Aubrey Plaza has captivated audiences with her unique blend of humor and depth, evolving from a beloved sitcom star to a versatile actress in Hollywood. Her career choices serve as a guide for aspiring filmmakers and actors alike.
Aubrey Plaza: Hollywood’s Most Unpredictable Star
Let’s be honest, there was a time when we all thought we had Aubrey Plaza figured out. She was April Ludgate on Parks and Rec, and most people assumed that she could rely on her deadpan wit to carry her. It was an iconic, career-making performance.
And for 99% of actors, it would have been just that.
But Plaza was able to take that and subvert it and twist it, picking movies and TV roles that are different and exciting.
Her career is a masterclass in how to weaponize a persona and then burn it to the ground.
If you’re an actor, writer, or director trying to build a career with any kind of longevity, you need to be taking notes.
I was watching Plaza on the Good Hang Podcast, and I just thought we needed to talk about how amazing she is and what filmmakers can learn from her career.
So, let’s dive in.
From Punchline to Powerhouse
Aubrey Plaza’s diverse and fun career didn’t happen overnight. It was a series of smart, deliberate choices made by her, and it’s paying off immensely.
Instead of jumping into another big sitcom after Parks, she went weird. She took a hard left into the indie world with movies like Ingrid Goes West.
Think about that role for a second. On paper, Ingrid is obsessive, unstable, and pathetic. But Plaza plays her with a desperate humanity that’s deeply uncomfortable and utterly compelling.
Then came Legion. It was a psychedelic, genre-melting show, and she was its center. Plaza played Lenny Busker, a terrifying yet somehow hilarious mutant. Even more impressively, this was on a show that was an hour-long prestige drama, the complete opposite of what we’d seen her do in Parks, and an absolute masterclass at subverting expectations.
These weren’t just random jobs; they were choices that prioritized challenging material over an easy paycheck.
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My favorite turn came in Emily the Criminal, a movie I loved so much and that impacted me so deeply. I remember seeing it and being insanely jealous at how good the script was and how much she was able to pull out of herself for that performance.
And this year, it was My Old Ass, a Sundance movie that broke my heart and also made me laugh so hard. It was about aging and lessons and love, all things that I felt like were sides of Plaza I was excited to see.
And that was also the moment I realized that all the people predicting her career were wrong. She was the one in the pilot’s seat, picking things that showcased different sides of her talents.
I mean, she was in a ton of other movies I didn’t even mention here that were also awesome and challenging. I mean, look at her performance as Wow Platinum in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis— clearly, she is not afraid of any role.
So, what’s the lesson here? What can we actually steal from the Aubrey Plaza Playbook?
Lessons from Plaza’s Rise to Power
1. Weaponize Your Persona, Then Obliterate It. Plaza understood what the world saw in her, and she ran with it until she got it to lead her to darker, more complex territory. She used our expectations as a Trojan horse. She let us get comfortable, then showed us the monster, the victim, or the hero hiding inside.
2. Chase the Weird Stuff. A network sitcom is a golden ticket, but indie film is where you go to build new muscles. Plaza consistently chose projects like Black Bear and Safety Not Guaranteed—films that allowed her to experiment and stretch. Aim for the most interesting projects—that’s where growth happens.
3. If You Can’t Find the Role, Create It. It’s no coincidence that on projects like Ingrid Goes West and Emily the Criminal, Plaza was also a producer. She found the material and fought to get it made. Take control of the narrative.
4. Never Let Them Get Comfortable. The throughline of Plaza’s career is unpredictability. A dark comedy, then a mind-bending TV show, then a gritty crime drama, then a Francis Ford Coppola epic? That’s not a random series of jobs; that’s a strategy. It keeps her interesting and impossible to ignore.
Summing It All Up
When it comes to being the queen of sardonic wit and charm, Aubrey Plaza has that locked down. But in recent years, she’s made some awesome film and TV choices that allow her to be legitimately cast as anyone, and it’s made the movies she chooses to be a part of all the more exciting.
With Honey, Don’t coming out soon, we see yet another iteration of what she can do on screen.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
