NBC introduced the new family comedy series Working the Engels on July 10, 2014, with Andrea Martin, Kacey Rohl, Azura Skye, and Ben Arthur playing a dysfunctional family who take over the family’s struggling law firm. And in support of the show’s premiere, Martin chatted with the press about what viewers can expect from the comedy series and what she finds so appealing about her character.
The Working the Engels Plot:
In this family comedy, created by Katie Ford (Miss Congeniality, Desperate Housewives) and Jane Cooper Ford (Listen Missy, Material World), a family of ne’er-do-wells must band together to keep their heads above water when their father and breadwinner passes away, leaving them a mountain of debt.
The Engels must all go to work running Dad’s storefront law firm, with one minor problem — daughter Jenna Engel (Rohl) is the only one who is qualified to practice law. Unfortunately for Jenna, this also means taking on her eccentric relatives as co-workers. Ceil (Martin), the self-absorbed and overly dramatic but fiercely protective mother works as the firm’s paralegal; Sandy (Skye), a former pill-popper who has never worked a day in her life, is the receptionist and first line of defense at the firm; and Jimmy (Arthur), a petty criminal and bad boy who is utterly devoted to his family, is the firm’s investigator. Jenna, the youngest sibling and “good one,” becomes the unlikely family patriarch, running the law firm and keeping her crazy family together.
It’s not pretty, but it’s family.
Andrea Martin Working with Engels Interview
How was your character on Working the Engels originally described to you?
Andrea Martin: “How was my character originally described? As an overly protective, overbearing mama bear is how I remember it.”
Have you added anything to her that wasn’t originally scripted for you?
Andrea Martin: “I probably took away something. I think they originally wrote it maybe with a harder edge, or maybe much more narcissistic for the sake of being narcissistic and I probably softened that a bit. Instead of being narcissistic, I wanted her to kind of live through her kids. So, they became her focus, as opposed to her becoming her own focus.”
What was about this character that made you want to play her?
Andrea Martin: “Really primarily was the fact that I identified with being a mom of two grown kids and I have two sons: they’re 31 and 33. So, I really understood the pitfalls of being a mother with two grown sons and still trying to be in their life, or enabling them, or being way too consumed about their lives when they’re grown men. So, I thought that it was relatable and also I thought I could make that funny because I understood it.”
What do you find to be the most challenging thing about making the series?
Andrea Martin: “Well, this is kind of pathetic but I guess the hours, because the last time I did a television series it was four cameras. This is single camera, and we shot it in Toronto and we shot it during the winter, so the hours were extremely long. Like 5:00 a.m. calls, and kind of like 11 o’clock, we’d be home and you (would) have to drive through the snow to get home. So, I think the schedule was challenging. But once I got on the set, I was voracious. I love that kind closed set and I love the cast and so it was really huge creative outpourings because it was just so kind of isolated in Toronto. There were no distractions. On one hand, it took a long time to commute. But on the other hand it made for a very spontaneous comedy because there were very few distractions.”
Given your background, how tough is it for you not to want to rewrite some of your lines? Do you get to pitch in? How much is scripted and how much is ad-lib?
Andrea Martin: “Do you know I think that probably 90% was scripted and 10% was ad-libs when the cameras were on. But I would say there was an enormous amount of collaboration before we started filming. We do a table read and then I might say, ‘I don’t understand something.’ Or, ‘Maybe we could do this and maybe we can change this a bit.’ And so I kind of knew going in that I had been listened to and we’d all been listened to and maybe changes have been made, so it did feel very free and collaborative.”
In order to get that family dynamic on screen did the cast do anything off-set to bond? Or was it all through the table reads?
Andrea Martin: “You know, that’s a really great question. That was an insanely quick sense of intimacy with these kids and me. We had one dinner party and then we did a table read, and then I think we had another little dinner the producers threw for everybody creatively involved. I just think it was very instant chemistry, and everybody comments on that it seems like we’ve known each other for a long time or it does seem like a family. And it really felt like that immediately; sometimes that happens. I don’t know if it’s because it was in Canada, but it did feel really smooth and trusting, I guess, from the very beginning.”
How much did working on Working the Engels feel like coming full circle for you having started out with SCTV in Toronto?
Andrea Martin: “Gosh, it did feel completely full circle because we were actually shooting the series maybe five minutes away from the studio that we shot SCTV in. It was Toronto, of course, and I have a house in the same place, same area, that I used to have a house in doing SCTV so the route to work was the same. So it was kind of like a flashback, a kind of surreal flashback.
However, once we were on the set, it seemed really different because it was a single camera. We shot SCTV with four cameras and those are the days you used to – maybe it was just because we were writing and acting and everything – where we used to do a scene, look at the monitor, corrected ourselves, go back, do it again. So that was really strange, and not being able to see myself and go back when we do something, or try to make it funnier. It was really shot like a film and in that way it had changed, but there was a lot of familiarity for sure.”
This series was originally for Canadian television, but then sold to the States. Does it feel different when it’s aimed at an American audience?
Andrea Martin: “You know, there’s a huge difference, obviously, shooting something in Toronto, as opposed to New York or L.A. where I’d shot other series. There’s just really no distractions; it’s all about the work. And in that way it’s fabulous. That’s how we shot SCTV. We were really isolated from media or networks. That’s not nice to say, but we had a little bit more freedom obviously. So, you know, in that way it was really just about the work, and really there’s nothing better than that. The fact that this is actually how SCTV was done too…we shot it in Canada not thinking it was going to be on NBC, and then it was on NBC.
You have great comedic timing. Is it something that’s natural to you or is it something you’ve had to work at?
Andrea Martin: “I think that my timing is natural. I think it’s really hard to teach timing. I think people can be funny, for sure. Beautiful actors who have only done drama can be funny, and that depends on the material. But I think timing – I think you’re born with it, actually.”
What do you think it is about Working the Engels that will help it catch on with audiences?
Andrea Martin: “Well, I think it’s a fabulously, cozy, intimate, fun, broad, sometimes it’s physically comedic, other times I think relatable between the mom and the kids, at other times. And I think it’s a wonderful way to spend an evening in the summertime. I think it’s relatable, approachable, light, and funny. So, I hope people will feel the same way.”
