Magazines: Malibu Magazine (April-May 2011)

Rashida on the cover of the Malibu Magazine April-May Anniversary edition. Thanks to Jen for sending us the link :)

 

Rashida Jones: A Rare and Delicate Balance
Interviewed by Mike Einziger (guitarist from Incubus) and photographed by Mike Piscitelli

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Rashida Jones is a bona fide movie star. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. When I first met her, Rashida was a bright-eyed Harvard grad having a tough time finding a job, unsure whether she wanted to pursue acting, music, politics or law. But, that was 13 years ago — long before being anointed one of the ‘World’s Most Beautiful People,’ by People magazine, campaigning for Barack Obama, graduating from Harvard or accepting starring roles in The Social Network, I love You Man, The Office and Parks and Recreation.
Rashida and I originally met through her brother, music producer QD3 (he’s worked with Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube and LL Cool J, among others). QD3 was aware of my band, Incubus, and had become a fan of my guitar playing, so he regularly invited me to come up and play on his recording sessions. One day, I walked into his studio and saw Rashida sitting there. QD3 introduced her as his little sister. I was immediately mesmerized and intimidated by her. Rashida was intellectually superior to me in every way, frighteningly talented, the daughter of Quincy Jones and stunningly gorgeous. I’d never even seen a girl like her before let alone worked with one. She was way out of my league, but we quickly became friends. I was completely in awe.
The story of Rashida’s life reads like something out of a Hollywood screenplay. Born to music super-producer Quincy Jones (the man has won 27 Grammys!), and Mod-Squad actress Peggy Lipton, she was raised in the opulent community of Bel-Air, surrounded by many of the world’s most famous and powerful people. But unlike so many celebrity children eager to ride the coattails of their famous parents, Rashida shunned the spotlight and hit the books. And it is that inherent drive, that fierce and unwavering determination that has paved the way for her current wave of success.
But when we sat down at her Los Angeles home to conduct this interview, I only had one thing on my mind:


ME: Do you have any crazy stories about Michael Jackson?


RJ: I remember Michael would take us to the mall to get toys, which was the most exciting thing ever. But he was always wearing a surgical mask, and I was so embarrassed to be seen with him! It just was not cool to be roaming around the mall with a dude wearing a surgical mask. But he was always so sweet to us, and so fun, just like a big kid, — like a really big kid. I feel so horrible for him. I feel so sad for his soul. He came into this world with so much talent, but he just didn’t know how to protect himself. Michael was exceedingly aware of the fact that he didn’t have a childhood, and he wanted to try to create a world in which he could try to make up for everything he had lost. 


ME: So, taking you guys shopping for toys was something he would do to make him feel in touch with his own youth?

RJ: Yes, exactly.


ME: So what were some of the dreams that you carried with you from your childhood into your teen years?

RJ: When I was young, I had all these dreams of being a judge or a lawyer or a politician. I always figured I would somehow end up in the federal system. I always found it exciting to think that you could actually change things in the world. I always had a bit of that precocious, self-righteous dread from the time I was really little. I mean, I would write letters to presidents and magazines, and I would express my frustrations and complain about things.

Rashida certainly did have that self-righteous, precocious, letter-writing personality. In 1992, she famously wrote a scathing open letter to Tupac Shakur in response to comments he had made about her father during an interview for

 The Source magazine. 

Tupac had lashed out at Quincy Jones for having an interracial marriage. Rashida, however, wasn’t having it and openly challenged him — a bold move for anyone, let alone someone so short. 



RJ: I was 15 or 16 when I wrote the letter to Tupac after reading this interview where he was talking about interracial, mixed families and how it was destroying the black community. I was really upset by it, so I wrote an open letter to The Source magazine. I handwrote it, which people did back then (laughter), and I cursed a lot in it, because I could, and I basically confronted Tupac for making a really foul comment about my dad. I basically said he wouldn’t be anywhere if my dad hadn’t paved the way for artists like him. And then he saw my sister (Kidada) out one night and went up to talk to her, thinking she was me.


ME: How’d that go down?

RJ: Funny enough, they started dating. At first, she didn’t tell me because she knew I would be upset. And then soon after that — I was actually with my dad — we ran into them together, believe it or not!



ME: Where else in the world but in L.A. would something like that ever happen?

RJ: I know, I know! But after that, the whole thing just sort of faded, and I ended up really loving Tupac. I ended up interviewing him for a paper that I wrote in college. I did a sociology paper on him. He was such an interesting, confused, complex person … and I feel so lucky that I got a chance to know him. We were clearly intertwined, my family and him; we were clearly supposed to know each other
.

One thing Rashida and I share in common is that we’re both Harvard students. She’s long since graduated, and I have only just finished my second year. Harvard is the most fascinating place I’ve ever been to, and anyone who has gone to school there will tell you it’s a world unto its own. 


ME: So after you finished high school, you went off to Harvard. What did you study there?

RJ: I was originally studying religion and philosophy, and then I dropped the philosophy part because the philosophy department didn’t acknowledge Eastern philosophy the way that I had wanted it to.



ME: Why religion?



RJ: I had come from a diverse religious background. My mom is Jewish, and I grew up practicing Judaism, but she met a meditation teacher when I was 10, and I started going to a meditation ashram every summer from the time I was 10 through age 16. I actually lived in India for a little bit in the ninth grade. I love the ritual of it. The history of it, but it was also hard for me to understand how religions fit into each other and how they didn’t fit into each other and why they didn’t fit into each other.



ME: Do you mean as far as the doctrines and scriptures are concerned?



RJ: Or why the doctrines had to be either right or wrong as compared to everything else. Or why they had to exclude for them to be right. I always loved tradition; I loved ritual, the relationship of an individual with one’s own higher power or higher spirit. That, to me, was always really fascinating. I was less concerned with the political nature of religion. By the time I was in high school, I was going to synagogue, I was singing in a church choir, going to a meditation ashram and going to a Buddhist temple. I just wanted to absorb as much spirituality as I could, and in school I wanted to see if there was a way to make that yearning “academic.” 



ME: I’ve never studied religion in an academic setting. I’m just wondering if you were interested in studying the religions themselves or if you were embarking upon your own personal quest to answer some of your aching questions about the nature of life?



RJ: That’s a good question. I could never say that wasn’t the basis of why I chose it. I definitely wanted to try to answer some questions for myself. Everyone grows up with his or her own traditions, and for me it was Judaism, but it was also this little offshoot of Hinduism. I wanted to know where it came from and why it was considered true to those people. And in an academic setting, you’re more likely to study it that way rather than by attempting to answer any questions for yourself. The philosophy behind the comparative study of religion at Harvard was that there are these two levels: There’s the individualistic experience, and then there’s the ritualistic communal experience, and that’s kind of how they break down those studies.



ME: Yes, music is very much like that as well. There’s the communal part of it, and then there’s the personal side of it, the part you do by yourself. For me that’s a very important distinction to make since the two are so vastly different from one another. One thing that I’ve always had an issue with, as a fellow Jew — and I’m wondering how you feel about it — is the idea of “the chosen people.” I have a hard time reconciling that idea with how I see other races and cultures in this world.



RJ: I hear you. Look at the history of Jews in this world. They have been killed, persecuted, shut down so many times, and yet anti-Semitism is still so alive and well. I think it’s a way of saying, “Listen everyone, there’s a reason for all of this. Keep your head down, we’re going to be fine, we’re going to get through this.” It’s amazing Jews are actually still around. I believe it’s because of how highly they value themselves; they know that they are important, that they need to be here.

ME: Have you been writing any music recently?

RJ: No I haven’t been writing music, but I have been playing piano, which makes me really happy because it’s the best thing for me to do. I’ve definitely been keeping that up, but I haven’t been writing, which makes me kind of sad. I really want to do what you did, just leave everything behind and go back to school.

ME: Can we talk about The Social Network? I didn’t see it until just recently, but I thought it was excellent. I was really amused at how they portrayed Harvard. I was there at school during production, and everyone on campus was really worked up about seeing it. How do you think they did with portraying life at Harvard?



RJ: They did pretty well! When I was a student, I spent a lot of time at final clubs because there aren’t that many choices for socializing. And at Harvard you’re either in a final club, or you’re around a final club, or you don’t do that at all, or you’re in The Pudding, or whatever other thing you’re into. But the film was obviously way sexier and glossier than the real thing. But then again, I don’t really know, because I wasn’t on the Wellesley bus. There were things that guys would always say at Harvard, “Wellesley to wed, BC (Boston College) to bed, and Harvard girls to talk to.” So … I was “talked to.” Nobody shipped me in on a bus and played strip poker with me, so I don’t really know about that, but I’m going to say categorically that it was definitely sexier and cooler than [reality]. But it’s a movie, so it should be.

ME: I’ve definitely seen busloads of girls getting off in front of The Spee (final club). 



RJ: I spent a lot of time at The Spee. I remember in my senior year of college, my roommate was a music concentrator and was friends with Rivers Cuomo [singer of the rock band Weezer]. One day, the three of us were just walking around trying to figure out something to do, and we went by The Spee, and they wouldn’t let us in the front door. It was a weeknight right before graduation, and we just stopped by there to see who was hanging out. It was hilarious because normally there’s nowhere that dude [Rivers] wouldn’t be welcome — except at Harvard. There’s always some place where somebody isn’t welcome (laughter).

ME: I’ve experienced that firsthand. My first weekend at Harvard, I was meeting some of my newfound friends at a party at The Phoenix, which seemed to be one of the more athletic-based clubs, and I couldn’t get past the front door. 


RJ: Yeah, Harvard feeds off of the idea of exclusivity, and that’s why people don’t like it, but that’s also why everyone wants to be there. People are fascinated by it, they resent it, they want it.



ME: This has been brought up to me a million times about The Social Network, but the portrayal of Harvard women in the film was not very positive. In fact, you were pretty much the only female character who wasn’t portrayed as a gold-digging opportunist.



RJ: Yes, I agree with that, but I believe it was done on purpose. David Fincher is a very smart person. Aaron Sorkin is a very smart person. They were crafting a narrative through a very particular set of eyes. And in those sets of eyes, women were treated as prizes.



ME: Well, especially for this group of dork guys who couldn’t get a girl to save their own lives, and then all of a sudden they have all this incredible access in this “rock-star-ish” type of way. I can actually relate to them in a funny way, only girls still won’t talk to me.



RJ: Oh, shut up, Mikey!



ME: Well, now that you’ve achieved all this success, how have you been handling all the pressure? I imagine you must be tired of talking to press people at this point. 



RJ: These past couple weeks I was doing press for a film I did called Monogamy that came out last month, and I’ve never seen such a flagrant disregard for the truth and such a blatant, desperate reach for headlines, for these little sound bites. I was talking to these reporters, and I thought we were kind of mutually waxing philosophical about marriage and relationships and monogamy, and then, it’s like, syndicated headline: “Rashida Jones; I’m never getting married.” which is totally not what I said. I was questioning the institution of marriage in a kind of armchair philosopher sort of way. It’s sort of irritating, but I guess the good news is that people seem to care about what I’m saying.

ME: What else do you have going on?

RJ: I have a couple movies coming out that are slightly different for me: In Our Idiot Brother with Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel and Elizabeth Banks I play a lawyer who’s a lesbian. I mean, I still have that same … reliable, dependable “thing” going on, but character-wise it’s little a bit different. I also co-wrote a movie with a friend of mine. We’ve been trying to make it for like two years, and it finally looks like we’ll be making it soon. We wrote this part for me in it, and it’s going to be really challenging, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that.

ME: Will you have to audition for yourself?



RJ: (Laughter) That would be amazing, right? That would be so meta!

ME: It would be even more amazing if you didn’t get the part.



RJ: I know! That’s happened to friends of mine before. Producers will ask for a “Rashida Jones-type,” and then they go in and audition, and they don’t get the part. They say that’s the trajectory of a career: It starts with “Who’s Rashida Jones?” then it’s “Get me Rashida Jones,” then it’s “Get me a Rashida-Jones-type,” then it’s “Get me a young Rashida Jones,” and then, “Who’s Rashida Jones?”



Suddenly Rashida looks at the clock…



RJ: Mikey I’m so sorry, but I’ve got to get out of here, I’m gonna be late for my shoot.


It had been a while since I’d spent time with Rashida, but despite her explosive career trajectory, she is still that kind and inquisitive little academic I remember meeting back in 1998; campy and demure one moment, gregarious and direct the next. She strikes that rare and delicate balance between being a funny, lighthearted beauty and a hard-nosed intellect. That unique disposition may be threatening to some but to most (and certainly to me), Rashida Jones is a refreshing departure from the vapid talent pool currently clogging the arteries of our cultural consciousness. Rashida makes being smart cool. I suspect that’s what Sorkin and Fincher saw when they brought her into The Social Network and made her the only respectable female character among the cast of alpha males. We need more of that. America, in particular, needs more of that. And I sincerely doubt we’ll ever hear the question, “Who is Rashida Jones?” It seems we need her a lot more than she needs us.

======================================
She's so right about stupid and misleading headlines on some of her recent interviews. But it's e! online y'know? That kind of thing *is* their thing.
Anyway, a good interview. Thanks again to Jen for passing it on to us. Read more...

Interview: KCRW Guest DJ Project (MP3s)

Rashida picked her Top 5 songs for the SoCal-LA radio station KCRW Guest DJ Project. Check out the interview to hear why they're her fave songs and artists. Big thanks to Jen for the link and Ro for the tracks :)

Listen/download the interview here (MP3)
song excerpts only

Tracks (complete)
1. I Can't Help It- Michael Jackson

2. Cant Knock the Hustle- Jay Z (Feat. Mary J. Blige)

3. Morning Bell- Radiohead

4. Boplicity- Miles Davis & Quincy Jones

5. Love Rhino- Sunny Levine

Transcript
Garth Trinidad: This is Garth Trinidad from KCRW and I am here with actress Rashida Jones. She is best known for her roles in the NBC comedy series, “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”. She’s also the daughter of music mogul, the one and only Quincy Jones, so music is in her blood, needless to say. We’re here to talk about songs that have inspired her over the years as part of KCRW’s Guest DJ project. So, Miss Rashida, what have you brought for us today?

Rashida Jones: For you… thank you for having me, by the way. I’m very, very honored to be here. I’m a huge fan of KCRW — and yours, Garth. Well, for one, this Guest DJ project is systematic torture…to pick five songs that you feel like define you, encompass your life, inspire you…it’s just mean. It’s just cruel, is what it is.

GT: But, since we made you do it, I see you’ve picked Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It” as your first choice today.

RJ: I will never fully believe that he’s not on this planet, but he kind of will always be, anyway. It doesn’t really matter.

GT: Why this song?

RJ: I am still sweating, because my choices don’t feel like I could fully encapsulate how I feel about music but, that being said, I could do things like this where I could pick a song by one of my favorite artists, that’s written by another one of my favorite artists - Stevie Wonder - and then produced by my wonderful Dad. So, I got like a triple whammy there.

Song: Michael Jackson — I Can’t Help It

I was really young when they made this record. I was…three? So, it’s deeply ingrained in my brain. It feels as much like breath as breath can feel — this particular album and then this particular song, ‘cause this was always my favorite song from this album.
I remember being in college and rediscovering it. I mean, there’s something that happens to your brain, where all of a sudden, you see something in a different light and in a different way. The complexity of the production and the orchestration, where there’s actual orchestration through the entire song. You have just wonderful levels and dynamism and I just kind of found it anew for myself as I got older, which was really nice.

GT: Michael Jackson with “I Can’t Help It”. Rashida, what’s the next song you’re going to play for us?

RJ: Jay-Z is…I’m sure he would say the same thing, he’s the greatest rapper alive. (laughs)
I can’t say enough things about Jay-Z as an artist, as a wordsmith, and as a brand. I just think what he’s done and what he continues to do and how curious he stays and how open he is to evolving. I’m just always completely impressed by him.

Song: Jay-Z — Can’t Knock the Hustle

He keeps it pretty real and he stays curious and I feel like the musicians that withstand all the tussles and the chaos of music are the ones that stay curious. This album is such an introspective album for him compared to the later ones that, there’s more partying going on. It’s melancholic, and I feel like it’s hard to do that as a rapper and still get people to dance and he manages to do that here.

GT: Jay-Z, “Can’t Knock the Hustle” with Mary J. Rashida Jones is our guest DJ for KCRW’s Guest DJ project.
That was music from Jay-Z. Track’s called “Can’t Knock the Hustle”.
Wow, this is also one of my favorite tunes by Radiohead. I see you’ve brought along “Morning Bell”. What’s up?

RJ: What’s up?? Radiohead…I mean, Jay-Z and Radiohead are the same to me in the sense that there is not one album that I can’t listen to from beginning to end and be totally happy and satisfied and go on my own little journey.
This song creates a mood for me that almost no other song can create, and it’s the kind of thing, when you really are not feeling great, and you’re okay with that, and you just want to get into it — you want to sink as deep as you can and don’t want to talk to anybody and you want to shut the blinds and just feel, you know, just indulge — just indulge in your own sadness. This song really does that for me.

Song: Radiohead — Morning Bell

RJ: It’s just emotion. You know, it just kind of goes through all the levels of emotion. So, if I want to feel something and I’m not feeling something, I will play it. If I’m feeling something already and I want to feel it deeper, I will play it.

GT: That was music from Radiohead. The track is called “Morning Bell” and Rashida Jones is our guest DJ today. You chose a piece from Miles Davis.

RJ: Yeah.

GT: Why did you end up choosing “Boplicity”?

RJ: “Live at Montreux”, which this cut is from — I was there, when I was thirteen or fourteen, and which is also really nice to have been there and have it be recorded forever.
And I took a jazz class my freshman year — this is a really embarrassing story. We had to do a paper and it was about Miles Davis’ solo. I may or may not have gotten drunk for the first time in my life the night before I wrote this paper, and when the teacher gave it back to me, he said, ‘That’s great, but you didn’t write a paper about the trumpet solo. You wrote a paper about the other horn solo that’s on the track.’ I was really embarrassed because I have to hold it down a little bit, generationally, and that was the last time that I would ever treat jazz with anything but my utter respect and full attention.

Song: Miles Davis — Boplicity

GT: Did you get to meet Miles?

RJ: I did. I had one interaction with him. There’s a documentary about my Dad called, “Listen Up” and it was the party for that. I was looking at a piece of art. It was a definitely a pretty serious artist and he walked up next to me and he goes, ‘It’s nice, huh?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s great.’ And that was it. That was enough for me, though.

GT: That’s all you need, right?

RJ: Yeah.

GT: A little bit of Miles goes a long way.

RJ: Yeah.

GT: That was music from Miles Davis — “Boplicity”. Rashida, what’s the next song you’re going to play for us?

RJ: This is not out of bias that I say this, but this is one of my favorite artists, Sonny Levine.
He also happens to be my nephew but, that aside, he’s incredibly talented and this album, “Love Rhino” inspired me a lot. I’ve been writing and I co-wrote a script with a friend, and we actually wrote a movie around this album. It is kind of the perfect breakup album. He really exorcised all his demons. This is the title track from “Love Rhino”.

Song: Sunny Levine — Love Rhino

GT: Do you use music to prepare or assist or inspire your process as an actress?

RJ: On “Parks and Recreation” we do tend to get pumped up in the parking lot. One of us will put on a track and everybody will come and just dance around the person’s trailer, ‘cause you need to keep the energy up. You have these 14 hour days and you need to keep being funny! You know, hopefully keep being funny. It’s more about getting the party started,” so to speak, for comedy.

GT: My darling, Rashida, thanks so much for joining us on KCRW.com today.

RJ: Oh, it’s my pleasure. Are you kidding? This was fun. Anytime!

GT: For a complete track listing and to find these songs online, you can simply go to KCRW: Guest DJ Project.
Read more...

Misc: The Word XIV

Some bits & pieces from around the web...

INTERVIEW (RADIO)
Rashida also did a radio interview on Elliot In The Morning yesterday. Topics included:
-How Parks and Recreation has evolved since season one
-What the set is like working with such talented comedians
-How she joined the show and was 'on hold' with NBC for months beforehand
-and, sneaking in a personal question, how often she visits her boyfriend in Washington D.C. (meaning Jon Favreau)
Link: MP3 of her answering the questions, or not, is here

EVENT/ ACTIVISM
LA social diary site The Daily Truffle says Rashida hosted a Peace Games fundraising Tea yesterday.

Link: TDT: You're Invited!

OTHER WORKS
Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, who are collaborating with Rashida on Frenemy of the State, have an official website. [Link: weirdefilippis.com] They have posted a brief note about the series, the Universal and Imagine deal and how they came to work with her at Oni Press.

...Rashida Jones came to Oni with an idea - "what if Paris Hilton was recruited by the CIA?" To be fair, she was describing a Paris Hilton-esque celebrity, not Paris herself.

Oni put us in touch with Rashida and we all talked about her idea, and together we created FRENEMY OF THE STATE. It's launching as a miniseries from Oni in the spring. The mini is the first of what will likely be many miniseries...
Read the rest here.

RUMORS
eonline.com's Ted Casablanca posted another denial of the Rashida and John Mayer story that came out last weekend. It's from a friend of Mayer's, and Casablanca says they have each had their friends and reps deny the rumor so they probably are just friends. He adds that most of John Mayer's fame, at least in celebrity terms, is really based on the famous women he is always being linked to. Sounds like he's not a fan of his.
Link: Blab Blab Blab

INTERVIEW (Parks and Recreation)
Rashida and Chris Pratt did an interview with BuzzSugar about the show and Ann and Andy's relationship.

• Rashida on the possibility of Ann and Andy getting back together: You know, I don't think it's an impossibility. I think there's still love in Ann's heart for Andy. I think so much would have to change for him to be OK with her. But I don't think it's an impossibility.
• Chris on whether Andy will get a job or home: Yeah, the writers have found a nice way for Andy to get out of the pit and get a job and start sort of working his way up into independence.

• Rashida on whether she likes Ann and Andy better together or apart: I think there's a lot of comedy both ways. I mean, I like this particular paradigm; I think it's really funny, because I just think Chris gets to shine a lot here and do something with something that could potentially seem really kind of cartoony and big which is like him, you know — showing up places and pretending to be casual about seeing me and all that. But he manages to make it kind of realistic and really sweet. So I like this dynamic for now.
• Chris on whether Andy will start dating: I think that Andy's undying devotion toward Ann is one of the only things that sort of redeems him, so I hope not. I hope that he just keeps pining after Ann for 10 seasons to come. That would be the best for me.
• Rashida on what Chris wears when he's naked on the show: They have those really unappealing little dance belts that were uncomfortable for Chris Pratt.
• Chris on the nude scenes: Yeah, let's just say there was a dance belt included and it was uncomfortable. They kind of just are these little things that cover up your junk, but it was almost as if I was wearing nothing at all. Yeah.
• Rashida on the show clicking more in the second season: It just takes time. I think for the actors, for the writers, for the audience, you just need some time to settle into what the characters actually are, and what's funny about their dynamics. And I'm super grateful that people gave us a shot to get there but I definitely think it takes about 10 episodes to even know what anything is, you know? I mean, you watch some early Seinfeld, you watch some early Sex and the City, it's nothing like the show turned out to be; the things that people loved about that show did not exist at the beginning of that show, you know.
• Chris on the same: I've noticed that, as a fan of the show, I've seen it get better and better, and working on it I've noticed the scripts coming down the pipes have gotten better, but it kind of goes back to what Rashida said: it takes time for everybody. And I think it's just a matter of finding the sensibilities to all the characters and starting with Amy, you know; I think a lot of people compared Steve Carell to Ricky Gervais from The Office. But he has a different style of comedy, and maybe they were writing for Steve the way they did for Ricky Gervais. And maybe in the beginning, they were writing for Amy the way that they wrote for Steve Carell, but her comedic sensibility is a little different. Maybe it's not that funny to watch her be uncomfortable the way it is with Steve Carell, but it's so goddamned endearing when she smiles. And you see her and when she's enjoying herself, so is the audience. And you see her doing that a lot more now; kind of just becoming comfortable in who she is, and like the episode with the beauty pageant, she's standing up for women's rights. You're seeing more dimensions of her. And maybe it's always been who they've envisioned her to be, or maybe they're figuring it out, but I sure like Leslie a lot more in the second season. I just enjoy watching her more and I think that's starting to happen with all the characters.
  

Link: BuzzSugar

Read more...

Magazines: Velvet

An interview from the June issue of Velvet, an Italian magazine.
SCANS:

INTERVIEW:

Velvet | People
Rashida Jones
by Manuela Cerri Goren, photos by David Slijper

In the upcoming comedy film of the year, "I Love You Man", she plays the brilliant bride-to-be. With a childhood featuring John Travolta and Michael Jackson, and a passion for food, shopping and civic engagement... meet the latest It-Girl (and daughter of the legendary Quincy).[transl.]

Read the article here (in Italian)

A roughly translated version:
Rashida had a busy morning before the interview; she did some exercising, went shopping and had brunch on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, California, a strip that winds from the freeway to the sea, with a range of shops and restaurants of a decidedly bohemian flavor. The weekend is sacred to her, after a working week where each day is spent between home in the West Hollywood hills and the studio where television series "Parks and Recreation" is filmed. ... Alongside Amy Poehler's character - so enthusiastic, so obtuse - Rashida plays the 'shoulder' she leans on, the intelligent and down to earth one, a young nurse trying to help her fellow citizens and improve the local community. She identifies with her character and thinks there is something very relatable about her. She says "I also believe strongly in social responsibility and there is no better time than this in America to try to participate in positive change."

She has a BA in philosophy and religion, an unusual background for a Hollywood actress, and especially one best-known for her work in comedies. "I love to entertain people and am proud to be part of things that make people laugh," she says. "For actresses of my age, the parts are often limited to being 'the wife', 'the friend', 'the girlfriend'. But I'm not complaining, since the roles that allow an actress to really show her dramatic talents usually arrive when you are older and more experienced. This is why I bypassed the problem by writing (and successfully selling) my own starring role in a film. It is set in New York, my favorite city. Filming there also means I can enjoy my apartment in the West Village."

Born and raised in Los Angeles in a house where dinner with Michael Jackson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar was normal, Rashida says her heroes are her Mom, Dad and Oprah Winfrey. Although she has had famous boyfriends such as DJ and music producer Mark Ronson and actor Tobey Maguire, she values someone who loves their work and family. "We are a close knit bunch," she says of her own family. "My mother taught me to identify and empathize with the feelings of others and my father to make decisions based on love and not fear. My parents are very proud of me; Dad even carries around the latest articles and press clippings about me to show everyone. People think my sister Kidada and I grew up in luxury, but while we did have a wonderful childhood, the focus was on being good people and getting a good education. I must confess that most of the time we preferred to play with our dolls rather than sit in the living room with the 'grown-ups'. The only time we were left speechless was meeting John Travolta. We were both hardcore fans of "Grease" and he was our idol... Even today, when we meet, John continues to tease me for that childhood crush."

An excellent singer and actress (who would not exclude a Broadway musical in the future), she is never without her blue iPod currently loaded with Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Radiohead, punk rock and opera. "Being the daughter of ... one might expect I only listened to R&B or jazz, but I have eclectic taste. For a good time I sometimes go to Little Branch in NY: they have good live music and good cocktails." Some other favorite places downtown: for brunch she likes Dell'Anima, for dinner Momofuku Noodle Bar, and for clothes Mick Margo and Steven Alan, boutiques which sell designer lines from Europe and America that aren't too well-known (or too expensive) such as Alexander Wang, VPL, Rachel Comey and Isabel Marant. If she decides to spend more she likes Stella McCartney and Derek Lam. Often photographed by magazines, Rashida knows her body and its limits (she's only 1.63 meters tall). She appreciates rich fabrics, intricate details and impeccably tailored clothes, evident today in her jeans, Converse All Stars, cashmere sweater and blazer.

"It took me 13 years to get where I am," she confesses. "But that's not to say my career is confined to just film and television. In the future there might be political activism or perhaps a return to school for a Master's degree. I love writing and could attempt more of that. I am also part of the board of an organization called Peace Games that teaches kids tolerance and rejection of violence. I feel a responsibility towards others and therefore, because people know my name and my face, it is my job to use that fame well. "Yes we can," said Obama. It is a great truth. We can all at least try to live by it."
(Posted on 08 June 2009)
Scans from the June 2009 issue via jedroot.com
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Magazines: O, The Oprah Magazine

Rashida shares her Aha! moment -and some wise words- in the April issue of O magazine. According to Oprah, an Aha! moment is "one of those unforgettable, connect-the-dots moments, when everything suddenly, somehow changed." Sadly Rashida's came as a result of her mom having cancer.

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Rashida Jones' Aha! Moment: On her Mom Peggy Lipton and cancer

When the actress's mother, Peggy Lipton, was diagnosed with cancer, Jones had a choice: fall into a dark hole or look for the lighter side.

My mother and I are more than best friends; we are partners in crime. After she and my father, Quincy Jones, separated when I was 10 years old, my sister, Kidada, who was 12, went to live with our dad, and I stayed with my mother. Mom is the most unconditionally loving person I will ever know, and she has always supported me on every level. Until last year she worked with me before every audition; she's given me perspective, and she has let me cry when things haven't gone my way—which, when you're an actress, can happen a lot.

In 2002 Mom and I got a chance to act together in a play called Pitching to the Star, with her brother, Robert Lipton. The three of us on the same stage—that was such a special experience for me. When the play was over, I went to London for four months. Just a couple of days after I came back, Mom was diagnosed with cancer. At 56, she'd gone in for a routine colonoscopy, and her doctors found a stage III tumor. They recommended surgery and chemo immediately.

The minute the word cancer enters your house, everything changes. I felt like a huge anvil had fallen on me. But I knew that action needed to be taken—there were logistics to handle, and my mother needed support. Luckily, both of us now lived in New York, which was a huge blessing.

Chemotherapy is brutal. The goal is pretty much to kill everything in your body without killing you. I wished I could have gone through it for her; I wanted to take the burden off her. Then I figured out a way to help.

I decided my job was to find joyful moments during what could have been a terrifying time for both of us. One time we were in the hospital's chemo suite, waiting for her to be called in for the treatment. There are performers in the waiting room to keep the patients entertained, and on this day there was a guitarist who was playing Simon and Garfunkel songs. He was so earnest, so sweet…and just not good at all. After he left, we laughed so hard. We had that moment of surrender where I thought, "This is kind of hilarious. I can't believe we're here, but thank God we're here together." We told dumb jokes all day; at one point, I started calling my mom "Chemosabe." We laughed so much, she almost seemed to forget she was sick. That summer all we did was laugh.

Just because a situation is grim doesn't mean you don't have every right to smile. It isn't about "being strong" and pretending everything's okay; it's about finding joy where you can. My dad has always said, "Approach life with love and not fear." It's such a dynamic way to live.

I know that in life there will be sickness, devastation, disappointments, heartache—it's a given. What's not a given is the way you choose to get through it all. If you look hard enough, you can always find the bright side.


Issue: April 2009
Interview: Suzan Colón
Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Info & image via O Magazine: Aha! Moment Read more...

Misc: RDW Interview & Reel Artsy

Here's another short interview from Real Detroit Weekly. Thanks to Karen, a Rashida fan who runs Reel Artsy and a couple other sites, for the tip :)

Reel Artsy is an entertainment blog that focuses on multi-cultural films, TV and music, and was created by Karen herself.

Another cool site!



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Real Detroit Weekly: Rashida Jones
"I don’t get cute guy makeouts in my career, I’ve just never gotten that. My first job out of school I had to get CPR from Rip Torn — and that was the closest I got to making out with a hot guy."

"I was really nervous about that role [Karen Filippelli] because I figured people are never gonna like me because fans of the show are so dedicated to Pam and Jim that anything that comes in the way is the demon — the devil."


I Love You Man: Rashida Jones
By Kirk Vanderbeek
Mar 17, 2009, 09:40

I Love You man, Man's Feminine Side

Rashida Jones may not yet be a household name, the studio audience of The Daily Show may not burst into appreciative applause when I Love You, Man star Paul Rudd drops her name during a guest appearance, but this is a young woman who is rapidly joining the inclusive ranks of today’s television and film comedy family.

She may be the cute cousin who has only made it to a family reunion or two so far, but since her work on The Office has brought her into mainstream consciousness, I think it’s safe to say that she’s not going anywhere. Comedy world, set out a place at the table for Rashida Jones, I think she’s staying for dessert.

It was nice to see Paul Rudd as a sort of lovably awkward guy in this film; he’s so often cast as a cocky dude. I’m wondering where his real personality lies — somewhere between the two?
Yeah, I think it’s probably closer to this than the cocky roles, I mean Paul is the nicest gentleman in the business, I promise. But he does awkward so well; he’s so adorable in this movie because you just want him to get it right once and he just never does. (laughs) But he’s definitely more confident and he’s way more eloquent than the character that he plays in this movie.

Is he also the most handsome man in comedy? I don’t know a single girl who is not completely in love with this guy.
He’s pretty hot; I’m not gonna lie to you. I’ve had the misfortune of really never getting to, like … I don’t get cute guy makeouts in my career, I’ve just never gotten that. My first job out of school I had to get CPR from Rip Torn — and that was the closest I got to making out with a hot guy. So it’s pretty great to make out with Paul Rudd.

How instrumental do you think your role in The Office has been in elevating your public image?
It’s kinda changed everything for me. I was really nervous about that role because I figured people are never gonna like me because fans of the show are so dedicated to Pam and Jim that anything that comes in the way is the demon — the devil. But yeah, people love that show … and the response has been really, really nice.

Yeah, what a good show to be involved with — and I was such a cynic at first because the British version is my favorite piece of entertainment ever.
Uh, me too! It’s the most perfect [seven-and-a-half] hours of anything on film.

Agreed! So, bromance is a pretty big deal these days. It’s such a theme in comedy right now, from Superbad through Pineapple Express to I Love You, Man, it seems like bromance is really being embraced. Do you think we have Judd Apatow to thank for this?
You know, I think tonally Judd has done a lot for that. I feel like it’s something that men need to embrace; it seems like it’s part of the zeitgeist, it’s bubbling up and guys have been kind of scared to be intimate with their male friends for such a long time, and now we’re giving them permission. We’re saying, “Dudes, love each other. It’s OK.” | RDW

Read more...

Interview: Cinema Blend

CinemaBlend interviewed Rashida and Jaime Pressly


QUOTABLE
"I have a lot of awe for people who can make you laugh. It's an achievement, almost, in a way that it's not to make somebody cry."

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Jones and Pressly were among the first of our many interviews during the I Love You, Man press day, and we talk to both of them below about being girls in a dude movie, getting the hang of improv, and in Rashida's case, just how many takes Paul Rudd managed to ruin by giggling.

We were talking about the sexuality in the film, and how frank and a little scary the women's talk was for the men.
So uncomfortable! Amazing, I love that. To me that was a pretty honest portrayal of how girls talk. We are detailed. I think guys don't actually know that, which is why I think it's a good thing that it's being represented in a movie. You don't get to see that that often.

Was that something that appealed to you about the character, that they would go there?
Yeah, I really loved the dynamic between the girlfriends. They all felt really different. It felt like they all had different points of view, but they found a way to converge and love each other through that. You don't get to see that that often in movies either. And also the fact that they were truly raw, the way that I know I can be with my girlfriends.

When do you remember first being inspired by comedy?
I don't know. I know my mom said as early as she can remember letting me watch TV, my one treat a week when I was like 6 was to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live. I'm completely obsessed with comedy. When I was living in New York, I would go and see stand-up as much as I could. I have a lot of awe for people who can make you laugh. It's an achievement, almost, in a way that it's not to make somebody cry. To me it's one of the best things you can do in the world, to make somebody laugh.

Did you go into entertainment because you had both parents in it?
No, I was like the rebel. I'm not going to do what my parents do! I was going to do everything to not be in entertainment. I kind of caught the bug. It's such a fortunate life, if you can work as an actor. I get to laugh all day, for hours and hours and hours a day. It's really nice.

is it weird to be coming full circle with Jason like this, since you were on an episode of Freaks and Geeks?
Freaks and Geeks for me was like a huge turning point. It was the first time that I read something and I thought, this is really good. this is the kind of stuff that I want to do. I had such a good time on the show, and I made friends with Jason, we've been friends the whole time. It's really nice to be able to come back together, and have kind of been working on our own. Obviously Judd Apatow has a big effect on people like that. Everybody starts with him.

It looked like you guys were having a good time on the set. We've been hearing a lot about improv.
There was a lot of improv going on. There were a lot of ruined takes. There's minutes and minutes of film of Paul just giggling, and nobody acting. Him just trying to get it together. It was a genuinely the most fun I've ever had working. We were given so much freedom to do stuff. I'm sure at some point John Hamburg was just like, OK, get it together. It was kind of part of the process. That's a good problem to have.

Did you do any improvisation?
I did. I've always kind of been scared of it. I took a Groundlings class in my 20s, and I was terrible. They didn't even pass me to the next level. I feel like I'm taking class all over again. I'm a little bit better this time. Between The Office and the new show and this, I'm learning what my take on it is. I do end up playing the straight man a lot. It's more about reaction than it is about playing some wacky character.

Interview: Katey Rich
via CinemaBlend

Read more...

Interview: First Showing

First Showing.net asked her about the movie, Parks and Recreation, comedy and her career. Did you know she tried -and failed- at Groundlings? Aww. She also shares her favorite stand-up comics and movies.

The interviewer guy/girl was really won over and got a bit gushy. V. cute!
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Interview: I Love You, Man's Lead Actress Rashida Jones
March 20, 2009
by Alex Billington

John Hamburg's comedy I Love You, Man hits theaters this weekend and leading the female side of the cast is the lovely Rashida Jones. Before walking in to see I Love You, Man, I didn't really know who she was, but after walking out, I already wanted to see more of her. Not only is she very funny, but she has such a great charm to her that we rarely see these days with actresses. Luckily I had the chance to talk with Rashida last week while she was out in Austin at SXSW promoting the film. And I've got to say, I don't think ever talked with an actress this nice and this wonderful ever, and I'm so glad I had this opportunity.


Rashida got her big break in acting with "Boston Public" in 2000, although she also appeared on Judd Apatow's "Freaks and Geeks". Since then she has appeared on "Chappelle's Show", "NY-LON", "Wanted", "Unhitched", "The Office", and Saturday Night Live. She has also appeared in movies like Full Frontal, Little Black Book, The Ten, and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. In I Love You, Man she plays Paul Rudd's fiancé Zooey and provides such a wonderful dynamic playing off of both Rudd and Jason Segel.

What, in particular, interested you in this script?

Rashida Jones: You know, there's a lot of things, but the main things were: 1) It was hilarious, and it's- - I find it difficult to read a comedy script and know what it's gonna be. But then 2) Jason [Segel] and Paul [Rudd] were attached, which I knew immediately that it was gonna be even funnier than I would think. And then also, I feel like it's really hard to tell an original story in a comedy, and John Hamburg has really managed to do that and also make it feel organic, like it doesn't feel like a new broad concept it really feels like people you know. And that came through in the script.

And then the most important thing was the way women were represented was — not that I'm some, you know, pioneer, but it's really hard to find a good part for a girl. It's really hard to not be wallpaper. And this character was really important to the plot, and dynamic and interesting and independent and outspoken, and has a point of view and a real relationship with her girlfriend and a real relationship with her fiancé. And that was just really appealing to me.

I think it's a testament to you abilities that you made your character stand out so much. In addition to Paul and Jason, I'm glad you had that role. You really added that dynamic to it.

Jones: Thank you. That's really nice of you. Thank you for saying that. I mean I, again, like I got — it's almost like a cheat, because everybody around me was so great, but it felt good to be able to — because I think, especially as an actress, you get parts and you're like okay, well this is, you know, point one percent of what I can do but I'm gonna do it and hopefully I'll do it well and I'll bring something to it. It was really nice to be able to have so much to work with at the beginning.

A lot of people have been referring to it as a Judd Apatow comedy, but without Judd Apatow's involvement. I think that's a good thing. Even though it doesn't have his name attached to it, it's a good thing to have his name be thrown around with it. Why do you think this has that Judd Apatow feel to it?

Jones: Well I mean first of all, how great to be compared to Judd Apatow movies. His movies are amazing and they do really well, people really like them. So that's — I'll take that for sure. But then also, there is– it's like the six degrees of Judd, like, Paul and Jason are obviously in a bunch of his films. They're like part of the players. And I've worked with Judd before a little bit and there's definitely — people are right to compare the movie.

But there's something about that community that I find really satisfying. Like there's a comedy to community and the same people, you know, it's like having… The Princeton players were like — the same people played parts over and over again. And you like the people and you trust that they're gonna make things funny and so you keep going back to watch them, you know. That's old school to me. I like that.

Would you say that the comedy or dialogue in this is a lot more realistic than other comedies we've seen?

Jones: Yeah, I do. I mean, I think John Hamburg really let us, once we got the script and we got the takes that were scripted, he kind of let us go off a little bit, and so I think the nature of the improvisational part of the movie makes you feel a little bit like you're hanging out with these people, you know. It feels like how you — hopefully it feels like how you would talk to your friends.

Do you have an improv or a stand up background yourself?

Jones: I don't. I have — I'm a comedy aficionado. I'm like a huge comedy geek. I follow stand up, love stand up, and sketch comedy, and have for like my entire life. I went to class, to Groundlings, once in my early 20s. I did not do very well. They did not pass me.

Aww.

Jones: I know. And look at me now. No. But, you know, just doing it is really, it's sort of like there's… I get to improv with like the best improvisers in comedy. So I'm learning a lot. I'm learning a lot.

Who's your favorite stand up comic right now?

Jones: I'm a huge Louis C.K. fan. He drives me crazy, he's so funny. Dave Attell is — will always have my heart. I don't know. I just like him for some reason. He just kills me. I'm trying to think of who else I like right now. I think Patton Oswalt's hilarious. He's so great. I don't know. And then, you know, those are — like Louis and Dave Attell, I will watch any comedy special. I will see them when they're in town. Like those are like the two that just kill me.

With I Love You Man, did you let your character develop further on set, as in once you get into that relationship level with Paul, is that something that you did a lot with improv?

Jones: Yeah, well we also rehearsed with the director and we talked about what we wanted it to be like and what we didn't want it to be like. Because there was definitely a tendency, with my character, to be a little too naggy, you know, like you didn't want her to be controlling and you didn't want him to be too lame, too sensitive, too feminine. And so we really — we tried to like add this element where you could tell that they're physically attracted to each other, like it's — at the heart of it, you know, there's like a hot, sexy male female relationship, and then the other stuff, like the kind of sensitive, Sunday night movie, you know, HBO watching stuff, goes on top of that. So you don't feel like you're like "oh these saps, what are they doing, who cares."

How do you find the balance between actual comedy and the romantic elements in it, especially something like this, where the romance between you and Paul is there, but not necessarily the most important part of the story.

Jones: Right. Interesting. You know, I think, again, like this is gonna sound really bad, but you just have to focus on the reality of it I guess, you know, and make it as real as possible. So if we can make the romantic element feel real, things will only be funnier. Like when he messes up or when he brings — when he goes out with these new guys or when he finds his real friend and it feels like a threat to the romance, it will only be funnier if you can believe the romance from the beginning.

So you've had a very good mixture of TV and film projects over your career. Is there one you prefer working on more than another? Is it just what comes at you?

Jones: You know, it's always nice as an actor to have a TV job because we don't get regular jobs very often. And it's nice to get your coffee and go to work every day and work with the same people for years. But it's so rare these days to be in a TV show that stays on the air for a long time. So like really "The Office" or like "Boston Public" were the closest I got to that. It's nice to settle into something, because there's so much unpredictability in acting. But at the same time, like to have that kind of intensive time to really work on characters like we did in I Love You Man is so great too. I mean, we got to do take after take after take after take, really figure out what works best. And with TV you don't generally have as much time to do that. There's always a clock ticking.

Is there something you look for, particularly, in the scripts or in the work you do in regards to stories or characters, or anything in particular you seek out?

Jones: Yeah, with comedy it's so hard to tell, because making somebody laugh is such a subjective experience. But I definitely look for a seed of something genuine. Like if — I've been so fortunate, because the writers and directors that I've worked with, they're obsessed with having their characters feel real on some level. Like the guys at "The Office", who are now doing "Parks and Recreation", a new show I'm doing, they'll sacrifice story over character any day, like they just want their characters to feel real and they want the things that they do to be motivated. And that's, to me, like the logic of that is an absolutely necessary thing, for somebody to watch a movie and really be with you and to be able to make them laugh they have to be with you, you know. God that sounded so ridiculous, like…

I think it's a good point. Without naturally thinking about it, when you go in to see a movie, that really is what makes it work so well.

Jones: Yeah, and like the reason you like Jason's character so much in this movie is not because he's super honest and disgusted with women, you like it because you believe that that guy could exist.

Can you speak more about "Parks and Recreation"?

Jones: Yeah, it's about — kind of about local government and all the bureaucracy and red tape that you are confronted by when you're trying to get a project done on a local level, and the characters that come out of that world. I play Ann. I'm a nurse and I have this construction pit in back of my house and it's — my boyfriend has fallen in and broken both his legs, and I've been trying to get somebody to help me to fix it or whatever.

And I meet Amy Pohler's character, Leslie, and she — we both have different agendas. I just want the damn thing fixed and she has a political agenda. But she decides that she also likes me and kind of wants to be my friend, and so we — she vows to help me fix this pit and build a park in its place, which is a huge promise for anybody who actually has to get that done. It takes years and years and years, but she promises to do that. And I believe her and trust her and am excited by that, and I — and we go off and try to do this thing together.

Is this like a single series or something that would be ongoing?

Jones: I hope it'll be ongoing. We're airing six episode starting on April 9th and then we'll see what happens, yeah.

Are there any other projects you have in the works coming up?

Jones: That's about it for now.

Oh.

Jones: I'm sorry, is it not enough for you?

Well no, I loved seeing you in I Love You Man and I hope to see you more.

Jones: Oh, you're so sweet. Well I hope I can give you more. I gotta get myself some jobs. I vow to you, Alex, I will work for you.

In the next year I gotta see you on the big screen one more time!

Jones: Absolutely. I'll make sure that happens some how, some way.

If possible, can you name some of your favorite films of all time?

Jones: Oh my God, huge question. Broadcast News. Hold on. Waiting for Guffman…. Airplane. Oh the best, it's the best. It's still — it's the best. Being There. The Graduate. Classic. This is so — I literally feel like I'm on "Quiz Show" right now. I'm like sweating. Oh, why don't I know these things about myself? What do I buy? What do I have in my collection? What is — because I don't buy that many DVDs. I'll only buy the DVDs that like I know I'll want to watch over and over and over again. Goodfellas. So good. Is that enough? I feel like that's enough.

That is definitely enough.

Jones: Glad we got through that.

Well thanks for answering and I'm glad to be able to talk with you.

Jones: Great to talk to you too. Have a great day and I'm sure we'll talk soon.

Thank you to Rashida Jones for this great interview and Tamar at Paramount for setting this up! If everyone I talked to was half as nice and half as charming as Rashida Jones, the world would be such a better place. I hope I get to see her on the big screen again soon!

Interview: Alex Billington
via FirstShowing.net Read more...

Interview: Ain't It Cool News

Rashida's done lots of interviews lately... These three are pretty good.

Capone from Ain't It Cool News did this one during the SXSW Fest. Topics include her character Zooey, some of her other credits, Parks and Recreation and getting cut out of 3 movies this year :(

I ♥ that she basically stalked the State guys until they put her in their stuff
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Capone's intimate moments in Rashida Jones' hotel room…talking about I LOVE YOU, MAN!!!
Hey all. Capone in Austin, Texas here, with a very simple question: Is there anyone more adorable than Rashida Jones?


Like many of you, I first remember seeing Rashida in the very unlikable role of the female bully Karen Scarfolli on "Freaks and Geeks," followed soon by an extended stay as a young teacher on "Boston Public." As the child of Quincy Jones and the lovely Peggy Lipton, Jones grew up around music and famous people, but she's managed to carve out a nice place for herself in the world of comedy lately, hooking up on different projects with former members of "The State" (such as "Stella" and THE TEN). She won and broke our hearts for a season on "The Office" as another (much nicer) woman named Karen, playing Jim's love interest and bane of Pam's existence. She recently appeared on the show again, reprising the Karen role, this time pregnant and hooked up with a nice guy. It was a nice postscript to the Karen storyline. And if you haven't caught Rashida and Natalie Portman's exceedingly serious short films on FunnyOrDie.com, well, you should. It's basically an exercise in which one is cuter.

Jones gets her first true starring showcase in the big-budget world opposite Paul Rudd in I LOVE YOU, MAN, as his over-indulgent and supporting fiancee Zooey. In addition, Jones is set to co-star alongside Amy Poehler in the new NBC comedy "Parks and Recreation," from the creators of "The Office," set to premiere on April 9. Jones could not have been any more charming and funny, despite the fact that we were alone in her hotel room for this interview…allow me to repeat that--I was in Rashida Jones' hotel room…with her…just the two of us…allow me to just bask in that for a moment, while you enjoy our chat, which actually began with her wondering the origins of my real name.

Rashida Jones: Is that Greek?

Capone: It's Czech, actually. What's the origin of Rashida?

RJ: Rashida is Arabic.

Capone: Does it mean anything?

RJ: Yeah, it does unfortunately. It means "rightly guided on the true path."

Capone: Wow, that's a lot to live up to.

RJ: Yeah. [laughs] Thanks, guys! There was a song in the '70s by John Lucien, and my parents liked it, so they named me after it.

Capone: The character you play is perfectly positioned between her two best friends--you've got Jaime playing a bitterly married woman and the other who is desperately single. Is that a fair assessment of Zooey?

RJ: You probably have way more perspective on this than I do, because you've seen it three time, so you could teach a class on I LOVE YOU, MAN. There is something that is perfectly imperfect about her. In my opinion, it's a step in the right direction, because generally when the girlfriend is perfect, she's wallpaper. She's just nonexistent. So Zooey seems perfectly modern, or a modern version of that--she's supportive, she's independent, she's outspoken, she's stable and balanced, which I think is a good thing to evoke. And hopefully, people don't see it as, "Oh well. It doesn't make sense; nobody's that perfect. Nobody's that unconditionally supportive of their boyfriend or husband." But I think that women are.

Capone: "Unconditionally supportive" is exactly how I'd describe it.

RJ: Well, you're like, "Really? Still with this guy? Are you okay?"

Capone: But when you break, it's pretty bad and for very good reasons.

RJ: Oh, I break. The way I would describe it if I was being super-psychoanalytical is that [writer-director] John [Hamburg] wrote her without a family really. And I have friends like that whose friends are their family, and it's so meaningful to them that their friends work on a very healthy level for them to be able to survive. They become the anchor in this "health boat."

Capone: The women in this film are treated very well in a movie that is supposed to be about guys. Those two or three conversations that the women have as a group are really insightful and funny. They're the hidden gems in the film. It might even take people a couple of watches to notice that.

RJ: I agree, because it took me a couple watches. That was the last thing I said to John Hamburg last night: "You really like women, and it shows." There are directors who don't, and they just shrink it and shrink it and shrink it, but he really wants women to be represented fairly and well, and it's so rare to see that. And all that stuff where we're talking dirty and dishing on each others' lives, you don't get to see that in a way that's empowering. Usually it's like, "Oh my God, he didn't call me! Let's go buy shoes!" And it's not in this case. It's what bonds them and separates them.

Capone: Even some of Paul's strongest scenes are with you, especially the one in the car after the engagement dinner, where you two have that really frank and uncomfortable talk about your sex life.

RJ: Yeah, it's really intimate. I don't think I want to see a couple have this conversation. I'm guessing you left during that part each of the three times you've seen it.

Capone: Or I at least plug my ears. So what are your true feelings about Rush at this point?

RJ: Honestly and truly, I really like them. I didn't know who they were before I did the movie. It's cool because I grew up listening to jazz and rhythmically complicated music, and their stuff is complicated, so it makes it fun to listen to. So when you listen to one song for 12 hours in a row, you're not too bored. It's hard not to be bored with a song after 12 hours, but if had to pick one, it would be a Rush song for me. It was still interesting to listen to.

Capone: Did you actually get to meet them?

RJ: Yes! They were so nice. And Geddy Lee is a big "Office" fan, so he was asking me for autographs, which was pretty funny. They were very, very nice and cool.

Capone: Do you have a favorite funny scene from the film, and a favorite tender scene?

RJ: I'm really partial to the "Slappin' the bass" scene [with Paul Rudd]. It was pretty fun. But it was really close to the beginning of the shoot when we shot that, and for me, I was so nervous and everybody wanted to be good and have everything make sense. And that scene happened, and we just kind of let loose a little bit, and this new thing happened that I don't think either of us were prepared for, but it was really fun and is really funny, and Paul is so funny in that scene. And I love the "Fuckin' let's do it!" and then the iTunes speakers kick in, and you're like, "What?" [Paul's character attempts to turn Zooey on to Rush by playing her a song through wimpy laptop speakers.] I love that.

As far as the tender scene, actually seeing it last night reminded me that it was my favorite, I love the scene where Paul and Jason go on their first date for fish tacos. There's something so organic and sincere about it and sweet and really funny. But I love their first-date montage, their getting-to-know-each-other montage. In the case of them singing "Tom Sawyer." It's so cute to me; it's like I'm watching two people fall in love.

Capone: That "Slappin' the bass" scene reminds me of the stories you hear about how Judd Apatow records dozens of different version of the same scene or reaction and then just picks one. Only every one of Paul's takes was funny, so John used them all.

RJ: Exactly.

Capone: In the script, was the line just there once?

RJ: I don't even remember. How about that, I don't even remember. It was in the script, but Paul just made it so ridiculous. "Slaaaapin' Dee Baaaas!" And also that was a good scene for me, because I wouldn't consider myself an improv champion, but when I said that thing about him sounding like a leprechaun, unbeknownst to me not only did John use it, but he used it throughout the film, which is so cool. I love that it became a running joke in the movie. It didn't even occur to me until my second viewing that other people were saying it in the movie. Weird.

Capone: Did you get to do much improvising?

RJ: Yeah. I noticed last night, John picked the takes where we went a little bit off book. I originally did it right every time, because I still feel like that's my job as an actor--just say my lines and say them right. And then when we got a little looser toward the end, those were the takes he ended up using. It felt like he wanted us to speak like normal people speak, and that's educating for me because every director is different and every writer is different, but generally I don't want to go off book because I do have respect for the writer. And I have so much respect for John, but he wanted to make a film about people who felt like people that you know and your friends. So it was okay in that sense.

Capone: Does Zooey have flaws?

RJ: I think she probably, like me, and this is going to sound really lame, but she probably has some boundary problems. She tells her girlfriends way too much. She is super-patient with her fiancee, and luckily it's him. If it were anybody else, she'd be co-dependent.

Capone: I'm guessing that working with Paul was a particularly painful experience.

RJ: It was awful. Could you tell?

Capone: And I heard that Andy Samberg was kind of dicky too.

RJ: Everybody…the tension was so thick. Those assholes! I couldn't wait to be done. No, it was ridiculous. I've said this before, so don't fault me for syndicating this, but I had such a good time that there were a couple days that I had off, and I had to figure out "What am I going to do today? I'm going to go visit the set." I just wanted hang out and be with those guys some more. It was really fun.

Capone: This just occurred to me, but I got an early copy of the ROLE MODELS DVD a couple weeks back, and in watching the deleted scenes, I came to realize you were in that movie and got cut out. If it's not too painful, what happened there?

RJ: In a chipmunk costume. No, it's fine. David Wain, who directed that movie, is a good friend of mine, and Paul and I have been friends for 10 years, so he asked me to do a day on the movie, and I still give him shit about the fact that he cut me out.

Capone: How did you get mixed up with those guys from "The State"?

RJ: You know what, I was a fan. I'm a crazy comedy geek, and my agent had gone to school with Michael Showalter, and I'd seen the "Stella" videos and seen WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER maybe more than anybody who had seen that movie. I love that kind of thing and thought that was the best movie ever made. In some respects, there has never been a movie like that, that parody of camp comedies. The absurdity of that movie, I think David Wain is a genius, all those guys are geniuses. They are sort of the modern Three Stooges. And I was a fan; I went to a "Stella" show and became friends with Michael and he introduced me to David, and I just clung on for life.

Capone: I saw the short you did with David, where he transforms himself into you.

RJ: Yeah, "Wainy Days." You know, he wasn't even there for that entire filming process, because he was filming ROLE MODELS. So they filmed his stuff in L.A. It was made in October-November of last year, and I want to do another one, but we can't get our timing down because David is so busy and I've been in L.A.

Capone: I'm so excited to see "Parks and Recreation." Tell me something about it. Who do you play?

RJ: I play Ann, she's a nurse, and my way into that world is I live in front of this enormous construction pit that's been there for a year because it was abandoned because somebody lost the money after starting to build and they abandoned it, so the city owns it. And they haven't done anything with it, and my boyfriend falls in an breaks both his legs. And I go to get somebody to fix it, and nobody listens to me. Then I meet Amy Poehler's character, Leslie, and she vows to fix it and make it into a park, and I'm blown away because I've been trying to garner any support and I can't. Then suddenly this woman who I can't quite read--I feel like she's got good intentions but she's kind of a dork. But we like each other and we come together to solve this problem and in the process, we become friends. It's kind of like a female buddy comedy.

Capone: In the commercials, Amy is addressing the camera, which led me to believe it's another documentary set up like "The Office."

RJ: Oh it absolutely is, but it's almost two. This is really heady and omniscient, but there are two camera crews coming together. I have a crew that follows me as I say, "Oh, this is my problem." And Amy has a crew that follows her in her world of government, and we come together. The point of view is a little bit different, because I don't know what the documentarian is making it for, unlike "The Office." You know it's one crew, and they're clearly in the office everyday, whereas on our show there's a lot more going on in the rest of the world with my house and the pit and the hospital and town hall and elementary school.

Capone: "The Office" could almost be looked at as someone shooting a reality show, but everyone I know who has seen it was [??? Ed.]

RJ: This one absolutely feels like a documentary. I just saw the pilot, and it feels like…there's something very true about it, which I was so surprised about. There's something that's not broad in a way, and then there's also the broad, funny performances. But it feels more like a drama, or it's filmed like a drama. If people like "The Office," they're going to like it; it comes from the same womb--that so gross--but it is the same creators of the American version. But hopefully it will distinguish itself enough that you won't get sick of the format.

Capone: We were talking about some of your short film work earlier, and I love the two FunnyOrDie shorts you made with Natalie Portman.

RJ: [laughs] I didn't have a job this summer. We wanted to do something together that was related to the election, but we kept seeing these really cheesy, earnest videos of actors in black-and-white being "You have the right to choose, and I'm famous and I'm telling you I'm awesome and you should vote." So we wanted to do something that was that but not that. So we decided we would just play with baby animals! How wrong could you go with that? It's kind of unfair because that was kind of our way to convince you that what we had to say was right and best, and it's unfair because they're so cute, those puppies.

Capone: I'm partial to the kitties myself.

RJ: Are you? I highly allergic to cats, so when we were filming kitties, they literally had to make stuff happen between my sneezing.

Capone: I read some really good things out of Sundance about BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN [directed by Jones' "Office" co-star John Krasinski]. I don't know how big your role is.

RJ: I'm not really in it. I got cut out of three movies last year--ROLE MODELS, BRIEF INTERVIEWS, and I was in that Renee Zellweger movie NEW IN TOWN.

Capone: Really?

RJ: Oh yeah. I was her best friend in Miami.

Capone: It was haunting me that she didn't seem to have any friends in Miami, only coworkers.

RJ: I was one of the last friends. It's kind of great, though, because I would be cut out of eight movies in a year just so I could do something like I LOVE YOU, MAN.

Capone: It all paid off. I know a lot of people remember you from the episode of "Freaks and Geeks" you did, but I also was a big fan of "Boston Public."

RJ: Really?

Capone: One more thing related to short films, how did you get involved in the Foo Fighters video?

RJ: My friend Jesse Peretz directed the video--he's actually how I know Paul. Paul and Jesse have been friends for years. He was directing--he did the Mentos one for them and the "Learn To Fly" video.

Capone: The one with Tenacious D in it?

RJ: Yeah, that one. And I ran into Dave [Grohl] a little bit, and they asked if I wanted to be in a video. And I'm like, "Are you kidding me? In a '70s soap opera video? Absolutely."

Capone: Well, thank you so much for talking to us. You make us all wish for an unconditionally supportive girlfriend like Zooey.

RJ: Aw, thanks. [laughs]

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com

via AICN
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