Ari Graynor: With acting, I started as a kid and it was my safe space...

I think the world of comedy is a relatively small community, and especially for women in comedy, there just aren't that many people involved.

Ari Graynor

community people thinking

There's pressure to come up with something genius every time. I feel like I keep letting myself down with my Twitter posts. I have to start keeping a journal of rough drafts of prophetic ideas about the world.

Ari Graynor

rough-drafts pressure ideas

The only thing that I'm not willing to do is really stupid, horribly written sitcoms. It can be tempting during pilot season time, but I realized this a while ago when I almost signed my life away to a stupid pilot.

Ari Graynor

i-realized pilots stupid

When you're an actor, people talk a lot about how, at some point, you really have to take control of your career and what you want to do and create your own content. But for me it came from a really natural place of wanting to feel like what you're putting in the world has some meaning for you.

Ari Graynor

natural people world

Regardless of what kind of film, the number one rule of comedy is to never take yourself too seriously and then the next rule is you can't have any self-consciousness, otherwise it kills the laugh, and that will never change.

Ari Graynor

self numbers laughing

I would love to be in 'Downton Abbey.' That's the thing I thing many people would have a good laugh with me saying anything like that. I feel like that's the next phase of my career. To reprove to everyone that I can do things besides the crazy characters.

Ari Graynor

crazy careers character

I was more of the kind of babysitter that liked holding the baby, sort of playing Mom, and then putting the baby to bed and watching TV while eating everything in their kitchen.

Ari Graynor

kitchen mom baby

I think casting a show is an art form in and of itself. We're all so different - the cast is made up partly of real stand-ups, partly of actors, and then partly of just legendary actors.

Ari Graynor

real art thinking

I was a precocious only child, and then I went through a fat, awkward stage for several years, so I learned to fall back on my humor and personality when I was growing up. It's how you survive, so I think it was more of a natural progression for me, developing into comedy.

Ari Graynor

growing-up children fall

I did babysit a little bit when I was young. I prefer babysitting for babies. I always loved babies. I was not as great with kids that wanted to be entertained and that wanted to talk.

Ari Graynor

littles baby kids

Twitter's a lot of work! That's the first thing I would say. There's so much pressure to be funny.

Ari Graynor

pressure firsts

In stand up every joke is thought about so meticulously, and one word can completely change how the audience responds. You're up there with no safety net; you can't shirk responsibility. It's your thoughts; it's your voice. You can't blame it on the writing, you can't blame it on the editor. You are just up there completely naked.

Ari Graynor

safety responsibility writing

Working with David Gordon Green, and Jonah Hill, and Michael Cera, and Drew Barrymore, and all of those people - those are the best people in comedy to work with. Anna Faris. You know, that's my goal, to keep learning and to just keep working with the best people I can. And yeah, we do all hang out, and we all kind of know each other.

Ari Graynor

green goal people

What I love about our show is that it's so nuanced and feels very real to me. I think how it explores creativity in general is very real.

Ari Graynor

creativity real thinking

Stand-up comedy is still a very male-dominated world. You look at a set list and maybe there's one woman on there.

Ari Graynor

comedy world

I don't think there's anything more scary than being forced into doing stand-up comedy.

Ari Graynor

comedy scary thinking

Most people, no matter what they do, they don't think they're a bad person. The place where their actions are coming from is a complicated place and a whole personal history. I definitely think that it helped me to look at the world a little less judgmentally.

Ari Graynor

people world thinking

Babies are born whole and then they go through experiences in life that chip away at some of that, and it becomes learned behavior.

Ari Graynor

behavior baby

As I've grown as a person and gotten to know myself more - the question of how someone becomes who they become has gotten really interesting to me.

Ari Graynor

really-interesting interesting

Once you do something that people respond to, they understandably think of you in that way, and you want to work and it's fun and it's wonderful. I think a lot of people in all different fields find themselves in a moment of repeating certain beats. There's also a moment that is personally related to age as well - in whatever field you're in, you say, "Wait a minute, where am I and how did I get here? How has this changed from my original intent and what do I want to do about that now?" That's part of the process.

Ari Graynor

fun people thinking

With acting, I started as a kid and it was my safe space and the place where I felt the most free to be all of myself. What gets explored in our show is where that instinct starts and where it meets with career, and how that can change your path a bit.