Fortune Feimster on Will Ferrell Friendship & How ‘The Mindy Project’ Jumpstarted Acting Career

Whether heading to a stage or set, Fortune Feimster likes to stay booked and busy. The comedian is crushing it across entertainment. On the standup front, she has dates across the United States with stops in Europe and Canada as part of her “Takin’ Care of Biscuits” comedy tour. The star is also featured in some high profile projects where she can be heard in Zootopia 2 and seen in the upcoming golf comedy series The Hawk this summer. 

The latter will be one of a handful projects working with Will Ferrell. If that weren’t enough, Feimster also appeared as a guest judge during the April 6 episode of Top Chef. The Charlotte native proudly represented during the Carolina-centric season for the improvised cooking Quickfire Challenge. 

Here Feimster opens up about her journey through the business, how The Mindy Project helped jumpstart her acting career, friendship with Ferrell, and more. 

It was so much fun seeing you on Top Chef. Were you a fan of the show prior? 

Fortune Feimster: Yeah, although I’m not one of those who watches every episode. But I’m always touring, and I feel every hotel I go to Top Chef is on. I always tune in. I like Kristen Kish so much. I met her doing the show Fast Foodies during COVID time, and she was so lovely. It was cool to team up with her again, especially with this being in the Carolinas. It was neat to represent my home area. 

How was it working with the kids during the challenge? 

The episode meant a lot. I loved the improv aspect and charity aspect to it. The kids were great. They live in the Carolinas as well. It was cool to represent our state. 

I feel you also get a new appreciation for the production of the show when you’re on set. 

For sure. It was cool to see all the stations and the areas where they have all the ingredients. They created this mini grocery store on set. It’s always neat to see the behind the scenes version of it. 

I know you’re on the road as part of your “Takin’ Care of Biscuits” tour. Love the name. What is it like to perform now compared to when you were first breaking through? 

It’s a lot easier to tour when people know who you are. That is a very helpful part of this. I started stand-up about 17 years ago now. At that point, you’re just trying to build your audience, taking any gig, and traveling all over the place, not making much money. I’m grateful in the last 17 years I’ve been building all these markets while hitting a certain city every two years or so. It has been such a cool journey to see the audience grow every time I return. 

It started from the ground up where you’re in a club or event space where you stay after every single show and meet every single person. The lines after the shows were getting bigger every time I came as well. That would almost take as long as the show did. Now I feel like people have followed me from different venues. Luckily, the venues have gotten bigger to the point where now I’m doing these beautiful theaters. A lot of that is from having to build those markets. Also, the Netflix of it all helps as well. 

Talk about the challenges of putting a show together in today’s times. 

I’ve learned that no matter what you talk about, even if it’s the most benign topic, there will always be someone who will find something about it that they don’t like. That’s inevitable. I’m really just telling stories. I’m a story-teller. I’ve been doing that for a long time. I don’t really talk about current events because our current events happen within seconds every day. So, if you were to try to build an act on that you would be really behind once you film it. Everything I talk about are things from my life, my experiences, my family, relationships, things hopefully people can relate to. I don’t dig into politics because it’s an ever-changing situation. I’m just talking about life really and trying to be more of a bridge to bring people together than I am being divisive. There are other skilled people when it comes to those kinds of things, who follow it more closely, and speak it more knowledgeably than I can. I stick to what I know, which is my life and silliness and focus on the levity part of comedy. 

You’ve simultaneously been building your acting career. I remember seeing you now more than 10 years ago introduced on The Mindy Project. Having played Nurse Collette. What did you take from that experience? 

That was my first big acting role. I did The Groundlings and learned a lot of my acting through that program. I had done some guest stars and filmed my own pilot, but The Mindy Project was really the show that I sort of grew my wings and really learned the technical aspect of acting. I’m so grateful to Mindy Kaling for giving me the opportunity. It was supposed to be just a three-episode guest star role, and that turned into a nine-episode role, and then expanded into a three-season series regular role. 

I just feel that was the beginning of my acting career in a real meaningful way. I was glad to get to learn on a set like that where my co-stars were so loving and giving. I could not have asked for a better experience. Ever since that show, I have been acting pretty steadily now. The hope is you get better with every project. I just filmed a couple of projects this past year that will come out in the next year I’m really proud of. I feel like my acting has sort of gotten to the next level for me personally just because of all of these different experiences under my build. 

You’ve been getting to work with Will Ferrell a good amount including The Hawk coming this summer. What has been your takeaway from working with him? What can you tell us about your role on the show? 

I’m such a huge Will Ferrell fan. He has influenced my comedy tremendously. I think everyone who grew up on SNL had their cast they watched religiously. His cast was definitely the one I would record and memorize their sketches and try to emulate them. I’m such a huge fan of his and Molly Shannon, who is ironically in this as well. It was such a pinch-me moment to get to work with both of them. I had done Will’s movie You’re Cordially Invited. It was a very small, small part. He was like, “You really want to do this. It’s a small part.” I’m like, “I don’t care. I just want to work with him.” I’m such a fan of Will’s, and there are no small parts. Making a movie is so cool. I learn something new from every set. I did that project. I have another very small part in the next movie coming out next year. 

From all that, he and I got to know each other quite a bit and really liked each other. That is what sort of led to this role in The Hawk where I play his caddy. He is a professional golfer who is kind of washed up and trying to reclaim his glory days. We had the best time. We could not have been more simpatico. As people and characters, we just hit it off so beautifully. I think it really reflects in the show. Our characters are friends, and there is a really sweet friendship story that comes through. It’s all very true to life. We have such a good time together. We got to the point where we trusted each other with the comedy and giving each other jokes and riffing on each other. I was so appreciative that someone of his level would just let me improvise so much. I feel like as a result we came up with some really hilarious stuff. The writing was also amazing as well. I’m looking forward to people seeing this show. 

Was the other project you referenced Judgment Day? 

Yes, and I’m in the tiniest part in that as well. Will was saying, “I’m sorry you were so woefully underutilized in this movie.” I said, “Buddy, it led to me being a big part in this TV show with you. Everything I could have hoped for happened because it gave us a chance to get to know each other and see if we can work together. It led to this much bigger television show together.” Like I said, there are no small parts. You never know where one would lead. 

I liken to Adam Sandler where he brings his pals along across numerous projects. So I’d say you may be part of Will’s crew now. 

I think both of us agree we can do this for as long as possible. That would be the dream. There was not one day on set where I didn’t have a good time and where I didn’t want to be there. It was a dream. I know that sounds very cliché, but a lot of the scenes were  just the two of us. We just got along so well that it never felt like a job. We’ve been hanging out even since we’ve wrapped. He took me to the Lakers game. He came and picked me up at my house. I thought, “Look, we have a little friend date.” He asked me to go to the Kings game when I was on tour, but I went to a LAFC soccer game with him. We share that love of live sporting events. I went to his house for Christmas where he had a lovely Swedish Christmas party. We just have become genuine friends. 

 

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Tell me about The Fifth Wheel. Nikki Glaser is also part of that cast. Someone who has also been through the grind of stand-up like yourself. Did you bond through that likened experience? 

Absolutely. There were four of us with myself, Nikki Glaser, Kim Kardashian, and Brenda Song. The four of us are in almost every scene in the movie. I had not experienced that before in a movie. We were together all day for two-and-a-half months. We all got along so well. That was another experience where everyone had each other’s backs. Nikki and I have known each other for years through stand-up. We got closer. She and I had a blast writing jokes for each other. We would do that for Kim as well. Brenda has been acting since she was a kid. She didn’t need any help from us. We all just were looking out for each other. We ended up being genuine friends, sharing stories with each other every day and laughing every day. We are in a group text where we are like, “We have to catch up. We need to do a check-in.” I got very lucky where I got from one really cool project with Will to another one. It’s funny the golf one was very dude sports oriented to this big female comedy talking about lady things and beauty products. It was such a shift, but equally fun. 

I’m looking forward to the shenanigans from that movie. 

What I love about both projects is that they are that big broad comedy we’ve been missing. The, hopefully, laugh out loud experience. Comedy, especially in the movie world, has particularly fallen by the way side. I love getting to be part of these projects that are silly and big and broad on purpose. That’s what I grew up on. Those were the kind of comedies that made me laugh. To see those come back around again is very exciting for me not only as a comedian but as a viewer. 

What has been the best advice you’ve received and one you pass down to those coming up in the industry? 

It’s funny because in stand-up there is no workaround to writing your own material, doing the work, going on stage, and telling stories. It doesn’t matter how big the stand-up gets. That stand-up has to go back into the club and work out material and do the work. And so I always tell people, especially with stand-up, what you get out of it is what you put into it. As much as I love acting and these projects, I will never not go into the club and do the work. You have to keep writing, keep getting on stage because once you leave that for a long time, it’s hard to get back to it. It’s a grind that will always be part of your career. Do the work. There is no workaround.