Ainsley Andrade: How did you come up with the idea for Fortune Rookie?
Janet Varney: I’ve really been fascinated with the idea of the paranormal and psychic powers my entire life. When I think about the amount of time I spent trying to guess cards out of a deck or just staring at a ball across the room, thinking if I tried hard enough I could will it to roll across to me, it’s actually very sad. (laughs) Then I sort of matured into an adult who had an extremely healthy dose of cynicism, but -- it’s very Fox Mulder of me -- there’s a part of me that just still wants to believe. I just want to believe it’s possible and I’m always waiting for someone to establish definitive proof of ghosts, all that kind of stuff. I don’t want to let go of that, yet I feel so cynical about it; those two parts of me are trying to coexist in the same body. I think that’s true for a lot of people. It’s definitely true for creative types, because we live with these broad imaginations where that kind of thinking is sort of fostered, but if you’re in comedy you’re also trained to just shit on everything. Pardon my French. So for me, it’s kind of combing those two things into one show.
I was so fascinated with the idea of how perfect Los Angeles is as a city, to have people who are vulnerable to that kind of stuff. So that’s sort of where the inception truly came for this idea of this version of me (pictured above) who is kind of more of a jerk, and more self-absorbed than I consider myself to be. When she’s told she’s psychic -- the only thing that’s more attractive to her than being an actress -- she just sort of drops everything to be the psychic that she’s told she is, and then, you know, she’s terrible at it.
Andrade: So, I’m getting the vibe that you don’t really buy it, but you want to?
Varney: Exactly right. I so want to be proven wrong. I’m so ready for someone to blow my mind.
Andrade: It just hasn’t happened yet. There were a lot of cameos on Fortune Rookie, some of whom were coworkers from your other shows, like Stan Against Evil. What were some of your favorite cameos from those appearances?
Varney: With Stan we’ve had just such an extraordinary group of guest stars it’s hard to even pick. Scott Adsit (30 Rock) this year is a favorite. He’s on Fortune Rookie as well as having a guest star role on Stan – so there’s some wonderful IFC love and crossover there. He and I have been friends for many, many, many years, and he is one of the most brilliant improvisers that I know, and also just such a terrific actor. So, it’s sort of unplanned, but in both shows he gets to play this sort of villain character, but it’s this kind of preposterous villain in both circumstances. I cannot claim that he gets to be a demon in Fortune Rookie, but he certainly does in Stan Against Evil.
We had Christopher Mintz-Plasse on Stan Against Evil playing a vampire and he just hit it out of the park. All the stuff he brings to the table I think works so beautifully with the idea of him as this kind of angsty, neurotic vampire, which is really fun.