Rachael Harris is one of those actors who always pops up in movies, steals a few scenes, and then disappears. You may recognize her best as the blonde T-Mobile girl, but she's good for some nice scoops of upcoming movies. With roles in Evan Almighty and License to Wed, Rachael Harris teased two of this year's highly anticipated comedies.
What’s your role in Evan Almighty?
“I’m playing Markie Parkington. She is a local news reporter in Virginia and she’s reporting on, once Evan starts building the ark, I start reporting badly, in a very bad local news way, on the goings on.”
Did that come from your The Daily Show connection?
“You know, it does a little bit. Tom Shadyac has said, ‘Oh, you’re friends with Steve, right?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ And Tom Shadyac is a big fan of The Daily Show so he had seen me do reporting stuff on The Daily Show.”
What’s the secret to bad fake news?
“I think it’s not really knowing what you’re going to say. I think you’ve got to know what the lines are sort of, and then you just get them out as best you can. Or being way too excited about the dullest material.”
Is that as sarcastic as your usual characters?
“No, she’s very earnest. She’s not necessarily trying to be sarcastic.”
Is there any romance between you and Evan?
“Oh no. He’s very married to Lauren Graham in the movie.”
What’s License to Wed?
“License to Wed is a movie starring Robin Williams, John Krasinski and Mandy Moore. It’s basically about the two of them and their process of getting - the road to matrimony. Robin Williams is the minister at their church that takes them through a crash course of marriage counseling before they get married. I play, with Brian Baumgartner, from The Office, we’re a couple that’s in their ‘church therapy classes’. We’re an interesting couple.”
How does Robin Williams’ improvisation compare to the Christopher Guest improvisers you’ve worked with?
“You know, he doesn’t think about what he’s doing. He’s never judging what he’s doing. He’s just going full speed ahead. And it’s really fun to work with because he never gives you that sense that he’s kind of looking at what you’re saying. He’s not editing. He’s just going with whatever you’re giving him. He makes it all very good. I had an incredible experience working with him that I didn’t realize… I was sort of intimidated, and then he was absolutely super supportive, super fun and I had the best time working with him.”
Did he throw you off?
“No, he didn’t. But maybe because I’m an improviser and I was ready for anything that he was going to bring. You know, I have to say actually I threw him off a couple times. Just making him laugh, like really being inappropriate. Stuff that will never make it into a movie.”
I thought he’d be a rock.
“He is and that’s the thing. He said, ‘You got me and it takes a lot to get me.’”
What was it?
“I do remember. I can’t tell you. It’s that bad. It was that crazy of a scene. It was basically I was telling my husband, he says, ‘Eat me, Janine’ and I say, ‘I would rather do something else,’ that was really inappropriate and Robin was very fun.”
