Ellie Kemper is on The Bobby Bones Show talking about her new podcast, Born To Love, how she got into improv acting, what being part of The Office cast was like and the emotions she had while filming the series finale.
Born To Love is the new podcast Kemper hosts with longtime friend Scott Eckert. The show interviews various celebrity guests on what they love to do: a hobby, a city, a holiday, a cuisine, the more obscure the better! Bobby Bones was the first guest on the show, and he talked about how he loved to fail because he loves learning from it. Kemper loves when a guest that is known for something comes on, but they talk about something different that they love. Doing a podcast was always a must do for Kemper, especially being able to do it with one of her longest and dearest friends that she loves to perform with. Eckert lives in California and Kemper lives in New York City, so the podcast is an easy thing to accomplish long distance. The main goal they had for the show was for it to be an escape and have it be something fun and joyful where people can come on and bring some joy and light.
Kemper got her start improv acting while she was in college. She was on the field hockey team but didn’t get much playing time and sat on the bench all season, so she quit. Shortly after, she saw her first improv performance and knew it was something she had to try. She auditioned and immediately enjoyed it and knew she was good at it. It was the first time she felt like she belonged and was with a group of likeminded people. Improv takes a lot of vulnerability; you have to have a lot of trust in the people around you so that when you open yourself up, they’ll catch you if you fall.
During her time playing Erin Hannon on The Office, she said there was more room to improvise, but she never did because the cast had been together for so long and knew how to work well together and she didn’t want to come in and make any big waves. She said it was difficult to go into a situation where she was the new person, and everyone had been there for years. When she joined The Office, they had already figured out a winning formula, so she stayed in her lane and didn’t do anything wild. She was brought on to the office for a story arc and luckily, they extended her arc into a story line and made her part of the cast! Kemper would go back and do The Office in a heartbeat. She said in the moment she didn’t realize how special it was until the end. When they filmed the series finale, it was very emotional. Since she joined the cast five seasons in, she felt like a fraud for being so upset about the ending, but she said it was a very emotionally charged episode.
Her new movie, Happiness For Beginners, comes out on Netflix July 27th. It’s based on the book and it’s about an unhappy woman going through a divorce, so she goes on a hike to try and find herself and regain some peace. It’s a really sweet and uplifting story that Kemper enjoyed being a part of.