While new comedies struggle to survive, one is plugging along and gaining a dedicated fan following. On a recent press call, OHSOGRAY asked show stars Ken Marino and Casey Wilson about the secret to success.
Marry Me airs Tuesday nights at 9/8c on NBC.
In describing this show to people, the word “cute” is often used. Is that an appropriate term or does that sound kind of juvenile?
Casey Wilson: I think it is cute. I think it’s – I hope – I think it’s also kind of subversive and has some heart. But I guess maybe if you combine those, we get cute. I’ll take it.
Ken Marino: That’s right. If subversive and heart ran into each other, they would make a cute baby.
Casey Wilson: …you know, at the end of the day we’re hoping it’s funny. But I do think – I think Ken and I and the rest of the cast – I think everyone really does have really great chemistry, which I think is probably why you’re feeling that way. So I think it’s good, yes. And I think it has to be the right chemistry and I think we did get lucky on the show.
Casey, how much of Casey is in Annie and how much of Annie’s in Casey?
Casey Wilson: Annie is a little more upbeat and probably friendlier than I am. No, I think there are definite similarities and I think I’m pretty emotional and I get big ideas and I want to see things through and kind of – they’re often wrong-headed ideas. But I feel as though I’m playing a character but you never know. Maybe I’m not. You’ll never know. Ken, do you want to tell them about your character process?
Ken Marino: Sure. I mean I have a whole process. There’s a big difference between me and Jake. I am actually six foot one. I’m 6-1. Jake is six foot. So every day I have to act an inch shorter on set. And sometime by…
Casey Wilson: It’s very expensive to dig those trenches.
Ken Marino: Yes. Well sometimes if I act too hard, I’m like – I’ll – they’ll get the (daily’s) back and I’ll be 5-8. And then we have to do a whole re-shoot where I have to act less. But, you know, the key to acting is less acting and just reacting. So when I get to the reacting part, I’m usually landing – I’m usually coming in at six foot.
Casey Wilson: And I’ll tell you, these are the kind of pearls that I get showed with all day on set. And it’s really scintillating as everyone on the line can hear.
What stories from your real life relationships are making it on screen or what can we expect to see?
Casey Wilson: Well, I’ll tell one on you Ken.
Ken Marino: Go ahead.
Casey Wilson: Which is that I think it’s more of a runner right now but I’ve heard news that it might turn into more of a full fledged intervention between Annie and Jacob about Jake’s karaoke problem. And that is a problem Ken struggles with.
Ken Marino: It’s not a problem. I have a…
Casey Wilson: You can see that’s the thing. He’s in denial right now.
Ken Marino: There’s no problem whatsoever. I enjoy karaoke. I can do it when I want. And…
Casey Wilson: Who does it hurt? Who does it hurt?
Ken Marino: …it doesn’t (affect the rest of) my life.
Casey Wilson: That’s what he thinks. He thinks it doesn’t hurt anyone. But I know a lot of artists who have been hurt be hearing his renditions. See he can’t get up in the morning. He can barely talk the next day. He can’t go to work. It’s a problem.
Ken Marino: I’m not – look. I’m not going to deny I don’t enjoy a good karaoke like a good four or five hour karaoke session. But who doesn’t?
Casey Wilson: I’m trying to think. Well we did have a – so a few episodes ago where my character or actually Ken’s character tried to get me to do this thing called then open eye cuddle, which is an intimacy exercise that I learned in acting school that I tried to get my husband to do where you stare about two inches from each other’s face and just stare into each other’s eyes. And my husband thought I was insane and refused to do it…it went on about eight seconds. I don’t even think that much. And if anything, we are less close from that experience.
Ken, does your wife feel the need to remind you of things you’ve done that might work on the show?
Ken Marino: She hasn’t yet. I mean, you know, we – she hasn’t said anything that we should put on the show. But she’s constantly reminding me of all my flaws and things that I need to be better at in the house. Like putting my socks in the hamper as opposed to just kind of leaving them close to the hamper. She’s like, “You’d be right next to it. Just get them in there. Why just put them near it? Just get – just – go the extra distance.” Yes. And just like I go close to it and then I drop them there as if like I’ve done enough. The socks will make it the rest of the way. I’m trying to get the – in fact, encourage the socks to make it the rest of the way without me. It hasn’t helped. It hasn’t worked.
Given that both you guys are writers and both you guys are super funny, how much of this is actually scripted and how much is stuff that you come with?
Ken Marino: David and the room full of writers are amazing and they write great scripts. So, you know, we – David will encourage us to improvise off of that a little bit but I mean a lot of it – probably 95% of it is scripted I would say. Right Casey?
Casey Wilson: Yes. Yes. It’s definitely, you know, collaborative in a sense of if there’s something we want to do; we definitely do it and have fun with it. But the scripts are pretty tight, but we – Ken and I have initiated our own writer’s room with just the two of us that…
Ken Marino: We go off…
Casey Wilson: …I wouldn’t say it’s gone over well.
Ken Marino: No, no. They’re not – they’re not a – they’re not big fans of it. But we use – mostly use stuff from line Bazooka Joe bubblegum wrappers…
Casey Wilson: Yes.
Ken Marino: …and just kind of try to reinvent those jokes because those are classics and, you know, I think America wants to kind of enjoy the classics. You can’t get enough of it.
Why do you think she’s so relatable to women?
Casey Wilson: I don’t know if Annie feels exactly the same way. Annie’s a little more high strung and kind of self conscious about how her life should look. But I think that – and it obviously never works out the way she’s planned. But, the show – I’ve seen a little bit of criticism about, you know, especially our opening episode because Annie really wants to get married. But I actually think there’s something a little bit more like … about it in the sense that this couple’s been together for six years and this woman, for a woman who works and kind of does it all, sometimes getting engaged is the one thing you don’t have any control over, which can be kind of frustrating. It is actually relatable that, you kind of – and I know a lot of women like this. You want to be in control of the one thing you kind of can’t be in control of in a way. So I don’t know if that answers your question but I think Annie is a little bit less so in thinking that she – that everything needs to be perfect. She’s does think everything needs to be perfect.
Will you have as long of an engagement as you did a courtship?
Casey Wilson: Yes.
Ken Marino: The idea is that we’re going to – we’re going to marry, sooner than later. Right Casey? No?
Casey Wilson: Yes. I think we’re probably going to get married at the end of the season because I don’t think the show’s going to be about, will they, won’t they really. That’s kind of a spoiler alert. I think we will get married. The show’s more following this couple and their friendships and kind of – I think it’s more about what happens when you are committed to someone than when you are on the fence.
Have you guys ever received a script and there’s some humor in there that I wouldn’t say is inappropriate but maybe we haven’t seen on network TV before and you think how are we going to get away with this and maybe if you could talk about that.
Ken Marino: It’s always nice to read a script and see something that you haven’t seen before or something that’s pushing the envelope a little bit. That’s always exciting for me to kind of go in and do that. Whether or not it’s going to work on TV is kind of out of hands. I mean I – it’s just an exciting thing to, you know, approach and do and then, you know, you hope especially if it’s funny, you hope that it gets on the air. We’ve been kind of – I don’t know if we’ve been pushing the envelope or anything, but we’re doing what we want to do on the show and then that stuff is getting out there and I think that’s what makes the show special.
Casey Wilson: Yes. There’s obviously so much programming and so many great cable shows that people love and gravitate to, in some way we’re trying to do a show that exists on the line as much as we can just because I think there’s a reason people love something a little bit edgier. And I think in one episode – Ken, I’m thinking of the fertility episode. There was a scene that came – I think the network had the show was going to air like halfway through the season instead of earlier because it was a little too much. But I think ultimately it’s better to try that and see where we land.
There are lots of references to Skinny Girl and the Housewives. Do you guys watch the Housewives and if so, which one is you favorite? How do you like Skinny Girl?
Casey Wilson: I am an obsessive Housewives watcher and really love the show and was part of like a Housewives spoof show and just really – I’m both ashamed and unashamed of my love for them. I watch all the franchises. I love – I do love Orange County and New York the best, followed by Beverly Hills.
Ken Marino: Do you drink Skinny Girl?
Casey Wilson: Oh yes of course. Dan Bucatinsky plays my dad also on the Housewives so we did a little improv in a couple episodes ago. In terms of Skinny Girl Margarita, we’ve put it in a couple times because I love it. I finally did – I’ve never done this before but I did tweet Bethenny Frankel and say, “Not for nothing. We’ve mentioned you twice. Can we get some?” We did on Friday we got – it was so good. I’m horrified that I did that. I don’t know what happened to me that day. And we got a huge box…we got some for the office. This poor woman. I basically bullied her into like donating her product to us.
Ken Marino: I don’t watch the show but I did get very drunk on the Skinny Girl.
Now that you’ve heard so much about the Housewives Ken, will you start watching them?
Ken Marino: Actually the truth is I started watching Housewives and I just – it’s just a very hard show. When the fights break out, I get very uncomfortable and I can’t – I have to walk away. It’s just too much for me.
Casey Wilson: Well see Ken is a Bachelor fan and I can’t watch that show because I feel so uncomfortable. But it’s funny that we’ll both – we’ll not watch the other one.
Ken Marino: I just – I like the saccharin and the gooeyness of Bachelor and how just gross and like falsely romantic it is. Whereas like the Real Housewives is just like raw and like – it’s just – it’s the fights that get me. It’s just I can’t – very uncomfortable for me.
Casey Wilson: Whereas yes, I can’t watch people like stumble over matters of the heart. I can’t watch it.
There have been some recent comedy show cancellations. Do you feel like comedies have a harder road to success than dramas? And how have you felt about the reception that Marry Me has gotten so far?
Casey Marino: It’s very hard these days to make any television show. Anyone who’s trying to do anything should be applauded. It’s really hard. I don’t think shows are given enough of a chance. And it’s a bummer because whenever I see anything on TV, and not to be too dramatic, but those people worked really hard on that show no matter how you feel about it. So I was bummed.
Ken Marino: And I think it’s been nice the reception that Marry Me’s been getting. I feel like it’s – people have been responding mostly positive to it and both critically and they’re just, you know, fans and people I run up to on the street and certainly my mom.
Casey Wilson: Ken’s mom loves it.
Ken Marino: My mom really loves it. So that’s good. You know, so does my dad. It’s nice to see that people are enjoying the show as much as we are enjoying making it.
You guys have such great comedic timing. Is it something that’s always been natural to each of you?
Ken Marino: I don’t know. I mean I just – it’s always been fun to kind of joke around and I’ve always enjoyed comedy. So I don’t know if it’s natural. It just – I’ve kind of been around – I think we’ve both been running around in circles, you know, with friends who are comedians and actors who are, you know, comics and it just maybe kind of rubbed off on us. I don’t know. Casey.
Casey Wilson: Yes. I agree. I don’t know. I think that’s a hard question only just because – I don’t know. I think it’s just – I don’t know. Maybe just sort of habit from growing up. I’m not sure.
Ken Marino: Yes. I – we’re huge fans of comedy and have studied comedy growing up and throughout our lives. I think that we try to, you know, we want to – we want to do it because we enjoy it.
Casey Wilson: Yes. I always think like I wish growing up I’d been more into more subtle like actresses. I only watch like the broadest things and so my timing is so broad and it’s probably just, you know, mimicry.
Casey, what do you think it is about the show that’s made it such a quick fan favorite program?
Casey Wilson: Well, I’m happy to hear that. I mean I think – I don’t know. I think there is something nice. I like shows about a relationship because right away there’s some stakes to that and most people are in a relationship of some sort and especially a long-term one. There’s so much that goes on in it that’s funny. It’s kind of nice to see that. Obviously it’s a sitcom and it’s a comedy. But I don’t know. I think there’s something very relatable and kind of it gives you a bit of a warm feeling but also you’re getting jokes out of it. So I hope that’s why people like it.
Dan Marino: Yes. And I think that people – I know I do like when I watch TV. It’s nice to have a couple that you can root for, you know, as opposed to, you know, something where it’s like will they, won’t they; are they going to get together, are they not going to get together. I like shows where like there’s a team that are, you know, they’re against the world. I feel like with Jake and Annie are a team that you get to watch every week and enjoy kind of the situations that they get into. That’s the exciting thing.