‘Call Me Kat’ Star Kyla Pratt on Diva Cats, Leslie Jordan’s Ad Libs & Meeting Randi’s Family
Q&A
Get ready for more antics with Randi (Kyla Pratt) and Phil (Leslie Jordan) in the January 21 episode of Call Me Kat.
The two take a road trip to get his mother medicinal marijuana in “Therapy,” and pretty much goes exactly like you’d expect, Pratt tells TV Insider. “Randi is the right person to lead Phil on this trip,” she tells TV Insider. “She’s going to make sure her friend knows anything he needs — she’s got his back. [And] we have some slip-ups here and there, someone is going to bite off a little more than they can chew.”
“Leslie Jordan is just ridiculously hilarious,” she adds.
Here, Pratt talks about working with Jordan — and the cats — and teases what’s next for Randi.
Do you or Leslie Jordan do any improv in your scenes?
Kyla Pratt: Most of the time it’s scripted and we usually try to give them everything they have written down on paper to make sure we stay true to the writing. Then as soon as they get that filmed, I’ll say, “Give me one more take.” They’ll just let us do whatever we want. Sometimes it’s used. It’s a great collaborative effort. It’s nice to be on a set where the writers do amazing things but then they also allow you to play around a little bit. Leslie’s always coming up with something and saying something that was not supposed to be there and then they end up adding it.
You’re working with cats, which must be…interesting.
We’ll be in the middle of a scene and then next thing you know, one of the cats decides, “I want this scene to be about me.” And there’s constant meowing. I finally got this one speech-long line right and now there’s a cat who wants to steal my shine. Other than that, the cats are pretty cool. Each cat has a different personality.
Mayim [Bialik, who plays Kat] knows all the cats by names and she’s teaching me where they come from. She’ll say, “That’s Piper. Piper just doesn’t like other cats. We’ll only use scenes with Piper with no other cats. Piper can’t be involved in a group setting.” It’s good for once we don’t have any of the actors who are diva-ish — it’s the kitty cats.
(Lisa Rose/FOX)
There have been some fun scenes, like naming the cats, and putting a camera on one.
Yes, and it’s crazy because you would think those things are super hard to do. Before I started this show, I said, “You guys know cats don’t listen, right? Everybody knows cats don’t care.” Dogs I’ve seen trained a million times. To see them as well behaved as they possibly can be, but listening and getting snacks and staying and just letting me put a cat-camera on top of their backs and actually being able to walk with it without going crazy, I never would have thought it would happen. That’s how close-minded I was to a cat’s abilities.
What’s coming up next in Randi’s personal life?
A lot. Randi has family that’s going to be visiting soon. As crazy as Randi is, I can’t imagine what the relatives are like. We’re going to be venturing into her photography a little more and showing her skills.
Randi helps Kat with fashion and dating. What does Randi need help with?
Randi has a lot of growing to do. A lot of times Randi thinks she knows everything about everything, but of course she’s a human being and a young woman. She’s going to go through her things as well. That’s the best part about her relationships with the characters in the café: We all come from different walks of life, but we’re able to teach each other things because we’re pretty much the same. We’re all human.
Call Me Kat, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services