When you're making a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine, you need actors who are in on the joke. Fortunately, that's what Lizzy Caplan excels at -- not only can she nail a punchline, but her sardonic smarts were well-used both in Mean Girls and in the hit Starz series Party Down, which is about to return for its second season. (She's also more than capable of dramatic range, as anyone who caught her bad-girl True Blood arc can attest.)
A few weeks ago, Caplan rang up Movieline to reveal just how odd the Hot Tub shoot was (and how many writers it employed), what's new on Party Down this season, and why she never gets recognized for Mean Girls.
All right, Lizzy. Walk me through this: your agent calls and says, "I've got a script for you called Hot Tub Time Machine." What's your reaction?
"Where do I sign?!" No, I think my reaction was the same as mot people's reactions, which is that it's the stupidest title for a movie, maybe ever. Then they find out who's in the cast, and it all of a sudden becomes very interesting.
John Cusack is so well-known for his 80's movies...was it surreal to act opposite him in a movie set in the 80's?
Yes, it actually took me a few days of shooting before I had my "Holy sh*t, this is Lloyd Dobler" moment. I think it's the dream of most American girls -- or girls worldwide -- to get to make out with Lloyd Dobler.
I've heard some guys complain that Lloyd Dobler set an unrealistically high bar for them to live up to.
I concur. I think that no guy can ever live up to Lloyd Dobler. In high school, I quoted lines from that movie all the time, thinking that I was coming up with that stuff when in reality, I was cribbing it from Say Anything.
I imagine you weren't quoting those lines to John Cusack himself.
I did not. I should have done that. I'll call him up right now and do that.
Tell me about your character.
I play John Cusack's love interest. I haven't seen it yet, and there have been many, many, many versions of the script, but as of now, I am a reporter for Spin magazine reporting on Poison.
When you say there were so many versions of the script, do you mean there were on-set rewrites, or were you actually shooting different versions?
It's changed a lot. There were many writers coming in and out working on it -- all very funny, talented people. I went in to do looping, and I did looping for a couple different versions, so I have no idea, really, what the movie is. It's kind of weird.
So even while you were shooting, you'd do wildly different takes and lines.
Yeah, there were lots of new pages coming in, which was refreshing, actually. It allowed everybody a lot more freedom, and Steve Pink, the genius director of the movie, allowed us to mess around and improv, which is always good.
How different were those versions? Was there a costume drama take on Hot Tub Time Machine in there somewhere?
No, sadly. Perhaps for the sequel.
Now, I know you're an actress, but I'm going to acknowledge that you were born in the 80's...
[Laughs]
What is your least fond memory of that decade?
I wore a lot of biker short and huge t-shirts. I had no boobs and I was really scrawny, so I looked like a little boy in biker shorts. Any time I look at those pictures, it makes me queasy.
Are there any background extras in the movie rocking that look?
The background extras look awesome. They're all wearing these Day-Glo ski suits, so they're far more fashion-forward than I was. My sister had this hair crimper, but I was far too much of a tomboy to mess with my hair.
Now, you shot the next season of Party Down ages ago, didn't you?
We finished it around Thanksgiving, so it feels like ages ago. They like to spread 'em out.
Is it novel to shoot an entire television season months before any of it has started airing?
It's kind of nice, because when 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. This way, we get to do whatever the hell we want, and if people don't like it, whatever. [Laughs]
You've appeared on a lot of well-liked but short-lived shows in the past. Was it a relief to get that season-two pickup for Party Down?
Yes, of course. Especially because 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.
Adam Scott told me he was depressed when the second season wrapped.
Totally. It's a very depressing time when we're not shooting Party Down. A lot of us have been doing this for a long time, and to find a group of people and a show that we can stand behind, it's really cool.
It feels like Starz has really embraced it as one of its flagship shows. Are there any changes to the second season now that the network's standing behind it so much?
In the second season, the biggest change is that, of course, Jane Lynch has gone off to Glee fame and fortune. She's replaced this year by Megan Mullally, who is a genius as well, and Jane comes back to do one episode. I think, also, it's a better season all the way around than the first one. Like any show, when you first meet people and start working together, it takes a little while to acclimate. The second season really hits the ground running and it's pretty hilarious. There are some very, very good episodes.
What do you get to do this season?
I don't want to give too much away. The first season, my character went off to do comedy on a cruise ship -- everyone went off to do different things -- and now we're all back catering. Our dreams did not pan out as expected. For the first chunk of the season, Adam is team leader and has to be responsible, and we're not together, so our relationship takes a while to get off the ground. It freaked me out! I didn't like Adam being the boss, even though we were just acting. I didn't like it.
You did E on Party Down and V on True Blood. Which high was more fun to act out?
[Laughs] Um, V is probably more fun because you get to swim through water tanks and look like you're swimming through the forest, which clearly didn't happen on Party Down.
Between those two shows, Mean Girls, everything you've done, you've been in so many things that have a cult following. Is there one where you get recognized the most?
I've been fairly lucky because I'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. If people know me from True Blood, they usually know the other things that I've done, so it's kind of a ripple effect of being recognized. I 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.
I can't believe that! What is it about True Blood that made people start recognizing you?
I walk around nude and high in real life. [Laughs]
[Lead Photo Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Getty Images]