You Can't Take It With You & Living On Love Star Anna Chlumsky on Being the Britney Spears of Broadway

Thanks to Armando Iannucci’s film In the Loop and his HBO series Veep, Anna Chlumsky has emerged as a wonderful—and Emmy nominated—comedic actress. Broadway has certainly taken notice: Chlumsky made her Great White Way debut last month as Alice Sycamore in the revival of You Can’t Take It With You. Then, in April, she will reunite with Renée Fleming in Living on Love, which was originally mounted in Williamstown last summer. We caught up with a suddenly busy Chlumsky, who talked about her stage roles scratch a creative itch and why she appreciates acting now compared to her days as a child star.

Like Veep, You Can’t Take it with You also features a crackerjack comedic ensemble. Has that experience helped you?
I think my personality lends itself to ensembles, but also I’m sure my personality has been shaped by being in so many ensembles. The fact that I was jumping right in with few rehearsals into this play—the day after we wrapped Veep—I was confident I could handle it because Veep is so fast-paced. The You Can’t Take it with You cast was so welcoming from the get-go. They didn’t have to be. I know Richard [Thomas] would say the same thing. There was no ice to break. It was right away, “Let’s play.” And I’m so grateful to them for that because I know that’s partly why it feels so good to do it.

Veep is acidic and profane, while You Can’t Take It with You is exactly the opposite. Was that an adjustment for you?
For me, it was an opportunity to go in the direction that I hadn’t played in a while. When you’re playing a [TV] role for a couple of months every single day it’s exciting to have a different role to fill in the gaps that you haven’t been filling for the past few months. This kind of feels like, “Oh goody, I get to say hello to all those other parts of me for a second.” I love it when that happens.

Is Iris in Living on Love an extension of that?
[She’s] a different person and it’s a slightly different era, but it’s a similar thing in that it’s not Veep. It’s not dark like that. Iris lives somewhere in the middle. She’s very dear, but she’s also got her edgy proclivities. She likes to drink gin. She doesn’t mind the way passionate Italians talk about…matters of the heart. [Laughs.] She’s in a different era. Every role you get to find what’s different about everybody. That’s the joy.

With Living on Love, is it nice you get to stay put at the Longacre Theatre?
Isn’t that just hysterical? My brother keeps saying that it’s like my Las Vegas residence [laughs]. You can see Britney Spears in Vegas and you can see Anna Chlumsky at the Longacre.

Are you going to wear a wireless mic and have back-up dancers?
[Laughs.] Yeah, we’ll talk to the Living on Love people if they could put an aerial acrobatic number in the budget.

Are you going to keep your own dressing room? Do you have to move your stuff in again?
I think they’re going to let me stick around. I’m working on becoming the troll of the Longacre Theatre [laughs].

With Veep and these two shows, does My Girl seem like a million miles away at this point?
Yes, and it was. Even if these things hadn’t happened, it would still be miles away because that’s how it works mathematically. It was 24 years ago.

Were you ever worried you'd be known as "the girl from My Girl" forever?
Sure, there was a fear I think. But the nice thing to know about fear is that usually it’s irrational. When I say yes there was, it definitely was in that world of on a really bad day. [Laughs.] Nobody wants to say it’s all over at age 10. In the interim, I fell away from show business and then fell in love with it again. Everything I do now is because I’ve worked for it. Granted, they’re all blessings, but I do think the stuff I’ve gotten to do now it’s on purpose. I feel I can rise to each occasion. As a child, you don’t really have those tools yet.

You’ve had some cool jobs in between. You were a fact-checker for Zagat, an editorial assistant at HarperCollins—
I wouldn’t call that cool. I’m glad that I did it. I met great people and it got me to New York. But fact-checking is a step above telemarketing, let’s face it. [Laughs.]

So office life wasn’t your thing?
It just wasn’t. When I was an editorial assistant for science fiction and fantasy that really is cool. That’s fun, and it’s creative. You get to read about princesses and goblins from nine to five every day, but that was my big realization: then why am I still not happy? That definitely made me realize I should be doing something else.

With that background in editorial, have you thought about writing a book?
As much as I am an unfiltered person when you meet me, I tend to be private. I like to keep my personal life—maybe I’m selfish about it—it’s mine, you know? I know that I can write, and I know that it’s out there, but I’m not convinced it would necessarily be about my life. I don’t see it yet. I don’t write anything off, but I don’t have the ideas for a book at this point.

How about your stretch on Broadway?
[Laughs.] Let’s hope not! Let’s hope that we’ll keep the drama on the stage.

See Chlumsky in You Can’t Take It With You through February 22, and in Living on Love beginning April 1 at the Longacre Theatre.