"I was not good at it," confesses Plaza, who appeared briefly on "30 Rock" as, you guessed it, a page. "To be a good page, you have to have this cheerleader mentality, which really works for some people. Most of the job is giving those studio tours to, like, 30 tourists, and I was always taking those as opportunities to do a weird character."
A firm grasp on weird characters paid off much later, when Plaza landed a trio of career-making roles during a single Los Angeles visit. In addition to the "Scott Pilgrim" and "Parks and Recreation" gigs, Plaza also nabbed a prominent role in Judd Apatow's largely improvised dramedy "Funny People."
"It was so crazy," she recalls. "I practically had all three of those meetings back to back. I was joking with people that I was going to get all three and that my life was going to be totally different. And then it actually happened."
The connective tissue, notes Plaza, is casting director Allison Jones, who worked on all three projects. "She's kind of the magical thing," says the actor. "I don't know how it happened; it was such a whirlwind." Plaza pauses, then jokingly affects a deadpan tone worthy of April, her permanently bored character on "Parks and Recreation." "I wish I could remember what I was wearing."
With "Scott Pilgrim" yet to hit theaters, Plaza is probably best known to audiences as April, the work-averse government intern-turned-employee who fillets enemies by simply narrowing her eyes. The actor elevates total apathy to an art form, but when she met with show creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, she didn't realize she was even being considered for the show. "I knew they'd always planned on having an assistant for Leslie, Amy [Poehler's] character, and I was pitching them," she recalls. "I thought that because Leslie was so upbeat and positive and hopeful, having this young college-aged intern who doesn't even want to be there would be a great platform for a really funny dynamic. I got a lot of inspiration from my 19-year-old sister, and I've been in a lot of shitty internships and temp jobs, so some of it's just me."
Growing up, Plaza's obsession with "Saturday Night Live"—particularly standout female cast members Ana Gasteyer, Molly Shannon, and Cheri Oteri—led her to the world of improv. "['SNL'] was my ultimate dream, so I did a lot of research and I found out that a lot of those people came from the Groundlings or Second City," Plaza says. "That was always in the back of my head: I want to do what they're doing. I started taking improv classes when I was in high school in Philadelphia, and I was the youngest one in class."
After graduation, Plaza relocated to New York to attend NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Determined to one day land that coveted spot on "SNL," she faxed her résumé to "every single department" at the show multiple times until she was called and given an internship. "I interned for a year in the design department, which is something I have no interest in," she says with a laugh. "But I didn't really care; I just wanted to be there. It was the best time ever. I got to watch the live shows; I got to see the process. Amy was actually in the cast, but I didn't talk to her or anything. She was my idol. I would hide in the shadows and just watch her perform."
During her shadow-dwelling intern days, Plaza also started taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and was recruited by filmmaker-comedian Maggie Carey for the Web series "The Jeannie Tate Show," which follows a manic soccer mom who conducts a talk show from her minivan. "I played the delinquent stepdaughter, and it was supposed to be a one-time video, but it was so successful and funny that they ended up making it into a series, and Warner Bros. bought it," Plaza marvels. "That turned out to be a really big deal for me. My agent, who I'm still with, Dianne McGunigle [at Creative Artists Agency], she watched it online and asked people who I was. I had coffee with her just based on her watching that Web series."
Plaza, who has since appeared in a number of Web-based endeavors, also had something of a viral hit with a YouTube clip wherein she does a dead-on impression of comedian Sarah Silverman at an actual standup venue (sample joke: "My poop is God"). That video, Plaza notes, was supposed to be part of her "SNL" audition tape.
"Because Sarah is a standup, I thought it'd be funny to book myself at a standup show as her," says Plaza. "That did not make the audience happy. At the time, I was putting anything I was doing online to get feedback. I had no idea that eventually over 50,000 people were going to see it and then I'd actually meet her."
And was Silverman as amused as those 50,000 Internet junkies? "I thought she was going to hate me, but she was really cool about it," says Plaza. "I think if there's anyone who's gonna be okay with someone making fun of them, it's her."
In "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," Plaza takes a step back from her usual array of "disinterested delinquent" parts to portray Julie Powers, an overbearing coffee-shop employee with a grudge against the title character, played by Michael Cera. "I basically got to spend all of my time screaming at Michael Cera," Plaza says bemusedly. "He is the best person to yell at, because he's so awkward and nice. It was great."
Plaza looks forward to tackling even more roles in the comedic spectrum. Maybe it's time to don the NBC page disguise once more and craft some all-new off-the-wall personas? "I quit 'cause I didn't want to do it anymore," Plaza muses, once again sounding a bit April-esque. "But I did get to keep the uniform."
Bio Brief
– Other credits include "Mystery Team" and ESPN's Web series "Mayne Street"
– The "SNL" audition she taped her Silverman impression for never happened, because Plaza was offered "Funny People"
– Felt instantly welcomed to Team Apatow on the set of "Funny People": "Everyone else already knew each other, so I was really unsure of how it was going to go down. But Judd really believes in having the cast become like a family. He brought me out a month before we started shooting just to have us all get to know each other."