My Name is Earl has been a great vehicle for underappreciated actors. It gave Jason Lee his first hit as a leading man and Ethan Suplee his funniest, most endearing supporting character yet. Most impressively, it gave Jaime Pressly a full bodied character while taking advantage of her southern rasp and sass.
CraveOnline: Has Joy become more proactive this year, where the first year she was just the foil?
Jaime Pressly: Well absolutely, and as has Randy, Ethan's character because the first season, you're always having to get it off the ground and you have to kind of go into the main character's backstory. Everybody needs to kind of get familiar with the characters, especially the main character. And in the second season, so that you don't bore the viewers, you delve into the lives and the background of the other characters. Randy, Ethan's character and Joy, my character were both much more involved this year in all the storylines and had their own storylines which I think helped carry the show this year and kept the viewers interested.
CraveOnline: Are you playing her any differently now than when you started?
Jaime Pressly: I don’t approach it differently. That wouldn’t be very wise to change up your character. That’s not really what happens. I think you just evolve with your character. There is more heart to Joy. In the first season, it was more about Earl and getting his storyline off the ground. Just as we’ve opened up Randy’s world more, the second season, there were more storylines based around Joy and Randy, and not every episode, if you notice, was based on Earl righting a wrong. Some of the episodes were just solely based around Joy and what she was going through, as well as Randy and what he was going through. I think they had to do that, in order to keep the emotional investment of the viewers. Plus, every character on Earl, which is what makes it so great, has a lot of heart, at the end of the day. No matter how wrong they may be or how politically incorrect it may be, everybody corrects themselves in the end and learns a lesson, and I think that’s where the heart comes in and keeps our viewers.
CraveOnline: How cool is it to have your pregnancy written into the show?
Jaime Pressly: It was a blessing. We're so lucky to be a part of the show with the caliber of people that we work with. Greg Garcia our creator and exec producer and head writer is just a phenomenal talent. Because of him, we had a wealth of phenomenal talent as far as crew, the cast, the writers and every single person. It's very rare that on a first season, you get nominated for five Emmys and win four of them. We really were blessed with that and he just did an outstanding job with placing the people. They're a part of our team because from our AL, Gordon, our DP to all of our directors and writers and everybody on the crew, we lucked out. So it's been a really amazing experience for all of us.
CraveOnline: Was it difficult to film this season while you were pregnant?
Jaime Pressly: It was difficult, definitely, especially in the first trimester because I hadn’t told anybody yet. Normally, when a woman gets pregnant, she waits until she’s three months pregnant and passes that hump. At about two to two and a half months pregnant, I finally broke down and told everybody. I couldn’t remember my lines. I had pregnant brain, like you wouldn’t believe. And, I was falling asleep standing up and I was irritable as all hell. It was nice to finally let everybody know, “Yes, I’m pregnant.” It was like a sigh of relief for me. And then, he wrote it in. Originally, he wasn’t going to, but he came up with such a brilliant idea that it would have been stupid not to use the pregnancy, after knowing what he came up with. It was great. The second trimester was bliss, as it is for most pregnant women. It was totally fine. I thoroughly enjoyed going to work, and had no problem. And then, the third trimester came and it was like, “Oh, my God, is this show going to end?” But, I’m so lucky to work with such an amazing group of people that were so supportive. Even though it’s mostly men, I happen to work with really great men, who were all extremely thoughtful in the whole process and looked after me very well. I definitely had a great group of people to work with and was blessed, in that sense.
CraveOnline: Are you worried about being a working mom next year?
Jaime Pressly: As far as next season is concerned, I’m not the first woman to have a child and work, so I’m sure I’ll get through it and manage, just as all the other women in this world do. And, I’m blessed because I’ll have help.
CraveOnline: You're due soon, so what are you doing to get ready for the baby?
Jaime Pressly: Uh, hiking mountains, having sex and eating spicy food.
Jaime Pressly: Not really because when you're an Oompah Loompah, it's all difficult. I'm like way over organized so now it's like waiting for paint to dry. I'm just sitting here waiting.
Jaime Pressly: Well, I'm not doing anything now because I'm over organized but the baby's room is done, we've got the nanny and everybody from the grandmothers to the nanny to the dad and I have car seats and strollers. Everything is completely set up, the hospital, there's nothing else I could possibly do to get ready for this child.
[Editor's note: On May 11th Jamie gave birth to a 6 lbs, 4 oz boy named Dezi James Calvo]
CraveOnline: When you did the pilot, were just hoping for a run of 13 or did you expect it to become a hit?
Jaime Pressly: You really don't know with television because it is such a crap shoot. I've done a couple of pilots and when I finally got this show, I was in China doing a film and I was waiting, waiting, waiting because it took forever to get mail. And I finally got it in the mail and I watched it and I was like, "Oh my God, this is really, really good." But then you still had to wait until May to find out. You never go do a television show or pilot or anything and go, "Oh, I just hope it runs for 13 weeks." That's not the point. The point is that you want a job that's going to be a solid job that you can count on for the next five to eight years. And we lucked out because that's exactly what we got.
CraveOnline: Speaking of shooting in China, what's happening with the Dead Or Alive movie?
Jaime Pressly: Absolutely nothing, thank God. I actually just saw it recently and the way that I got to see it was one of the guys, actually the guy who was Jason Lee's stand-in, for a departing present for the season, found it for me in Europe. It was released in Europe. It was bought by the Weinstein Brothers and the Weinstein Company released it overseas first to see how it would do because it's a really big video game overseas. I'm just going with it didn't do well because it didn't come out in America. So I have no idea but I've gotten to finally see it like I said and I can't say that I'm upset that it didn't come out. We were working with a director, Corey Yuen, who is one of the number one action and marital arts directors in the world. That's why we did the film. In the process of filming, a lot of bad stuff came up and happened, being that we were over in China in little small villages, you didn't have the means necessary to get things done like you do when you're in Hollywood. So I think between things getting lost in translation because there were four dialects going on at all times, or languages I should say, and the lack of necessities, it just didn't turn out the way that it should have. And I think for gamers, a lot of the stuff was inaccurate because they changed it along the way.
CraveOnline: What were your favorite episodes this season?
Jaime Pressly: Cops for me. I loved Cops because every single person that you've ever met in Camden County was a part of it. And it moved really fast and every storyline that was intertwined with the other was brilliant. When they shot Randy out of the tree with a tranquilizer and he was crying, I peed myself a little, it was that funny.
Jaime Pressly: Oh, it was amazing to be able to work, especially on one of our first shows, with Burt Reynolds and then one of our last shows of the season to work with Norm MacDonald. I mean , we've had such amazing people come and join our show for an episode that we're amazed every week at who we're getting ready to meet and who's coming to join the show. We've been very blessed with our talent.
