Did they test you with Ted Danson?

They didn't. But it was my first test for a TV show. And I did it by myself. Usually you do them with another actor. Man, I wonder how I would've felt if I had to do that with Ted, because Will Harper [who plays Chidi] did have to do his with Kristen Bell [Eleanor].

Maybe it's because Janet doesn't have to have human chemistry.

Truly! They could have put a mannequin next to me. A pillow. It doesn't matter the thing I'm talking to.

Is it true that before you auditioned for The Good Place, you thought you were done acting?

It was more like I had this sort of epiphany that I was like… "D'Arcy. You're not gonna do the thing you thought you'd do, be on a TV show with a bunch of funny people. Those dreams you had are not gonna happen, but that's OK, because you get to perform every night at the UCB." That was a month before this audition, which is cool and crazy.

Acting is such a sad little desperate job where every job interview is you begging for a job. And it happens every day, and you have no control, and it's just this sad little thirsty job. The trick is to be confident and to not be thirsty. That's how you get the job. It's a fucking mindfuck. Don't get into it. We did the hard thing.

I got a late-night email that I got the job, and I lost my mind. My husband and I screamed and danced around the room. We live in a duplex with two of our best friends, Paul Downs and Lucia Aniello from Broad City. So we ran upstairs, had champagne, screamed. It was just a very good moment in my life. I'd never want to say the word "blessed," but I truly felt so grateful.

Have you sat down with the writers and established a Janet rulebook at any point?

In a way. We actually didn't do it the first season, but at the beginning of the second season, before we started filming, I did have a lunch with all of the writers. It was basically them saying, "You trust us. We trust you if you make a decision about Janet."

So what are some of the decisions you make as Janet, as far as what she knows, how she acts, how she "feels"? Because your Janet feels like a very informed performance.

The funny thing is that in the beginning, it didn't feel like that, the first few episodes. Quickly I was like, "Janet wouldn't do that." Again, these writers are amazing. Rarely, if ever, would it be in the script where I'd say, "Oh, Janet wouldn't say that." I mean rarely. Maybe once or twice. I would read a line and be like, "Um, I don't know if Janet would say that." We'd do it at the read through and then the next day, we'd have a different script and it would be gone. They know. We share a brain.

"I am so happy talking about Ted. You want to hear that Ted Danson is an asshole, but he's the greatest human alive. He's a giddy little weirdo."

When she's in regular Janet mode, she is not judgmental. She is the most positive, always looking at the glass half full. Unflappable. Whatever it is, it's deep within me and I don't know why. I think it's because the writing is so strong. They get it. I imagine that the work that these writers and Mike put into these scripts is ten times what a normal great show would do. I imagine it makes them crazy. I wonder if it's even fun. It seems very hard.

What is it like working with Ted Danson, your most frequent scene partner on the show?

I am so happy talking about Ted. I have nothing bad to say. You want to hear that Ted Danson is an asshole, but he's the greatest human alive. He's so funny. He's a giddy little weirdo. He's very silly, he's very caring. Let's say you've met him. You see him again, and you hope he just remembers that he's met you, and then he says, "How's your sister doing? I remember she just had a baby." He's a deeply good person. He also loves being an actor, and he's been doing this job for a while, and he's had some great success, and that can make people bitter and shitty. But every day he's happy to be on set.