Taylor Misiak Talks Captain Maggie Quinn in 'Going Dutch', Denis Leary, and TV Comedy Evolution

[00:00:09] Taylor, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited. Excited times. We have Going Dutch on Fox episode one premiere last week. We have episodes coming. Must be exciting times for you. It is. It's awesome. Like what a way to start the new year. Like a new half hour sitcom comedy. Like it's so it's like such a dream come true. It's great. That's awesome. You worked on like a wide range of like, you know, genres from comedy, drama. Like how do you choose these projects? What do you decide?

[00:00:39] What you want to do? What draws you to certain roles? A lot of the stuff that I do is comedy and whether it's like in a dramedy world where things get a little heavy or if it's something like this where it's it's still heartfelt, but it's a little bit on the lighter side. The stuff that I'm drawn to is the things that I think I would watch and would make me laugh. And that's those are my my favorite things to read and then to do.

[00:01:03] I'm a huge comedy person. I love like sitcoms, everything. And you don't see a lot of those anymore. So like when one drops, like I want to tune in. I'm one of those people. I want to tune in. Is that how you feel about shows like this? Yeah. And honestly, like when we were shooting this, it made me revisit a lot of just like really fantastic sitcoms, both old and new. And it was so fun to go back and like watch the first episode of Cheers and watch the first episode of Good Place. And like shows that are sweet.

[00:01:29] We think they're just like treasures to us. They're so funny and they keep you so warm, but they also are sweet and touching and relatable. And yeah, I think it's it's a really special type of TV that we need in in the television landscape. Definitely. Now you've worked like I mentioned, you've done a little bit of everything like.

[00:01:52] Like we saw you on Dave. Yeah. How was it your experience working on something like that? Because that was a huge fan favorite to people enjoyed that series. Yeah, I love I love I love bands of Dave. I love fans who were little Dickie fans that then like kind of, you know, joined the show following and then beyond that it was really fun to know that people who thought the show sounded either dumb or insane ended up watching it and really enjoying it.

[00:02:18] I love the show. I love the show. I love the show. I love the show. I love the show Dave. I think it's so singular that when things would get so absurd and strange, they would also pack an emotional punch behind that that you wouldn't see coming. So you'd be even more vulnerable for as an audience member. And I loved playing Ali.

[00:02:37] Ali, I thought she was like a really great foil to Dave. Part of the genius of the show is that his character is so deeply flawed. And Ali was this fun vehicle to like, let the audience know they had permission to love him because she loved him and kind of wrap our head around being Ali more than we could being Dave. And that was a really fun character to to play a real like key, I think, to the chemistry of the show.

[00:03:01] Last night I was on Reddit and I was doing a little research and I ended up in that subreddit for that show and people wanted to come back. Like, has there ever been talks like we try to revisit or anything? Maybe do a special on it? I think that Dave Bird is someone who never stops making new and exciting things. And I know what he's got coming next is like going to be fantastic.

[00:03:23] And I would like to think and I hope that the the world of the show, Dave, as we know it, has not seen its last its last days. So you would you would jump on it? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I love making the show. I love the show. I will say, though, it's nice that the show is getting this reprieve because Dave himself really just needed to take a break in order to make new like have a life.

[00:03:46] And like the show is about his life. And it's been exciting in the time that we are taking a break to do new things like going Dutch. So let's jump into going Dutch. What drew you to the role of Captain Maggie? And what was your first reaction, like reading the script and how were you approached for the series? I was really excited to audition for this. I mean, it's been a really tough year in in Hollywood, as they say, in terms of auditions and work.

[00:04:11] There's been so much less out there. And so I'm to be honest with you, I'm not being particularly choosy about the things that I'm auditioning for a little bit, but like mostly not. And it was really exciting to to get a pilot audition, period. And then to get a pilot audition that's written by Joel Church Cooper was super thrilling to me because I'm a huge fan of Brockmire. I think that show is so funny and like just such a treasure.

[00:04:36] So knowing that he wrote it, I was already excited. And then diving into it, I really loved that it was a father daughter relationship at the core of the story. And like I'm always auditioning for like the love interest. So it's really it was really cool to be like, oh, this is going to be a fully feel it fully realized female character whose main relationship, main driving relationship in the show isn't like a lover. It's her dad, which obviously is a huge relationship in all of our lives.

[00:05:03] So I was excited about that uniqueness and I was excited about Joel Church Cooper for sure. What was this? What was the description of Maggie? It was that she was a I'm going to butcher it and they wrote it so much better, but she was like such a centered and very like emotionally intelligent woman who was really focused on creating like a new culture at this military base that she was interim commander of.

[00:05:31] That was a lot more, you know, woke for lack of a better word, like Dennis Leary's character jokes that she runs at like a Montessori school. There's a lot of like new inventive things are doing. She's very gentle. She's very caring. But that when her dad comes into the room, it brings out in her all of these both childish things in her, but also the things that are really deep down, like authentically her that are pieces of hip.

[00:05:56] She's hyper ambitious. She's super competitive. She can be really aggressive. She can be really biting. All of the things that she kind of stuffs down in order to be this this person that she wants to be. And what's exciting about the show is she learns, as we all kind of do, that she's she's both. I don't know if she does that has that whole discovery in season one necessarily, but that's how I like to look at it as Taylor is like you gotta you gotta allow yourself to be both things. But I think that she's still figuring that out.

[00:06:26] How would you describe the chemistry between like Maggie and her father, Quinn, played by Dennis Leary? It's like fireworks of the violent nature, I would say. Like they are like from the moment they're together, it is like they're gonna get at each other's throats, which I think is really fun because it's not just like a kid who's scolding their dad and putting them in their place.

[00:06:50] I mean, you can't see that dad and like this parent who is sort of sheepish like Dennis's character. The colonel is so, so caustic and biting and quick and is also super strong and super intelligent and has a leg to stand on. He's a highly decorated war hero. He's like this super, super high up position in the army has been his whole life, her whole life at least.

[00:07:15] And it's funny that they go toe to toe in a way that you don't get to see a lot of, at least outside of their own homes. You don't get to see the parents and the kids go toe to toe the way you get to see it on the show. And yeah, did they bring anybody on the set to train for like because you guys are doing like the military background and everything? Yeah.

[00:07:35] So I know that I know that Joel, our showrunner, Joel Church Cooper and our executive producer, Jack Leary, did a lot of research and they like went to Holland and got as much as they could out of that. In addition to doing a lot of military research, I know the writer's room was learning a lot when they were kind of putting the episodes together. And then on set, we were both shooting on a real military base in Ireland.

[00:08:03] And we also had a consult who was a veteran who was helping us just in terms of learning about ranks and learning saluting and all of that. So what I noticed on the episode when I watched it, I watched it over the weekend. And Maggie, she's like strong and independent as a character. It's like what aspects of like her personality could you relate the most with and what parts were like more challenging? I think what I could relate the most to about her, she is strong and she's independent. And I like to think I'm those two things.

[00:08:32] She's so ambitious. And like what she wants to do in terms of rising the ranks in the military and ultimately her dream is to become president. Like that's like genuinely what she wants to do. It's not dissimilar from the crazy part of me that wanted to be a professional actor and that continues to want to be a professional actor. Like in the world of our show, it could be, you know, she could be made fun of for wanting to be present. I should absolutely be made fun of for like wanting an Oscar. Like the odds are not dissimilar.

[00:09:01] So that was something that I could really like connect to with her. And I think I relate to so much. I love my parents. I love my family. But I know the feeling that being around your family gives you and it changes your chemical makeup and you're just suddenly, I don't know. I feel like I change a little bit and there's different things that come out or stay in. And I can relate to that part of her and her relationship with her dad a lot. Is there anything you would change about Maggie if you could?

[00:09:30] I mean, she's so, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't yet. I think she's really figuring it out. And I think what's fun about the show and like the magic of the show is that it's really fun to watch both the Colonel and Danny Pudi's character and Aggie like are in a new place and have to find new footing and are also in really unique chapters of their life. Like the Colonel makes jokes about being in his Michael Jordan on the Wizards era.

[00:09:59] And that's so funny to me, but it's an important chapter of your life. It's still metamorphosis. It's still growth. So I wouldn't change anything about Maggie now. I want her to learn how to find herself and stabilize those relationships and achieve her dreams. While filming, has there been any chance for like improv or anything? Like something slipped in and you guys kept going with it? Yeah. In fact, like watching the show, sometimes that's some of the stuff I miss. There's like little clips.

[00:10:28] I mean, it's 21 minutes, 22 minutes. It's like such a short period of time. And when you have people as funny as Danny Pudi, as funny as Dennis Leary, they would definitely let us like riff on jokes and improvise about stuff. And a lot of that is in the show. But what you're not seeing is that it goes on for like a minute and a half more just because it was so fun to do. But especially working with Danny, I mean, he's a comedic genius.

[00:10:51] And it's so cool to be sharing the screen with somebody with like his talent and his comedic knowledge. Yeah, the cast is great. Even Catherine Tate is funny. Oh my gosh. Catherine Tate is so funny. And I get to like work with her a little bit later in the season. And I was so nervous. I think she's like such an idol of mine. And so, so cool to be around her. She's so funny. She's so smart. She's so elegant and incredibly warm-blooded.

[00:11:21] Like we would be shooting in the snow and she would be in just like a t-shirt and she'd be fine. And I would, I'm like, you never cease to be the coolest person I've ever met. Crazy. Is there somebody from the cast that you didn't have that many scenes with that down in the road in the future, if we see more episodes, you hope to work with? Joe Morton is in our show. He plays the sort of enemy of Dennis Leary. And I, I got to spend a lot of time with him on set because we would be in group scenes together.

[00:11:50] And we had a couple of scenes, just the two of us, but I would love to work with him more. I think there's so much I can learn from him. And he is such a unbelievably talented and like really efficient performer and a really charismatic. And it was fun to like pick his brain about Broadway stuff in between tapes. I loved working with him. Um, Lacey and I, I love her character so much, Sergeant Conway. And I think there's so much more that we have to do with, um, with Maggie and Conway for sure.

[00:12:19] How many episodes are we expecting this season? 10 episodes. 10 episodes. How would you describe Maggie's journey from episode one to episode 10? Without giving spoilers away, of course. Yeah. Right. I'm like, I'm that classic actor. That's like, I don't know what I can say, but I do know I could say that we watch, we're going to watch Maggie like grow in certain ways and then have some pitfalls of regression.

[00:12:44] Um, that maybe we might not even catch because it's kind of fun to watch her and her dad in the moments that they team up. And that chemistry is really fun and it's just hilarious, but you might also feel a little conflicted. Like, is this the best thing for her? Um, but we are, we're definitely going to see some, some changes on the base. I will also say we have some, like, just in terms of the show, some really creative episodes.

[00:13:12] Like, I know you've seen the pilot and the pilots, but now I love the pilot. I think it's such a charming way to meet all the characters, but it's like super information dense and we're establishing the world. We're building the world. We have some episodes coming up that are so like stylistic and funny and, and get to like breathe more. And they're each one, like our nicknames for the episodes were so funny that it just, I just think that there's a lot of really special things coming and people might not expect that after just seeing the pilot.

[00:13:42] But when you, I want to go back a little bit, when you auditioned for this, were, did you know it was for going Dutch or was like a different name for it or something? That's a great question. It's since I've been reading for it, it's always been going Dutch. I know that there were conversations maybe about changing it at some point, but it's such a good name. I mean, it's like such a funny play on words and it's both the Colonel and Maggie having to split the responsibility of the space. It is him literally going Dutch.

[00:14:06] There is a lot of themes of like Americans going Dutch and the things that we can learn about our workaholic addiction and like, you know, like things that we're going Dutch on. But yeah, that's a good question. And I've always been Maggie because previously I usually auditioned for characters and then when you go to shoot, it is a different name. And in fact, my original, my original name on Dave was Maggie. Oh, wow. The two pilots I've booked have both been the name Maggie.

[00:14:36] So it's like, great. Love it. So we have, we have 10 episodes. What's next for you now? Any other projects you'll have to tell us about? Are you coming up? I, I also shot two features last year, small roles and two features that I'm really excited about. I think that they're going to have premieres in this, in 2025 at festivals, I'm hoping, or I'm excited to like find out more about that. But those were a blast and I'm hoping to keep doing that.

[00:15:05] I would really love to keep doing movies in the time that I'm, that I'm not making funny TV. But to be honest with you, we were shooting this for a, several months at the end of the year. I got married in that time. I like flew out from set and then flew back to get married. And so it's been really nice since we just wrapped after Thanksgiving to take like a couple weeks off and spend time with my dog and my husband. And now that it's the new year, I'm like getting back into auditioning and reading stuff.

[00:15:34] And I want to do something more dramatic. But yeah, we'll, we'll see. Amazing. Taylor, let's send this by a Hakan Akan. Listeners of the viewers now find you on social media. Keep up with you. I've noticed you're posting some stuff on the show. Yeah. My Instagram is at Taylor Mishak, T-A-Y-L-O-R-M-I-S-I-A-K. I do post about the show. I, and I don't, I, I just got rid of Twitter slash X.

[00:16:02] I got rid of the other things because I, I just want to have a little less screen time in my life, but I am more active on Instagram and that's the place to follow me. And then you could catch Going Dutch Thursdays at 930 on Fox and the next day on Hulu. Amazing. Taylor, I want to thank you for giving me some minutes today. Let's get you back out with future projects and hopefully a season two. Thanks. Thank you.