Sandra Oh, Awkwafina on Working With Paul Reubens on Quiz Lady

When Quiz Lady premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, the SAG-AFTRA strike was still on, so stars Sandra Oh and Awkwafina were unable to publicize and celebrate it the way they had hoped. Now, the comedy’s Emmy nomination for outstanding television movie gives them a bit of a do-over. “It’s so wonderful to be able to kind of like, ‘Yay,’ ” Oh says over Zoom.

The film, written by Jen D’Angelo and directed by Jessica Yu, stars the duo as awkwardly matched sisters, the outgoing Jenny (Oh) and the reserved Anne (Awkwafina) Yum. When Anne’s pug, Mr. Linguini, is held hostage by gangsters in want of their mother’s gambling debts, Jenny orchestrates a chance for Anne to compete on her favorite game show, Can’t Stop the Quiz. As Anne overcomes her nerves and chaos ensues, the siblings bond. In an interview with THR, Oh and Awkwafina, born Nora Lum, discuss their friendship and making the film honest to the Asian American experience.

How did your collaboration on this project happen?

AWKWAFINA It came to me and it wasn’t made at that point for Asian people. It was just kind of like a broad sister thing, and I really liked it. I love Jen D’Angelo and her work, but I really wanted Sandra for it. And I kind of said, “There’s only a world where I would do this with Sandra.” Sandra and I are friends. We first met years and years ago when I snuck into a gala with my Korean rapper friends, and Sandra was being honored and I remember when she walked in, she kind of sucked all the air out of the room because she has this insane presence and warmth. I was so nervous to meet her, but she was so supportive of me and my little gang. She really was so warm. Then later, on the Crazy Rich Asians press tour, I think I met her and finally was able to talk to her one night at Jon Chu’s house. I remember thinking, “Oh my God, this woman is amazing. She’s everything I expected.” When they say, “Don’t meet your heroes,” she is a hero that you want to meet. I begged her to be in the movie.

OH Oh, come on, you didn’t beg.

AWKWAFINA I didn’t beg, but I was like, “Please, please, please.” She was like, “Well, which part do you want to play?” And I was like, “You know what? I really don’t give a shit. Any part you want to play, anything.” Sandra was so down from the minute it happened. She’s an extremely amazing collaborator.

Why did you want to play Jenny, Sandra? She’s a wild character who is a bit of a new type for you.

OH I really wanted to do broad comedy. I really, really wanted to do that. I just felt that the casting this way, of myself playing Jenny and Nora playing Anne, was a more interesting choice. It’s like, while Killing Eve and The Chair were great experiences, Killing Eve really took it out of me. And I really just wanted to do something really funny and really broad and really physical, and I also thought that Nora and my dynamic in the characters that we were playing, that we could make something a little unexpected and more sparkly.

How did you approach Anne, who is more reserved than characters we’re used to seeing you play?

AWKWAFINA Playing Anne was probably one of the most fulfilling experiences because I feel like I was really able to reflect a lot of my own personality in Anne. There’s a lot of reluctance. There’s a lot of hesitance, a lot of self-doubt. She is kind of shy, and these are aspects of me that, as you just said, I don’t usually broadcast in other roles. But for this one, it felt real. To be honest, Sandra made it feel real for me, too. We are very playful. If you see us off camera, we’re laughing all the time, and so it worked onscreen. I liked being this kind of straight man to Sandra’s very, very dynamic Jenny.

How did your relationship develop over the course of making the movie?

OH As any friendship develops, it’s how you show up for the person, how you are truly interested in the person, how you listen to the person, and how you are vulnerable with the other person. I think we did that and continue to do that. Our relationship is considerably deeper than when it started. But I think that we are both aware that we wanted this to work. As actors, if you’re not, let’s say, playful and open with your fellow actor, it’s really hard to do comedy. Nora and I would just not stop improvising. We would just not stop, and we had a lot of freedom with it, and you only get that way if you are able to listen to someone and trust them.

AWKWAFINA We went to London to prep. I think Jessica was filming something there, and then Sandra was finishing up Killing Eve. And then I continued going back to London when Sandra was there. We really do have a friendship. When I have troubles, I talk to Sandra. I was in Korea not too long ago, and I needed to talk to somebody. I didn’t have a lot of people to talk to, and Sandra immediately picked up the phone. She does feel like a sister to me, and that’s really important. It’s a gift because you’re not going to feel like a sister with every co-star. But our friendship does keep growing, and she’s such an important person in my life.

How did you work to reshape the script into a story specifically about Asian American sisters?

AWKWAFINA Jen was really just such an amazing collaborator and very generous. In our little clinic in London, we literally just sat in a park one day for two hours with Jessica and Jen and Sandra. We just talked about our own experiences growing up and from there, I was really amazed to see how Jen worked in some of our stories.

What was it like having Paul Reubens, who died last year, in the film?

OH We were just so lucky. Jen wrote in the script that there’s a very key comedic payoff that happens for Holland [Taylor]’s character, the mistaking of Paul Reubens and Alan Cumming. It’s so hilarious. But it was not that far out from shooting and reading the pages, I remember thinking, “So, do we have Paul? Do we have [him]?” I was like, “Who’s on that?” I was like, “I should try and reach out to Paul.”

AWKWAFINA One text and Sandra got him. It was crazy.

OH He was so awesome. He’s so game, and he came out, gosh, I want to say it was the first day. He was there for one day, and he’s a spectacular person, just filled with light and funny and silly and warm, and we’re so grateful to have known him and that our film really celebrates him.

AWKWAFINA I was so obsessed with Pee-wee’s Playhouse when I was growing up, it felt like meeting a hero. I was starstruck when I met him, and he is a really warm person. He would send me happy birthday messages. He was a silly, warm, magnetic guy, and it was so nice for him to be in our movie, because he didn’t have to do it.

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.