Martha Kelly: ‘Euphoria’s’ Most Terrifying Villain

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martha Kelly spent close to two decades as a semi-successful, hilariously deadpan stand-up comedian before her friend Zach Galifianakis called her up out of nowhere and asked her to play one of the main roles on his beloved FX series ‘Baskets.’ It was that opportunity that led directly to her most powerful performance to date as Laurie, the dangerously deadpan drug dealer who holds the fate of Zendaya’s Rue in her hands on HBO’s ‘Euphoria.’ In this bonus episode, Kelly opens up for the first time about how the “intimidating” part fell in her lap, why she seriously considered saying no and how her own experience as an addict impacted her performance. She also shares stories about how her comedy career evolved after getting sober, acting opposite a very intense Adam Driver in ‘Marriage Story’ and the pure joy of working with the late Louie Anderson on ‘Baskets.’

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Long before my guest on this episode became the terrifyingly deadpan drug dealer on Euphoria,
0:07.5	she was a hilariously deadpan stand-up comedian.
0:11.3	I'm really excited to be here tonight at this great show with all these great comics, and
0:18.2	I'm also really excited to tell you about the new business that I'm
0:22.1	starting, which is an escape room adventure, but it's for people who don't have a large friend
0:28.9	group.
0:30.3	And so their challenge is to try to break into the room where a bunch of people are having fun.
0:43.9	This is the Last Laugh.
0:46.1	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast,
0:48.4	and that was Martha Kelly's opening bit
0:50.6	from her most recent set on Comedy Central's stand-up featuring series.
0:55.8	Martha has been performing comedy for more than two decades, but only really started acting
1:00.7	a few years ago when her friend, Zach Alphenakis, cast her as one of the main characters
1:05.9	in his beloved FX series Baskets. Since then, she has more or less stumbled into a surprising new
1:13.1	career, appearing in huge movies like Spider-Man Homecoming and Marriage Story. But her current
1:20.0	role as the scariest drug dealer on HBO's Euphoria might be her most impressive work yet.
1:26.2	And because I'm currently so obsessed with that show, I really wanted to have her on this podcast
1:30.9	as soon as I possibly could to talk about all of it, including the most recent episode of
1:36.9	Euphoria, which ended with a particularly intense scene between her and Zendaya.
1:42.5	Of course, we also talk about how her own issues with addiction
1:45.7	affected her comedy career
1:47.6	and share some memories about her Baskets co-star, Louis Anderson,
	...

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