Love Bites With Constance Zimmer

Funky and fun on television, that’s weird. We got to live in these worlds as opposed to it being more fragmented. I loved that it was a one hour comedy. Those don’t exist very often. And being based on “Love, American Style” and, coming from Cindy Chupack as far as her brain and her idea. I get to work with amazing people. And I get to have tattoos and I get to be funny. So it was a little awkward but fun.

 

Constance Zimmer: Love Bites
Actress: Colleen Rouscher on Love Bites | Entourage, Boston Legal, In Justice, Good Morning Miami | Seinfeld, Ellen, The New Adventures of Old Christine, King of Queens, The X-files, Philly, | Providence, Gideon’s Crossing, Joan of Arcadia, The Wayans Brothers, | Hyperion Bay, The Trouble with Normal, The Fighting Fitzgeralds
By: Daedrian McNaughton

What’s the pork and beans part of the relationship?

Constance Zimmer: I think that’s obvious. Isn’t that obvious what the pork and beans is? It’s how we add excitement into our sex life is, we add pork and beans.

 

What attracted you to this role?

Constance Zimmer: It had nothing to do with Greg Grunberg. So, this is a little awkward. I feel a little weird about saying that. But, it was funny because it was kind of the reason why not to do it because there was every reason in the world to do it. The fact that it was vignettes and that everybody, every story line gets their own, you almost get, like, little mini movies in every one hour episode. So, Greg and I got to have 15 minute movies within a TV show. We got to live in these worlds as opposed to it being more fragmented. And so, I really loved that. And I loved that it was a one hour comedy. Those don’t exist very often. And being based on “Love, American Style” and, coming from Cindy Chupack as far as her brain and her idea. Even though we, kind of, lost her, she still was there and wrote a couple of scripts. And, it was really, kind of, cool characters, people that you don’t get to see on television very often that are very real, very relatable, dealing with problems and struggles but finding the humor in it. And that was so exciting for me to be able to do. And Greg and I got to have tattoos. When it comes down to it, you’re like, Oh my God, I get to work with amazing people. And I get to have tattoos and I get to be funny. So it was a little awkward but fun.

 

And….

Constance Zimmer: And I know for me as far as the character Colleen goes, you know she wasn’t even very hashed out when they approached me to do the show. And so what was really great was I actually was able to have a, like, a one hour phone call with (Cindy). And we talked about the things that we want to see on television, the things that aren’t being expressed. And me coming from a long line of playing very strong, kind of bitchy characters, the first thing I said was I really would like to get away from those types of characters. So I wanted to make Colleen a strong woman who had her own ideals and her own lifestyle. But she’s not she’s real. She’s not a bitch. She’s the girl that the guys want to hang out with. There’s so much fun in playing those kinds of characters because you can play both sides. I’m in my bra and underwear a lot on this show, which made me very nervous. That is not why I wanted to do the show. But it was good. It made me work out a lot.

Tell us about your marriage on the show and what to expect.

Constance Zimmer: The Sunday fun day it’s just all about embracing where you are in your life and where you are in your relationships, whether you’re married, whether you’re not married and enjoying it and being happy with everything, everywhere you are in life, like every place, every age, kid, no kids, single, divorced, whatever. And I know for them in that particular episode, it was a really nice arc to see them struggle with it and then in the end of the episode to realize that they’re perfectly happy exactly where they are and how they live their life. And that was a really fun episode, I think, for everybody involved because Greg and I that was the best episode to shoot too. What’s nice about the show is everybody is dealing with “love” in different ways. So whether it’s the love of a father and son or a mother and son or whether it’s the love of sister and brother or whether it’s the love of a couple that’s been together for 50 years or a couple that’s been together for six months. What is the great line of the show is that it really shows the challenges and the embarrassment and the joy of love and even if it is for a vibrator because that’s embarrassing. But it’s challenging and it’s joyful.

 

What kind of roles do you most enjoy playing, comedic or otherwise?

Constance Zimmer: I come from comedy and it’s just so weird that I did so many sitcoms at the beginning of my career. And then everybody said, oh wow you’re going to have a tough time moving over into drama. And then right after “Good Morning, Miami,” I was on a one hour drama called “Injustice.” And then I never got to do another comedy again. And it was the weirdest thing because I was like, wait how did this happen? So, I mean, I love that I’ve been given the chance to do both. But, yes, I mean, I definitely my home, I feel like, is in comedy. And I love it because I like to be crazy and wacky and being, like, dramatic and crying is always like, well come on I can do that at home. But yes, I do love if ever I can do a comedy, I always would lean towards a comedy over a drama? And the greatest thing about this show that I can say across the board for everybody that was on the show, not even just us, but you got to do both. You got to be real and bring in the drama and but it always had a light flair to it, which is life. We want to watch shows nowadays that we can relate to or that we can just, kind of, disappear into. I don’t want to watch shows about people dying or killing each other. I see enough of that.

 

Do you have a story from your personal life that you would like to see as one of the vignettes on the show?

Constance Zimmer: What I would like to see as a vignette because something that I know that we had talked about that they wanted to do on the show was Greg and Colleen don’t have kids. And so, when I originally was talking to (Cindy) about some ideas I had said what I would really love to see is a surprise pregnancy because that’s what happened to me. I got pregnant very shockingly. And I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant. And then I did randomly. And it was like this miracle. Doctors were like, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. How come and so I do feel like nowadays we’re all having kids at a later age. And I think it’s affecting people in different and better ways. And I think that what would be a great story line is to, kind of, see this couple who is very set in their ways and they’re fun and they really are living life, to show them a surprise pregnancy and show the wonder of having a child, everybody always thinks, oh your life is over. And oh you can’t do this and you can’t do that. But I don’t think it’s true. I think having a child actually ends up enriching your life and making your life better. And I think it would be, kind of, great to show that especially with these characters because they’re all about dealing with real issues in real ways and finding the comedy and the love of it, the love of the fight, the love of the argument. And so that would be something I think it would be awesome to show because I do think it makes such a good change in people’s lives. Then maybe you should tell them of the story you want to do as a vignette is the story behind the photo of you in the leotard and the tutu.

 

Will you be back for the final season of Entourage?

Constance Zimmer: Yes, I am. I’m actually in half the season this year. We only have eight episodes. And I’m in half of them. And it’s a doozy. It’s a doozy this year. I’m excited.

What can we expect on the final season of Entourage?

Constance Zimmer: It’s only eight seasons and eight episodes. And it being the final season, they’re, kind of, bringing out the whole circuit. So it’s been great. I’m sad to see it go. But there will be a movie. And that’s going to be very exciting. And I think the way the series ends this season is going to be a very good setting for a movie. So maybe that’s what we need to do. The nine episodes of “Love Bites” will be a perfect amount to just launch it into a movie. And then we can have working title.

Will you follow the masses and join Twitter?

Constance Zimmer: No. I can’t do it. I’m too old to do that stuff. I have a hard enough time texting with my friends. I don’t even know what I would do with tweeting with people that I don’t even know. By the way, this is a great idea for a storyline is people discussing why they tweet and why they don’t. Oh, for goodness sakes.

LOVE BITES -- "Too Much Information" Episode 109 -- Pictured: Greg Grunberg as Judd, Constance Zimmer as Colleen -- Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC

What are some of your favorite moments from filming “Love Bites?”

Constance Zimmer: One of my favorite shows was the Sunday fun day because it was very hard but it was probably one of the funnest times because we got to be stoned TV stoned. There’s nothing better than just getting to play happy and giddy and completely ridiculous all day long over and over and over again. It was fun all the guest stars that would come in because you were like, oh my God, they’re coming on our show. They’re coming to work with us as opposed to I’m so used to going on their shows. Working with Jeffrey Tambor and Ken Jeong who I had seen in “The Hangover.” And I was like who is that guy? He is brilliant. And then all the sudden he was on our show. And Beau Bridges you’re at these table reads and you’re it’s Beau Bridges. And you’re like, wait a minute, hi I’m a fan and you’re actually on our show. So that made any taping of any one of our episodes so exciting who they were able to get on the show.

 

Can you talk about the sexorcism episode?

Constance Zimmer: Chris Parnell is a genius. It’s an episode, Greg and Colleen and are feeling like they need to be adults and they want to start to buy a house. So they go house hunting. And one of the houses they like, it turns out, Colleen had a very hot and heavy sex weekend with a guy – is it a Flock of Seagulls comes through? And so Colleen doesn’t want to be in this house because she has memories of sex with another guy there. And so Greg’s best friend on the show, played by Steve Talley, says, oh you should have a sexorcism. You’ve got to bang the demons away, as they like to say. It’s a 10:00 show. It’s all about creating new memories in this house so that they can have the new ones to remember and not the old ones. Somebody like Chris Parnell walks on your set and it’s that feeling of like, oh my God, you’re here for us. This is amazing. If this show had gone more than nine episodes Chris would have been back because he is just a walking genius of comedy. And we were so lucky to have him on the show. That was definitely very fun to shoot that episode with him too.

Do you have any upcoming projects you want to share?

Constance Zimmer: Well I did a pilot, which did not get picked up, which is really exciting to talk about that I had actually done with Rob Riggle. And Mark Wahlberg was one of the producers. We all sat through the exciting times of waiting to see if your show is picked up. And I just finished a play. I did a play called “Girls Talk” that was written and directed by Roger Kumble, who wrote and directed “Cruel Intentions,” among some of his films. And they might be bringing the play to New York, which is kind of exciting. So we might be doing that next year in New York. In the meantime, I’m just working on “Entourage” and then waiting for my big break, just waiting for that phone call.

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