Hello, Hello, Hello! Lisa Kudrow Talks 'Comeback' Season 2

Well hello, hello, hello! After nearly a decade, Lisa Kudrow returns for a second season of HBO's "The Comeback" this Sunday, and in the much-anticipated second installment, a still-delusional Valerie lands a role on nemesis Paulie G.'s new HBO dramedy about his heroin-addicted days working on a sitcom with a certain neurotic older actress named "Mallory Church." Kudrow talked to Yahoo TV about getting back into character, landing Seth Rogen, and finally giving Paulie G. the FU he always deserved.

What was it like to watch the fan base grow over the course of a decade?
I was sort of rubbing my eyes when you're like, "Is this really happening?" I did notice that there were especially young people who were saying, "Hey, I like Friends, but can we talk about The Comeback?" It felt like a lot of people were aware of the show that weren't the original demographic. That's interesting, like is this becoming mainstream? We'd be on these fantastic lists, like "one of the best shows of the decade," and stuff like that. Then Michael Lombardo [HBO's president of original programming] called Michael Patrick King and said, "Would you and Lisa consider doing something?" We couldn’t believe we were there talking about more episodes of The Comeback.

In those years did you ever think, "What would Valerie be doing right now?"
Just for fun or for certain friends who'd appreciate it. Sometimes I'd say something then say it as Valerie. It would be something she noticed like, [in Valerie's voice] "I read it in The New York Times. I read The Times." It always made us laugh. She came right back to me.

What was the biggest challenge about getting back into character?
I had to get back into character for the writing of it. That was the first step. When Michael was available — he's running 2 Broke Girls — we'd talk about what this could be. We were in sync and the ideas were flowing out. We started writing in February or March and had to start shooting in mid-May.

In what ways is Valerie different?
She's seen the world. There have been Housewives [series] since she did her reality show. A lot of things have happened. I think she sees what that game is now. Nine years later, now she gets it, like "OK, count me in!"

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What other ideas did you and Michael Patrick King throw around for Season 2 before settling on the show-within-a-show concept?
I think we stayed on the same path. We would talk about what's her marriage like, what’s Paulie G. like, what do we want him doing? I remember Michael saying, "Does she audition for the show?" And I said, "Can she get the part? What happens when she gets the part?" And then we got so excited! OK, now we know where we're going. There's a vehicle for this. Now she's doing a pilot presentation for Andy Cohen to pitch herself as a star for a reality show.

How did Seth Rogen come into the picture?
We didn't know that he was a fan of the show, but we knew that whoever was going to play the Paulie G. role in the HBO show had to be everything Paulie G. had hoped he would be but didn't [become]. You can't get brighter than Seth Rogen. I think that's who Paulie saw himself as. It's besides the fact that Seth Rogen is hilarious and a really good actor and would be perfect. We asked if he'd be interested and his schedule is really impossible, but he made it work and so did we. We were nervous for this little period of time that we had already started shooting. In the script it just said "male movie star" because we didn't know if he'd be able to do it. But thank you, Seth Rogen.

Jane's storyline and background are fleshed out in Season 2. Did you have a definitive idea of who she is?
Valerie didn't even know what her last name was [in Season 1]. Jane won an Oscar and became a serious filmmaker and got out of reality TV. The experience with Valerie injured her a little. She turned to more meaningful subject matter, like lesbians in the Holocaust, and won an Oscar. We thought that might be why HBO would ask, "What about her?" We wanted Jane to feel like she's over it, like she's done. She finally does it for Valerie and gets sucked right back in.

There's an amazing but heartbreaking monologue in the premiere when Valerie reads for her audition. How did you prep for that?
We worked on that a lot. That monologue needed to be crafted. I took a lame crack at it and told Michael, "Please write this." We had a couple of versions and settled on this one that Michael did really beautifully. It’s everything Valerie should have said — everything the audience wished she had said — to [Paulie] back then. The fact that he wrote it means either he also thinks she should have said it or that's what he heard her say every time she said, "Do you think this could be funnier?" In the reading of it, she gets carried away. You can see at the end of it, she adds another "F--k you." Because she got lost in it, it makes her think it was a horrible audition because she wasn't [in Valerie voice] in control of her instrument.

Everyone always quotes certain moments from Season 1. What are your favorite moments that maybe didn't get as much attention?
A few years ago, I watched them all again, and they were so good, I remember thinking, "That thing cracked me up! No one quotes that one!" But people always say, "I don't want to see that!" and "Hello, hello, hello!" They aren't so original, but she delivers them like they're sitcom hooks.

Andy Cohen, RuPaul, and a few other famous faces make cameos. Were they already fans of the show?
They were so fantastic. We knew they had liked the show. With Andy Cohen, look, how do you have Valerie want to have a reality show with no Andy Cohen? Another pins and needles [moment] for me was, "Oh s--t, we have to ask Andy if he'll do this. I hope he will because then what? We can't do Mandy Bohen."

The Comeback Season 2 premieres Sunday, Nov. 9 at 10 p.m. on HBO.