“It took me so long to get here. So much struggling and discounting myself. My dreams truly came true in a way that I occasionally can’t even believe.” – D’Arcy Carden
Upright Citizens Brigade veteran D’Arcy Carden earned an Emmy Award nomination for her role as Janet on The Good Place and also received positive reviews for her performances on Broad City and Barry. However, the Amazon Prime series A League of Their Own has given Carden the opportunity to step into a leading role in a series. In the series — a remake of the popular 1992 film — Carden plays Greta Gill, one of the star players of the all-women’s professional baseball team. Carden spoke to Variety about how different the role is from her previous work and why she is grateful for the opportunity.
Carden admits she was intimidated by her role in A League of Their Own because it was a type of character she hasn’t portrayed before. She explains, “I haven’t played sultry. This is out of my comfort zone. I’m so used to playing the weirdo goofball. I started looking at cool actors’ performances. My little secret is that I was like, ‘This character is George Clooney.’ Greta’s cool. And she’s sexy, but she’s not trying too hard. How would a guy play her? I don’t know how to play ‘sexy woman.’ I know how to play ‘cool guy.’ She’s almost zero percent goofy. I can’t settle into my tricks. But I was like, I think I have to do something like this in order to shake off every comment on my Instagram being, ‘not a girl!’”
One welcome change for Carden from her role in The Good Place is wardrobe — whereas Janet wore the same costume in every episode, Greta wears period-appropriate costumes. She says, “It was such a new thing for me to go into my trailer and be like, ‘What do we get to wear today? How will this inform the character?”
Overall, Carden feels pride over the opportunities she has had over the last several years. She reveals, “These last six or seven years, between The Good Place and Barry, and now A League of Their Own, it’s hard to put it into words. It took me so long to get here. So much struggling and discounting myself. My dreams truly came true in a way that I occasionally can’t even believe. I just feel beyond grateful.” Adding with a laugh, she says, “It’s impossible to talk about this s*** without sounding cheesy!”
