- Oh my god, this is what I look like?
- You look great, Ben.
- Look at this!
What are you, insane? (laughs)
- You look great, you could give yourself
an at-home haircut.
- I know, I should.
Hey Diana, how are you?
[Ben] Well, tell everybody how much you love 'The Office.'
You're like the biggest 'Office' fan in the universe.
- I was like, you know what?
If I just get a chemistry read with Steve Carell,
like, I don't even care if I get the show.
If I could just meet Steve Carell, I would be so happy.
I get the callback,
I freak out, it's the greatest day ever.
Somehow manage to like, not faint,
in the room with Steve Carell
and I feel like that's why I got it?
I don't know. We did an improv scene,
we made jokes about conjugal visits, and here we are!
- I never met Steve before and so, he was lovely.
- So nice. - And the cool thing is that,
him and Greg, at the end we do an improv,
like you're supposed to do an improvised scene,
and they just give you a setup.
What was your setup?
- Your dad is picking you up from volleyball practice
and he's never, ever the one to pick you up
from volleyball practice, it's always your mom.
What was your prompt?
- My prompt was, I have a watch
that I need Mark Naird to wear
and I can take pictures and I can put it on social media,
but he's wearing a watch that he never takes off.
He's never taken off this watch before,
like, that's what his thing is.
So, go try to get him to put on this watch.
And I remember it being very fun
and I pretend to run in and go,
"Whew, what's my blood pressure? 132.
"What's your blood pressure?"
And he's like, "What are you talking about?"
I go, "Look at your watch, what's your blood pressure?"
And he's like, "I just have an old watch."
I go, "Oh my goodness."
And that's kinda like how the whole thing started.
Yeah, so my character, his name is (beep) Tony Scarapiducci
and I think the (beep) Tony is probably a little
homage to (beep) Jerry, that Instagram account
that helped out with the Fyre Festival stuff.
But, the way that I saw it is that he came from a job
and got fired kinda, is what we find out,
from being the media consultant for a different thing.
And I think this is probably, like, his last shot
to kind of do it, so he has to take it serious.
But the thing is, my boss Steve Carell's character
Mark Naird, thinks that what I do is stupid,
and why is it necessary, and this is stupid,
why is he even allowed in this building?
So, I think it's a very fun, playing with like,
the thing that I made my whole career off of
is something that the head of the company is like,
"Who cares?"
And the way that I kind of play it, I don't know
from if you've seen the episodes, but like,
I play it where Mark Naird is kind of like
the father figure of mine that I want to impress
with everything I want,
but he's kind of a hardass.
And then, John Malkovich is the cool dad
that let's me get away with anything,
and I get to like, fistbump him after cool moments,
but Mark would never let me.
And I love the idea of playing that through the seasons
to see like, I want the respect of Mark Naird so much,
but like, if something goes wrong,
I probably go to Malkovich's character.
- Right.
- Is there stuff from your real life
that you kind of injected into the character
or stuff like that, or not really?
- Not really, I try not to do that.
I try to, like, really just find something
in the character's life, like in their
childhood or whatever, you know you just have to kind of
create a narrative that you can pull from
to justify their actions or whatever.
Just cause it's kind of a sticky, black hole
if you take too much from personal life.
But definitely the FOMO thing I think
is a universal feeling.
(laughing)
Anyone, anywhere, anywho feels the fear of missing out.
And a lot of that is what she feels
and why she even acts out because
she just wants to feel included in something,
whether it's her relationship with her father,
or it's with the kids at school,
or it's with someone on the Space Force base.
I definitely just feel like Erin wants
to feel a part of something, she wants to feel accepted,
she wants to feel loved, like any teenager
or any human being really.
You know, sometimes we turn to social media
to express how we feel because
we want someone to reach out to us, or whatever it is.
- Oh.
- Yeah, I think you kinda see
all the different tactics she uses throughout the show,
you know, whether it's getting a job at the fro-yo station
or flirting with an older man
or it's skipping school to see her old friends in DC,
you know, all these different things she's doing.
It's just like, she wants attention or love
or friendship from her father, and/or people around her.
- I think my character tries to be as confident as he can,
but in his real life, when he's by himself,
is scrambling, is, you know, he's doggie-paddling,
trying to stay above the water.
I think he knows that if he fails, he's kinda out.
And he doesn't want to fail.
When he's in charge of all the-- the idea of this whole
branch of the military, trying to get likes and views
or just get in the newspaper and stuff like that,
I think there's a piece of him also that wants to prove
that he is something, and you know like, if he loses his job,
he's kind of out.
So, I think there's probably an aspect of that
from any kid or adult that's like, you know,
just trying to like, get their face a little bit out there
and the terrifying aspect of failure
always being right around the corner.
And kind of faking it 'til you make it.
He's had a little bit of success,
but he keeps screwing it up. So now it's like,
this might be his last shot, what is he gonna do?
But, for you and I, when we're working,
we had one word together this whole season.
- (laughing) Yeah, I know.
- So, I didn't see Diana's stuff until,
we just got like, the first six episodes.
I think you do such a good job because Diana's character
isn't the character that'll be like,
joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke!
Diana has to like, do a lot of emotional (beep)
and still be funny, and juggle real life stuff,
and show what it's like to be a teenager,
or someone that's, you know,
has a father who's a little bit, you know, hard on that person.
And she does it so well.
I texted you right afterwards
and I literally texted Tawny and Jimmy also,
being like, "Dude, she (beep) crushed it."
I'm excited for people to see you in this
'cause I think it's a really cool thing
for people to see you shine.
- Thank you so-- Aw, you're making me cry. (laughs)
- Do it, cry.
That's what MTV News wants,
that's what I told-- Nah, I'm kidding.
By the way, you and I, how many times ever
have we had a one-on-one with each other?
I don't know if that's ever even happened.
- This is great.
- [Ben] So, this is like the first time
that we've gotten to chat like human beings.
- Yeah.
- Outside of a group setting of like,
eating lunch together or we're on set
or something like that. - Right right right right.
- It's been very fun.
- I'm having a good time.
- Say your catchphrase to leave it off.
This is the famous Diana catchphrase.
You know everybody knows it, here it comes.
Diana, end it right now with your catchphrase!
- Stay sane and stay safe at home, folks!
(laughing)
I don't know.
- Great, perfect.
- I don't know, what's your famous catchphrase?
- No, that was it, you nailed it.
We need nothing else.
(laughing)