The second Bravo scripted series is going to be a huge hit!
Bravo celebrated the premiere of its new scripted comedy series, Odd Mom Out, with a special screening with the series cast and producers. The show will premiere on Monday, June 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The 10 episode half-hour comedy stars acclaimed author Jill Kargman playing a satirical version of herself as she navigates the treacherous and elite ecosystem of New York’s Upper East Side, and the uber-wealthy mommy clique inhabiting this fantastically outrageous domain. A New Yorker through and through, Jill Weber (Kargman) embraces her quirky and somewhat unconventional life with her loving husband, Andy (Andy Buckley, The Office) and three great kids. Jill’s frenemies and in-laws only fuel the pressure for her to conform, including the status-obsessed family matriarch, Candace (Joanna Cassidy, Six Feet Under), brother-in-law Lex (Sean Kleier, Madam Secretary) and his wife, Brooke (Abby Elliott, Saturday Night Live), who reigns over a group of quintessential Upper East Side mombots with an iron credit card. TheKnockturnal was on the red carpet. Read our exclusive interviews below:
K.K. Glick
Tell me a little bit about your character.
So I play Vanessa. She is a doctor, Dr. Vanessa Wrigley. She is Jill’s best friend. They went to college together so they really have that thick, thick, sister-like bond that grows when you go to college together. She is a recent divorcee who is quite snarky, she is a doctor, she is very, very intelligent, and she just came out of a divorce so she is a touch bitter and she is trying to figure out what is in her future. And she completely couldn’t care less about this blond, bodacious, affluent world of the Upper East Side. And she does not like that they hurt Jill’s feelings and that they are not nice to her and so she is very defensive about it.
And how was working with the cast like for you?
It was amazing. I met Jill at the callback and we totally clicked from there. And the callback there was no material to compare, we just improv’d and it was amazing. Callbacks can be brutal but this one was just wonderful because we just totally played off each other. And then our relationship grew from there and a lot of people—when we started shooting—a lot of people asked, ‘Did you guys grow up together?’ and it was like, ‘No, we had only met just a year or so prior.’ It was wonderful.
Did you have any bonding trips or anything like that then?
A: No, no trust falls or retreats but we had spent a lot of time together socially. We would hang out and we got to know each other very well. But even at the first table read Abby and I clicked right away; we both come from an improve background. Same with Sean with the same level in our career. And then sweet Andy Buckley, who is amazing, reached out to me when he got the part – and I was apprehensive, it was my first series regular role so it was so sweet to get an email from David Wallace from The Office. And he is so kind.
And you said you had an improv background. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, I was theatre major and then I graduated and then I just knew that the UCB is where I needed to be for comedy and improv. And so I can’t say I’m the best improviser in the world but I tried and tried and tried. I was never on the Harold Team but I would take tons of classes; years and years of classes. I would finish 401 and then go back to 101 because I was like, ‘Ehhhh, I don’t think I have it down yet.’
And so do you relate to your character at all? Do you have any things in common with your character?
I relate to her a lot. Maybe in my early 20’s I was more worried about status and having a certain bag and this and that. But now I really just want to be in bed by 10 and watch Naked and Afraid. That’s like my priority. But, I also wish I was more like Vanessa. She is so calm and cool under pressure. She is an ER doctor and a huge hypochondriac playing an ER doctor is very comforting because I could never do what she does. I hope she rubs off on me.
What are you most excited for once this show airs?
I don’t have the words to really describe just how giving and generous and ridiculously funny and joyful Jill is even when you’re like going to pee together or eating chips on a 10 minute break and I think the show really hits you over the head with how fun Jill Kargman is. And how brilliant a writer she and Elisa and Julie are.
What were some of your favorite moments while shooting?
Well, I had my first intimate scene, that’s what I’ll say. So that was a growing experience. And then there’s one episode, I’ll say episode 3, which is my favorite scene to shoot with Jill because we are literally getting looks from our dear, dear cameramen because we could not stop laughing. And that happened a lot. And any diner scene felt like that was our soft spot.
Sean Kleier
Can you tell me about the character that you play?
I play Lex. He is a super elitist Upper East Side financier and he has just made $650 million because he is the guy who brought bagels to China. That was a significant chunk to him but it was not like he was broke before. He is a very established white collar gentleman.
And is there anything you could relate to with your character?
Considering the story I just gave you, not much. Not much. A very magnanimous, very friendly guy but at the same time has no idea how he comes across. He is very self-centered, very entitled and I think there are definitely components of that in all of us, myself in particular – I think I am saying all of us to presume everybody is as self-centered as I am. But I think there are elements that are in me that are extended into that character.
And your character seems like such a fun character to play. So what can we expect from your character moving forward?
He gets more and more outrageous. He gets less and less self-aware as the season goes on. He never starts to make sense at any point. He just comes in and screws everything up for everybody else and that was so fun to play.
That sounds like a lot of fun. And so how was it like filming with the cast of the show?
This was my first series regular and you always hear horror stories about how there is fighting, and struggling, and conflict and I was nervous going in only to find out that everybody was so kind and so giving on set and they just wanted to make it a great experience for everybody so I feel so exceptionally blessed because that is not the norm for everybody and that’s exactly how that was.
Is there anyone on the cast that you really vibed well with?
I have a huge man crush on Andy Buckley. Andy Buckley – I grew up watching him play David Wallace on The Office,—in high school I was watching him play David Wallace on The Office. Now I play his brother and whenever he calls me and leaves me a voicemail I play it for all my friends and I’m like, ‘That’s David Wallace from ‘The Office’! So yeah, he’s definitely my man crush.
And so what are you most excited for when this show airs?
I was saying that I don’t want to give a false cliffhanger but the 10th episode is so outrageous and things go so far off the wall that everybody—like hang on because everything is going to get better and better as the season goes on. And in the last episode I get to have this blowout fight and it is so much fun.
And since this is a comedy series, do you have any background in comedy?
I did standup, and improv, and sketch all entirely when I moved to the city. I wasn’t even an actor for the first four years; I had no idea that I would be doing this. So yeah, that’s my whole background.
What were some of your favorite moments in shooting this series?
When I get to wrestle with Mr. Buckley. We fight each other a little bit, maybe, maybe. There were scenes where Brooke gives birth to the diet coke can baby that she has inside of her. And just the clips that I have seen are just so amazing and all of the stories that everybody were telling on set, I’m just really excited to see that.
Joanna Cassidy
Can you tell me a little bit about your character?
She is a woman that has had to make her way in the world. If I had to write a story about Candice Weber I would say she probably was a singer in a bar one time and she knew she wanted the big life and she probably disguised herself and made herself into the person she imagined herself to be. You always become what you’re thinking. You can make yourself do anything. So, that’s sort of what I did. I was a little country girl and now I’m here in the film business. And it’s out of this world. And I think that’s what she did. She aspired to be a great lady and she is. She has a son who sold a company for $600 million and her other son is just fabulous; he has a great wife and three children. They’re all moving along. Everything is happening and we are all planning our future and having grandchildren.
And this whole series is sort of a dysfunctional comedy based off around Jill and her character. Can you talk about your character’s role in that and her relationship with Jill’s character?
We are combative. We are two alpha females that want it this way. We see a path and walk down it.
And how was it like working with the actors?
Are you kidding? Couldn’t be happier. Everybody in the cast is super spectacular. Funny as hell. Hard to get through the scenes sometimes because laughter would just overtake us. I think it’s going to be great.
Anybody from the cast that you just vibed the best with?
A: I actually really vibed with everybody. Everybody.
What were some of your favorite moments in shooting this series?
Well, first of all, I am from California and never in my career have I spent big chunks of time in New York so that was like super spectacular for me. Getting around, going to plays, seeing the sites. Everything in the world is happening here. People in California don’t walk except in the parks. They don’t walk on the streets, I have never seen that. So the atmosphere of all of that was really terrific and I just – every moment was alive every time I got with the cast.
Andy Buckley
So tell me about the character that you play.
He’s just a regular – trying to be a good guy husband. Not so dynamic, not so exciting but he loves his kids and he loves his wife.
And so your character is Jill’s husband?
Yes, I am Jill’s husband. I am an attorney, I make a nice amount of money relevant to the rest of the world, but not in our world because I’m more like the poppers in our world because I am surrounded by huge – whether it’s hedge fund money or old family money or whatever money.
So what can you tell me about your dynamic with Jill on camera?
She’s just a lot of fun, she’s great, and we’re great buddies. We hit it off pretty instantly when we first met and just ever since. And she’s married, I’m married, we have kids, we have the same, ‘What do we do with the kids?’ just all the same issues that parents and spouses have like never having enough time with your wife or whatever it is. And she is just so darn funny and she is as smart as can possibly be.
What were some of your favorite moments while shooting the series?
I guess there’s a ton of them. It’s really funny and most of my stuff is with Jill but Abby Elliot is funny as hell, and just being around Sean and Joanna, you’re around funny, funny people. And we have some funny scenes like there is one episode where we are trying some new sexual things and that was a very funny, fun episode. Some crazy dinner episode that was a hoot. I guess the most fun was the one where we were trying out all these new sexual things.
Abby Elliot
What can you tell me about your character?
I play Brooke who is Jill’s sister in law who is the quintessential momzilla on the Upper East Side. And she leads this pack of blond ladies with children that they never see.
And what did you like about your character? Is there anything that you related with your character?
I didn’t really relate to her directly. I think I just tried to remember that she is a human being and that she is extremely insecure even though she doesn’t show it at all. And so I tried to find that in her.
Jill Kargman
Since this show is a satirical look into your life, what can you tell me about your experience with putting your life on screen?
It’s been really fun. It’s sort of a hyperbolized version, it’s very extreme. But I do live in this little petri dish so it’s fun to satirize it in a way. But ultimately it’s a love letter to New York in the end so I don’t think it would upset anyone or at all violating because I didn’t betray anything.
And the cast is so great so what was it like working with all of them?
It was such a gift. And I am new to this business and to have people around me who are veterans and geniuses and from comic dynasties and it was really humbling and honoring and I learned so much every day.
And who did you really connect with the most?
Well, K.K. because she plays my best friend in the show but she was the only one who returned from the pilot; we had filmed the pilot a year before that so we became instant dear, dear friends and we spend a lot of time together. And I spend more time with her than anybody else but I love everybody the same.
What were some of your favorite moments in filming?
I would say filming in front of my childhood building on 66th and Madison above Fred Leighton was really surreal because no one knew in the locations department that I grew up there and they had secured the spot on Madison right by Oscar de la Renta and I said, ‘I grew up in that building right there!’ And so there is a shot of me that was very weird and amazingly surreal and emotional.
-Vinesh Vora
