Find out what she’s doing right now.
By Brandon Voss
Ever toss and turn in bed at night, wondering what your favorite actresses are up to at that exact moment? If those actresses are a little random or slightly irrelevant, tune into “What Do You Think ___ Is Doing Right Now?!,” an irreverent new series created by and starring YouTube personalities Bryan Safi and Jeffery Self. A Los Angeles-based actor, blogger, and pop culture aficionado best known for Logo’s Jeffery & Cole Casserole, Self discusses the fine art of imagining laughably implausible present activities for the likes of Rita Wilson, Bebe Neuwirth, and Shelley Long.
Gay.net: Tell me how you and Bryan Safi came up with the idea for your latest web series, "What Do You Think ___ Is Doing Right Now?”
Jeffery Self: We met while working at VH1 together and we've been trying to come up with a reason to work together again ever since. We basically just got the idea because we find nothing funnier than obviously false facts about celebrities.
I feel like the game wouldn't work with just any ol' actress. Which qualities must an actress have to be considered for the series?
Such a complicated question, because you're right. For example, we'd never do Eva Longoria, but we'd totally do Felicity Huffman. I guess it's just a question of whether or not we give a shit about what the person is doing. And in the case of Eva Longoria, the answer is no, we don't.
Considering the circles in which you run and your guest appearances on various TV shows, it wouldn't be a stretch for you to wind up face-to-face with one of the women for whom you've imagined an alternate reality. Out of those at home Googling themselves and stumbling across these videos, who would be coolest about it and who would be most outraged?
Elizabeth Perkins actually tweeted us about hers, and she was super nice and funny. I bet Anne Heche knows how to take a joke actually — and not just because she's from space. I talked some mad shit about Marsha Norman in one video, so I bet I killed any chance of achieving my lifelong dream of doing ‘night, Mother with Abigail Breslin.
I imagine that you're now fielding a lot of requests for future subjects. Is there one actress you'd never dare touch?
Meryl. I'd never touch Meryl. First of all, I made a video with my friend Cole Escola about Meryl a few years ago, and I think it would end up being the same joke, and there's no way we would be able to come close to Cole's brilliant impersonation of Ms. Streep in that video. But a lot of people just seem too obvious. I also doubt I will ever do Roseanne, because she's my everything.
Finally... what do you think Jeffery Self is doing right now?
Honestly? Listening to Willie Nelson on vinyl and regretting everything I drank yesterday. But if we're playing the game, then I just got finished coaching a softball team that Susan Sarandon and Julia Duffy started, and now I'm getting ready to take a cold shower with a third-generation Osmond.
Gay.net, August 2012.