Jamie Lee Talks ‘Crashing’ Season 2, Comedy Relationships, And A First Date So Bad It Gave Her “Douche Chills”

Jamie Lee is a successful writer and stand-up comic, but she’s remained relatively under the radar despite a turn on fan-favorites like Girl Code and Last Comic Standing. That’s all about to change with the premiere of Crashing Season 2 this Sunday, January 14 on HBO. In the comedy’s new season, Lee (who has written for Crashing since its inception) plays Ali Reissen, a stand-up who falls for the affable, quirky Pete (creator/star Pete Holmes). Ali and Pete’s relationship forms the backbone of Season 2 and promises to be one of the most charming TV relationships you’ll see all year.

Lee sat down with Decider to discuss her Season 2 role, a part she never expected to land. Plus, she shared her thoughts on comedy threesomes, her uncanny Meryl Streep impression, and, of course, her long-ago, real life dating relationship with Pete Holmes.

DECIDER: You originally joined Crashing as a writer, but you have a major onscreen role in Season 2. What was that transition like? Was it difficult to shift into an acting role?

JAMIE LEE: It was pretty thrilling. I was writing on the show and I was hoping at some point to be on camera, but it was never a guarantee. When you write on a show, you can’t go in with the attitude of, “Put me on screen.” That’s not really how it works. But for Season 2, I had expressed to Pete [that] I’d love to try to find some kind of role. And I had written a smaller part for myself, not even like, “Oh, I’ll definitely get it,” just maybe, “I’ll be able to audition for that.” She only had one scene. It was a great scene. Obviously I wrote it, so I felt very excited about it. And then they asked me to audition for the lead, and I went in thinking like, well, this will never happen, because they’re auditioning so many people, and I’ve been auditioning for things for years, and sometimes you get a call back, sometimes you don’t. The level of rejection can be very high. So when I found out I got it, it’s actually kind of embarrassing, [but] I screamed and dropped to my knees crying. And when I found out at the Crashing writing offices, everyone came in like, “We’ve known for a while!” And I was like, “Why didn’t you tell me?” It was insane. It was actually crazy.

You’ve been performing stand-up comedy for over 10 years now, and a lot of your act makes it into the show. Did you get to improv Ali’s sets, or did other writers help craft jokes for her?

Well, there was sort of a combination. With one of the later episodes, Greg Fitzsimmons and Beth Stelling, who are both writers on the show and brilliant stand-ups, they really helped shape some of the material on the show. For Episode 7, we performed for a different demographic. I don’t want to give too much away, but we leave the city and we’re performing for a different demographic. So we had to craft material for that specifically because that’s not stand-up that I just naturally have in my act, really. So that was definitely more collaborative. [But then] a lot of it is older jokes of mine that I’ve brought back because I’m trying to recreate this time in my life when I was doing those. And then some of them are newer and more geared towards Ali versus Jamie.

Are there any jokes or longer bits that have worked well for you in the past but didn’t translate or fell flat on-camera?

I think we got really lucky. Pete was like, “Oh, you should do impressions,” because impressions sort of represent the alt scene. I was like, “I hope these translate on screen.”

Your “Meryl Streep trying to take a compliment” impression in Episode 5 is awards-worthy.

I’m so happy to hear you say that because I was literally watching Meryl and I was like, “Do I sound insane?” At the end of Episode 5 when we wrapped, it was like 2 in the morning. And the whole crew and the director when we wrapped goes, “Yooou! Yooou!” Because they all had heard [the Meryl impression] so many times that they started shouting it out of nowhere. And it was really sweet. At first I was like, “Oh, are we making fun of the fact that you guys are tortured by that bit now?” But then I realized that it was almost like a mating call. Like a friendship mating call. Something like, “Yooou! Yooou! Yooou!” It was really special. I loved it.

That’s great. On a more personal note, what was it like to relive your relationship with Pete?

Just for clarity: Pete and I dated for a little under a year almost ten years ago. It was a long time ago, and we’re both married now, I just want to say. But the relationship between Pete and Ali is not based on us. I think elements of what it’s like to date a comedian were definitely put into this, and we’ve both had experiences with that outside of each other. I think it’s a very specific thing to date another comedian because on the one hand, you understand each other so well, so inherently. You don’t just understand each other because you’re both funny. You understand each other because you both have insane schedules, you don’t get mad at the other one when you have to cancel plans to go to a show. There’s just such an understanding there that you never experience in other relationships. But on the other hand, you’re always more focused on your career than the other person, and you’re both mutually focused on your careers. Especially when you’re starting out, you don’t really have balance, you just do stand-up. So it’s almost like you’re in a threesome with comedy and you both are more attracted to the other person, but you don’t want to hurt your boyfriend or your girlfriend’s feelings. It’s a very strange thing that I have not really seen portrayed on TV. I think what’s unique about our show is that it’s a comedy relationship when you’re both hustling super hard in New York City starting out. That is such a specific experience and we both went through it. So it was really cool to be able to showcase the highs and the lows.

Initially, Ali and Pete are on totally different pages when it comes to their relationship, resulting in a hilarious morning-after scene in Episode 2. Have you ever had an awkward dating experience like this where you and a partner have completely opposite expectations?

So many. When I was starting out in stand-up, I went on eHarmony because that was the relationship site versus the hookup one. So I filled out the questionnaire, and I went on one date from eHarmony, and I met up with this guy at a sports bar. He was a Wall Street guy, Ivy League, and I was like, it’s weird that he’s taking me to a sports bar but whatever, I don’t know if he’s trying to be casual. Like I guess he’s just trying to be a man of the people or something? So we went to this sports bar and he had already ordered food when I got there and I was like, what the fuck. And he’s like, “Do you want a chicken wing?” I was like, “No I don’t want your fucking used chicken wing.” Like, what? Then he asked me at one point, “What is your biggest pet peeve?” And I go, “Oh, I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.” And then he started singing the Jeopardy! song. He literally goes, “Doo doo doo doo do do do,” and he bounced off the stool onto the ground. He walked off to the bathroom singing it, came back, and hopped back on the stool and says, “Doot do do do do do doot,” and all of it. I was just like, oh my god, what is happening? He gave me douche chills. Like he literally douched me out so hard that I was like, oh, I have goosebumps on my arm. Like you’re so crazy. And he talked the whole time about how his ex-girlfriend was really materialistic. And I was like, “Well, judging by the chicken wing scenario, you’re really cheap is actually the thing.” It was the most classically bad first date I’ve ever had.

That’s so awful. Maybe you can work that story into Season 3. Can you tell us anything about whether we’ll be seeing more of Ali in the coming seasons?

Without giving anything away, I think that Ali will hopefully be there to stay in some capacity. We don’t really know. It could go a bunch of different ways.

Awesome. Is there anything we should know about Pete and Ali’s relationship this season?

Both of those characters, they’re really ambitious and they are about the work. There’s no handouts. There are no handouts in stand up, like at all. I wish there were! Like someone give me something that I didn’t have to work for, please. I will gladly take it. But yeah, I think that’s what’s really great. We’re showing that sometimes you can’t really cheat your way around getting good at something, you just have to stick with it.

Crashing premieres at 10:30 pm on Sunday, January 14 on HBO.

Stream Crashing on HBO