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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

Chris D’Elia speaks with The DePaulia about his character, Alex, on NBC’s Whitney

This fall, several new shows premiered on NBC, including the now cancelled Playboy Club, Prime Suspect, Up All Night, and several more. One of the newest sitcoms that came to NBC are Whitney, a show about a middle-aged woman named Whitney, who’s been in a three-year relationship with her boyfriend Alex. She fears that her relationship could turn into something boring. With the help of her friends, she tries to find ways to keep her romantic life with Alex exciting. The DePaulia got to speak with Chris D’Elia, who plays Alex on Whitney.

The DePaulia: So Alex is a much more stable adult than some of your more recent characters like on Workaholics and Glory Daze. Do you find it more difficult to be funny while playing a normal character than one of these crazy, over the top characters?

Chris D’Elia: That’s an interesting question. It’s a different thing. I think that when you’re playing an over the top, say, child molester, yeah, it’s more wow and in your face. I think if you have a handle on the character it’s a little easier to make people laugh with it. It’s not the, “Wow, oh my God, what am I watching” factor, it’s the, “I can identify with that.” And that’s why I think it’s funny. So if you can kind of hook into, you know, the real life of it all, I think that that’s what makes people laugh as well, in a different way as, you know, in a much different way than the character I played on Workaholics or Glory Daze on TBS, we’ll say.

DP: Yeah, it seems like with every episode, Alex and Whitney are always competing with each other. Like with the first date and with the silent treatment, and then this week’s episode sounds like they’re also going to be competing. Why do you think everything is a competition with them?

CD: I think that what it is, is Whitney comes up with a nonexistent problem that she just creates in her own world and in her head, and then Alex kind of has fun with it and just kind of, like, goes along with it. And then, you know, he’s just a guy about it, he’s like, “All right, if this is what she thinks, then I’ll just go along with it and I’ll try to make it better and fix it, even though it’s not really a problem.” So I think it’s less about him being competitive with her and more just about him having fun with it. She’s the competitive one. But I will say in a few episodes, you’ll definitely see Alex’s competitive side come out because it has to do with sports. He gets way too competitive and kind of flies off the handle.

DP: How much does Alex reflect your views of modern relationships?

CD: Actually, I think his views on relationships are pretty similar to mine, you know. I mean, Whitney wrote this with me in mind, and so I am playing, I guess for lack of a better word, a version of myself. But I think I do believe that nowadays especially, that people can be happy couples and be unmarried and just be a couple. I think that’s okay. We live in a society where everybody’s like, “Oh, when are you getting married?” And then you get married, it’s like, “When are you having kids? When is this and when is that?” It’s okay to just be. And I think that that’s what Alex and Whitney are doing and they’re enjoying themselves a lot more than a lot of married couples. I mean, not all of them but some of them. You know, it’s not about being married or not married. It’s about just being and being happy with the person you’re with and taking it day by day, and that’s exactly how I feel.

DP: So you’re known for being an actor and a comedian, but if you weren’t performing, what else could you see yourself doing?

CD: Oh, man. I think I’d have one outfit and I’d be on a bench somewhere. I don’t know. I’ve stuck with this profession for a long time. I’ve just recently gotten some success in the past few years, but there were ten years there was I was just kicking around. People were like, “Oh, you stayed with it, that’s so great, it’s such a great success story.” But I kind of didn’t know what else to do.  I don’t even know what I could do. I really don’t know, and I’ve thought about this a lot. There’s no way I would have 9 to 5, absolutely now. I mean, I would need to do something creative, so I don’t know what I would do. I mean, I’ve always been somebody who wanted to be in front of strangers making them laugh, so standup is just kind of what I felt like I was born to do. I guess I have no answer. But let’s say fireman, because fireman sounds good. Let’s say fireman.

DP: Alex confides in his friends whenever there’s a problem in the relationship. Whitney does also. Do you agree with Alex’s approach of bringing in friends to deal with his issues?

CD: I think that it’s tough because with friends you never know, but I think I would probably do that. In my life, I would do that more with my family. I’m a big believer in the fact that you don’t know about a relationship unless you’re actually in it. I don’t know if that’s the best thing to do. I mean, you definitely need to bounce off your ideas and your feelings on somebody, and if your family isn’t close by, then, you know, a lot of people’s family don’t get their situation, but I’m lucky because mine does and I can always talk to them. But yeah, I feel like it’s a good thing to do but, you know, you’ve got to always take it with a grain of salt, I guess I’ll say.

DP: When you guys were doing impressions of each other, it looked like you guys were honestly laughing. Is there a lot of ad-lib that’s done on your part?

CD: That’s a huge compliment. There’s not that much ad lib. We have a lot of really great writers that work tirelessly on things like what’s the best joke or thing to say. I take that as a compliment because I think that’s what people are responding to when they say that is Whitney and I know each other. And so I think it comes – I think our playfulness, because we know each other, you know, we weren’t two actors that were just hired and then put in a room together that try to act like we know each other. We do know each other. I laugh during takes and it’s not out of character. It’s in my character because that’s who I am with Whitney. We’re not in a relationship together, but that’s what we do. We talk and we laugh and that’s what people do, so I think that people respond to that and think that sometimes it’s ad lib. I’m not spot on line by line, because of my unprofessionalism, so maybe that comes off because I’ll throw in something that wasn’t in the script, but that’s every now and then. I think that if that’s what you count as ad lib then yeah, maybe a little bit, but mostly it’s, I mean, 95 to 98% is just the writers’ work.

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