Gillian Jacobs on Community's Halloween Episode and Why TV Schedules Don't Matter Anymore

As a graduate from Julliard, actress Gillian Jacobs initially seemed like the outsider in the cast of Community, which fits since her character, Britta, is an outsider as well. (Witness the way Britta pronounces "bagel.") Still, as the series has progressed, a funny thing happened: Jacobs ingratiated herself with fans in the same way Britta has with the study group; it's hard to imagine Community and/or Greendale working without her. Jacobs took time out of her lunch break to talk with Movieline about tonight's Halloween episode, the problem with worrying about TV scheduling and the truth about the friendliness of the Community cast.

Thanks so much for calling me on your lunch break. What are you guys shooting today?

We're doing 210 today. Without spoiling what happens, there are conspiracy theories involved.

Like the conspiracy that upset Troy earlier this season: That go-gurt is just yogurt?

(Laughs) It's a slightly bigger scandal, but sort of in the same Greendale world of utter absurdity and low stakes, ultimately.

As an actress, do you enjoy when Community veers toward the more absurd, like in the Apollo 13 episode?

I definitely enjoy it. I have to confess that I don't always get the references myself, so sometimes I have to quietly ask someone on set what we're referencing. But I think people watching the episode bring their own favorite movie or TV memories to what we're doing. So sometimes they're like, "Oh yeah it was a reference to that!" And it wasn't consciously, but maybe it was passed unconsciously through our collective memory of scenes and tropes.

How did you prepare for the Apollo 13 episode? Did you just stock your Netflix queue with space movies?

We definitely did a group viewing of Apollo 13, which was a lot of fun. And I had recently seen The Right Stuff on my own time, so that movie was fresh in my head.

Are you guys planning on any other parody episodes like that this year? I assume the Halloween episode will be rife with references.

That will be a big episode. I think we're definitely taking Halloween to a different level this year. That was a lot of fun to film, too. It's a great episode for everyone in the cast. I think our fans are going to enjoy it.

What will Britta dress as this year? Last year she was a chipmunk...

I was a squirrel.

Right, a squirrel.

I was a squirrel! (Laughs) Slight difference, but these distinctions are important to me. That was my idea and this year was my idea as well. I'm two-for-two, which I'm very proud of.

One of the things I enjoy most about Community is the fast-paced, His Girl Friday-like banter. Is that very hard for you guys to perfect?

Oh, definitely. Some of the sentences are so structurally complex that sometimes it takes us a while -- you feel like your mouth is made out of mush at a certain point. You can't get the sentence out. God bless, Joel, because he has the highest percentage of them. But we've all had them, we're it's like, "Oh my lord, will we ever get this right." I definitely feel like the writing is smarter than I am, though, so I have to speed my brain up to keep pace.

People love the show, it gets great reviews and a lot of press online, yet the ratings aren't very good. Why do you think that is?

I think that, you know -- we don't have 100% awareness in the United States of America, but the people who do know about it are ardent fans of the show. So the audience is smaller, but very devoted. I hope they continue to tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends. I think once people give the show a chance, they become fans of it. They just aren't aware when we're on.

Our DVD sales have been really strong for season one -- they blew away everyone's expectations. So I think we have an audience out there. But I don't know that our audience watches TV live. When you factor in DVR and Hulu or NBC.com, our numbers shoot up. We do have viewership, just not perhaps live at 8 o'clock.

It does seem like more and more shows are headed to that niche direction.

I was at a coffee shop earlier in the year and the barista said, "Oh, I love your show." And it was Thursday and we had a new episode on that night, so I said, "Oh great, we have a new episode on that night." And she was like, "I don't even know what night my favorite shows are on." Just like zero awareness of TV scheduling. Things that TV executives build their careers on are just totally irrelevant to a whole new generation of TV viewers. That flies completely in the face of all the hard work that executives do to come up with nice programming. And if you think about it -- I don't know that I would be home at 8 o'clock in front of the TV. It's a hard hour and we don't have any lead-in. We haven't ever been able to piggyback off a show. When we did last season -- we were after The Office for our first few episodes -- our numbers were great. 8 o'clock is a very hard hour.

Toward the end of season one and now here in season two, Britta has really lightened up a bit -- moved away from just being "the girl" as it were. Is that something you pushed for?

I've never asked for anything of Dan Harmon and the writers; I never had a request and I was always happy with what they've given me. But I think during the family day episode when I got whooped by Troy's grandmother with the stick and the April Fools' episode when I tried to save a frog and ended up throwing a dead body out the window -- I think people finally started to clue into Britta. She won't back down, and her need to be right, and to be not be considered a hypocrite, will lead her to get spanked with a stick or throw a dead body out of the window. That's her. They've labeled her the buzz kill and when she tries to fight against it, she confirms it ten-fold.

I also think we've developed a great dynamic between Jeff and Britta as co-conspirators. They are both ego-maniacs, so they are both willing to go to the maximum, even if it's something that should be beneath them. You saw that in the season premiere: We were pitted against each other and neither of us wanted to back down. The grossest kissing ever on television.

It's funny you say that: I think the chemistry between Jeff and Britta has gotten much better now that they aren't positioned as possible lovers.

That happens with you as actors -- just getting to know each other and being more comfortable with each other. I think back to the pilot -- I think back to when we got into a group fight in the pilot, we didn't know what we could do as a group. Now, we can do that in our sleep. It's the same thing with me and Joel. You read a script and you understand intellectually, "Well, now Jeff and Britta banter," but a year and a half in, it means something completely different to us as actors, especially with the shared history together. It's fun to watch the evolution of that chemistry. I've also enjoyed the unconventional romance of this show because it hues closer to real life than other TV relationships. You definitely have people you're interested in, but don't want to date them -- or you rejected the person and now they're going to reject you -- and we've gone through the various stages.

I love the way Britta and Annie's relationship has developed this season, too.

It's really interesting, because you have two girls on the show who are trying to figure out who they are and who have different methods of approaching that. Britta has a lot of opinions about how people should be and how they should conduct themselves. Especially how women should conduct themselves. And Annie is trying to figure out what it means to be an adult woman and someone who has male interest. It's really fun to see that kind of conflict between two women. I can't think of many shows that do that -- you sort of have it on 30 Rock with Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski. You have a friend where you're like, "Why do you do that?" "You're so uptight!" Those scenes are really fun to me.

You get the sense watching Community that you guys are all totally best friends. Is that just a clever ruse?

(Laughs) We all enjoy each other very much. We shot until 6 a.m. on Saturday and I was telling my friend that this morning on the way to work and she was like, "Did people get grumpy?" No one gets grumpy! We go through stages of being bone-dead tired, but then supremely silly. We keep each other going. I got here today and I haven't been working for a couple of hours, but I was hanging out with Danny Pudi in his trailer singing along and jumping around. We actually do enjoy each other's company.

What were you listening to?

Some Polish music, New Order, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.

Very eclectic.

(Laughs) We ran the gamut.