Agatha All Along actress Aubrey Plaza briefly lived with her Marvel costar Patti LuPone — and survived to tell the tale.
In a hilarious retelling on a recent episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Plaza recounted her time with the multi-Tony award winner, with whom she became “quick friends” and who helped encourage her to go out for a play (which she had not done before) when the two were roommates.
And about that time she “almost killed” her with a dose of Benadryl.
While the pair lived together for months, Plaza said she got “really sick,” leading LuPone to suggest she should see her “special nurse,” named Joe. Though LuPone was attending a gala that night (which Meyers joked was really a stand-in for an alibi), the nurse would come around 10:30 p.m. and hook her up to an IV supplying nutrients.
When Joe asked if Plaza also wanted to get a dose of what LuPone uses to help her sleep, the Megalopolis actress agreed, to which the nurse hesitantly obliged. Plaza realized as the shot was being administered that it was Benadryl — the strong stuff, too.
“It was like a horse tranquilizer for me. And she walked in when I was just mid tranquilizer and I couldn’t talk,” she recalled, mumbling and moving her mouth to demonstrate. Adding further to the chaotic scene was a diamond-clad LuPone, who rushed to make Plaza a treat of English muffin with peanut butter, which she then proceeded to shovel into her mouth.
After she came down and the nurse had left, Plaza questioned LuPone as to why the scenario happened. “And she went, ‘It’s happening because you are on the stage now and you need to toughen up. And that is why it’s happening,’” she said, mimicking LuPone’s signature grand voice. “And I understood everything about Hollywood in that very moment.”
Earlier in the video, Plaza also shared that LuPone helped dress her and made her soup. She said, “Every morning I would come out and there would be a different piece of raw meat thawing on the counter … And then one time I came out and she was carving a turkey [not during Thanksgiving and in her underwear] and she said, ‘Doll, I have to leave town for a few gigs, but I’m gonna carve this turkey and put it in the fridge, and I want you to make sandwiches out of it every day.’ Sandwiches, out of this turkey. And I was like, ‘Whatever you want.’”
