Aubrey Plaza Landed Her Parks And Recreation Role By Staring At Mike Schur For An Hour

In a 2012 panel discussion at The Paley Center for Media, "Parks and Recreation" co-creator Mike Schur revealed that his first encounter with Aubrey Plaza was so uncomfortable that he decided to rebuild the entire character of April Ludgate around the actress — a feat prompted mostly by staring at him judgmentally. "Aubrey Plaza showed up in my office, and for an hour made me more uncomfortable than I've ever been," Schur recalled. "Like, mostly just by not saying anything, by like kind of staring at me with a look that was ... simultaneously like 'you're old' and like 'I don't like you that much.'" But Plaza made such an impression on the showrunner that he claims he wrote a scene around her that same night, saying, "I just wrote a scene where ... the college-age intern made Leslie [Knope, played by Amy Poehler] feel the way Aubrey had just made me feel."

However, in an August 2022 interview with Conan O'Brien on the former late-night host's podcast, Plaza revealed her own, slightly different perspective. According to the "Legion" star, she was acting weird because of Greg Daniels, who she says was knitting during their meeting and which struck her as unusual. "Mike was just watching it like, 'What am I watching here?'" Plaza said. Additionally, during that meeting Plaza suggested a key change to the character she was auditioning for — turning the unnamed assistant character into an apathetic college student. A few weeks and another audition later, Plaza secured the part. "I was like, 'Great, I don't even want to be on TV.' I was trying to be in movies, bro!"