Eliza Coupe Talks "Wrecked" Return

[JamesG]

Eliza Coupe Talks "Wrecked" Return
by Derek Lawrence
8/2/16






TBS’ "Wrecked" has spent its first season spoofing "Lost" with its survivors facing eerily similar incidents to the beloved ABC drama, and that trend will continue in Tuesday’s two-part finale.

The first episode will see the return of Eliza Coupe’s Rosa, who appeared in a brief-but-memorable cameo in the premiere as Owen’s (Zach Cregger) fellow flight attendant. In the clip above, Owen and Rosa are reunited, and she reveals she has been living on the other side of the island with some “friends.”







Was it always part of the plan to have you come back after having just the one scene in the pilot?

I think so, because I went down to Puerto Rico to shoot the pilot when they did pick-ups and they added me in. Then they were like, “Okay, we’ll see you in six weeks when we shoot the finale.”

And then they secretly gave me the script, and I was like, “Oh, wow, okay.”







Considering you’ve starred in your own shows, what’s the mindset when you show up to do just one scene in a pilot?

I’ve known Jordan and Justin Shipley [Wrecked creators] because there was this night of one-act plays where you do readings of plays. I did it with Will Greenberg — he directed it, and the Shipleys wrote it, and I did it with Michael Showalter and a few people — and so I knew them and knew their writing and also Thom Hinkle, who is at TBS.

I’ve known all these people that are involved with this project, and I’ve known Zach Cregger forever, literally since Zach and I were performing our live shows in New York together. So I knew everybody, which was great going into it, and that’s not always the case.



I’ve been guest-starring on every frickin’ show on television these days, and I haven’t known everybody going into it. So when they asked me to do it I was like, “I’ll do anything for the Shipleys.” Like seriously, I’ll give my firstborn. I just love those two. They are just such great guys, so when I went down there, I have to say that was the one that was the most fun because there were no egos.

Sometimes you go on these sets, and there are these established kind of egotistical… there are some *******s out there. Actors are rough. So it was really great to go on a set where everybody was very welcoming, really fun, and it was just cool. It was like going to summer camp.







"Wrecked" is clearly a bit of a spoof on "Lost"; were you a fan of that series?

I never saw one episode of "Lost", so there’s that.







Interesting, because there is definitely a specific character that yours seems to be based on.

Oh is it? Maybe I should have known that. I do my own thing, you’ll see. What’s the character that I’m supposedly like?







Rousseau, this French woman who had been stuck on the island by herself for like 15 years.

I guess they did kind of tell me that [laughs].







Rosa has gone a little nuts, and in the episode you’re doing a lot of talking to random objects like a cocunut and luggage. How much improv went on there?

There was a lot. I have to say the Shipleys, they write as if it’s improv. A lot of the times, I think also because I’m a writer, I read things, and I’m like, “Oh, well that would sound better if I said it this way.”

When I read the Shipleys’ stuff I don’t do that. I would read it and be like, “Oh, they wrote it exactly how I would want to change it if it were written another way.” So I didn’t feel like I needed to do that; we just got to play. So we then got to play off the brilliant stuff that they wrote, so there was a lot of improv.

When I’m talking to all the inanimate objects, they wanted me to do a lot more, and so I just did kind of whatever I wanted to do.







What was it like acting opposite these inanimate objects?

Oh my god, that’s like my dream. I used to have a one-person show where it was just me. I always wanted to be an only child and I have two brothers, so this was like the greatest.

I got to be just me, the center of attention — that’s an actor’s dream. Narcissist or actor, I don’t know. I think they’re interchangeable.








Did you have a favorite scene partner of those objects?

Javier and I, we got really close because they didn’t put this in the scene but there was this hot guy that came in — his name is Reed Favreau, he’s a male model. And they did this dream sequence of what I thought I was seeing instead of a tree stump, and so like this male model comes in, really great guy actually, and they just didn’t use that, it was probably just funnier that I didn’t have that.

I guess that makes more sense as far as story goes, that I would just go f—ing nuts and didn’t see any real person in my imagination, but I had to be making out with a tree stump, so when we finally flash to like, “Oh, that’s just a dream,” it cuts to instead of making out with a guy, I’m literally making out with a tree stump.

And I got in there. I probably have zika in my mouth.







What happens to Rosa is left open-ended. Do you think we’ll see her again?

I do. Actually when they got picked up I asked them, I said, “Guys, I think I need to come back.” And they’re like, “Cool if you want to come back, we’re going to have you come back.”

I don’t know how many episodes, but word on the street is that I’m coming back.







You might have time to catch up on "Lost".

I know, but I kind of think it’s funnier that I don’t know anything about it.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/02...ndings-wrecked