Mary-Louise Parker

I don’t quite know how I lucked into a one on one with the star of Showtime's Weeds . Every journalist at the CBS/Showtime party was watching the entrance for stars coming off the red carpet, stalking their prey. But I was the only one who followed Mary Louise Parker to the bar, so we chatted while she waited for her cocktail. Weeds is already airing its fourth season on Showtime. Recent episodes had her character Nancy running a maternity store that doubled as a cover for a tunnel to/from Mexico. Drugs and immigration, what more could you want in a comedy?

Zimbio: Do you think this is a show about pot or not?
Mary Louise Parker: Sure, but I think it’s about a million other things too. To say it’s not about drugs is ridiculous, but it’s about everything that goes along with it.

Zimbio: The tone of your performance is so different, how would you articulate what you’re doing?
Mary Louise Parker: Oh wow, I don't know. I think I just was given such a rich set of circumstances, and such an awesome premise. Jenji [Kohan] came up with something so perverse and brilliant. You’re only as good as what you’re given. It’s just a kind of really organic great match.

Zimbio: Showtime announced there would be two more seasons of Weeds, and that’s it. What do you think about an end date for the show?
Mary Louise Parker: I just want to go out with a big blast. I want them to surprise me. She’s so good at surprising me and I want her to just blow my mind with another great surprise.

Zimbio: Does it get harder and harder to surprise you as the series goes on?
Mary Louise Parker: You would think, but this year she completely blew my mind, so I literally every year I just can’t wait. I’m always nervous, like “Oh, what if this year she just kind of does something. And I just go, oh well.” Every year she's knocked me out.

Zimbio: What knocked you out this year?
Mary Louise Parker: The ending. A lot of things that I’m not allowed to tell you unfortunately.

Zimbio: How is running a maternity store going to be?
Mary Louise Parker: It’s pretty funny, [because of] Elizabeth [Perkins] more than me. She really rules that storyline. I just saw episode eight and she’s just outrageously good in it.

Zimbio: Yeah, you don’t really get a lot of scenes with her usually. [That’s a comment, so it doesn’t count into our seven questions. I still get one more!]
Mary Louise Parker: I know. The only thing that's good is I get to watch the scenes that I’m not in with her, and I’m surprised. I wasn’t there for the work so I get to watch it as someone just watching it.

Zimbio: Do you miss suburbia, where the first three seasons were set?
Mary Louise Parker: I do. I miss Romany [Malco] but he’s got a great movie career going. It doesn’t really work for him to juggle both at the moment because he’s getting so popular in films. But if he would ever come back, and we were lucky enough to have him, I would love to work with him again. I do miss him but they made the situation so fresh and bright that I don’t miss [the setting]. I only miss him.

Photos: Getty / Showtime