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Andrea Martin Talks Working the Engels

By Jamie Ruby

Andrea MartinNBC recently premiered their new family comedy Working the Engels. The series follows a family that must work together to work their father's storefront law firm after he passes away. The caveat is daughter Jenna (Kacey Rohl) is the only one actually qualified. She must work with her eccentric family, including mother Ceil, played by Andrea Martin, to keep the law firm running.

The actress recently talked to the digital media about the new series.

NBC Conference Call
Working the Engels
Andrea Martin

July 9, 2014
1:00 p.m. ET

Andrea MartinQUESTION: How was your character originally described to you?

ANDREA MARTIN: As an overly protective, overbearing mama bear is how I remember it.

QUESTION: And have you added anything to her that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

ANDREA MARTIN: I probably took away something. I think they originally wrote it maybe with a harder edge, or maybe much more narcissistic to the sake of being narcissistic and I probably softened that a bit that – and instead of being narcissistic, I wanted her to live through her kids. So they became her focus, as opposed to her becoming her own focus.

QUESTION: And since you are a part of Twitter, are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you’ll be receiving, once the episodes begin airing?

ANDREA MARTIN: Oh well, I don’t know, I don’t know, I haven’t experienced that before. I’m in Portugal right now, so it’s kind of surreal to have a show premiere and me be in Lisbon and I’m just – I don’t quite know how it’s all going to work, but I’m happy for any attention.

(Laughter)

QUESTION: What was about this character that made you want to play her?

ANDREA MARTIN: I think – but really primarily with the fact that I identified with being a mom of two grown kids and I have two sons – they’re 31 and 33. So I really understood the pitfalls of being a mother with two grown sons and still trying to be in their life, or enabling them, or being way too consumed about their lives when they’re grown men. So I thought that it was relatable, and also I thought I could make that funny, because I understood it.

QUESTION: Makes sense. And let me ask you, what do you find to be the most challenging thing about making the series?

ANDREA MARTIN: About making the series? Well, that’s interesting. What did I find the most challenging thing?

Wow. Well, this is kind of pathetic, but I guess the hours, because the last time I – the television series – it was four cameras. This is single camera so – and we shot it in Toronto. And we shot it during the winter, so the hours were extremely long, like 5:00 a.m. calls, and kind of like 11 o’clock we’d be home and you (would) have to drive through the snow to get home.

Andrea Martin(Laughter)

So I think the schedule was challenging. But once I got on the set, I just was voracious. I love that kind closed set and I love the cast and so it was – it really –huge creative outpourings because it was just so isolated in Toronto; there were no distractions.

So on one hand, it took a long time to commute, but on the other hand it made for a very spontaneous comedy because there were very few distractions.

QUESTION: So, given your background, how tough is it for you not to want to rewrite some of your lines? Or do you get to pitch in? And how much is scripted and how much is ad lib?

ANDREA MARTIN: I think that probably 90 percent was scripted and 10 percent was ad libs when the cameras were on. But I would say there was an enormous amount of collaboration before we started filming.

So, we do a table read. And then I might say, “I don’t understand something, or maybe we could do this and maybe we can change this a bit.” And so I knew going in that I had been listened to, and we’d all been listened to and maybe changes have been made, so it did feel very free and collaborative.

QUESTION: The family dynamics, did you guys do anything off-set to get that bond? Or was it all through the table reads?

ANDREA MARTIN: You know, that’s a really great question. That was an insanely quick sense of intimacy with these kids and me. We had one dinner party, and then we did a table read, and then I think we had another little dinner, the producers threw for the whole – you know, everybody creatively involved.

I just think it was very instant chemistry, and everybody comments on that it seems like we’ve known each other for a long time or it does seem like a family. And it really felt like that immediately; sometimes that happens. I don’t know if it’s because it was in Canada, but it did feel really smooth and trusting, I guess, from the very beginning.

QUESTION: How much did working on Working the Engels feel like coming full circle for you, having started out with SCTV in Toronto?

ANDREA MARTIN: Gosh, it was so – it did feel completely full circle, because we were actually shooting the series maybe five minutes away from the studio that we shot SCTV in, and it was Toronto, of course, and I have a house in the same place, same area, that I used to have a house in doing SCTV, so the route to work was the same. So it was like a flashback, a kind of surreal flashback.

Andrea MartinHowever, once we were on the set, it seemed really different because it was a single camera, and we shot SCTV with four cameras, and those are the days you used to – maybe it was just because we were writing and acting and everything, where we used to do a scene, look at the monitor, corrected ourselves, go back, do it again. So that was really strange, and not being able to see myself and go back and, when we do something, or try to make it funnier. It was really shot like a film, and in that way it had changed, but there was a lot of familiarity for sure.

QUESTION: Shooting a series that’s originally meant for Canadian television, but then sold to the States. Does the climate in terms of having a series shot abroad, even if it is Canada, and then sold in the States, does it feel different? Does it feel the same, a generation later?

ANDREA MARTIN: There’s a huge difference, obviously, shooting something in Toronto as opposed to New York or L.A. where I’d shot other series. There’s just really no distractions; it’s all about the work. And in that way it’s fabulous. That’s how we shot SCTV. We were really isolated from media or networks. (Laughter)

That’s not nice to say, but we had a little bit more freedom, obviously. So in that way, it was really just about the work, and really, there’s nothing better than that. The fact that this is actually how SCTV was done too, we shot it in Canada, not thinking it was going to be on NBC, and then it was on NBC.

Gosh, isn’t that something? NBC? I just put that together. How about that? Off were the days of Brandon Tartikoff – may he rest in peace. He’s such a supporter of the show. And I think Bob Greenblatt is a huge supporter too. So, yes, there are similarities for sure.

QUESTION: You have a great comedic timing. Is it something that’s natural to you? Or is it something you’ve worked at home?

ANDREA MARTIN: I think that my timing is natural. I think it’s really hard to teach timing. I think people can be funny, for sure. Beautiful actors who have only done drama can be funny, and that depends on the material. But I think timing – I think you’re born with it, actually.

QUESTION: And what do you think it is about Working the Engels that will make it a fan favorite show?

ANDREA MARTIN: Yes. Well, I think it’s a fabulously, cozy, intimate, fun, broad; sometimes it’s physically comedic, other times, I think relatable between the mom and the kids at other times, and I think it’s a wonderful way to spend an evening in the summertime. I think it’s relatable, approachable, light, and funny. So I hope people will feel the same way.

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