andre Braugher and talking about family or values, things like that. It's kind of like raising a kid in a way, like the days are long but the years are short or whatever. It was a very fun group of people, and we had so many different little inside jokes and routines because we were lucky enough to have many seasons.

They grow up so fast! Someday I’ll actually have to watch it.

Someday, I mean me too. In the beginning I watched more and then as it went along, I was like I can’t over-analyze this process by watching it.

Are you easily able to watch yourself in things?

Sometimes I can’t. It all depends on lighting.

What are you watching lately?

Such Brave Girls, which I love. Last One Laughing UK, where UK comedians are in a room for six hours and no one's allowed to laugh or smile. I thought that was a funny premise. White Lotus, of course. We went away for spring break and were a little jet lagged, so I haven't seen the last episode. We've tried a couple times, and we keep falling asleep. But I'm dying to see it. Hmm what else…let me go through your Instagram and see if I’m watching any of these shows. I’ve been binging a lot of British comedies.

Such Brave Girls (on Hulu, starring TV Scholar Award nominee Lizzie Davidson)

Do you and Jordan [Peele] watch everything together?

No…a lot of times people will be like, have you guys seen this? And I'm like, no, and he's like, yes, and I’m like wait, when?! But he’s a crazy night owl. He’ll go to sleep at ten but wake up at three and then start working or doing stuff. But we do watch White Lotus together.

Do you consider yourself more of a cinephile or a telephile?

I honestly don't think I'm an anythingfile, because it implies thoroughness. I love comedy, but I'm not a person who will watch everything that ever comes out. I have my people that I would watch anything they make, but otherwise I have trouble just watching something for the sake of knowing what's going on. For comedy, I have to love the leads. That’s why Am I Being Unreasonable? was such a home run for me, because Daisy is one of those people where I would watch anything she does.

What do you consider your foundational TV shows?

I Love Lucy. I watched that at my daycare, and she was just so fucking funny. And it was kind of edgy, right? She was the funniest one on the show and she's in an interracial relationship. It was an early days edgy comedy, even though it was in black and white.

Also Wonder Years, Saturday Night Live. In Living Color was huge for me, being the origin story of so many talented people. Martin was huge. We've been showing our son some of our favourite Martin moments and episodes such as the rat that comes into their cheap vacation rental, and Martin wrestling it. Married with Children too, that satirical Americana vibe. Beavis and Butt-Head, which I’ve been watching the reboot of. I've been watching that with my son, and we've been just cracking up. The only downside is now he says “everything sucks.”

What’s your favourite TV-watching snack?

I have started making popcorn in a Dutch oven. I buy these jars of popcorn kernels and add a little olive oil and they pop up. I add some nutritional yeast in there, and I have lemon-flavoured olive oil, a little truffle salt. What about you?

A lot of full meals because I’m always watching something and I’m single and live alone.

TV dinners!

Exactly. What’s a TV show you recently abandoned?

That’s career suicide. I would have answered this with total abandon when I lived in New York, but when you live right here in the nucleus…although honestly, nothing shoots in LA anymore, maybe I can speak with total impunity. But nothing is coming to mind, truly. The problem is there's so much stuff. Once the streamers came along it became hard to stay on top of everything. It’s like that Andy Samberg song about going into a bunker and trying to catch up on everything. I think of that all the time, it really encapsulated what it feels like to try to be a TV Scholar, as it were.

I need a bunker holiday to catch up on everything. Okay last question: I’m wondering if you’ll give me advice in the style of your podcast. I’m at this juncture where I’m working a full-time unrelated day job in addition to doing all my TV writing and it’s been a lot. Should I quit my day job?

What is your day job?

I’m an executive assistant in healthcare.

Now see, this is shocking. I mean of course, that makes total sense, but it never would’ve even occurred to me that tvscholar was your second gig. The name sounds so important!

Sadly the money as a freelance writer is just not there. Not to mention stability and so on.

I hate that. I hate that. Why don't you try to siphon some money off your job…are they the good kind or the bad kind of healthcare?

It’s a healthcare union, so good actually!

Well then don't siphon their funds, I guess. I mean listen, I'm a creative so I'm always going to be in support of people quitting their day job, but obviously I'm not going to suggest you do that if you're going to be destitute. I guess all we can do is hope that a change is coming. Have you thought about driving Ubers? Just kidding.

Platonic (Apple TV+)

I could like, have a TV screen up in my Uber to catch up on shows simultaneously.

Multi-task, that’s right! Man I just hate that this is the reality for so many people. I think we're in a bleak time, but in a way, I'm hoping it's kind of like the 80s, where there's this bleakness leads to a surge of creativity and art, and I hope that we all get to ride that wave into a new tomorrow.

Period. And we know people turn to art during dark times, too.

Do you have a podcast?

No!

It feels like a natural thing to do with your writing. That said the podcast world is so oversaturated and corporate now. When I started it was like having a zine or something, it was all passion. Now it's become a bit disgusting, like everything else.

Well if I ever start one, I’d love to have you on.

You're also welcome to come on mine and talk about esoteric little-known shows to watch. We’ll start a whole career together. Ride off into the sunset.

That would be a dream.