Tituss Burgess and Carol Kane Interview
As a kid, I don’t recall meeting anyone famous. My first memorable encounter with a celebrity was Joe DiMaggio back in our days of trading sports cards and memorabilia. I was in awe of that era of players, reminiscing back to my childhood and my first years of playing on a hardball team. When my turn finally arrived for the autograph from this legend, I smiled and made some kind of friendly comment as I do with anyone I meet. I was shocked and dismayed by his curt response and how impersonal he was. That is putting it kindly, too.
It is my nature to give all people the benefit of the doubt and assume the best until they prove me wrong. I’ve greeted celebrities with my same Midwestern friendliness as I did with DiMaggio and seldom have I been let down. As examples, Kyle MacLachlan was charming and down-to-earth, Jordan Fisher and Chrissy Fit were kind and sweet while Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh were humble about their talents. Time after time, I’ve encountered people who are filled with talent but not with themselves.
This past Thursday I had the opportunity to visit New York with a handful of other Netflix Stream Team members to screen the first couple season 2 episodes of the Netflix original, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Immediately following the viewing, we were treated to a Q&A session with the lovely Carol Kane and the amazing Tituss Burgess.
As I said, I let my positive attitude set the stage for my initial impression but nothing could have prepared me for their demeanor during the question and answer session. Not only were they professionally courteous to each other in allowing the other to continue on with as lengthy answer as they wanted, but they were complimentary toward each other and both extremely humble. Despite the young age of the show itself, these are critically acclaimed, award-winning actors! See for yourself:
One of the first questions was directed at Tituss Burgess regarding the popular episode which included “Peeno Noir.” Curious about the genesis of the song, Tituss replied that he was as baffled as everyone else. As they got closer and closer to time to film, he had more questions.
He said “I kept asking for like the melody… and the tempo… and they’re like ‘Ah no. It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re going to be fine. We’re just going to, you know, just gonna roll with it.'” When it came time to film, he came up with the melody, they kept throwing out words that rhymed with “are” and the result is what we have today.
The song was such a hit and outcries from social media inspired Tituss to come out with an actual, real wine called “Pinot By Tituss“. We had a chance to sample it at the after party and even though I’m not a red wine connoisseur (I prefer sweet wines), I found it to be really good!
The moderator inquired about the backstory of Carol Kane’s character, Lillian Kaushtupper. Carol was humorous in her answer, sharing some of what she knew. She indicated that the backstory is still a mystery, even to the actors. She said “I have a backstory that I don’t know anything about. Right? I mean, we don’t know. We just read these things at the table read and half the time, I think I speak for both of us, and Ellie, half the time we have no idea what we’re talking about.”
Both actors gave credit to their very talented writers for the humor, the content and the success. Even when presented with questions regarding how talented they are, they redirected the attention to the other. Over and over again, these two astounded us with their wit and charm. Watch the video then tune in on April 15th when Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is available to stream on Netflix!
You can get updates and details by following the show on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Engage with Tituss Burgess on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well!
Have you watched all of season 1 yet? Which character is your favorite?
The video, the photos and the descriptions, well now that’s some fun! Thank you for sharing that experience! I totally love your website, keep it up with the great work!
Zaria
Thank you for the kind words, Zaria. It was a great experience. The new season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is going to be great and I can’t wait to share more about it closer to the release date!
I saw some stuff about this and was very interested in how it went! Glad it was fun. Your photos and video are fabulous. Thanks for sharing!
These sound like two people I would love to meet and get to know. New Yorkers have a reputation which is undeserved for the most part. We are as friendly and helpful as can be. Lost–just stop and ask any person and they will try to be helpful even if they don’t speak your language. We may seem like we are in non stop motion and unapproachable–but we will stop if prompted. This sounds like it was a great interview and I will certainly try to watch this show!
I love Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — glad you got to do this! I can’t wait for the new season to start (9 more days!)
I think Kimmy is my favorite character. She is so full of life and just has this innocence about her that I love.
Your photos are so good! I am so excited for the new season!!! I adore Kimmy!
I love Carol Kane.She is so funny!
What a great experience, sharing their interview was fun to read. Appreciate that share.
I’ve not seen the first season yet, so I’ll have to catch up. This sounds like a great opportunity and interview!
Amazingly I have not heard of any these women! Sounds like you had a great experience!
I like Carol Kane. Sounds like a great interview.
If I met Tituss, I would die. DIE, I tell you! He is absolutely my favorite character. Although I will admit that for a minute there, I thought you were taking a picture with Randy Jackson from American Idol!