Aubrey Plaza was once ordered to masturbate in front of “a group of senior citizens,” she said.
The A-lister was still a supporting actress when she was cast as Brandy Clark in “The To Do List” (2013). Plaza described director Maggie Carey’s approach to a scene described as “Brandy masturbating,” asking her what she should do.
Plaza says Carey told her, “Masturbate like the script says.”
The actor recounted the experience during a 2013 interview with Conan O’Brien, which recently resurfaced, shocking YouTube viewers. Plaza, who was still on “Parks and Recreation” at the time, said he “imagined a nice scene where you see my hand slowly coming out of the frame.”
“That’s what I thought,” he told O’Brien at the time. “This is what I thought I was getting myself into. But when I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton T-shirt, and there were a bunch of old men smoking. You know, the crew guys.
“They weren’t smoking, but my memory… and then I went and touched myself,” Plaza continued with a laugh before turning more serious. “I thought I was doing one thing and when I turned up it was completely different; it was a blow to the whole body”.
Todd Williamson/Invision/Associated Press
The film itself is about a high school student struggling to gain sexual experience before going to college in 1993. Carey, who worked with Plaza when both were still undiscovered talents, told Vulture in 2013 that the film is close to his heart.
“It’s pure fiction, but Brandy Clark’s point of view is something I know very well,” she told Vulture, “having graduated high school in 1993 in Boise, Idaho…I feel like I’m very accomplished, but still total. boy crazy and also getting nowhere with boys.
While Plaza laughed off her experience when she did her interview with O’Brien, others today are less amused.
“This will never fly in 2022,” commented one YouTube viewer. “An actor says ‘so what do I do’ and the director says ‘go touch the camera.’ Without any kind of notification or warning that this is what they want to see? This would delete the directory.
When asked about Plaza’s performance in “The To Do List,” Carey told Vulture in 2013 that “when she read the script, she loved it.” Carey eventually directed episodes of major television series like “Silicon Valley,” “Barry” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” — and always praised Plaza’s work.
“She was so brave,” Carey told ScreenSlam in 2014. “She was up for anything, you know, which was fun. And he had no problem putting himself in these very uncomfortable situations. But, you know, she played for the comedy and she just nailed it.”
“She was so much fun to work with,” Carey continued. “She’s very brave.”
