STEADY AS SHE GOES
Mild ‘Martha’ sets offbeat ‘Baskets’ tone
YOU’D be hard-pressed to find a more understated, offbeat TV character than Martha Brooks on “Baskets.”
The soft-spoken, unflappable Costco insurance adjuster, played by stand-up comedian Martha Kelly, is friend to failed rodeo clown Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis), his mother Christine (Louie Anderson) and Chip’s identical twin brother, Dale (also Galifianakis).
She doubles as the show’s emotional and verbal punching bag, withstanding Chip’s obnoxious, withering barbs, and everyone else’s indifference, with a shrug and little outward emotion — fitting snugly into the off-kilter “Baskets” universe.
“When Zach first called me about doing the pilot, he said he wanted to play a down-and-out rodeo clown and I would be his assistant who he’s mean to,” says Kelly, who turns 49 on Friday (and whose vocal inflection varies little from that of her on-screen alter ego). “I said, ‘I can’t act,’ and he said, ‘Just act normally.’ My normal way of talking is pretty even-keeled, some would say monotone, so [Martha’s] emotional range is very similar to mine. I think she’s nicer and dumber in a way that makes me super-happy, because she says ridiculous things … kinda weird things that no normal person would say.”
“Baskets” is Kelly’s first regular TV role. She met Galifianakis in 1998, at an open-mic night in LA, and they became fast friends. She’s also battled alcoholism (“I quit drinking at the end of 2003,” she says) and depression — neither of which, thus far, have factored into Martha’s onscreen life. “It’s hard to know because I don’t think she’s fully developed,” Kelly says. “If we do a Season 3, maybe the writers and Zach and [series co-creator] Jonathan Krisel will explore more about my character’s life outside of being friends with Chip.
“I’m on antidepressants in real life; the times I wasn’t it was difficult. I see [Martha] as being kinda bored and lonely, like ‘Oh, I met this guy and he and his family are kind of wacky and there’s nothing else interesting going on in Bakersfield.’ ”
Kelly says she worried, early on, that her emotionally flat demeanor would spell the end of her acting career.
“I really thought in Season One that I was going to get fired every day because they didn’t think I was doing a good job,” she says. “Jonathan would say stuff like, ‘However you say it is right. It’s supposed to sound like you. You can’t say the lines wrong.’ He’s a great and encouraging director. The one difference I see between the character and myself is thathat Martha does seem completely etely unfazed by not being treated nicely sometimes. In real life, I don’t have those kind of friendships. When I was younger I had friendships with people who weren’t that nice but I think I’ve also gotten nicer after I quit drinking and matured.” And Kelly says she can’t explain why Martha wears that green cast on her right arm (it’s been there since “Baskets” premiered last year) — offering up a very Martha-esque explanation. “In the pilot we shot a couple of possible explanations [for the cast], but it was left out,” she says. “I don’t know if we’ll ever address it. I forget about it because it’s very comfortable. “I don’t even think I’ll ask [the writers] if we’re ever going to discuss it.”