Last Friday I was blessed with the opportunity to have a very lengthy conversation with actor Federico Dordei, who appeared in a number of episodes of 2 Broke Girls as Luis, the day waiter at the Williamsburg Diner. He initially left a comment on one of my reviews of the show and agreed to answer a few of my questions about what it was like to be a part of it. Given that we ended up talking for a full hour I’ve opted to split the interview up into two parts.
In this first segment of questions and answers Fed [I can call him that since we are friends now] reveals what his time on the show was like, as well as what ultimately ended up happening to both him and Luis. My questions and comments are in bold, with his responses as regular text.
Your character Luis is one of my all-time favourites on the show, and reading back on my review of the first episode he appeared in it’s pretty apparent how much I liked him. Now you appeared in nine episodes of 2 Broke Girls-
I actually shot ten episodes, not nine.
I was supposed to start out as a guest star for an arc of three episodes, then it was renewed to six and they finally brought me back for four more. During this time I got the assumption that I may become a regular due to numerous comments made by some of the executives, such as “This is your home now!”, “This is just the beginning!”, etc. [Creator and producer] Michael Patrick King loved me and the character I brought to life.
The first episode was great, too, the writing was sarcastic and very funny. It was a little bit exaggerated, but I felt like I could bring it to life and have a lot of fun with it. The next two episodes you saw, the writing was kind of off with Luis. Not that funny, I didn’t know what to do with it. I was worried the live audience wouldn’t laugh!
For the most part it seems like things were looking pretty good for both you and Luis.
Well, after the third episode I shot I was invited to the birthday of one of the show’s producers. I was drinking and partying with some of the writers, talking about the show, and said that I really loved the writing for Luis, but that the next two episodes were not as funny for that character. It was a simple fun chat between co-workers while enjoying ourselves. One of the writers, he went to Michael Patrick King telling him that I was complaining about lines. Took things out of context and made it look like I was talking shit.
What Michael Patrick King does, he calls me and rips me a new asshole. Got me on the phone and shredded me to pieces, asking how dare I talk shit, I should be lucky he gave me any lines at all. He went on and on. At the end of the conversation I explained that I wasn’t talking shit, that it was just an innocent and honest chat between party buds having fun! And that it was passed on to him out of context and that I felt utterly blessed to be part of the show. He said “Have you ever heard the Girls [Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs] complain about lines?” Of course I said “No,” ’cause I’m not a snitch… But if he was ever with us in the makeup room he would have known the answer to that [laughs].
I thought it was just a normal comment, but he said that writers are like babies; they’re very difficult and very sensitive, especially when their words on paper are criticized. The writer was very young, too. He said this can’t happen anymore. He said “Do you know why I’m calling you?” I said, “You’re firing me?” He told me, “Nope, I’m calling you because I want to keep you and for you to rectify this. I don’t want this to happen again.”
Now, I’m Italian! Before I was making lasagna for everyone (around 200 people) and treated every single person on Stage 21 as family. But Michael Patrick King told me to be a professional, that this wasn’t a family, it’s work!
I went back to set for the fourth episode and I kept to myself. I stayed away from Michael Patrick King and I tried being less overly friendly and more professional with the rest of the cast and crew. I was trying to give Michael Patrick King what he wanted. But even so he really changed towards me, too. He started being cold and mean, criticizing my acting and how I delivered my lines with a scary intensity that came out as anger, almost like if I didn’t do it right he’d fire me, or worse, kill me! [laughs] He would show me how to do it by imitating me, all angry, and yelling that I needed to be louder and more over the top.
Every time we perform in front of studio executives, every time we read a joke, the writers look at Michael Patrick King. If he laughs they laugh. If he doesn’t laugh they don’t laugh. He’s really a very intense and passionate person who keeps his employees on their toes, their shaking toes. [laughs] He talks in a direct, tough way, he doesn’t hesitate to yell or to just dismiss you if he feels like it. Nonetheless, during this time I still loved him and justified his behaviour thinking that he was acting like a tough father figure or something, I still felt like it was my home.
With the third episode my rate doubled, so I went to Michael Patrick King and thanked him- “Hey, thank you. That’s a nice amount of money I’m getting paid.” He told me, “Don’t thank me, that’s the agent, that’s Hollywood.” I don’t know how it works. I’m Italian, just being polite.
The incident at the party aside, all signs still point to you becoming a regular on the show. What exactly happened for Luis to end up being dropped from 2 Broke Girls?
So there were about five more episodes that I shot after that, and I was very excited about them. I’m very critical of my own work but the audience loved it. But Michael Patrick King would keep cutting out my character. The scenes would work well but then he would edit me out and use the same writing and jokes in upcoming episodes. These would have been really big episodes for Luis.
Then all of a sudden he just stopped calling.
I remember when he was on the phone with me he told me, “Listen, I’m calling you because I want you to rectify this. If I didn’t want you I would’ve stopped using you on the show, I would use you less and less and then not at all.” But that’s exactly what he ended up doing.
The casting director called him and said “What happened to Luis?” They dropped him completely without any notice, nothing. It was pretty brutal because you work with someone for five months every single day…
I was phased out slowly without even letting me know. Honestly I’m still hurt by all this. Remember, I was convincing myself he was like a tough father figure, so the letdown was hard on many levels. Kat would say he had a crush on me and that’s why he treated me the way that he did [laughs].
I’m pretty bummed to hear how it happened, especially since I think the show would’ve really really benefited by keeping you around.
At this point it’s pretty clear to me that Michael Patrick King has a very specific way of doing things. Were the other cast members more used to that than you were ?
Jennifer Coolidge [who plays Sophie] is a legend and one of the coolest actresses ever, and even she had some anxiety sometimes. She also found him intimidating! [laughs] She’s older than me and she’s been working for years, so her getting nervous around him says a lot!
The Girls are fine, they’re great. They can respond to him with tone because he can’t fire them. They’re the 2 Broke Girls! [laughs] They’re the only people with the cajones and guts to act with the same tone he has.
Honestly, it sounds a like kind of a tense environment to work in.
Everyone wants to have a good, stress-free time on set. Really, the only people having fun are the girls and Jonathan Kite [who plays Oleg]. He’s amazing, the best in the world. Whenever the audience laughed he’d make a point to yell out and give credit to the writers. He goes over his lines when he’s off camera, he’s never gonna leave the show.
Garrett Morris [who plays Earl] is the best on so many levels, another bona fide legend. Sometimes he’d be justifiably offended when he only had one or two lines, but I used to share a lot of laughter with him, he’s a great joke teller. [laughs]
Garrett Morris is a former SNL cast member, and I’ve definitely noticed entire episodes when he won’t get more than a handful of lines.
That’s exactly right. He’s a regular and has complained to the writers more than once. Jennifer Coolidge on the other hand gets a lot of dialogue because the audience loves her so much.
Now I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but do you think her character is TOO over the top?
Honestly, yeah. I do think that Sophie is a bit much. . .
It’s not her, it’s Michael Patrick King. He’s always telling her to be BIGGER and louder. Every time we did a table read she was so fucking hysterical. Actually shooting it Michael Patrick King wants her to exaggerate everything, and he loves it!
At my first table read I played a more subtle kind of gay guy. He told me, “I can’t hear you, the person in the back can’t hear you!” In other multicamera shows they’re not shouting like this, this isn’t I Love Lucy. You can’t tell me this is how multicam works; 2 Broke Girls is the only show with this style that has these caricatures of characters. But he told me what he wanted and I always delivered.
Kat Dennings is a great actress, but even on 2 Broke Girls she just yells the lines and tilts her head. [laughs] She’s not like the character as a real person, as a human being. Super opposite of the character: straight edge, no drugs, no drinking. Nothing to do with the character she plays. She’s a great person and I’m very fond of her.
She told me, “Oh man, first season, every time I go home from shooting I’d have Michael in my head saying be louder, be louder.” Back with her boyfriend she yelled “I LOVE YOU” in his ear thinking she was whispering! [laughs]
Really I think she’s the best person on set. Her and Jen and Garrett. The whole crew is great, like a big family. But when Michael Patrick King enters the fun is over. I thought I was gonna be fired every episode, and eventually I was.
Stop by again on Friday for Part 2 when Federico shares even more about his experience being on the 2 Broke Girls set, as well as the future of the show as it continues to move forward without Luis!
