ADD CAROL BURNETT, THE NAZI-HUNTER, TO YOUR THANKSGIVING WEEK

If you’re gathering your favorite people together for the Thanksgiving holidays this week, you might want to include a Nazi-hunter on your invite list. We are of course talking about this week’s episode of GLEE, which features comedic legend Carol Burnett as Sue Sylvester’s retired Nazi-hunter mom.  Our FOX All Access insider sat down with Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch to find out more about this week’s hilarious turkey of an episode.

 Q & A with Carole Burnett

FAA Insider: So how did this part come about?

Carol: “Well, I’ve been watching Glee since it began, from the get-go.  And I go around the country every so often and I do a one-woman show where I do questions and answers, and the audience – it’s all random.  And somebody asked me about what I would like to do on television. I said, ‘I would like to be a guest on Glee.’  And the audience all went, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ So actually, I called my agent and I said, ‘If they’ve ever got an opening or anything, you know, I would sure love to play in their sandbox.’  So he called back in a few weeks and he said, ‘Ask and ye shall receive.’  And so I said, ‘Oh, that’s great.  I would just love to lock eyeballs, as we call it, with Jane Lynch, whom I adore, who plays Sue.’  And so they didn’t have a script, and we waited and all, and then finally they said I’d be playing Jane’s mother.  And I said, ‘That’s sensational.’ And then I read on the internet that I’m a Nazi-hunter; a retired Nazi-hunter.  Sue’s mother is a retired Nazi-hunter.  Well, is that wonderful.”

 FAA Insider: Hmmm, a retired Nazi-hunter.  So what kind of woman would you say Doris is?

Carol: “What kind of a woman is she?  Well, I would say that she makes Sue look like Mother Teresa.  She is not a nice person, and a passive-aggressive.  And you kind of understand how Sue became that character, you know, the kind of character that she is.  It sprung from this mother.”

FAA Insider: You and Jane do a number together – what can you tell us about it?

Carol: “The number that Jane and I do actually came out of the fact that she left; the mother left and abandoned, in a sense, Sue and her sister to go hunt Nazis.  And they’re from Ohio, and so she has come back, and she sings, ‘why, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why did I ever leave Ohio?’ – Which is from a Broadway show of the ‘50s, called ‘Wonderful Town.’  And it works, because she left Ohio.  And I get to sing it with Jane, who has a wonderful voice, and it was fun.”

FAA Insider: So how fun was it to ‘lock eyeballs’ with Jane?

Carol: “Jane Lynch is a consummate comedic actress.  She’s one of the best I have ever seen.  We worked together before in a little film, and she just made me laugh the whole time, as herself and in the character.  And I’ve always loved her in the Christopher Guest movies, so I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, and it’s just such a kick to be with her face-to-face.”

FAA Insider: So you’ve had your Glee experience… What are you going to miss, and would you want to return for more?

Carol: “Oh, I’m going to miss being made up every morning, wearing a wig every morning.  I’m going to miss the people.  Yeah, I hope I can come back and visit again.”

 Q & A with Jane Lynch

FAA Insider: So Carol mentioned that you’ve worked together before – and that you made her laugh the whole time.

Jane: “I did a movie with Carol two years ago called Post Grad – and Michael Keaton as well, so that was pretty mind blowing right there.  And I loved her.  We had a great time.  She’s as lovely in person as she would be in your imagination.  And I made her laugh once, although she says, “Oh, you make me laugh all the time.  But I remember once.  And we were in a car and I said, Carol, look at my back-up face.  You know, when people back-up.  And Carol’s sitting in the back seat.  They always have a funny face like that and she laughed very hard at that and she brought it up the first day here.  She said, ‘remember your back-up face?’  I said, ‘are you kidding? – I refer to that moment as the time I made Carol Burnett laugh.”

 FAA Insider: What was it like for you to actually perform with Carol?

Jane: “It’s kind of other-worldly being on stage singing with her because it’s something I imagined myself doing all my life.  It’s actually happening.  I never thought for a moment that this preposterous fantasy would actually come to light.  And I’m reading her book; Carol’s book.  And you know, she performed with Lucille Ball, Jim Nabors… She was good friends with Jimmy Stewart, I mean, she’s hooked up; she’s hooked up.  And Julie Andrews and you know, they performed, they’re still best friends.”

FAA Insider: Knowing you’d be performing with Carole Burnett – did you find yourself anxious at all?

Jane: “You know, sometimes I get so star struck I can’t talk, and I was afraid that would be the case and it didn’t happen, you know, and I think that’s because of her.  She’s just so grounded and down to earth and so normal.  And you know, what I love about her is she’s so spontaneous in every take.  Every take is alive and she does something different.  She’s not Pat at all.  It’s just, it’s great.”

 FAA Insider: For someone that has been in this business for so long, Carol Burnett seems like a really cool person.

Jane: “That’s one of the things about Carol that she’s, she’s just so current.  You know, she makes fun of herself, but she’s basically very, very, very kind and it comes through not only in her work, even though she was like playing a kind of a mean person, but in her book and just the way she carries herself.  She’s just a very kind person.”

FAA Insider: Would you like to see ‘Dorris/Carol’ return for more episodes?

Jane: “I hope Doris Sylvester would come back.  I will miss her terribly.  Every time I get to meet a piece of my family, I get a bigger piece of who Sue Sylvester is and it’s always a surprise.  It’s always a surprise.  I remember when I shot a scene in my condo, I walked in and went, I get it, I get it.  It’s like littered like hoarders, with trophies.  I mean they were everywhere and I went, ‘Oh my God.’  I feel like I have to get another piece of Sue Sylvester, and so here I have this mother that was abandoning and cold and very critical and that’s what Sue Sylvester has become; a bully, cold and critical, and always looking for the weak spot in somebody else; you know, the Achilles heel so she can pounce on it.  And that’s what Doris does, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Speaking of apples, and food, make your Thanksgiving week spectacular, and catch Carol Burnett, Jane Lynch, and the rest of the cast in another entertaining episode of GLEE, this Tuesday at 8PM ET/PST on FOX.