Natalie Zea Ferociously Embraces Her Comic Side on "The Detour"

For the past few years actress Natalie Zea was best known for her work on such cable dramas as "Justified" and "The Following." She shifted gears last year by taking on comedy -- raunchy comedy at that in "The Detour." On that hit TBS series, devised by its star Jason Jones and his wife Samantha Bee that enters its second season this week, she plays a seemingly everyday wife and mother whose suburban life is disrupted when her husband takes the family on a road trip from upstate New York to Florida. I say seemingly because by the end of the first season, Robin, Zee's character, is revealed to have quite a sensational past. For one thing, Robin and Nate (Jones) aren't really married; she never divorced her first husband, Carlos, whom she married in a deal to get him a green card (an exchange, he paid for her college tuition). Nor does Carlos turn out to be the man Robin led her husband to think he is, and in the second season, again becomes involved with her (still) current as she seeks a divorce.

The second season brings the family to New York City when Nate gets a new job selling "structured hydro nutrients" (in other words, water with herbal supplements). Though the series loses the road trip formula of the first season, expect the same kind of over-the-top comedy as found in the first. Over the first season, such topics as pedophilia, racism and child abuse were used for punch lines; and there's more than a share of "poo poo-pee pee" humor (as Zea calls it): in one episode, a comic meme follows how one of the 11-year twins renames "Pennsylvania" "Penis-vania."

But despite its raunchiness, "The Detour" has received strong critical acclaim for being smart, edgy comedy -- more "National Lampoon Vacation" than your typical sit-com fare. And Zea, who has terrific chemistry with Jones, displays skills at comedy that have surprised those who only know her from her dramatic work. "'The Detour' is first and foremost a showcase for the loopy, barely hinged energy Zea brings to the material," wrote Entertainment Weekly critic Darren Franich in reviewing the first season.

EDGE spoke with Zea recently about the show, being pregnant while filming the first season and what audiences can expect in the second.

Chaos continues

EDGE: The first season ended with the family in Florida, but the second season is set in New York City. How did you get there?

Well, (laughs). Let me think... Jason's character gets a job in New York and I say, no thank you. I don't want to move. I have a past there. And he says, it will be fine. And then chaos ensues.

EDGE: How did you get cast?

Natalie Zea: I got a call saying that they -- Jason and Samantha -- wanted me to read the script. I didn't know them nor had I worked with them. I read the scripts, then Jason and I spoke the next day and he said, 'That's great you're hired.' It was the easiest thing that ever happened. I guess they saw a tape of me -- I did a movie with Will Ferrell called 'The Other Guys' --and they saw the scenes I did and they said, 'That's what we want.'

EDGE: Jason and you have terrific chemistry on the show. Did that happen immediately?

Natalie Zea: I think so, yeah. That first phone call it was really evident that I think to both us that this was something that was going to work. Either it works or it doesn't. You can't really create the chemistry. There is something about him that's really easy and really relatable for me. We both have a really similar sensibility. I think if that hadn't been there I don't know that this would have worked.

Why comedy?

EDGE: You're better-known for your dramatic roles, such as on 'Justified.' What led to you taking a chance with kind of edgy comedy?

Natalie Zea: It's all I wanted to do for a while. I've been searching, searching, searching, but no one would give me a chance, nobody was taking me seriously as a comedic actress. So for finally to have somebody say we'll give you a shot, I was so grateful. I was also really scared because I didn't audition and thought, what if I fail? What if I get there and they say that I'm not what they wanted. So there was a lot of pressure when I show up on the set on day one. I could have completely tanked. That first day was sink or swim. Now I am really comfortable with it. I don't know what I am going to do after this because I'm a little too comfortable.

EDGE: Did you ever think the show has gone too far?

Natalie Zea: It takes a lot to offend me so it wasn't as if couldn't do the things they asked me. It was more that I thought that people wouldn't allow us to do what we do. But there was one thing this year that I thought might be too gross for me, but it turned out to be hilarious. I just watched that episode last night and it was hilarious. I have never been able to separate myself from what I am part of, but I laughed throughout the episode. So apparently I was wrong. It was just the right amount.

EDGE: What's different about the new season?

Natalie Zea: Well, in season two we are not on the road anymore, thank God. But I did live in New York for a long time, so I think that it was interesting living this parallel life of this woman who didn't want to go to New York because she didn't want her past to catch up with her being played by a woman who doesn't love New York because there is so much of her past there. That was a fun parallel to get to ride for the three months I was there.

No boundaries

EDGE: There's seem to be no boundaries of where the show will go in terms of subject matter? Any there any new taboo topics in the new season?

Natalie Zea: There's a home birth. I'll just leave it at that. There's all that shit. What else do we do that's out there? There's an episode where we, I don't want to say, we make fun of millennials, but we feature millennial lifestyles. There's a lot of good stuff. We do it in a way that's very affectionate. I personally think that millennials are going to say this. Maybe I am naive, but we do it with a lot of love. And at the end of the episode, the joke is on us.

EDGE: The young actors who play the twins (Ashley Gerasimovich and Liam Carroll) are quite accomplished. You appear to be very close to them...

Natalie Zea: We are very close. I feel this surrogacy with them. They're kind of like my kids in a way. I became a mom while doing the show, so it's been interesting for me to see how my maternal instincts towards them have gotten even stronger now that I am a parent. I watch them getting so big because they are going through such a growth spurt right now. So I understand the concept of when parents are like saying their kids are growing up too fast and they don't want them to. They want them to stay kids forever. Every time I walk on the set I say to them: 'Goddammit. Will you please quit growing. Stay young.'

EDGE: You had a daughter shortly after you completed shooting the first season. Is it difficult balancing motherhood and starring on the show?

Natalie Zea: I am so, so lucky with this job. This job only takes me away for a few months a year. During those few months it's hard. I was still breast-feeding when we were shooting the second season. And we work really long hours so there were days I didn't see her much at all. But I also had a nine-month maternity leave before I started work, so it is certainly hard to complain about that. And the show moves around so she gets to see all different places. She got to live in Brooklyn for three months and she loved it. So as hard as it is to be a working mom, I have it so easy. I am so, so, so lucky. And my husband is such a huge help. And I am finding it to be hard, but very, very gratifying.

But the first season was hard because I was pregnant. It was a big challenge to me, but it made season two a piece of cake. Breast-feeding, that's all I'm doing. I am not carrying around a five-pound oven in me in the dead of summer. Every season has its set of challenges, which is also what makes it so great because everything so location based and we are not stuck on a soundstage. But it also makes it hard. It is not an easy show to shoot. I was seven-eight months along when we were shooting and we had to really work hard around it. It was a challenge.

Gets no respect

EDGE: Given that the show takes such risks, are you surprised that it is such a hit?

Natalie Zea: I am not surprised that the show is such a hit because it is so good. I am surprised that the audience gave it a shot. Because at first glance it looks like some family-friendly sit-com, when that's far from what it is. So I am delighted that people found it because there are hundreds of shows on television now and it's really hard to stand out.

EDGE: Yet like other cable comedies, the show doesn't get the respect it deserves from the industry and critics...

Natalie Zea: Yeah. It's sad. If you're a comedy, for the most part, and you want to get critical acclaim you better not be too funny. The critics love the 'not funny' funny shows. I don't know if it is because it gives them more gravitas. I don't know, but I feel that with a broad comedy like this, the critics really like it but I think some of them are ashamed that they like it. There's a lot of 'poo poo-pee pee' in it. But it also, dare I say, smart and relatable, and there's a wide spectrum of things that we offer and the gross out humor is just one of those. There are so much more to it.

EDGE: Has Samantha Bee been making appearances on the set?

Natalie Zea: Samantha Bee is busy trying to save the world, so we don't bother her. We let her do her thing. She is so busy with her show that we rarely get to see her. She did a cameo in the second season and it's outrageous. It's wonderful and hilarious. She's got her own thing going on right now, so we let her do that.

EDGE: What's been the most uncomfortable moment so far?

Natalie Zea: I won't give details, but I did have to eat out a toilet. It's gross.

Watch this trailer for Season Two for "The Detour":