Community's Yvette Nicole Brown Breaks Down Sass, Joel McHale, and Weird O.J. Speculation

Can you think of an occasion in commercial acting where you've had to change your entire role on a dime?

Thing about commercials, you have to please the director, the client, and the production company producing your commercial. So you may have gotten cast because, you know -- like, I'm a sassy character a lot in commercials -- so I may have been cast for that, but if I get on set and the product people may go, "Oh, no, no! I don't know if I want her that sassy selling Hamburger Helper." And the director might like me sassy. So then there's a caucus. And they'll go, "Well, Yvette, can you say this line, but can you undercut your sass with a little bit of sweet?" It's really small little changes they give you. You have to be able to change on a dime.

Do you wish you could break out of sassier roles more?

I've been blessed where I've played some meek roles. I just think that everyone has a particular brand of funny. My brand happens to be a little bit snarky, but hopefully snarky and lovable. The person I most admire who was able to this was Bea Arthur, because she was able to portray the smartest person in the room, and no one was sassier than her, but you still liked her. If you looked at every role she did from Maude on through to The Golden Girls, she was always the one with the reaction that would drive people crazy. Like, her facial expressions were amazing. She always had this deadpan slow burn that would destroy people. And she did that her entire career and people love that about her. So if I finish my career and people said, "No one did sassy like Yvette Brown," I'd be so overjoyed. To me, it's not a liability, it's an asset. In this industry, you always need to find her niche first and then branch out. You look at someone like Mo'Nique who started doing broad comedy on The Parkers and she's now doing serious dramatic work in Precious, and she's nominated and winning awards. So it's like, you start somewhere, you get your fan base, and then you go, "Hey, you like that? Guess what else I can do." So one day, hopefully I'll branch into other things, but I have no problems with the niche I've dug for myself.

Some hubbub stirred up online recently, with Community fans wondering about the implications of the way your name is presented in opening credits. It appears that a knife is going into a cake that says "Nicole Brown" on it, while your first name "Yvette" floats above. Were you surprised to hear that people drew connections to the slain Nicole Brown and the O.J. Simpson trial?

It was not intentional, and it's still on credits. People really took that the wrong way. People don't know that my real full name is Yvette Nicole Brown, and I've had it my whole life, long before Nicole Brown was murdered. No one respects her name and legacy more than me, because I kind of carry it now, you know? That's not something I would've chosen for myself, but that's the way it worked out. The cake and the knife are the two sides of Shirley; she's sweet and she's rageful. No one ever thought, "Oh, let's do something funny about someone who was murdered." That's horrible! Nobody involved in the show has that type of spirit.

I was really thinking that the people who saw that and made that connection, it said more about them than about any of us. It sickened me to see that, that people thought we would do that. That people thought I would allow that. You know what I mean? It was just disgusting to me. It has nothing to do with Nicole Brown Simpson, and I totally respect her and -- I'm horrified by it. I think the reason it remained is because we knew we hadn't done that for that reason. We knew why it was there. If you look at everybody's credit, there's something about each person. Like Alison [Brie's] character Annie is very funny, so she has smiley faces. It all has something to do with who the person, or character is. It has nothing to do with anything else.

Pages: 1 2 3