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By Krista

Interview with Katie Finneran and Jaime Pressly of "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" on FOX 2/29/12

I enjoyed doing this interview. It was great talking to both of them and hearing about the show. I really liked the fact that Katie and Jaime seemed to be good friends off the show as well as on set.

Final Transcript
FBC PUBLICITY: I Hate My Teenage Daughter
February 29, 2012/11:00 a.m. PST

SPEAKERS
Michael Roach
Katie Finneran
Jaime Pressly

PRESENTATION

Moderator Welcome to the I Hate My Teenage Daughter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for questions at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Michael Roach.

M. Roach Hello, everyone, and welcome to the conference call with Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran on behalf of the return of I Hate My Teenage Daughter. Just as a reminder, the comedy series returns to FOX to join the Tuesday night comedy lineup on Tuesday, March 6, at 8:30/7:30 p.m.

Rachelle, thanks a lot. I think we’re ready to begin the call. Everyone please welcome Katie Finneran and Jaime Pressly.

K. Finneran Hello, everybody.

J. Pressly Hello.

Moderator You have a question from the line of Jamie Steinberg, Starry Constellation.

J. Steinberg I was wondering if you guys could talk about what keeps challenging you about your roles.

K. Finneran We just love working together. They almost couldn’t get us off the conference the call because we were catching up with each other. We just love working together and we love sort of developing best friendship on TV. Those are always the shows that I love the best when you see two friends that have a great synergistic, a great chemistry, a great special comedy with each other. We’re just trying to develop something like that, so we just kind of goof off and try to make it happen.

J. Pressly Yes. The job does not suck that’s for sure. We go to work every day with this really amazing group of people – cast, writers, and crew included – and everyone is so down to earth and willing to try anything. No one is afraid to do whatever they need to do to get a laugh. No one is against taking suggestions from each other, which is really unusual on a set. nobody ever goes, “You know, what if you try it this way?” That’s only with the director and the actor, but with us the whole cast works together as a team, which is my favorite way to work, in general is just to be a team because we’re all there for a common goal. It really does work out that way.

As far as our characters go, it has been slightly challenging in a way, which if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be any fun. It’s been challenging in that my character is so different from the character that everybody is used to seeing me play on television. She knows nothing about pop culture and she’s much more, what do I say, Katie? She’s much more conservative.

K. Finneran Yes.

J. Pressly And Katie’s the fly by the seat of her pants. Nikki’s just whatever comes up she’s down for it and my character is always a little afraid and hesitant to—

K. Finneran More reserved, grew up in a very religious household; grew up sort of wearing clothes her mother made. Her mother thought the Gap was the devil’s workshop, so I’m trying to loosen her up, but my character is by no means cool by any stretch. Between the two of us, I’m the cool one.

J. Steinberg Jaime, could you talk real quick about what dynamic Mark Consuelos will be bringing to the show?

K. Finneran I’ll tell you the dynamic. He’s a hottie.

J. Pressly Yes. Well, he’s another person who is just wonderful to work with and super down to earth. He did an incredible job and he’s so nice to have around on the set. He and his wife, Kelly, are just two really great, fun people to be around in general. Having him there was awesome because he was someone else who was also like, “I’m open to suggestions. Tell me what I can do to make it better.” It was just really nice having him there and the audience loves having him there, as well.

Moderator Next question from the line of Erin Reilly, PopCultureMadness.com.

E. Reilly I was just wondering in the next episode your characters learn Spanish. Did you guys know the language beforehand or are you fluent in any other languages?

J. Pressly Katie was incredible at speaking Spanish. It was like it just rolled off her tongue. My son is half Cuban and so I have been around a lot of Spanish, in general, and I understand a lot of it, but I don’t speak it as much. I do the accent very well, but I didn’t have to do it in the show as much. I can’t speak. I can’t even … Spanish.

K. Finneran I grew up in Chicago and then Miami so most of my friends were from Cuba. I speak pretty well. I speak probably at the level of a second grader, but I would say that my accent, I was always doing Tony Montana. When I was a ten-year-old girl, I was doing Scarface. My accent is deceiving because my accent is pretty good, but I don’t speak that well but I try. I fake it when I have to.

J. Pressly She’s a damn good actress, but she sounded like she knew exactly what she was saying.

E. Reilly What’s been one of the funniest moments you’ve had working on the set so far?

K. Finneran Oh, my gosh, so many.

J. Pressly Pick a day because there have just been—

K. Finneran … set and everything but we always find that we’re holding hands. When we do interviews and stuff we’re always holding each other.

J. Pressly We don’t realize it, but I always stand on the left and she always stands on the right. It’s like we’re a couple, like an old married couple.

K. Finneran Yes. Totally. Exactly.

J. Pressly We literally stand there and all of a sudden by the time the interview is over we’ll look at each other and we’re literally arms around each other in the back and then front hands are holding. It’s almost like we’re getting ready to make out. I don’t know what it is, but it’s a comfort thing. That’s an ongoing thing on a daily basis, but there hasn’t been anything too crazy, aside from just getting the giggles, which we all get.

K. Finneran Yes. We mess up a lot and we sort of just have a good time with it. It’s all sorts of shenanigans go on.

J. Pressly Yes. Katie’s pregnant brain because when we started the show—

K. Finneran Yes. I’m always pregnant.

J. Pressly Yes. She’s always pregnant. She’s almost like Joy was in Earl. She’s always pregnant. No. When we shot the pilot baby Ty was only seven weeks old and then when we came and actually started shooting the series she was still breastfeeding so she still had pregnant brain. By the time we were finishing up, she was pregnant again. She’s not really had a break with being able to remember everything and have to rethink that easy. Pregnant brain has just been there the whole time, so it’s going to be nice to go back, hopefully, for a second season where she won’t have to feel so scatter brained. Lord knows I know that feeling.

K. Finneran Well, we hope there’s a difference. Let’s just say that much. We hope I get better.

J. Pressly Oh, there will be.

K. Finneran I’ll have no excuse if I’m not better.

Moderator Your next question comes from the line of Diane Morasco of Morasco Media.

D. Morasco I want to ask you what is your favorite aspect of shooting to a live audience.

J. Pressly Oh, God, there are so many things. For Katie, I know, being Miss Broadway, we’re all doing a mini play every week, so she’s in her element and so good at that. I think for most of us it’s nice to know that when we’re shooting it, first of all, the excitement of having an audience watch you. What actor doesn’t love immediate response from an audience? That’s something we all love because we know we’re doing a good job or we didn’t hit it so well.

When a joke doesn’t work we have the opportunity to take a little time out and the writers can rewrite the joke and then we get to try it again. By the time the show airs we know that it’s funny because the audience has already told us. We have the opportunity to fix it. I think that’s one of the main things that we all love is that we know that it’s good or bad by the time we’re done shooting the episode.

K. Finneran It’s also your one sort of rollercoaster day. You have one sort of very heightened day, which is so nice, which for us is Tuesday night. Most shows shoot on Friday night. We shoot on Tuesday night and then start a new episode again on Wednesday, but when you get that high it’s a wonderful feeling and it’s a great feeling of accomplishment. When you’re shooting a single camera you’re just sort of there for 16 or 17 hours a day and you’re just kind of tired. There’s no high.

J. Pressly You’re tired and you also have to wait so long before you see the actual episode come on, so you don’t know if it’s going to be great or if it’s going to be okay or not that good at all.

K. Finneran Yes.

J. Pressly That’s why I said it’s so nice to have the audience there because they tell us right away so we have the opportunity to fix it.

D. Morasco What inspires each of you to go daily day-to-day with your lives, or who has been the most inspirational to you?

K. Finneran Say that again. What inspires us to do what?

D. Morasco Who inspires you the most or what inspires you to go about doing your day-to-day activities and to take on this role?

J. Pressly Definitely my son and I bet Katie would say her child and her husband, as well. We’re very lucky to have incredible children and she’s getting ready to have another incredible child. We just have really good people in our lives and we get to go to work. We get to go set every day and work with really incredible people who we’ve all become so close in such a short period of time. It’s like our kids play together and we get together for barbecues on the weekend.

It’s funny because I get excited to get up in the morning and go to that set. I take Dezi to school and then I go straight to set. It doesn’t matter how tired I am like if Dezi was up in the middle of the night or whatever it is, you wake up and then you get to that set because everybody’s so loving and so happy to be at work, which is a rarity in our business. We’re inspired by each other and we all help each other out and work as a team. It doesn’t get more inspiring than that when working really incredible people that make you better on a daily basis.

K. Finneran Absolutely and we’re all trying to just make a good show. You have to remember as journalists and for reviewers, it takes so much time. If you go back to watch the beginnings of successful series, they’re a little clunky at the beginning. It takes time to develop that sort of chemistry between the cast members, even though we had it instantaneously but sometimes to translate that to an audience and figure out what works and what doesn’t work and what to do more of or less than. I know when I see the shows I go, “Oh, maybe I didn’t need to push that hard. The story could have been told in a little bit of a different way.” We’re all learning—

J. Pressly Just in general the writers need time also to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are and what to play to and how to write for us. No matter what the show is, especially sitcom though because it’s so difficult, you only have 22 minutes to talk about 7 different characters here. It’s really hard to write for and our writers have done such an incredible job of really getting that down in such a short period of time, as well as all the actors. Everybody kind of just fell into place. Aside from our families, and again, our friends, it’s mainly our children who inspire us on a daily basis, our set really is an incredible set to be a part of.

K. Finneran It is so we hope the audience gives us a chance to sort of settle in like an old pair of jeans.

D. Morasco Actually, you guys are kind of like a pair of slippers that, at first, we’ve got to get used to it, but it just is something that is a comfort. I’ve seen from the beginning and you just slipped right in, so now I see how comfortable you guys are on the roles and I’m very comfortable making it something I need to watch.

My other question is what key elements are you bringing to your roles that are of your own selves?

J. Pressly Well, for me it’s something that I can’t help but bring to every character I play. I’m Southern and I like being Southern. I love the element of the strength behind Southern women. No matter what, no matter how many times they fall down they always get back up and that’s comforting. I think that knowing no matter what you go through and no matter how hard things can get that you’re going to make it. You’re going to be okay.

That’s something that this character that I get to play, Annie, as timid as she’s been her whole life and as conservative as she was raised and as little as she knows about pop culture, she tries really hard to be a part of the group. Katie’s character, Nikki, the two of them are so supportive of each other. My best friend since I was five’s name is Katie Mack. The chemistry between Katie Finneran and I is very similar to the chemistry my friend Katie Mack and I have. It’s just very easy and comforting and supportive.

These two characters are just trying really hard to do the best they can as single moms. Being a parent is never easy. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you are brilliant at it. You’re going to make mistakes and it’s comforting know that there is somebody standing by your side that’s going to pat you on the back or give you a hug and tell you it’s okay that you made a mistake. We’ll fix it.

K. Finneran Right. Something Jaime and I also have been very protective of is that you see a lot of sort of acidity and meanness on television between women. There’s a lot of catty sort of making fun of each other. Whenever the writers, and of course it’s their job to write whatever they’re required to write and it’s our job to do it, but we always like to influence the writers at some point to say, “You know what? I would never put her down like that. I would make fun of her knowing that she’s going to laugh at herself, but I would never make her feel bad about herself. I would never steal her man. It’s like those are not women that we want to portray.”

J. Pressly Yes.

K. Finneran We like that they really go along with that. We’re really developing two characters that really love each other and want the best for each other at all times.

J. Pressly And they tell the truth to each other.

K. Finneran Yes.

J. Pressly As softly as possible. Instead of being harsh about things and making, like she said, each other feel bad about the other, it’s more about, “Okay. That didn’t work. It wasn’t your greatest moment, but I’m here. I love you and—“

K. Finneran You need to get up and brush yourself off and move on.

J. Pressly “We’ll do better next time.”

K. Finneran Yes.

J. Pressly It’s a supporting things instead of, like she said, cattiness that you see so much of.

D. Morasco I think it’s the respect that the two of you bounce off of each other. Jaime, I’m surprised. You’re Southern? I thought you had a Bronx accent.

J. Pressly Well, I could if you wanted me to. Don’t get me wrong.

K. Finneran She could if you wanted her to, let me tell you.

D. Morasco My last question is for Jaime. What are the odds of Nicole Eggert taking on a role there?

J. Pressly I don’t know what the odds are because it hasn’t even been discussed. She’s a great girl. I knew her years ago. She used to be a neighbor of mine actually. I haven’t seen her in a very long time, but I have no idea. I mean I guess the odds are as good as any.

D. Morasco It would be nice to see you guys play together. Thank you so much, Katie. Thank you so much, Jaime. I wish you the best of luck.

Moderator A question from the line of Krista Chain of TV Megasite.

K. Chain My question was, out of all the people that could possibly be guest stars on your show, who would you pick to guest star on your show, and what kind of role would they play?

K. Finneran Helen Mirren.

J. Pressly God help us. That would be awesome. You know, I can’t stop thinking that Christine Baranski would just be an incredible addition—

K. Finneran We love her so much.

J. Pressly To play Katie’s mother, Nikki’s mother.

K. Finneran Oh, yes.

J. Pressly I just think she would be incredible, but we’re open, in general, to having anybody who wants to be a part of the show. We only have to do 13 episodes this season because of the format of American Idol and X Factor because we had to come on at such a weird time. Hopefully, going into a second season we’re going to have a different night and we won’t have to be pushed around and worried about when we’re going to come on and at what time slot and moving us around and stuff. It’s kind of been weird this year because they’d never done X Factor, which was the American Idol formula during the fall. It’s always been in the spring.

Hopefully, next year we’ll have the opportunity to have more guest stars, but definitely the first that comes to mind is Christine Baranski because I’ve had the opportunity to work with her on the John Laroquette show Happy Family years ago. She’s just such an incredible presence to have on your set, but I think she is such a perfect fit to play Katie’s mom.

K. Finneran Oh, yes.

K. Chain Okay. My other question, what are some of the differences between the characters you play and yourself in real life?

J. Pressly I was not raised in a super, super religious family. We went to church. My father wasn’t in the military, far from it. I didn’t grow up as conservative and unaware of pop culture as Annie did. Katie, what do you—

K. Finneran Yes. I’m very similar to Nikki. I’m self-deprecating and I like to laugh at myself. I get awkward socially but always try. I know that I was not 300 pounds. I didn’t really have a wright problem growing up.

J. Pressly You didn’t have alopecia or concrete teeth.

K. Finneran Or concrete teeth and I was always kind of well-liked by the other kids, so I don’t know what it feels like to be a social pariah. I do know how it feels wanting to be accepted, so all of those—

J. Pressly Katie was always in the theater groups and stuff. I was as well when I was in North Carolina because my mom was a choreographer for the performing arts department so I was always in and around that theater, that kind, I mean, as opposed to Miss Broadway. We both had to deal with not fitting in so well in certain groups, but we both did also get along with pretty much everybody. We kind of stayed neutral.

K. Finneran Yes.

J. Pressly Neither one of us really had to deal with being, like she said, social pariahs, but did have to deal with not really fitting into a certain box or a certain group.

Moderator Back to you, Michael.

M. Roach Great. That’s all we have time for today and thanks, everyone, for participating in the conference call for I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which again returns to FOX on Tuesday, March 6, at 8:30/7:30 p.m. Central. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Katie and Jaime.

K. Finneran Thanks, everybody.

J. Pressly Thank you.

K. Finneran Bye.

J. Pressly Katie, call me later.

K. Finneran James, I’ll call you. Bye.

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive TeleConference Service. You may now disconnect.

ANNIE and NIKKI GO BACK TO LA ESCUELA ON AN ALL-NEW "I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER" TUESDAY, MARCH 6, ON FOX

MARK CONSUELOS GUEST-STARS

When Sophie tells Annie that she does not care about getting good grades, Annie decides to set an example by taking night classes at the local community college. Nikki joins her in a Spanish class and is surprisingly fluent as she frequently watches telenovelas. Meanwhile, the dads are in charge of getting the girls to finish an important school project in the all-new oeTeenage Escuela episode of I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER airing Tuesday, March 6 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

ANNIE STARTS DATING AGAIN ON AN ALL-NEW "I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER" TUESDAY, MARCH 13, ON FOX

MARK CONSUELOS GUEST-STARS

Annie steps outside of her comfort zone when she accepts a dinner date with her former Spanish instructor, Alex (guest star Mark Consuelos). Meanwhile, an envious Jack runs a background check on Alex and discovers that he is hiding a secret that Jack and Nikki decide Annie needs to know about as soon as possible in the all-new "Teenage Date Night episode of I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER airing Tuesday, March 13 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

JAIME PRESSLY

(Annie on I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER)

Jaime Pressly´s beauty, talent and natural screen presence have earned her a place among Hollywood´s elite. Best known as the feisty "Joy Turner" on "My Name is Earl," she won the Emmy® for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2007. She also received a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.

Pressly´s film credits include "I Love You, Man," "Not Another Teen Movie," "Ticker," "The Adventures of Joe Dirt," "Tomcats," "Ringmaster" and "Can´t Hardly Wait." She will next be seen in "The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" and "6 Month Rule." Her television credits include "Jack and Jill," the made-for-TV movie "Evel Knievel" and oeHappy Family.

Now a published author, Pressly´s first book, "It´s Not Necessarily Not The Truth," talks candidly about the importance of dreaming bigger than the town you´re from.

Born in Kinston, NC, Pressly grew up as a tomboy who loved to water-ski and fish. At age 13, she registered with a local modeling agency and began working consistently. She submitted a photo to an international teen modeling agency, and by age 14, she was gracing the covers of teen magazines. She later became the spokesperson for International Cover Model Search and traveled to Tokyo and Milan.

Pressly resides in Los Angeles with her son, Dezi, who was born in May 2007.

KATIE FINNERAN

(Nikki on I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER)

A seasoned theater actress, Katie Finneran received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance in the recent Broadway revival of "Promises, Promises," as well as Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance in the Broadway revival of "Noises Off."

Her other Broadway credits include "Mauritius," "Cabaret," "The Iceman Cometh," Neil Simon´s "Proposals," "The Heiress," "In the Summerhouse," "My Favorite Year," "Two Shakespearean Actors" and "On Borrowed Time." Off-Broadway, she has appeared in "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," "You Never Can Tell," "Pig Farm," "Arms and the Man," oeEncores!, oeLiTMl Abner, oeBosoms nd Neglect oeA Fair ontry and oeEdith Sein.

Finneran made her London debut in the West End production of David Lindsay-Abaire´s "Fuddy Meers" and her New York Philharmonic debut in an all-star revival of Stephen Sondheim´s "Company."

Her film appearances include "Baby on Board," "Broken Bridges," "Firehouse Dog," "Miss Congeniality 2," "Bewitched," "You´ve Got Mail," "Liberty Heights" and "Night of the Living Dead." Finneran´s television credits include "The Inside," "Wonderfalls," "Bram and Alice," "Frasier" and "Oz."

She currently resides in Los Angeles.

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