Some of her excitement about the gig, in addition to Max’s coolness and quirks, comes from the fact that the jokes she gets to make are surprisingly crass for a show that airs on CBS before the kids have gone to bed. For example, when her roomate/ co-server, Caroline (played by Beth Behrs), shows up to work after her shift was supposed to start: “You can’t be late again,” Max says. “I’m already worried about being late…every month!” Or when Caroline asks her to open the back door: “We’ve known each other two days and you’re already asking for the back door?” The humor lies mostly on Dennings’ delivery, which is good-naturedly sly and comically casual. “I think that’s totally awesome,” she says of Max’s indelicate tendencies. “And I think a woman saying stuff you’d usually hear coming out of a truck driver is just such a great shock to your brain that it’s interesting . Like, I kinda get hooked on saying it.”
Talking dirty in front of a live studio audience every week wasn’t the only draw for Dennings. As she explains what intrigued her about playing Max-which, if all goes well, she could be doing for years—it’s clear that finding strong female characters is a priority for her. “[Max is] the girl who can hang with dudes and holds her own but not have to be sexy. I hate that. I’ve always hated that, when I read scripts about, like, how a girl uses being a girl to get her way, or she’s trying to be sexy for men,” she says, pausing only to take a big bite of her sandwich. “’Cause all women are sexy—the end. And you can use that power if you want to, but there’s a certain even more powerful element to not using it; just leading with other things— how smart you are, how funny you are. So I think that’s very empowering for women, and I think it’s really good for men to see a girl like that on TV.”
It makes sense that the show’s main female character is strong-willed and a tad raunchy, since the sitcom was co-created by comedian Whitney Cummings, who Dennings believes based the role on herself. The production is also backed by a staff of notable female writers, including Morgan Murphy, blogging phenom Molly McAleer, and former Groundling Liz Feldman. “That was a real priority for Whitney when they were looking for writers,” Dennings says, leaning forward at the table. “It didn’t have to be women, but they wanted to make sure that whoever they got thought women were funny—funny and powerful.” When I mention it’s unfortunate that there may be writers out there who don’t think that, Dennings gets animated. “There are! It’s so sad,” she says. “It’s not like a girl-power thing, it’s an equality thing—saying women are just as funny as men, women can be funnier than men, and I’m OK with that.” She adds that the estrogen-fueled set makes for an awesome working environment. “It’s just a great energy. It feels good, being surrounded by smart women—comforting.”
It’s not, however, a completely lady-run operation. The show is produced by Michael Patrick King, whose last project was a little series called Sex and the City. It’s a strange course of kismet for Dennings: King gave the actress her first big break on a season 3 episode of SATC way back in 2000. Dennings played a snotty, entitled teen who hired Samantha to do p.r. for her bat mitzvah. Though that was her first recognizable role, Dennings had been working toward a career in front of the camera for years. “I feel like I popped out of the womb wanting to be an actor,” she says, swiping a thick layer of eye makeup with her finger. “It has no ties to my family at all, so it came out of nowhere.” Dennings grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, with her speech therapist mom and molecular pharmacologist dad. “We didn’t have much money, so we’d go to the library, and I’d get movies like Top Hat, An American in Paris, Gilda Radner stuff—you know, classics,” she says. “I was like, ‘Whatever that is, that’s what I want to do. I don’t know what it is, but it’s just…me.’ And then I just ran with it.” Dennings’ brother had a friend who was doing some acting, so he introduced her to his manager. Dennings worked the connection, getting auditions and work in New York and L.A., eventually moving with her family to Southern California.
Her parents still live in town, and when I ask how she plans to spend her next rare bit of free time, she tells me visiting them is one of her top priorities. The rest of her day-off to-do list sounds remarkably familiar. “Truthfully: sleep, do laundry, clean. That’s usually all I do,” she says, sucking down the last of her mint lemonade. “And I enjoy it. I really like home things. It makes me feel normal, like I have a center of some kind.” Nurturing that center doesn’t always involve getting groceries or making home cooked meals, though. “I clearly don’t go food shopping,” she says. “I have a jar of marinara sauce in the fridge, that’s it. And I usually get home late and I don’t even remember eating it. Then I wake up and see a plate of marinara sauce next to my bed, and I’m like, Did you eat marinara sauce? With a fork? What the **** is wrong with you? That’s not food.”
