Eric Liebowitz/NetflixJane Krakowski stepped into a new, yet somewhat familiar world with Unbreakble Kimmy Schmidt ("Unbreakable! They're alive, damn it!"). Once again, she was working with 30 Rock's Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, but when the show moved from NBC to Netflix, it was a new ballgame for the four-time Emmy nominee (hey, let's make it five-time, TV Academy).
"It was a very different experience," Krakowski said in a phone interview. 30 Rock came out on weekly basis, but Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt dropped all season one episodes at once. "This one felt a bit more like opening night in a sense...The show, I think, is very different and unique in tone and I think it was wonderful—one of the things I thought initially when it first went up on Netflix, for streaming, is that people got what Tina and Robert were creating and that was wonderful."
In the show, a young woman, Kimmy (Ellie Kemper), escapes from a doomsday cult after years of imprisonment and starts her life over in New York with a roommate, Tituss (Tituss Burgess), her landlord Lillian (Carol Kane) and her boss (Krakowski). Krakowski found herself playing another privileged and vapid character, but this time she wasn't playing a sociopath. Yes, 30 Rock's Jenna Maroney was wonderfully entertaining, but Kimmy Schmidt's Jacqueline Voorhees is actually more human.
"I think she's absolutely a very vulnerable soul. I love that difference between the two of them, certainly between Jenna and Jacqueline. I would say, I think it's a great quality and they absolutely showed that, especially if you watched the whole season," she said. "You really see how Jacqueline grows and changes through the influence of Kimmy."
There is one unsurprising similarity between 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: The breakneck speed at which the jokes fly. Like the moment when Krakowski's character is stunned by Kimmy's living conditions and assumes there's more to her ground-level apartment and tries to walk up "stairs" (a desk and chair). "That goes by quick," she said of that standout scene. "There are so many jokes within scenes that aren't the highlighted joke…even when there's a news program on TV, the crawl on the bottom is always hilarious and very specific. I love all that. In the case with Netflix, if you do rewatch, there are new joys to be found throughout, new things you missed the first time around."
One of her favorite moments had nothing to do with Jacqueline. "Just because it took me by surprise and made me laugh out loud," she said. "Titus is laying on the bed and Lillian looks through the floor and he's rubbing money all over his body. [Laughs.] It just took me by surprise when I first saw it. Whenever I just even think about it if I ever need something to make me laugh, it makes me smile and laugh."
But one thing she is proud of in regards to her character is the storyline about her past. "One of my favorite things that I love about working with Tina and Robert is I find they write things for you that you would never get to do anywhere else. Certainly when I read the scenes of my own personal flashback where I got to play myself at 14 [Laughs.] 14 and then 17, then 22, was a great surprise and joy to me. I don't know how far we can push it, but I'm willing to go back as far as they think could possibly happen."
That story, which saw Krakowski's character remembering her Native American heritage, coupled with several jokes about Dong, Kimmy's Vietnamese friend, received some negative criticism. Krakowski said everybody's individual opinion is valid, but she thought it was a "wonderful" journey for her character to go on, one you don't see very often.
"I thought it was a wonderful story to tell. I absolutely loved working with Sheri Foster and Gil Birmingham. I think we all agreed when we were filming it that it was a story that was beautiful to tell, especially how the story evolved. That a character who ran so far away from her true identity and heritage, and ultimately, through Kimmy's inspiration, finds what is beautiful about it and goes back towards it," she said. "I think that was a great journey for this character. I found it very touching and I thought it was such a complicated backstory, as I think all of these characters have, and that's where I think the show is so unique. They all have such a dark, underlying stories and yet it's told through such great humor and how they find optimism through that. I found it a wonderful story and I look forward to seeing how it grows through season two."
Sadly, something we may not be seeing in season two is Krakowski, a Tony winner, singing.
"I don't think Jacqueline will ever be able to sing. I've been told it's one of the purposeful choices keeping Jenna and Jacqueline separate is that Jacqueline does not sing and won't sing, we'll see if that changes as the series grows," she said. A possible way around it? A Bugsy Malone-like entirely musical episode because of all the musical talent in the cast. "I think it would be a great group of people to do that with, if they ever wanted to write a full musical episode," she said. "That would be fun. Maybe that's the way we can get Jacqueline to sing! [Laughs.]"
30 Rock's Jenna Maroney was known for breaking out into song whenever needed (and sometimes not needed), so Krakowski worked a lot with Jeff Richmond, Fey's husband and the man behind the music of both shows. In Kimmy Schmidt, it's Burgess who gets the musical moments.
"I'm so happy for Tituss and Jeff Richmond. I was so blessed with so many of Jeff Richmond's genius musical moments and creations in 30 Rock. I'm so thrilled that he is having this great moment right now for all the music he's contributed to Kimmy. I think he's incredible," she said. Richmond's creations, such as "Peeno Noir" (or "Pinot Noir," depending on your spelling preference) and the theme song, have gone viral.
"I'm sure Tituss and everyone has had this happen too, but I've been sent free glasses of pinot noir to my table at restaurants. It wasn't even my video! [Laughs.] I wrote Tina, Jeff, Carlock and Tituss and I said,'If I'm getting free glasses of pinot noir sent to my table, you guys must be drunk!' [Laughs.] ‘You guys must be getting full bottles and cases.'"
And what would Jenna Maroney think about "Peeno Noir"?
"Jenna's nose would start bleeding upon seeing the video," she said with a laugh.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is streaming now on Netflix.