Comic-Con: Dorian Brown plays Elijah Wood‘s uptight sister, Kristen, on the FX comedy, Wilfred.
Wait, did I say uptight? Not so much this season, thanks to new showrunners, Eli Jorne and Reed Agnew. Kristen said in a roundtable interview at Comic-Con that she’s happy that her character “lightened up” this year. “I did feel like a Debbie Downer on everything. But this was fun for me.”
Her character has a sense of humor this year and she is loving playing that new aspect of Kristen.
In the interview, she also chats about what it’s like to have new showrunners, her theories on Wilfred and what it’s like not knowing what will happen with her character.
Wilfred airs on Thursdays at 10 on FX
Do you enjoy where they’ve been taking your character?
Dorian Brown: I do. Well, I’m glad I lightened up. I did feel like a Debbie Downer on everything. But this was fun for me, for sure. And exploring the unemployed mom aspect of everything and also having a sense of humor about everything. It felt very odd for me to tell jokes and have a good time, so that was fun. And having to justify why I was at that point in my life, having a sense of humor, was fun also because I would see jokes I’m like, “What? Why am I loosening up now?” But, yeah, so it was a lot of fun for me.
At the beginning of the season did they sit you down and tell you the general direction it’s gonna go?
Dorian Brown: No, and I wish… I wish… because literally I’m getting the… we had, I think, the first… I can’t remember now, three scripts to table read right before we started, and that’s the only table reading we ever get. And I got them and I was like, “Oh, ok. That explains a little,” and then I get more scripts.
And then I finally called Eli and Reed because they were the new show runners and I didn’t know, you know, it was a new thing. So I called I was like, “So what’s going on with Kristen? Because I’m not really in the first half?” So they were like, “Oh, big family stuff, don’t you worry.” We had already started shooting, I was like, “Oh, ok. Good.” So I… nobody tells me anything. I have to ask. And I hope… if we do get picked up for a fourth I’m gonna be like, “So, beforehand, tell me what’s up!”
We talked with [showrunners] Eli and Jason a lot about what’s really going on with Ryan and what is Wilfred. Do the casts have their own theories? Do you guys spend much time thinking about it?
Dorian Brown: No, we don’t, really. It’s almost like, “Well, what do you want it to be? What do you want it to be?” And I really do think it changes for the writers. I feel like sometimes it’s a figment of his imagination and some… what I took it as, I felt like it was real in season 1 and then this second season I felt maybe it’s a figment of his imagination. And then season 3 I’m just kind of like it’s really for anyone to figure out. And the end of this season definitely answers some questions, which is awesome. So glad they did that. However, it brings up a million more questions. But we definitely have our own opinions, it’s not… and it’s not ever something we talk about because we want it to be as real as possible, really happening at this moment. You know?
What is it like to have another show runner? You had two years with David Zuckerman and but how was it? How different is it?
Dorian Brown: It is different not having… not seeing David every day because you formulate that kind of trust and relationship. But he’s around. And Eli and Reed are awesome and I think that they had big shoes to fill in that it’s the third season of a crazy comedy that can’t be explained in one easy sentence. And so there was expectations from a cult fan base. And there was answers, people wanted answers. People wanted certain things. So I think they had a really hard job. So we kind of gave them some space, too. I felt like… there’s only 4 of us, right? So I felt like there was some space for them to figure all that out.
But I would call Eli and Reed… I would call them and they would always accept my calls. So they were wonderful, they definitely had answers for us, and we had questions as to what the hell was going on. So that was wonderful. It was an easy transition.
Technically speaking, as an actor when you have to do those scenes where you see Jason as a dog but he’s humping your leg or whatever, how hard is that for you?
Dorian Brown: As my character I have to avoid him because I don’t like him. And so thank God I don’t like him because it’s so much easier not making eye contact. I think it would be very difficult, I don’t really know.
And I see guest stars all the time when it’s their first day, “Oh. So I don’t look at you. What do we do?” And so it’s so confusing.
And when he talks, you’re not… yeah, that’s your instinct. So it’s very weird. But, for me, I just literally just ignore him. Hopefully I don’t ever have to like him.
Would you prefer to know the whole season in advance?
Dorian Brown: I like to know everything. I like to know everything that’s happening. I did call and say, “What is happening to my character? I can’t handle this episode by episode!” So they said there’s a lot of family stuff going on. And they don’t even want to tell me, they want me to read it. Which I like that, but I do wanna know do I need to know something? In order to do this episode right now, do I need to know something that’s going to happen in the future? Obviously I need to know that. So they’re very… once you ask, it’s like an opening the floodgates. I mean, he told me the rest of the season in one conversation and I was like, “Oh…”
