Erinn Hayes was the star of the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital, and is also the star of it’s upcoming offshoot series, Medical Police. She is coming to town for two SF Sketchfest appearances, first on Thursday, January 9th for a Medical Police panel and preview at Marines’ Memorial Theater, and then Friday, January 10th for an appearance as part of Porchlight at Swedish American Hall. Spinning Platters had the opportunity to have a chat with Hayes ahead of her visit. We discussed living in the Bay Area, our weird rivalry with LA, her time as a doctor on TV, and, most importantly, her work on Bill & Ted Face The Music, the upcoming Bill & Ted sequel.
Spinning Platters: I just wanna ask you a few questions about you ahead of you coming to visit our fair town this week. I was informed that you were raised in San Francisco, is that correct?
Erinn Hayes: Well, I was born and raised in Marin. And then to University of Colorado, and then came back, and lived in San Francisco for like 8 or 9 months after college. Even though Los Angeles was a clear choice. You know, there’s that thing if you’re raised in the Bay Area where you just have to hate Los Angeles even if you’ve never been there.
SP: Yup!
EH: There’s a weird one-way rivalry that if you ask anybody in Southern California and they’re like “I love San Francisco!” and most people in the Bay Area are just like “Ugh! Los Angeles, I don’t know!” So we moved to the Bay Area for a little bit and then moved down to LA, and, uh, was like “Right! This is where they keep the work!”
SP: [laughs]– That that’s funny cause I grew up in the East Bay and felt very similarly until college and I started making friends with people in LA, from LA-
EH: And did you have this epiphany of: “Oh, this is lovely. Los Angeles is lovely.”?
SP: I did! And now I I enjoy going down there and all these wonderful things that I always thought was where I met about LA or not true, like, their public transit is better.
EH: It is! We have good public transit now! I think there’s something really beautiful about a place where people come to pursue something that they are so passionate about.
SP: Yeah.
EH: They cannot not do it. And then you get so many creative people in so many different fields. And if you can, like tap into that, and not to any of the superficial aspects of the industry, it’s a really inspiring beautiful community to live in.
SP: I totally agree. So you spent eight months in San Francisco after college?
EH: Oh my God!, I lived in the Outer Richmond because my brother knew somebody who had a room to rent for like- and this is gonna seem criminal and age me a lot- but like $350. That’s how long ago it was. But my husband… Well, my [then] boyfriend, who is now my husband was living down in Los Angeles. I was a 22 year old actor working in the Embarcadero for no money. So I mean, you know, the Outer Richmond is for families. And I finally was like, “What am I doing here?” I had a car and I would circle my house going– “I’m gonna find parking in four blocks, ok seven blocks, ten blocks… Fuck it, I’m going to Marin.”
SP: What were you doing at the Embarcadero? What was your acting gig in San Francisco at that time?
EH: Oh my God. [laughs]– What? My gig in Embarcadero? I was a hostess for Fuzio’s, a restaurant. I don’t even know, if those, that chain is still there. It’s like a quick pasta joint.
SP: Mm-hmm.
EH: And so I was doing that, and at night I did a Donald Margulies play called Sight Unseen. [It was at] a small theater in Union Square. So I would work as a hostess during the day in a lunch shift, and then at night have rehearsals or go to my play. And then go out with friends and spend what little money I was making as a hostess. It was a great experience. I would love to come back to San Francisco. I mean, I love visiting San Francisco. I’m excited to come back for a Sketchfest right now.
SP: Okay, so after eight months you moved to LA for love, it sounds like at first.
EH: I did, I did…
SP: How long did it take you to get your footing in LA?
EH: You know, I have this theory, based on seeing other friends come to LA that LA either greets you like a gift or it just of as gives you less than nothing. And I was very lucky that when I came down here, I was happy, I was in love. I moved in with my boyfriend and almost immediately got a couple of commercials.
SP: Yeah.
EH: Of course, it seemed like everything was going, and then you know, and then everything dried up… Which led to a panic attack, and then getting a job at a theme park doing improv. And working my way up every wrung on the ladder.
SP: Yeah. How do you re-retain focus and drive when things were so good at first and then suddenly reality hits?
EH: Well, I was always the kind of person who thought you solve the immediate problems: “just get a “job-job” or start earning some money.” “Just do everything.” “It’s gonna be a struggle.” So, I would look in Backstage West and trying to get casting breakdowns to submit myself for things that I was supposed to have an agent for. You know, this is back in the day when agents still mailed or delivered head shots to casting agents. So, I would just deliver my own head shots and say yes to every project. You never know where it’s gonna lead to, what people are gonna do and what’s gonna be good. [You never know what projects will get you] at least like one good friend, or a good connection or whatever, you know, a good piece of cake or something from. Really I was just doing everything humanly possible or that I was capable of thinking of.
SP: Awesome. So you basically you were your own agent?
EH: For a little while… The first things that I had submitted myself for, with a project on this now defunct network where they hadn’t found the lead yet, was with this casting director Shana Lansburg. She was like, “Oh my god, great, you’re totally what we’re looking for” and I didn’t end up getting that part, but I went far enough with her, and she was the type of person that just helps other people. She kind of took me under her wing and said, “We’re gonna find you an agent or we’re gonna find you a manager.” And she actually set me up with a meeting with a manager that I still have today that, like, was kind of like a love connection right from the start. And he’s fantastic. So, I got lucky like that, and found the right person and the right job. And then, then you start getting little parts here and there: two words on something and five words on the next. I feel like I had some people help me jump a bunch of rungs of the ladder.
I feel fortunate that I have worked almost all of the acting jobs in Hollywood. I did extra work to get my SAG card. I’ve done the co-stars, I’ve done guest stars, all of it… I love going to work and being on set, especially when you’ve done the other jobs that are not as fun as the one you’re doing that day.
SP: I have to say you’re one of those like rare, really impressive actresses that owns their cameo roles.
EH: Oh, thank you.
SP: How much of Annabel Porter was improvised and how much of was she scripted in Parks and Rec?
EH: They are so good on that show. Now I’m going back to like seeing what Michael Schur has done. What he did on The Office and then Parks and Rec and on The Good Place. It’s mostly in the writing, I mean, the mannerisms and all of that was mine, but the lines were all the writers. They just hire the best writers in town. And all you have to do, you know, you gotta own it but if you deliver it, it will be funny.
SP: So, your longest-running role is one of the weirdest shows to make it to TV.
EH: [Laughs]
SP: When you’ve like first auditioned for Childrens Hospital. Did you think this was going to be the next eight years of your life?
EH: I had done a shortlived Fox sitcom with Rob Corddry called The Winner. And we really hit it off, and then I moved on to another show which got canceled. And Rob called me up and I was like, “Hey, I’m doing this little web series, would you want to come? I’m thinking about you for this character and let me know what you think.” And I read it, and I was like, “Well, I don’t, I don’t really get that, that character doesn’t speak to me, but can I be Lola?’ And he was like, “Yeah, totally.” At first, he was like, “Do you want to be Cath?” and I was like, “The character’s a little dreamy for me, I like the asshole one a little bit better, cause I so rarely get to do that.”
We started out doing it as a web series, with little 5-10 minute episodes. [Back then] it did have like kind of a plot throughout all of them. And then it just got weirder from there once Adult Swim picked it up and said, “Do whatever you want.” It was such a dream to do that show because you never knew what you were doing and like all bets were off. Because we didn’t have continuity, every episode was its own thing.
And once we started… You know, it-it started out as a spoof of medical drama. And it quickly moved into spoofing and paying homage to every genre. We’d be like “let’s do a Do The Right Thing episode. Let’s do a noir episode.” We have one where it basically Our Town. It was it got to be so crazy and so fun that it really felt like you know filmmaking and comedy summer camp for the six weeks a year we would make it.
SP: It’s beautiful how much it feels like that show had no rules…
EH: None. Other than like, standards and practices which was like, “No, you guys can’t show a plane heading into the twin towers.”
SP: [chuckles]
EH: You can’t do that, no. And then we go, “ah, yeah, yeah and great to know.” And then we’d have conversations about how yellow could the pee be.
SP: [laughs] What?
EH: Like where there’s a shot of us urinating on the floor and hysterically laughing and it was this whole conversation or when there is a horse hiding up on the ceiling, and it releases this downpour of urine on Megan Mullally’s head.
There were lots of conversations about how yellow that pee could be. Which turns out not very.
The progression into Medical Police, really does feel very natural because, with this show, it’s the same characters. It’s that the same tone, only now we have a series arc with actual plot. We are going to solve a global medical mystery in a very action packed, ridiculous silly comedy. And everyone comes back. We are not just doing a retread of Childrens Hospital. It feels like a natural progression.
SP: Would be a spoiler if you tell us Rob Corddry has to wear his makeup?
EH: [laughs]– He does because he is Dr. Blake Downs. And Dr. Blake Downs is a clown. That was just least favorite part of coming back to this character, like everything is so much fun. He hates the goddamn makeup.
SP: [Laughs]—So Medical Police essentially an offshoot of Childrens Hospital then?
EH: It is 100% a spin off.
SP: You’re retaining the same energy. Will it go in the same “twisty turny” way that Childrens Hospital did?
EH: Well, that part no. Since it has one plot and every episode leads to the next episode, we don’t play around too much with genres. But who knows what season you know, who knows what we might do should we get a season two?
SP: Excellent. Are you willing to tell me how you end up becoming cops?
EH: Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s this viral outbreak and because of our medical knowledge , we get recruited by some undercover government agency, to go and figure out if what happened in Brazil and Berlin is truly the same thing-
–and what they’re dealing with, and then it becomes, we just get roped into it and then they give us guns and then we’re hunting down bad guys and you know, following leads and, uh, you know do we’re not technically police but that’s the gist.
SP: Excellent. And you’re also doing Porchlight. Have you done the Porchlight storytelling series before?
EH: No, I never have and I, it’s hard because, you to know, they give you a theme. I’m like, yes sure, of course, I’ll do it. I’ll say, you know, I’m up for– I wanted to do a storytelling thing but it was, it was hard because then they give you a theme and you’re like, oh God, and then I’m racking my brain to come up with a story that fits this theme.
And mine is very loosely based on the theme, but I’m excited to do it! Although I need to actually time myself and make sure it’s not too long or too short. But it should be a fun night and Bobcat Goldthwait is coming too, and Josh Gondelman who’s really funny.
SP: So you are Princess Elizabeth in the upcoming Bill & Ted Face The Music. How does it feel to take on a character that’s kind of part of the zeitgeist that everyone has kind of a relationship with. What was it like could taking that on and becoming somebody that people already know?
EH: I’ve so many thoughts about this. First of all, I think it would have been nice if they had brought back one of the other [2 actresses who previously portrayed] Princess Elizabeth. But, I just went in for an audition, so I’m not gonna turn that down. So I was really happy to-to get the role if they’re going to recast it, as they have done twice before. So, then the other part of it is, it’s really exciting because people love these movies. I love these movies. They’re so delightfully optimistic! These characters are just so positive and the movies are fun. And, so to get a chance to be a part of something like that as was a thrill, you know to be on a set and they actually like bring in the Phone Booth. We got to go in a Phone Booth and I was like, “I am in the Phone Booth! I travel through time!” This is fantastic. This is a dream come true.
SP: Ah, so awesome.
EH: And it, yeah, and to see those two guys like in their costumes being Bill and Ted before anybody else gets to see it. I’m like, “Yes. I love this.” So I can’t wait for it to come out, I hope it’s great. I don’t think we have to worry about it being great, because it was directed by Dean Parisot, who also did Galaxy Quest. He’s so skilled, so fantastic, and I think he just fully understands the tone of the movie. So if anybody is gonna do it well, he’s gonna do it well. And, um, I think people are gonna love it. And I get to be a little part of it.
SP: That, that is, that is so, so lovely. I’m, yeah, and very, very excited about Bill and Ted face the music. Uh, actually, that’s the, um, main reason why I agreed to the interview is just to ask you about Princess Elizabeth, you know.
EH: Ha ha ha!
Medical Police premiers on Netflix on January 10th
Bill & Ted Face The Music is coming to theaters August 20th
