Mayim Bialik, Swoozie Kurtz, and Kyla Pratt on Call Me

Call Me Kat Season 3 is fast approaching, and the leading women, along with the men, gave their thoughts on their third outing.

The show has done well with ratings but hasn’t faired well with critics.

The show follows Bialik’s character Kat as she navigates significant life changes in her 40s.

All three of their women expressed their love for the show and the audiences for sticking with them.

Read the interview below!

What do you feel you’ve learned/grown as a person?

Kyla: I tend to go on sets where I don’t expect to learn anything from anyone. I’m always looking for something to learn, but usually, it’s whatever. But being able to work with these people I’m working with, I’m constantly learning every day.

To be on the show with Mayim Bialik and Swoozie Kurtz, and our men of the cast has been an amazing learning experience for me.

That’s the type of environment I thrive in: when I’m around people that know more than me, and I know a lot!

So when other people know different parts of this business and different energies combine… it’s been an amazing experience to be paired up with this little family we’ve created.

Swoozie: I learn every single day. I learn so much from Mayim Bialik. About real life and about being on camera.

She’s not only a great comedian and actress, but she’s a great-born producer, and thank god we have her as a producer. She always has her eyes on everything! She does not miss a thing.

The important human part is that she has her eyes on other people and what they need at that moment.

She’s always picking things up for people or picking me up from the floor! She has 360 eyes and a huge heart that’s 360 as well.

Mayim: Thank you, Swoozie! I will echo what they said; I’ve learned a lot more about acting than I thought I would at this stage of life.

I came from The Big Bang Theory, where I was there for almost a decade, and we were in a good rhythm.

Sometimes being in a new situation allows you to learn new things. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about Kyla on a personal level. I’ve learned so much about what makes her the comedian and woman that she is.

That’s been phenomenal. With Swoozie, to work with someone with such a stellar resume and career and who is still learning, I see her trying things out!

We’ve used an exceptional dialogue coach since the first season. I see him teaching us things just to see how we interact with him. I think we all came in thinking, “we’re good, just give us the words,” but we want to work at our craft.

How did you get Ken Jennings on the show? Did you have to talk him into it?

Mayim: That comes from higher up than me! We were trying to think of a fun way to start Season 3, and I think I was asked what I’d think about it.

But I said, “I don’t think he’ll do it though; he’s very busy!” He was happy to do it and showed up on set so thrilled.

He had never been on a set like this before, and we had a great time with him. He’s terrific, really funny, and had a great sense of humor about us teasing him.

It’s a fun, tongue-in-cheek crossover. It was really fun!

What do you enjoy the most about the sitcom format and its use in Call Me Kat?

Kyla: I’ve done sitcoms my entire life, and it just feels like home to me. The schedule, as an actor, is the best! Especially having young children and wanting to still see them.

It feels like a theatre experience without the super crowd. To me, there’s nothing like a sitcom.

Swoozie: What I love about television, in general, and especially sitcom, is the speed. I love it. I feel so challenged by that. Every minute counts. They throw new lines at you in the middle of shooting.

Even if we did have a live audience! It’s fun and scary as hell! I find the speed so challenging, but I love it. And I feel heroic when I get through it!

Mayim: I echo both of those things. I love the pacing and being able to do different versions of the same scene. I feel like it’s a little play!

And yes, I’ve been doing sitcoms since my kids were an infant and a toddler, and I’ve been able to parent to the best of my ability. I’m glad also to be a human who gets a summer vacation.

That aside, I come from the Chuck Lorre world (Big Bang Theory), and Swoozie does as well (Mike and Molly). Our co-showrunners this year are former Chuck Lorre showrunners!

So we have people that have worked with the best on the scene. So we get to be surrounded by people who know that formula.

Was the storyline about panic attacks taken from real-life experience? How will that carry over into season 3?

Mayim: The culmination of season 2 is the cumulative stress and overwhelmed that we wanted to show. I thought it was very special that the writers incorporated that into the breakdown we see.

I have suffered from panic attacks and panic disorder. I’ve found many ways to cope with it that are helpful in my present day. However, I love that it’s a part of a conversation on our show.

We’re proud that we’ve spoken about it while not teasing or making fun of it. We try to normalize it a bit. We will see more of that. A lot of season three is getting our comedy jam back.

There’s a lot of funny and a lot of fun. That’s why 22 episodes is a real blessing. We get to tell a lot of stories throughout this season.

Swoozie: In the first season, we had 13 episodes, which is pretty normal for a new show these days.

Nobody orders 22 of a new show. Then the second we went from 13 to 18, and now it’s 22! So we took that as a huge vote of confidence from FOX.

Mayim: Or a typo, and we’ll take it!

Swoozie: Yes!

Kyla: I think that one of the things I love about this show is that we address topics such as Panic Attacks and depression.

I am completely about representation, and it matters in so many ways. Mentally I think it helps the viewers, and us as well, to become stronger when you realize you’re not the only person experiencing these things.

It shows people that we are all human beings and go through the same type of feelings. You are not alone.

When people know they’re not alone, it helps them figure out coping ways to deal with things. I’m glad our show can bring that to the forefront as well.

Do you think your approach to your characters has changed since season 1, seeing as the show is getting more mature?

Kyla: I love Randi. I think she just says whatever she wants to say. Randi’s surrounded by people that she doesn’t understand why they surround her. They’re so strange. But she’s strange herself and just doesn’t want to admit it.

I’ve fallen more in love with Randi! Trying to develop a character while wearing a mask or shield, without hugging my costars or shaking my hands. That was hard for me not to have.

Now I just feel more settled into her, and I feel like I know who she is. It’s also exciting because I never know what challenges they will give Randi next!

I feel like as soon as I know the character, they give me something that makes me say, “Oh!” I love playing Randi. I’ve loved getting more into depth with her and who she is underneath all of that.

Mayim: In some ways, I understand all of the characters more than I understand my own. Part of that is what it’s like being a “non-traditional” leading female.

There’s a fine line to walk with this character; a fine line women walk in general. I’m just sort of doing it through the script: Am I too much, is it too loud, do I need to pull back? What’s too broad? What could a man get away with that a woman couldn’t? Those are things that I’m constantly juggling, as are our writers.

What I try and do is make our words more comfortable for us. I’ll be honest; it’s been a challenge because I feel like we’ve been searching for what Kat’s focus and trajectory are!

I do feel very confident this season in a way I wasn’t in seasons one and two! I think it’s because we have experience with each other and our writers know us! It’s a lot of things viewers may not notice, but we do.

What you see is an edited version of five days of labor. And hours of footage spiced and sliced by our editor Pam, who was just nominated for an Emmy. There’s a lot more to the process.

Swoozie: I think we found such ease together. The six of us know our characters so well by now, and we know each other. Yet there are still so many surprises that come to us daily from the writers.

It’s very lucky chemistry to start that they put the six of us together. Now I think it’s developed and realized beyond what we could’ve imagined as actors. We’re being fed. We’re being well-used as actors.

Like Mayim said, I think each of us, moment to moment, try and figure out if things were too much or not enough. It’s such fun! If we had another couple of hours for this interview, I could go on talking about analyzing comedy.

I love all the detailed stuff. It’s just like going to this wonderful gym as an actor. You get to try out all of this stuff. I think you guys would agree that this group is very accessible.

If we want to tweak a line or try something different, they’re so open to it. I just feel that openness now to our alternate lines. It’s a wonderful work environment.

What is it like for you, as actors, to get out of the low points in the characters’ relationships?

Swoozie: I think that Sheila hit a very low point. She’s known for all of Kat’s life that daddy is the favorite. I think we all, as human beings, feel left out in some way or some situation.

We feel like we’re not included in that group. It’s a very painful feeling, and I think that sheila has endured it all these years. Kat wasn’t the girly girl that Sheila wanted. I think they’ve always been at odds in some way or another. But we’re finding our way as we’re growing.

Mayim: I know from Swoozie’s beautiful memoir that she wrote about the rich and complicated relationship that she had with her beloved mother that I think there is a universality to that kind of conflict, even if it’s not mother-daughter.

Sometimes hard and painful things come up, and you can’t keep sitting in it the same way. I think that’s how this relationship is going. I think part of it is on a sitcom; you’re getting little tidbits every week. For us, there are other stories that we, as actors, get to hold.

Kyla: I just want to add that I think it’s beautiful that our show shows this type of relationship. Because in real life, many parents and children go through hardships.

Once they open up the conversation and see these two characters come from a low point, parents can start to understand that they weren’t the perfect parent and that it’s okay to hear from your child and understand where they’re coming from.

And as a kid, it’s okay to understand from the parent’s perspective.

It shows a way of not having to agree but still working with each other because the love is still there.

Will you be tuning in, TV FanatiKats?

Call Me Kat Season Three Premieres on FOX on Thursday, September 29 at 9:30 pm EST.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Michael Stack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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