Aubrey Plaza Talks Retweeting the Haters and Voicing Grumpy Cat | Late Night Throwback

Welcome back, everyone. Our next guest is a very funny actress and comedian who plays April Ludgate on one of my favorite shows, Parks and Recreation, right here on NBC. And now you can see her as the voice of Internet celebrity Grumpy Cat in the Lifetime movie, Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, on Saturday, November 29th. Let's take a look. I know we're too late. Grumpy? Don't question this. This happens, sister. Grumpy, are you serious? Of course I'm serious. Look at my face. But you're a cat. How are you going to... Thanks. You had to say that. Is this not my movie? Please welcome Aubrey Plaza. So excited to have you here, Aubrey. Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I'm such a fan of your work for so long. I'm such a fan of your work. Now, how did this come together that you are Grumpy Cat? I woke up one morning, and I got an email. And it said, would you like to be the voice of Grumpy Cat in Lifetime's Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever movie? And I thought that sounded insane. So I said yes. And I read the script, and it was insane. And then I called the director, and I said, can I just say whatever I want, maybe? And he said yes. Wow. So you got to basically rewrite... Did you rewrite it? Did you improvise it? I wouldn't say I rewrote it. I never... I haven't used a pen in years. Right. Or I don't... But I did some mix-em-ups, and that's what I like to call it. And you were, as an actress, you were someone who really wanted to grab the essence of Grumpy Cat, which you might... It kind of could be in your wheelhouse. Yeah. Well, the thing about the movie is it's like four movies in one, because the whole idea of the movie is that Grumpy Cat hates the movie, because Grumpy Cat hates everything and everyone. Yeah. So I took that to another level, where the entire time I'm just trashing the movie as it's happening, while simultaneously playing a very big part in the movie. In fact, it's my movie. Yeah. So I... And I couldn't tell you exactly what happens in the movie. It's very confusing, but very funny. And yes, I got into the character of Grumpy Cat. As we all know, I'm a method actor. And I decided, you know, if Grumpy... What would Grumpy really think of this movie? And I just took that to a whole insane level that I don't even think Lifetime fully understands. Well, that... It is an interesting marriage between you and Lifetime. Were you ever worried Lifetime was going to say, hey, this is a little too far for our brand? I was, like every single step of the way. Yeah. Everything that came out of my mouth, I was like, they're not going to let me say that. And they let me say every single thing that came out of my mouth. It seems like a mystery science theater, but from within the film. It is, it is. Because the thing is, Grumpy Cat is a real cat. Yeah. And she's in the movie. So every time they cut to her, you hear my voice, but her mouth doesn't move. So I didn't have to sync anything. Yeah. And so then I thought, well, if her mouth isn't moving, then really I can talk whenever I want. So I just decided to comment through the entire movie and give you like a weird director's, actor's commentary, like while the movie's happening. And just also remind you of how terrible it is while it's happening. You also got involved in some of the elements of the marketing for this. You've been using social media to market it. I love social media. And the thing about it is, yeah, I did. Well, one of the things I said to Lifetime was, I want to do this movie and I really want to be involved in the marketing. I would love to write some promos and I would love to just be creatively involved in how it's getting out into the world. And they said, yes. And so that was really fun. And on Twitter, when the trailer came out, there was like a pretty positive response, like an outpouring of people, Grumpy fans, that were excited. And then there was like a couple haters. And I decided to retweet only the haters because I thought that Grumpy's response to those people would be funnier than to the positive ones. So I weirdly created my own backlash. And then after that, there were articles written about how I was defending my movie and people were hating on it, but no one was actually hating on it. I just made it appear that way. It's a little thing I like to do where I just drum up negative backlash for myself and then respond to it. These are some people that tweeted you. Somebody wrote, oh, Aubrey, Aubrey, Aubrey, Aubrey, what have you done? Yes. Aubrey, WTF is this mess? And then somebody wrote, please stop it. And here was your response to someone saying, please stop it. Also, last season of Parks and Rec, and I will say April Ludgate, one of my favorite television characters, this does seem like a nice progression from April Ludgate to Grumpy Cat. That's a really interesting observation. Thank you very much. Yeah, I actually felt like when they offered me the movie, I was like, the show is ending, Parks and Rec is ending after seven years. I've been playing April Ludgate for so long. I'm so heavily associated with that character. It's such a huge part of my life. And I really owe Grumpy Cat and my involvement with that to Parks and April because I don't think I would ever be offered that job if I hadn't played April Ludgate. And I also think that after Parks is over, it's like, you know, I have to kind of move on and shed that character. And again, my method acting is, it's very, I must shed her. That's what I say when I wake up every morning. And I just felt like doing Grumpy Cat would be like the ultimate just hurrah of like just attitude offering. And I think I'm really just going out with a bang. That's great. Well, congratulations. And thank you so much for being here. And very exciting. This is exciting news for everybody. Do you want to show us? Oh, yeah. A little present. Yeah. And that's great that that's for me, but the good news is everyone here will be leaving with a Grumpy Cat plush toy for them. Back with Second Chance Theater.