Constance Zimmer: Love Bites

Constance Zimmer said it plainly: "Funky and fun on television — that's weird. We got to live in these worlds as opposed to it being more fragmented. I lov…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Constance Zimmer is best known for her roles on Entourage, Boston Legal, and Good Morning Miami. She stars as Colleen Rouscher in NBC's Love Bites, a one-hour anthology comedy series based on Love, American Style, created by Cindy Chupack. Premier Guide Miami spoke with her about the show, her character, and what's next.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: 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 — we add pork and beans.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What attracted you to this role?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: It had nothing to do with Greg Grunberg. So, this is a little awkward. 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 every story line gets its own — you almost get 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 I really loved that. And I loved that it was a one-hour comedy. Those don't exist very often. 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 cool characters, people that you don't get to see on television very often — 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: And the character herself?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: Colleen wasn't even very hashed out when they approached me to do the show. What was really great was I actually was able to have a one-hour phone call with Cindy. 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 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Tell us about your marriage on the show and what to expect.

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: The Sunday Fun Day episode is 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. Every place, every age, kids, no kids, single, divorced, whatever. For Greg and me in that particular episode, it was a really nice arc to see them struggle with it and then in the end realize that they're perfectly happy exactly where they are and how they live their life. What's nice about the show is everybody is dealing with love in different ways. Whether it's the love of a father and son, or a mother and son, or a couple that's been together for 50 years or six months. The show 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: 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. It was the weirdest thing. I love that I've been given the chance to do both. But yes, my home, I feel like, is in comedy. I love it because I like to be crazy and wacky — being dramatic and crying is always like, well, come on, I can do that at home. If ever I can do a comedy, I always would lean towards a comedy over a drama. And the greatest thing about this show is you got to do both. You got to be real and bring in the drama, 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 disappear into. I don't want to watch shows about people dying or killing each other. I see enough of that.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Do you have a story from your personal life that you'd like to see as one of the vignettes on the show?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: What I would really love to see is a surprise pregnancy — because that's what happened to me. I got pregnant very shockingly. I wasn't supposed to get pregnant, and then I did randomly. It was like this miracle. Doctors were like, I don't know what's wrong with you. And 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. What would be a great story line is to see this couple who is very set in their ways — they're fun, they're really living life — and show them a surprise pregnancy and show the wonder of having a child. Everybody always thinks, oh, your life is over. 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 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What can we expect on the final season of Entourage?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: It's eight seasons and eight episodes. 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. 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: 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 — people discussing why they tweet and why they don't. Oh, for goodness sakes.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What are some of your favorite moments from filming Love Bites?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: One of my favorite episodes was the Sunday Fun Day because it was very hard but probably one of the funnest times — we got to be 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. And all the guest stars that would come in — you were like, oh my God, they're coming on our show. Working with Jeffrey Tambor and Ken Jeong, who I had seen in The Hangover. I was like, who is that guy? He is brilliant. And then all of a sudden he was on our show. And Beau Bridges — you're at these table reads and it's Beau Bridges. 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.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Can you talk about the sexorcism episode?

CONSTANCE ZIMMER: Chris Parnell is a genius. Greg and Colleen 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 there. 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, 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. We were so lucky to have him.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: 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 called Girls Talk, written and directed by Roger Kumble, who wrote and directed Cruel Intentions, among some of his films. They might be bringing the play to New York, which is kind of exciting. So we might be doing that next year. 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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