Jane Lynch on Hollywood Game Night: "You Do Not Want to Play Against Me"

Jane Lynch said it plainly: "I'm a pretty competitive person. You want me on your team. You do not want to play against me. — Jane Lynch" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On July 2, 2013, NBC hosted a press conference call with Jane Lynch ahead of the premiere of Hollywood Game Night , the celebrity party game show she hosts for the network. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call. Below are the key exchanges from the conversation, including Daedrian McNaughton's question on the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gay marriage.

On how she landed the hosting job:

I actually asked to do it. I've known Sean [Hayes] a long time. I have a great time at his game nights and he was having dinner over at my house and he mentioned that his show got picked by NBC and I said, well can I host it, and he said, well, let me see. So before I knew it I was on board to do it.

On her competitive nature:

I'm a pretty competitive person at it. You want me on your team. You do not want to play against me. And I think Sean knew that I was very familiar with all the games — although we did create all of our own games for this, we used Sean's night as the template.

On game night as a great equalizer:

It's such a great equalizer. You forget who's the celebrity and you forget who's the civilian because you just want to win that point and it's everybody playing together.

On the games themselves:

There's no tall story on this. There are no Shakespeare references. It's really all just pop culture. We go into movies, we go into entertainment. We'll put up magazine covers — all of Oprah Winfrey — and say put them in chronological order. We'll put snapshots of breakfast cereal and you have to name the cereal. Is that Captain Crunch? Is that Wheaties? We have these cross sections of candy bars and you have to identify them. Is that a Butterfinger? Is that a Snickers? That sort of thing. We have one game where you identify the covers of the People's Sexiest Man Alive covers and you have to put those in chronological order.

On her favorite game:

Celebrity is probably my favorite. We play around a celebrity as the final round in every game and it's always rousing. I also love a game that is kind of our version of Name That Tune where we sing a pop song but using only the word 'do' — so it would be like do do do do do, which is Strangers in the Night, and you have to guess the song.

On the most memorable moments from filming:

Martin Short falling off the couch every time the band starts to play as if it was a shock to him. Amy Poehler and Jason Sudeikis getting a little bit drunk. Fred Armisen is very low key and that's deceptive because everybody's jumping up and down around him — you might think he's not very game, but he was one of the smartest of them all and he was fast. Maybe not a lot of volume but he was fast and to the point and did very, very well.

Can you please offer your opinion on the Supreme Court's historical ruling on gay marriage?

I'm thrilled about it. I think it's a great step forward, a huge step forward. I'm in New York now and the Gay Pride Weekend was this past weekend and it was just full of people of all stripes celebrating this decision — and of course the overturn of Prop 8 as well. Yes, it's a great week to be gay.

On returning to the stage in Annie:

I'm from Chicago and I started out in the theatre there and I haven't been on stage probably in 20 years doing a play so it felt like getting back on a bike and it was joyful and continues to be joyful. I look forward to going to work every night. I love the immediacy of being in a play and the audience connection. It brought me back to the reason I got into this crazy business to begin with.

On her advice for Cameron Diaz playing Miss Hannigan:

I even had Carol Burnett, who did the movie, send me a text but offering no advice. I think if I had any advice for Cameron Diaz it would be: ignore any advice.

On whether hosting the show is difficult:

The answer is no. It's a pure joy. I have a teleprompter guiding me all the way. Sometimes I confuse myself and that's my problem — it's no one else's but my problem.

On her cooking skills:

I don't cook. A simple recipe is I pick up the phone and order food. I don't cook at all, at all.

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