How did I ever get to meet Leslie Grossman, the talented actress who plays Mary Cherry on Popular? I accomplished this the old-fashioned way. I stalked her manager.
More precisely, I stalked her manager's secretary. Well, actually, first I worked some of my vast Hollywood insider connections and got the name of her publicist. I called her several times, and then her secretary called me back to say that Leslie Grossman was no longer with her. But she gave me the name and number of her current manager, so I was in business.
Well, not really. After two months of leaving messages with the secretary of Leslie Grossman's current manager, I finally got a call back -- from the secretary, not the manager -- telling me to fax her a formal request. I have no idea what they mean in show biz by a "formal request," so I just wrote this impassioned letter to Leslie's manager telling her what the character Mary Cherry means to us on MBTV and what joy it would bring us to talk to the actress who created her. I figured that in a month or so I'd actually get to speak to Leslie's manager herself, and then by Christmas I would actually have contact with Leslie Grossman.
That night, my cell phone rang. I was expecting a call from this guy I've just started seeing, so I picked up and tried to sound breezy. "Is this Gustave?" said the unfamiliar female voice on the other end. "Uh, yeah," I said, a bit stupefied that someone was calling me "Gustave" in a non-online situation. "It's Leslie Grossman. I got your fax."
It seemed that Leslie actually was quite eager to talk to us. It also seemed that someone -- well, actually me -- had speculated that Leslie had lied about her age. "I am twenty-eight years old. I will send you a copy of my birth certificate. Plus, if I'm going to lie about my age, I'd totally be twenty-two. Otherwise, what's the point?" Although Leslie doesn't own a computer and has never been online, Ryan Murphy, Popular's executive producer, prints out the recaps and forums and distributes it to the cast.
After some fast diplomacy on my part, we started playing Jewish geography. She went to Sarah Lawrence with a cousin of mine. ("That was your cousin? I was obsessed with her. She was such a freak!") I had gone to college with a friend of hers. Having established that I wasn't a stalker or a malicious gossip, she agreed to an interview without any forbidden questions. ("I can always tell you to fuck off.") She called me the day from her beach house, where she was enjoying a rare day off from shooting. As you can see, she is a very good sport.
MBTV: What are you doing right this second?
Leslie Grossman: This must be the most clichd L.A. answer. I am sitting outside on the beach. Literally.
Talking on your cordless phone?
Talking on my cordless phone. Not my cell phone, which would make it worse -- but my cordless phone.
What kind of cell phone do you have?
I have a Nokia.
Do you like it?
It's okay but it's not glamorous enough for me. I want that little silver Nokia one. What are those, like, $900?
I think they are.
Yeah, I want one of those. I gotta get someone to give it to me for free, though.
Do you get a lot of free stuff?
Some stuff -- but never stuff I WANT. Like, I haven't had anyone from Versace calling me up offering me clothes. Like, if I go to an event, I can easily get something for free. Mostly I get a lot of free Nike, which, don't get me wrong -- it's fine, but I don't do a lot of exercising.
So what other interests or hobbies do you have, besides LYING ABOUT YOUR AGE?
Fuck you. Okay, what is wrong with everyone who is logging onto your website? I get so many phone calls from people who say I'm thirty years old. I am twenty-eight. I swear. So please just write that I am twenty-eight years old, my birthday is October 25, 1971. And there's records that show it. There are L.A. County birth records that have my real age on them. And I haven't lied about my weight. Make that clear to everybody!
Okay, on to the show. What happened to the singer on the back of the pickup truck?
[laughs] Sydney Forest is a wonderful singer-songwriter and really wonderful sweet person. I just think it wasn't working. People didn't like it. We loved Sydney but it just didn't work -- and people seemed to get a little angry about it. It was hard for Ryan because he loved her and he loved the idea.
As you can tell, the show started off in one direction and took a dramatic turn around episode seven -- the homecoming episode. That's when things got significantly wackier. That's when Delta came in for her first guest appearance. That's when Ryan was finally like, "Look, I'm just going to write what I think is funny and what I'm interested in." I still think he manages to do things that are touching and important but I think that he got comfortable with his own voice in the show. The show was originally about the two girls, Sam and Brooke and that's how the WB pushed it -- especially the way it's advertised. In my opinion -- and this is not because I'm a humble supporting player -- I really do believe that the show is a complete ensemble cast. I mean, if you look at our work schedules, there's no one who works significantly less than anyone else. We all are there everyday. And we're all busting our tushes. Like on Ally McBeal, she's in every scene because it's all about her. But this show is about everybody. And we've seen that develop, especially during the second half of last season.
And it doesn't seem like anyone has become a "star" as a result of being on Popular. When people talk about the show they say, "Oh, I love Mary Cherry" or "Nicole rocks" but no one says "I love Leslie Grossman" or "Tammy Sue Baker rocks" or -- well, off the top of my head, I can't even think of names of the actresses who play Sam and Brooke, even though, frankly, it's my job to know this.
I know -- and that's really nice. I think that we're all pretty respectful of each other. In the beginning there was definitely a feeling that it was a vehicle for Sam and Brooke, and when you watch the pilot, I'm technically a guest star and I have, like, one line. And I really felt like was going to be lucky if I get to move on with the show and I was really happy to see that nobody got crushed or pushed to the side. I think everybody has been well represented.
Do you get recognized on the street? Was there a certain point when you realized that you'd become famous? Are you famous?
Well, here's the funny thing: number one, I don't hang out in places where there are a lot of pre-teen girls. You know, particularly because I'm SO OLD. But what's interesting is that everybody gets recognized all the time except me. And I'm not kidding. I mean, obviously Carly [Pope] and Leslie [Bibb] get recognized, but Tammy gets mobbed all the time, Tamara Mello gets mobbed, Sara RueI literally have been asked for my autograph three times. It's really not a big deal and it really hasn't changed my life. The most that will happen is a little girl will look at me for a second and think that I'm a camp counselor that she had once or something and then look away. The nice thing is that adults -- who are my peers -- will come up to me and say, "I think your show is so funny" or "me and my friends will get together Thursday nights and watch the show" and that's really nice. The show does well but we're not ER. There aren't thirty million people watching.
Mary Cherry Speaks
The show has a cult following, though.
Yeah, it does, and that makes me happy because everything I've ever liked in my life has been something that has been "culty." I just love John Waters, for instance. And this is the most "John Waters" a television show is going to get. It really hasn't changed my life all that much except for the fact that I'm really busy all the time.
I wonder if that's because your character is such a character. You probably look physically different when you're not "on."
Yeah, and I dress nothing like the character, I don't look anything like her and I don't wear make-up and I think you're right -- there's a certain way I carry myself when I start doing her that's totally different -- not to be too "actor-y."
You don't sound anything like her. You've really created a character.
And I always imagine every dialogue coach in the world just cringing when they hear me speak, because I am in no way attempting to do any authentic Southern accent. You've got to be kidding me. I'm trying to do the worst Southern accent you've ever heard in your life. And I even want to mix a little Baltimore in there. I have as much fun with it as I can. It's like a foreign language. Hence the Latka in my life.
Mary Cherry seems to have changed, albeit in a subtle way. She begins the season as a born-again Christian who Nicole calls, "Sweet as sugar." You almost seem like a dumb blonde. And then the religious aspect of the character seems to take a back seat to your ambition and murderous impulses. Was that something that changed over time? Or is that something that was always there that you were slowly bringing out?
Well, I've got to tell you: Ryan Murphy is such a collaborator and really listened to everything I ever said, and he'd ask me all the time for input. I mean, I hate actors who think that their opinion actually means something. You pretend for a living. Will you shut up and let the writers do their job? Most actors haven't graduated high school.
I don't like to be too much of a talker. I like to just be directed and I like to just read what is written for me. But Ryan really made it clear to me that he was really receptive to me coming up with my own ideas and coming to him with stuff, and he and I are very close friends outside of work so we spend a lot of time together. So when we're out at lunch or whatever, it comes up and we just say to each other, "Wouldn't it be neat if Mary Cherry did this?" "Wouldn't it be hilarious if Mary Cherry did that."
It's really just out of having a really fun conversation. And I'll do anything. They know I'll do anything -- I've looked really disgusting. I had to eat gross dead old lobster. I've had to do a lot of disgusting stuff. There's a really funny gag that I'm not going to tell you about that we just did on this last episode. Let's just sayI have to get a mold of my face done. He knows I'll do anything and he knows I love to do it.