Alison Brie on Chevy Chase Dissing 'Community,' Failed Pilot with Jennifer Lawrence

09/04/2024 19:48

With the long-awaited 'Community' movie finally on the horizon, Alison Brie reacts to Chevy Chase's hot take on his controversial time on the show -- plus, working with Jennifer Lawrence on a never-before-seen comedy pilot and rejecting a date with a single emoji.

Alison Brie has seen the Communityscript and the culmination of the show's "Six Seasons and a Movie" mantra is closer than ever to happening, just don't expect Chevy Chase to be part of it. Brie spoke with Andy Cohen on WWHL about Chase's take on the series

She also opened up about working with a then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence on a pilot that was never picked up -- but we absolutely must demand gets released -- and how brutally she once rejected someone with a single emoji.

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That came up when Andy asked her if she'd ever been ghosted by someone famous, and she said she's more likely to be the one doing the ghosting. Then she shared that she once declined a date offer from someone with the "thumbs down" emoji.

As Andy's jaw dropped and the audience gasped at the harsh measure, Alison assured everyone that the unnamed guy "deserved it."

Later, she talked about a surprising star-crossed encounter she didn't even realize at first she'd had, and it all stems back to a failed Comedy Central pilot she says was called Not Another High School Show.

A parody of the 2000s-era glut of high school shows, and obviously similar to the Not Another (insert overplayed genre here) Movie films, Alison said she played a character called Muffy the Vampire Slayer, joking that she went "method" for the role.

She recalled that long before she was tripping up Oscars stages, Jennifer Lawrence had one line in the pilot. It wasn't until years later when she saw J-Law's career taking off that she even realized it was the same young girl from the failed pilot

...

which means that Comedy Central (or someone) is sitting on a gold mine video.

We need a special screening of Not Another High School Show and we need it stat! Do it as a benefit to raise money for school systems ... just make sure this happens. Some gems should not be left in the vault!

Chevy Chase's Community Crack

While hanging with Rebel Wilson, and fangirling over her vacation with Barbra Streisand and their mutual "billionaire" friends, Brie also talked about hearing Chevy Chase's hot take on the modern classic NBC sitcom as it happened.

"You know, that happened on Marc Maron's podcast, who I worked with on Glow," she told Andy. "I always listen, so I really, like, heard it live before I read it online."

"I actually think that was the better way to digest that information because I could hear Chevy's tone," she continued. "I feel like I knew him well. When you read it in a headline, it reads much harsher."

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"I was kind of like, 'Oh, it's just Chevy being Chevy and he's entitled to his opinions of his experience of the show,'" she laughed. "I don't take it personally."

While appearing on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast back in September, Chase did not speak particularly well of the show or his time on it. The Saturday Night Live legend was a part of the main cast the first four seasons and a guest for Season 5.

"I honestly felt the show wasn't funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained," Chase told Maron. "Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn't hard hitting enough for me."

Community has been praised by fans and critics for many years now for breaking down the expectations of the sitcom format, pushing new boundaries, and satirizing pretty much everything, while staying true to its characters' emotional beats and growth.

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"I just felt that it was… I felt happier being alone," Chase said. "I just didn't want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much."

Chase and Community parted ways when he was fired in 2012 for using the n-word in front of co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover, per TVLine, while getting into it with creator Dan Harmon (the use of the word was not directed at anyone).

On CBS Sunday Morning in 2022, Chase was asked about accusations that he was unpleasant -- or worse -- to work with both on Saturday Night Live and Community. "I guess you'd have to ask them. I don't give a crap," Chase said of his former colleagues.

"I am who I am. And I like who I am. I don't care. And it's part of me that I don't care," he continued. "And I've thought about that a lot. And I don't know what to tell you, man. I just don't care."