Aubrey Plaza struggled to get back into her deadpan demeanor as “Parks and Recreation” iconic character April Ludgate.
The “White Lotus” Season 2 star told The Los Angeles Times that reprising her beloved “Parks and Rec” role for the January 21 episode of “Saturday Night Live” was a nerve-wracking experience.
“I was terrified to play April Ludgate again,” Plaza said. “I had a moment where I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do this.’ I really wish I had been in therapy at the time. But I was like, ‘I hope I can pull this off,’ which is just so ridiculous.”
Plaza watched YouTube compilations of April Ludgate highlight reels from the series that concluded in 2015.
Once at “SNL,” Plaza shared, “It felt very satisfying to put on that wig and pull that hoodie up. What made it so easy is being next to Leslie Knope [Amy Poehler] — I mean, if I had to go out there alone, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to.”
She added, “[‘Parks and Recreation’] did feel forever ago.”
Plaza previously addressed feeling typecast as sarcastic intern April Ludgate from the NBC sitcom series.
“I don’t mind being typecast because I feel like I was so lucky to be on ‘Parks and Recreation,’ and that was one of my first really big jobs, and I am so heavily associated with that character,” Plaza said. “I think there were years when I was on that show where I was like only getting offered those kinds of parts, and that’s just what happens. You do something, people respond to it, and they want to see you do it again, again, and again. I think you just have to be really proactive in changing that narrative for yourself. It gave me motivation to prove myself.”
She continued, “I think, for a while, I did feel like, ‘Aw man, I’m being put in a box, and I don’t like it, so I’m going to fight to get out of that and show people what I can do,’ or something. But then I started to look at it as a gift. If I convince people so well that I was that one thing and then I do something that’s totally different, it will be that much more satisfying to surprise them. So I started to try to think of it like that and be a little bit more positive and less bitter about it.”
