This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. You know Kate Flannery from a lot of great
sitcoms, also Dancing with the Stars, Brooklyn nine nine nine, American House
Yeah, Brooklyn ninety nine, ABC's American Housewife, and most notably on NBC's
The Office as the fan favorite. She is also in a new movie that
is out now called The Prank Kate Flannery Welcome, Hey, how are you
good to have you along today? This movie is out now and it's got
a lot of star power along with the great Kate Flannery. Yes, I'm
proud to say that I'm doing a movie with Rita Moreno, the great Oscar
winning, amazing legend, ninety two years old, hilariously funny and smart.
Yeah, I'm the luckiest person I know this week. Well, there's also
a lot of other great talent too that is in this film, including Keith
David, Meredith Salinger. We haven't seen a lot of her in a long
time, and also Betsy Soidoro, so we see her everywhere. But your
role in this film is as Loretta. Who is Loretta in relation to the
characters. Well, Loretta is the lunch lady, and this is a high
school dark comedy horror movie. And let me tell you, you don't want
to make the lunch lady mad when you're in high school because it will be
in your experience not at all. Yeah, so there's Yeah, this is
a really fun movie. It's kind of a buddy movie with two platonic friends
in high school who are angry at their physics teacher played by Rita Moreno,
and they're trying to figure out a way to get back at her for being
really nasty to everybody in class. So yeah, it's a really fun ride.
The whole thing. It's kind of a little bit of everything that the
crowd was. You know, if you see this movie, people get very
vocal. It's really fun. They clap and there's things that are scary and
funny, and it's kind of like a Long Island iced tea. It's got
everything in it. And Kate Flannery. The name of the movie, by
the way, is The Prankts Out. Now Kate Flannery is and you know
her from the office. When you you're very good at playing kind of an
anti character and all I can think of is you must pay attention to everybody
you come in contact with to steal a little bit of that of that idiosyncrasy
to put into your characters. Well, this is You're not wrong. I'm
from a big family. I'm one of seven kids. My dad owned a
bar. There were a lot of characters at my dad's bar, so it
was a great place to learn. And yeah, and then I was so
fortunate to go to Chicago after college, and I had five great years in
Chicago, and I worked at Second City with some of the greatest people on
earth and just had great training and great fun. And I don't know,
I'm really really lucky. I love improv, and I love all of the
folks that come out of Second City. I was watching and paying attention to
Second City years ago, So I'm glad to hear that. Is that where
you ran into Jane Lynch. I know you've done a lot of work with
her. Yeah, Jane was one of the first people I met when I
got to Chicago. And now Jade and I have a Christmas album, so
we actually do a live tour every Christmas. We also have a non Christmas
show We've done at the Carlisle of New York and we've played the Kennedy Center.
We've played a lot of places, but we definitely do a big tour
every Christmas. And you can get our music on iTunes. It's called a
Swinging Little Christmas. It's really fun. Kate Flannery with us and the movie
that is she is in now is called and Out Now, It's called The
Prank. What did you know that Marita Morena was going to be in the
you would co starring with her in this before you took the job or was
it a nice surprise? It was a nice surprise. They were trying to
get her. And I've worked with this director before, Maure and Brucha we
worked on a movie, a female comedy about arm wrestlers, female arm wrestlers
called Golden Arm. It's on Netflix. So Lareen's she's such a great director,
and we were so excited that Rita Marino was willing to join this project
and a spearheaded she plays the most evil physics teacher and she's so funny and
so scary. She's fantastic. I remember my physics teacher from high school.
He wasn't evil, he was just quirky, and to this day, I
say to my wife, how far is it from such and such to such
and such. Let's find out. Let's use the distance formula, because that
was my physics teacher's favorite thing to do. And it always stays with you.
I mean, yeah, yeah, so awesome. I always say the
Office is very much like being in a classroom where Michael Scott's kind of like
the teacher and you're second to desk next Dwight. You know, it's somebody
did all the same room all the time. I was going to ask about
that because the Office was kind of an import from Britain. And you go
and watch the British version, and then I watched the American version. I
find the American version funnier. Maybe it's because of the cultural references being American,
maybe, but I think that the I think the American version is a
little kinder. I think we Michael Scott has more heart than the British David
Brent. I think David we only got thirteen episodes of the British, so
we never got to see David Bran's heart, but Michael Scott we had.
You know, he was on for seven seasons. You saw him fall in
love, you saw him get hurt, you know, in all those you
know human he was more of a human being. I think that that sort
of fake reality show, the way they shoot the Office and other Yeah,
yeah, that. I don't know if that changed comedy or refined it.
But you've been in a lot of common money over the years. What do
you think. I think it changed, especially just the half hour. You
know, Abbot Elementary really speaks to It has some roots in the Office for
sure, and I think my family and there's a lot of shows that that
have a similar that kind of I took it to the next level because of
the Office. Well, and my lovely wife is she can't watch some of
the episodes because of the cringe worthiness of many of the of the content.
I find it vastly entertaining because I've been through enough of those myself, and
I think that's why everybody else feels that way and enjoyed the show so much.
Absolutely, I think I think younger kids really plug in. I think
they're really smart, and I think they understand the subtleties of the comedy and
the discomfort and the cringe. I think they there. I mean, if
you're smart enough to get it, you can watch the same episode of the
Office over and over again and find something else funny that you missed because maybe
you were laughing one moment. You know, there's all these kind of little
Easter eggs and things going on in the background, and you know it's it's
it's a great show to rewatch. Kate Flannery is with us. Her newest
that you will want to watch is called The Prank. It's out now everywhere
you get your movies and in theaters. A lot of your characters have to
be made down, not made up, made down, Kate Flannery. I
think it's the mark of a true actor or actress if they don't mind being
made down and can can get into that character. Does it Does it bother
you to be made down? Absolutely not. I'm happy to represent the Unford
people on planet or let's do it, you know. I think The Opposility
was one of the first shows to show people really Also, you know,
that's why I did Dancing with the Stars, so I got tons of makeup.
I was like, yeah, I want the opposite experience, so I
I that was really fun. And uh, it's fun to wear a lot
of makeup and sparkles. But it's really fun to wear, you know,
really boring clothes. Kate Flannery, The movie is The Prank at Stars,
also Rita Moreno, Meredith Salager and many other greats. You'll enjoy it.
It's a great way to enjoy and start spring out now everywhere you get movies.
And thank you for joining us, Kate Flannery so much. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation