Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP / Getty Images
Ellie (and family) goes outside! Not to be confused with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s pilot episode, “Kimmy Goes Outside.”
With a little less than seven weeks left of summer, I know many of us are clinging to every last bit of it. And Ellie Kemper is here to help. The actress and mom has teamed up with Pirate’s Booty for Captain Bob’s Summer Quest, which is basically an excuse to put the screens down, get outside, and let your imagination do some of the heavy lifting.
And for the Kemper family, that means literally locking those screens away.
“We have a legit safe just for screens, so we'll put [them] away, and I have the key, and nobody knows where I put the key, so people can't get into it,” she told iHeartRadio in an exclusive interview. “You do forget about it after a minute, and then you can just be present in the moment, and I think that's really helpful.”
Helpful, innovative and, some (me) might even say, a pretty perfect way to bring back the kind of summers many of us millennials grew up with — when going outside was the activity and every day was basically its own Captain Bob’s Summer Quest.
And since we were already feeling nostalgic, I couldn’t let Kemper go without talking about her enduring Hollywood career, how her kids see her, and of course a little something about The Office.
Keep scrolling to read the rest of our conversation.
Are your kids aware of who you are and what you do? And does what you do give you any kind of cool factor with them?
Kemper: It's interesting… My 6-year-old doesn't really flag it, but my 9-year-old now notices more if there is a person who says, oh, you were on The Office, or whatever. And if anything, they're just, I think, embarrassed or something. I mean, there's no sense of ‘Yeah, that's cool.’ It's like, ‘How embarrassing. Let's get back to me,’ which I think is healthy.
I feel like anything your parents do in front of you is embarrassing. I'm just beginning to see that with my kids. I guess as they become teenagers, it will only get more and more embarrassing to them. But, no, [what I do] isn't really on their radar too much. So, whether that's good or bad, I don't know.
No, I think it’ll come. I feel like there was a point in my life where I was with my parents, and I was like, ‘You guys are so not cool... you’re not my people,’ and then they became my people, so I know it’ll come.
Kemper: It's a cycle. You're exactly right.
Speaking of cycles — I would say you’ve had something I’d say is really rare in Hollywood: a career that’s lasted, evolved and still feels exciting. How would you describe this chapter of your career?
Kemper: Oh, first of all, that's a huge compliment! Thanks for saying that. I would say this chapter feels very specific in that I always say this to my husband all the time, where I'm like. 'Motherhood really changed things,' because it did! It's like, oh, right, now I'm raising two children. And so, that balance with work has been different for me, because it's like anybody, any parent who is working, it changes your work and your parenting when you become a parent, because now you're doing two things.
So, I would say this chapter is just more about balance than it was before. And I'm figuring that out. Week by week, to be honest with you. But it also informs what you choose to work on, because your point of view changes a little bit. And also, the logistics of work change. What you're available to work on. But again, that's for any career, not just acting.
And I feel like with that being said, your kids will one day — and hopefully soon — appreciate your projects like The Lego Movie and the Elephant & Piggie Show. I feel like those career decisions will be something they’ll have to appreciate in time.
Kemper: Yes! I will say the Elephant & Piggie Show is the first thing I did that I specifically mentioned to them because I wanted them to have some respect for me, and I mentioned it because they love those books and they were excited about that. So point proven.
Now, I can’t let you go without talking about The Office. One of my favorite episodes is “Stress Relief,” the fire drill episode, so I’ve always wanted to know: Do you have a favorite episode — or episodes — that you like to revisit?
Kemper: I'm going to be selfish because my favorite episode to film was "Secretary's Day," because it was all about Erin. So I was like, yes! And I got to improvise with Steve Carell in that restaurant scene. So that week was so magical, and I believe Mindy [Kaling] wrote that. Steve directed it. It was my favorite one. It was so much fun. It was just so much fun on every level.
Captain Bob's Summer Quest is available as a free download at piratesbooty.com.