A version of this story about Kether Donohue first appeared in the print edition of TheWrap Magazine’s Fall TV Issue.
When her phone rang at 7 a.m. last December 14, Kether Donohue looked at it, saw her manager’s name, hit mute and went back to bed.
When he called back almost immediately, though, she got worried: “I thought, why is he calling again?” she told TheWrap. “My first thought was that he’s in trouble, he was in a car accident or something. Or maybe he’s in jail and I’m his one phone call. So I picked up, and then we got disconnected, and so I thought, ‘He’s definitely in trouble.’”
In fact, he was calling to tell her that she’d been nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for her performance on FXX’s comedy “You’re the Worst.”
The show’s sophomore season had taken things to a new level, adding a storyline about clinical depression to its seriocomic tales of toxic relationships and self-destructive young adults, including Donohue’s Lindsay.
“It’s hard to imagine, but it’s taken to an even higher level in Season 3,” the 31-year-old actress insisted.
“I think the best way to deal with a difficult subject is to laugh your way through it. When you’re in the pits of depression or grieving or dealing with a tough issue, sometimes all you can do about it is laugh. One of the most special things to us is reading tweets and comments and letters from people who’ve opened up to us about their own depression. I think that was very powerful to everyone last season, in that at least we got a conversation started.”
She’s also delighted by what has befallen her recently divorced character, who in the last season attempted reconciliation, flirted with using her ex’s surreptitiously frozen sperm, became obsessed with web-based conspiracy theories, helped a depressed friend, tried to apologize for past misdeeds and got pregnant.
“In comedy, sidekicks and supporting female characters are pretty one-dimensional,” she said. “It’s really special to get to play a character that’s not put in a box. Lindsay can be gross and sexy and funny and strange at the same time. And that’s pretty cool.”
Donohue also sang on “You’re the Worst,” and in the “Pitch Perfect” movies and in Fox’s “Grease Live!” last January.
“When I was younger, I went to Catholic school, and the nun who was the director of all the musicals told me I couldn’t sing,” she said. “Any time she cast me in a musical, I was always the character who didn’t sing. I grew up thinking that I couldn’t sing, so it’s kind of cool that all these different projects came along.”
She grinned. “Sister Rebecca, I can sing.”
Season 3 of “You’re the Worst” began Aug. 31 on FXX.
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