How Aubrey Plaza made herself seem “insane” for an audition: “I went full method, and it was bad”
Between her role as the sharp and snarky April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation, appearances in firm indie favourites Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Black Bear, and her Emmy-nominated performance in HBO’s The White Lotus, Aubrey Plaza has proven her range across comedy and drama. Along the way, she’s become one of the most well-loved names in acting.
Her quirky, blunt personality off-screen has been just as integral to Plaza’s success as her carefully selected filmography. Between awkward red carpet interactions and relentlessly candid interview responses, Plaza became an indie internet darling. But Plaza’s quirks extend beyond interviews and the internet into the audition room.
When she was auditioning for Wes Craven’s entry into the Scream series, Scream 4, Plaza recalled that she made herself seem insane. During an interview with Hits Radio, she revealed how a miscommunication and some misjudged method acting robbed her of the part.
Plaza stated that she was rejected “constantly” early into her career but that it “fuelled” her before explaining the particularly embarrassing rejection at the hands of Craven. Before she auditioned, she was told that she would be playing a character that “eventually you find out is the killer” – presumably Jill Roberts, a role that was actually landed by Emma Roberts.
When she was auditioning, Plaza took this information to mean that she should play the part as a killer. She extended this to her look: “I was… thinking, ‘Alright, I’m gonna dress like the killer’.” As she recalls it, she went in looking “terrible” and “frumpy” because “I thought… I’m a murderer.”
While Plaza had committed to playing a murderer, her competitors, as she recalled, looked “glamorous… they all looked great”. Meanwhile, Plaza remembers that she “looked insane.” Far from respecting her commitment to the part, the casting directors were unimpressed with Plaza’s look: “They were like, the whole point is that we’re not supposed to know that you’re the killer and you pretty much just look like a murderer right away.”
Expectedly, she didn’t land the part, concluding: “Anyway, I blew that one… Didn’t make it very far. I went full method and it was bad. Really bad idea.” Plaza may not have secured a killer role in the Scream franchise, but she landed a role as the murderous titular zombie character in Life After Beth just three years later.
While Plaza’s method acting was a hindrance rather than a help, it also provides another example of her commitment to her art and endearingly quirky personality.
