If you haven’t been watching ABC’s Wednesday night comedy Super Fun Night, you’re definitely missing out! The show, about a gang of three gals whose M.O. is to have epic Friday fun nights, boasts some really great funny people, including talented Canadian actress Lauren Ash! Lauren, who plays Marika, one-third of the trio (along with creator/star Rebel Wilson and Liza Lapira), easily steals every scene with her endearing straightforwardness and excellent comedic timing. TVOvermind had the chance to chat with Lauren about the last two episodes of the season, particularly about some major things happening with Marika that will most likely answer questions YOU asked about! Read on to see what she had to say:
TVOvermind: Congrats on such an amazing show! How did you get involved with it?
Lauren Ash: What a journey that was! I originally auditioned for it January of 2012 when it was with another network. I almost got the pilot then didn’t and almost then didn’t; they made that pilot. Then ABC decided they wanted to make their own pilot version, so then I got another call and I came down and I auditioned for it a bunch of more times. It was over a year before I got the show, I was on the show and it was happening, so it was quite a Hollywood story for sure.
TVO: There’s only two more episodes left this season. What can we expect from the remainder? Are there any big surprises in store?
Lauren: Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about these last two episodes; I’m so excited for everyone to see them. Marika, really… we’re going to get to see an amazing end to her season one storyline arc. There’s a lot in store in these last two episodes for all the characters, but for Marika especially. She definitely gets to go on a journey that I think a lot of people have been waiting for over the course of the season. A lot of fans reach out to me and message me about it and it’s finally happening. We’re going to get to see her make some discoveries about herself and with the help of some characters that you would not necessarily expect. We get to see she and Kendall share some time that helps her figure out who she is and what her next steps in her life journey are, so it’s very exciting. I just can’t wait – especially this next one – I just can’t wait for people to see it. I think it’s going to blow some peoples’ minds!
TVO: Marika agreed to go on what she thought was a date with Ruby. What was going on with her in terms of her feelings towards him? Do you think she actually liked him in a romantic sense?
Lauren: I don’t think she did. I’ve been approaching the character from a place remembering that the three girls have been so sheltered. They literally have just been hanging out with each other for the ten years since high school and romance never was a priority for any of them. Kimmie just lost her virginity; Helen-Alice, I think it took fourteen episodes of knowing Benji before she finally kissed him for the first time – all of these girls have stunted relationship growth. They’re kind of in a prolonged adolescence almost. So when that happened when Ruby asked her out, I think she was just stoked that someone asked her on a date. I think she was flattered because that’s never really happened to her before. I don’t know whether she really thought about it that hard or really looked at it from a place of, “Oh, maybe this is someone I could date.” I think it was more that she was just like, “Oh my gosh you guys, I got asked out on a date! Like, isn’t this cool?” which I love. But then she turns to being the advice guru for Helen-Alice being like, “You gotta ask Benji out, man.” I love that she gets asked out on one date and then becomes the dating expert, which I thought was pretty funny.
TVO: So there’s a big scene in the next episode – can you tell us a little bit about how that scene comes about?
Lauren: There’s a couple of big scenes in this next episode for sure. As I said, we get to see Marika really make some big discoveries and the fact Kendall is going to the one to play a hand in that is just so funny and awesome – I think people are just going to lose their minds. I keep telling people, “Just wait for this next episode around the â…” mark, I think Twitter is going to explode. I think people are just going to lose their minds about it. I can’t give it all away, but it’s so great. And I think it’s so awesome to get to see Marika get to have some real moments – HUGE moments – within her life and her story. Fans have definitely been reaching out to me; they really want that. It’s gonna be really great – I can’t wait for everyone to see it.
TVO: How much of an impact do the fans have on the show?
Lauren: I think the Marika storyline has been in the works since the beginning. I think that Rebel had this idea from the beginning-type thing, so definitely it was going to happen either way. I will say, the outpouring of positivity from people about Marika never ceases to amaze me. People just love her and always reach out to me, which is so lovely. But the way the messages have been coming, I think people are REALLY ready for Marika to get a love interest or have that part of her journey explored on the show. That’s been happening for a while now. It’s like, “Ugh! When’s it going to be Marika’s turn?! Kimmie has this thing with James, Helen-Alice and Benji are kind of exploring things – when is it going to be Marika’s turn?” And the good news is we don’t have to wait much longer for Marika to get a turn, getting to figure out those things for herself. I think, if anything, the fans are going to be happy that it’s finally happening.
TVO: You ladies have had some pretty awesome ‘Friday fun nights’ on the show. Which one of the nights is most like a typical night you’ve experienced?
Lauren: Oh boy! Honestly, I can relate to a lot of them. I think in some ways I can relate to a lot of the different storylines that have happened. Obviously like the “Mirna, Princess Warrior” episode that I had… while you didn’t get dressed up in costume, I did attend an X-Files convention in real life, so that’s definitely something I can relate to there. Going out with the intention of trying to go to a hot club and not getting in – I’ve been there. Going out on a weird group date – I’ve been there. I just feel like there’s so many things that are so relatable, even though they can seem ridiculous or whatever in the context of the show. I feel like so much of that can be tied to real life. The other thing is, is the episode where Kendall hits rock bottom and ends up spending time with Helen-Alice and Marika in the apartment; I just think that that is so relatable too. My old roommate and I used to have one of these girlfriends that was always coming over and just always upset about something, there was always a disaster, she hit rock bottom for some reason, and we used to always have couch time with bags of chocolate chips. I feel like I can really relate to that and to a lot of the stuff these guys get up to because the reality is that a lot of people are just really awkward and I think even really confident people still have had times in their lives where they’ve been socially awkward or uncomfortable or said something silly or felt weird. I think we just tap into that every week. For someone like myself who is hugely awkward, I feel like I can definitely relate to that, pretty much almost every episode in some way.
TVO: Being on such a funny show, I can only imagine the hijinks behind the scenes. What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened on set?
Lauren: Some of them are deliberate and some of them are not. The piano bar episode, the first episode that aired this season, was during day two of filming and I ripped my pants, like the entire butt out of my pants. I had to pick up Liza [Lapira, who plays Helen-Alice] and it was literally the waist of the pants to the back of the knee. I just ripped them so badly and we didn’t really know anybody or each other yet and I was just like, “This is amazing.” And then we came to the realization and it was like, Wait a minute, we have to film this scene multiple times and if we put on new pair of pants or fix up the pants, we’re just going to rip them again. So I filmed the duration of the bathroom scene in that episode with literally my butt hanging out of my pants – it was pretty amazing and very memorable. But in terms of the hijinks as well, Kevin Bishop [who plays Richard] is one of the funniest people on the planet and he can do an impression of anybody. You see him on the show, he does impressions of famous people in different voices and they’re always spot on. If he talks to you for two minutes, he can do you – he can do an impression of you and it’s always spot on. He’ll do impressions of everybody, of all of us, of people in the crew, and there’s been so many times where he’s made me laugh so hard to the point almost peeing my pants because it’s weird how good he is at it. It’s crazy. Also sometimes we’ve snuck into the Ellen office and used their bathrooms – that’s another thing that’s happened that I don’t think I was supposed to tell anybody. But they’ve got nice bathrooms in there! So that happened a couple of times. (Laughs) But we are always having such a good time. Honestly, I feel so lucky and blessed I’ve gotten to work on such a fun show that you go and have fun every day. You get paid money to go and goof around and make each other laugh. We’ll look at each other and just be like, “We receive currency for this. Like, we actually receive money for what we’re doing right now.” It’s a total dream come true for me. It’s just such a joy – I can’t stress that enough.
TVO: What’s been your favorite episode personally to shoot this season?
Lauren: The Mirna one definitely I really love. I loved the heart in that episode and getting to explore Marika and her loss of innocence in that episode. She just loved Mirna so much and then realizing she wasn’t necessarily who she thought she was, it’s so relatable for so many people who get to meet their heroes. Now that said, Brooke Shields was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met, so she was definitely not like that character at all. But that one was really fun; they’ve all been so much fun! I will say also the episode when Kendall ends up at the apartment with Helen-Alice and Marika… Kate [Jenkinson] just killed me. She ate so much peanut butter while we were filming because she had to do this scene where she was eating peanut butter. She at one point had put so much peanut butter in her mouth that she had actually glued her mouth shut – it actually happened. Not only was it amazing because she was such a trooper but also it was just one of the hardest times I’ve ever laughed on set. It was like, “What are we doing? What is our lives right now?” It’s so ridiculous, it’s so fun, it’s so stupid – I love it.
TVO: Will there be a second season?
Lauren: Oh my gosh, yes! Why wouldn’t there be? There must be! We have to wait to hear, but let’s go people! Let’s get the fan presence going on the Internet right now! I just feel that there’s so much great stuff, so many things we haven’t gotten to yet that would be great to explore in a season two.
Super Fun Night airs Wednesday nights at 9:30PM on ABC.
[Photo via Frederick M. Brown/Stringer]
