The stars of “Community” really have built their own er, um, community. So say stars Joel McHale and Alison Brie.
“If we had the free time, I swear to you, people would be going out to dinner after every day of work just because we actually get along that well,” says McHale.
Brie is quick to agree.
“It’s funny to me that we have, you know, maybe a day and a half off a week, and a lot of the time we still choose to spend it with each other,” she says.
McHale and Brie, who play two-sevenths of a tight-knit study group at a comical community college, are possibly the most overextended actors on the show. McHale hosts the weekly pop culture-trashing show “The Soup” on the E! network, and Brie plays the doting, naive housewife Trudy Campbell on AMC’s “Mad Men.”
“I think I apply some of the concepts behind dramatic acting that I use over on ‘Mad Men’ over here,” she says. “In fact, last season I think I was crying more on the set of ‘Community.’ My character was crying harder than my character was on the drama that I also work on.”
As if on cue, McHale seizes the comedic moment.
“I cried more on ‘The Soup’ than I cried on ‘Community,’” he says.
