Raised on a rich diet of Roseanne and SCTV, comedian and actor Alice Wetterlund is using her talent to mix things up in the comedy world. “Pretty much everything I’ve done in my life has been getting into a boys’ club and shaking things up. That’s what I like to do; play on a guys’ baseball team because I refuse to play softball. I want to change things from the inside all of the time.†Even if you don’t yet know Wetterlund, chances are you’ve caught glimpses of her in a commercial, on MTV’s Girl Code, or most recently, as the newest employee at Pied Piper on Silicon Valley. That last credit is garnering a lot of attention for Wetterlund and rightly so. Wetterlund performs with a straightforward, self-aware blend of sarcasm, wit, and confidence, qualities that appear to come naturally to her, as is evidenced in this interview. We talked about her early influences, the grind of commercial work, and the ever-evolving issues with sexism in comedy.
What came first for you: acting, improv, or standup?
I guess acting came first. I began doing theater stuff in high school. I wanted to act from a young age. I was always really hammy, expressive, theatrical and dramatic. My mom enrolled me in theater classes, but by the time I got to high school I was too angsty and ironic and Daria-esque to hang with the theater kids, who were cheesy and pretty much like the cast of Glee. I didn’t like theater anymore, so I started doing fine art. I moved to New York and went to art school. When I graduated, I didn’t know what I was doing with my life, so I just kind of did a lot of drugs and partied. Five years after I had graduated, my friend dared me to do UCB classes. I didn’t have anything else going on, so I took Improv 101 with Betsy Stover and pretty much never looked back. After about three months, I met a guy who did standup and introduced me to that world. They kind of started at around the same time.
When you were a kid, was there a certain type of entertainment that influenced you, or a person in your life that got you interested in wanting to pursue comedic entertainment as a profession?
We watched Roseanne a lot. That show was a very seminal part of my upbringing. It’s definitely responsible for my personality. The character of Darlene was, for me, a revelation that you could be a person who didn’t care what people thought and was really funny. That set me on a path, not professionally, but more in terms of personality and who I wanted to be in the world. I also watched a lot of SCTV when I was a kid. I was aware of comedy from a young age.
Was there anyone in your family or social circle that worked in entertainment?
No. Nobody. My family is funny. My dad and his side of the family are funny. We watched a lot of comedy. For some reason, Louie Anderson was a big deal in my family. We watched a lot of Louie Anderson. A lot of The Simpsons too. Comedy was important to us.
When did you start getting into commercial work? When I was prepping for this interview, I realized that I’ve seen you in a ton of commercials. How did you get into that line of work?
I took a class at UCB, a commercial acting class. It was a two-part class where, one week, you would go and learn about all of the things you need to know about and then the next week, you do live, improvisational commercial scripts. You basically are auditioning for commercials, writing scripts and performing them… I felt like I wasn’t wasting my time, so started going out for commercials and booked an AT&T spot that was like, literally, out of the lineup. They booked me solely off of the way I looked, no question. They aired that commercial for two years and I made like, $100,000 in residuals. I had no idea that this was not how it always was in commercials. Maybe $100,000 is an exaggeration, but I didn’t understand that you don’t get that kind of money every time you book a commercial, so I spent it all and then went another four years without getting any money. I was really stupid and not young enough to be that stupid. I got into comedy when I was 28.
Since commercial work can be lucrative, was there ever a temptation to just stick to that as your focus instead of pushing for stand-up or parts in shows and movies?
I didn’t think about it that way. I thought, “If I ever get past this, it would be great. But this is cool because it’s the first time I’ve ever written that I’m an ‘Actor’ for a living on my taxes. This is the coolest thing.†I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be turning in my taxes as an actor. Pretty much every single thing that has happened to me has been like, “This is great. If this is as far as I get, I’ll be super happy.†I wasn’t raised in Hollywood. This is all crazy to me. I’m really, really grateful for everything. The other point I want to make is, commercial acting money is not that good. Yes, if you book one commercial, you could get a lot of money. But usually what happens is you book one commercial, it shoots, you get $600 and it never airs. For all of the ones you book, you’re auditioning for 100. It’s a huge grind. People do it because it’s a job. I always wanted to challenge myself to do more.
You had a small, but very funny, role in The Interview. When the threats from North Korea started, did you have any fear about what might happen?
[Laughs] No, not at all. I don’t have a lot to say about that except that the North Korean government has been threatening to turn Washington, D.C. into a lake of fire for a long time and they’ve never done it. We don’t live in a place where there are bombings every day. This isn’t Yemen. We’re not at risk in the grand scheme of things and I never thought we were.
Right now you’re getting a lot of attention for your new role on Silicon Valley. You play Carla Walton, the first female to work with the guys at their level. The real Silicon Valley – and by some association, the show – has received criticism because of the lack of diversity, especially in terms of gender. How do you feel about coming on as a character who is making a step toward leveling the playing field?
I want differentiate between the show and the actual Silicon Valley. That’s an important point that not a lot of people are making. There’s a severe gender problem in Silicon Valley. It’s rampant and very reprehensible. I’m obviously a woman and deal with that reality every day. Every woman experiences sexism. I’m concerned with leveling all playing fields. Pretty much everything I’ve done in my life has been getting into a boy’s club and shaking things up. That’s what I like to do; play on a guy’s baseball team because I refuse to play softball. I want to change things from the inside all of the time.
That said, this character is not doing that. Carla is a response to criticism, no doubt. But the show is reflecting a situation that already exists. It’s a hostile environment in a lot of ways. I don’t see it as a comedic show’s responsibility to tackle the problem and speak about it with integrity. To do that, they would have to abandon their plotline. Mike Judge is a white guy. Alec Berg is a white guy. It’s a show made by a bunch of white guys. I know from experience that guys like them aren’t out to get women, to ruin things for women. But they’re also not coming from a position of knowing what it’s like to be a woman. We need to think about that first. If we criticize them for that and force them to put characters on TV shows, we’re not really addressing the real problem.
You’re right. Like you mentioned, the show pokes fun at Silicon Valley culture in general. If there’s an issue that exists within the real Silicon Valley, it would be disingenuous – in terms of comedy and satire – to change this one thing from the beginning, as if it wasn’t a problem at all. At that point, you’re just creating token characters, which might be worse.
I think so too. It would be great to be able to play a character who is actually experiencing some of the real sexism that exists there. I think they tried to do that, but the thing is, for it to be reflective of what Silicon Valley really is, the characters would have to push Carla out because she is a woman. Or, Carla would have to experience, from her perspective, some of the repercussions of what it’s like to be the only woman in an all-male environment. But she holds her own. That’s the kind of character that they wanted on the show. That’s the character they wrote. I’m not so sure that it’s a real representation of what it’s actually like. But I don’t think that’s the job of show.
But even then, you’re still able to make some statements. One of your first lines on the show is, “I’m not a woman engineer. I’m an engineer.†People have been latching onto that because it addresses the ignorant way that people assign gender to positions where gender doesn’t matter. Like, “Coming next to the stage, a very funny female comic.†Sometimes it’s an innocent mistake caused by ignorance. Other times it’s loaded. Either way, there’s no reason to say it. It’s redundant. The audience will see that you’re a woman when you walk up. So, a line like, “I’m not a woman engineer. I’m an engineer,†might give someone the impetus to be more reflective about how they use gender labels.
In terms of people meaning it or not meaning it, differentiating someone because they’re female, whether you mean it or not… I don’t know what the lesser evil is. If you mean something by it like, “Screw you. You’re a woman,†that’s almost better for me than someone who’s like, “Oh, I’ve never really thought about it that way.†The problem is that more guys need to be thinking about it that way. The way that real change happens is when the people on top think about what it’s like to be other. To their credit, I think that the creators of this show try to do that.
So, you would prefer to deal with sexism head-on so that you know exactly what you’re up against?
That’s my style. It’s not everybody’s style. Carla Walton is different. She’s not going to bring it up all of the time because she thinks it’s lame. She is a specialty programmer who’s basically a genius. She doesn’t make time in her life to talk about social issues because she’s ones and zeroes. She’s changing the environment by just being who she is. That’s great. I wish I could do that, but I’m a loud mouth.
In your personal experience, what changes have you seen in breaking down gender barriers during the time you’ve been involved in comedy?
Recently, I was at UCB for a 420 show. An amazing female improviser I know was hosting the show. There were a couple of sketches, written from a male perspective, that were very boys-will-be-boys. Like a, “Girls won’t let us get high, ugh,†attitude. There was a lot of support from the all-white male judges for these bits. After the show, I was talking to the host backstage and she was expressing some frustration with the weird, male-dominated vibe at that show. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there were comments here and there that felt hostile toward girls. So, she went up and talked to some of the other guys she improvises with about it.
For me, that shows a change. Because feminism is in the zeitgeist, women are able to address it more. They’re able to voice their opinions more. There’s more confidence, myself included, to speak out and say that something feels wrong. The environment is changing, slightly, but there’s still not enough being done. There’s a lot of tokenism. In the world of Hollywood, there’s a push to make up for the gap by putting women into a very public arena before they’re ready for it. Then, they’re not always choosing the most talented women. They’re choosing the prettiest women, the most “TV-ready†women. If they’re not ready to be in the arena, people will say, “See, women aren’t as funny as men.†Well, women haven’t had enough time to marinate yet. But I’m just very grateful to be able to have a discussion about it. This interview is a change, the fact that I can say these things and not be seen as a wet blanket.
Indiana comedy fans can catch Wetterlund as she headlines the Comedy Attic in Bloomington June 25th - 27th.
Photo by Mindy Tucker.