Since “Community” began, Gillian Jacobs has started getting roles in movie comedies, usually memorable scenes in the likes of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. She has the female lead in Bad Milo, in which Ken Marino plays her husband who discovers a demon living in his colon. We saw the film at SXSW where it was playing under the title Milo. Now that it’s Bad Milo, it is available on VOD and iTunes and we got to talk with Jacobs about her comedy, the upcoming season of “Community” and her future movie roles.
CraveOnline: First of all, thank you for the pizza dance.
Gillian Jacobs: Oh, you’re welcome. My pleasure. Thank you to Chris McKenna, Megan Ganz and Dan Harmon for writing it.
Do you get enough gratitude for that?
I feel like I do. I feel like the internet has embraced the pizza dance. I feel appreciated for once in my life.
So I saw this at SXSW when it was still called Milo.
I know, before we added the Bad for easier finding on DirecTV.
Oh, that’s right, because you want a title early in the alphabet.
Oh, Milo. Oh, bad Milo.
They couldn’t think of an A word? Anal Milo would actually work.
Amazing Milo.
That is much better. How understanding is Sarah of Duncan’s condition?
Pretty understanding. I mean, she’s got the earplugs and the sleeping pills going so I feel like this is something she’s been dealing with for a while. I think when you’re in a relationship, either you have something or your partner generally has something that you’re having to deal with. Hopefully you’re compassionate and understanding but it’s one thing to think that your husband has IBS and it’s another thing to realize that he’s got a killer demon up his butt. That’s probably a little harder to come to terms with.
What was your first reaction when you saw the Milo puppet?
Amazed, because you know this was not a big budget film so you really hope that they have the money to pull off the central character to the film, the linchpin of the entire thing, so I think that they did a remarkable job. He really is adorable and then terrifying and a little gross, but also kind of cuddly. They did an amazing job.
Was that in preproduction?
No, I saw him on the set. I think maybe we saw a rendering, a drawing or an idea, but a lot can go wrong from a drawing to a practical puppet so it was amazing to see what they managed to do.
You’ve been getting a lot of funny movie offers for a scene or two here and there. Do you get offered many leads?
You know, I did a lead in a film called Life Partners with Leighton Meester that we shot earlier in the year. Sometimes movies that I’m in that I have a leading role don’t necessarily get the biggest release, so it’s a difficult thing between balancing indies that have uncertain futures and maybe larger films that have guaranteed releases that you have a smaller part in. I also played a bunch of leads in indies before “Community” that I don’t know if people have necessarily seen, but I have played the leads in films, I guarantee you that.
Some of them come out with a big picture of your face on the cover, right?
Yes, that is available for like 60 cents at Wal-Mart. I get tweets of that all the time, Gardens of the Night.
Is that a film you’re proud of?
I am proud of that film. I really am proud of that film. It’s a very dark, serious, sometimes depressing film but it is actually a movie that I’m proud of and that people really seem to respond to and it moves them. I wish that it had gotten a bigger release when it came out because I really do feel like it’s a good film.
I should see that then. Where does your personal sense of humor lie between the sort of intellectual and absurd of “Community” and the very raunchy of Bad Milo?
I think I like both. For me, I really love “Tim and Eric” and “Dr. Steve Brule” and a lot of the Adult Swim shows, so I like strange, weird, sometimes slightly upsetting humor. And then who doesn’t love a good fart joke? But I think Dan Harmon loves fart jokes perhaps more than anyone. The name of his Tumblr is Dan Harmon Poops, so I think there’s room for all of it. If it’s funny, I like it.
