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KAT DENNINGS IS WEIRD
The bombshell 2 Broke Girls star finally found the spotlight she deserves—so why does she keep telling everyone how strange she is?
BY LAUREN BANS / PHOTOGRAPH BY TERRY RICHARDSON

Kat Dennings is hammering home that she’s a weirdo the way other actresses cake on their down-to-earthness and frequently indulged desire for In-N-Out burgers. “I don’t think I’m a weirdo in a bad way, there’s just a lot going on in my head,” she says. To be fair, she’s fielding a question as to why she’s called herself “weird” in just about every medium available—there was her recent tweet (“People are weird. Boys are weird. Men are weird. Love is weird. You are weird. I am weird. Life is weird. Weird is weird. Look, a MINOTAUR!”), multiple posts on her blog proclaiming her oddball status (“As you are undoubtedly aware from reading this endless omnibus of redonkulousness, I am kind of a weirdo” and then, just minutes into in our phone conversation, she labels herself “a weird one” yet again. Now she’s talking like she almost has it: “Maybe it’s a movie thing? I want to see as many movies as I can and I covet a lot of weird influential movies. I have a lot of favorite authors…Douglas Adams and Charlotte Bronte and Richard Brautigan. I get obsessed. That could be it—how I get obsessed with things. Though I think if I could put my finger on my exact weirdness I’d be able to change it.”

Change it? That would be a mistake. The 25-year-old star of CBS’s uncharacteristically lascivious 2 Broke Girls is swooned over for her deadpanning anti-ingénue persona as much as her anime sextoon proportions. Dennings was a natural fit to play Broke Girl Max, a tough, quick-with-the-quip diner waitress who charms with brassy lines like “Hey, when you get a second, stop looking at my boobs.” (True to form, Dennings sees Max as “a cross between Danny Zuko and Cartman.”) Michael Patrick King, the show’s co-creator and more famously the man behind Sex and the City’s epic run, pretty much molded the character specifically for Dennings. “I don’t think there’s anybody else like her so we basically hunted her down for this,” King says. “She has a kind of amazing outsider edge. It made everything else fall into place.”

Actually it wouldn’t seem illogical to assume that Dennings’s biggest roles—the wisecracking, indie-rock-loving teenage outsider in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist; the caustic maneater with many a piercing in The House Bunny—were custom made for her, too. Dennings genuinely seems to be the brashly cool, funny girl she’s constantly cast to play, the type of girl for whom the term “girl crush” was invented. Just don’t call her quirky. “I hate that damn word!” Dennings shouts. “Quirky is what a guy would call a girl he doesn’t understand.” Noted. We’ll stick to weird.

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Meow Mix
By Lauren Bans
Photos by Terry Richardson

Kat Dennings has the sort of anime sextoon proportions that Russ Meyer might have built a film around. She’s got the requisite take-no-shit attitude, too, making her bones playing badass girls: the brash outsider in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist; the pierced sorority sister in The House Bunny; and now Max, the snarky hipster-hating diner waitress on CBS’s uncharacteristically lascivious sitcom 2 Broke Girls – a character the 25-year-old instantly fell in love with, because she saw her as “a cross between Danny Zuko and Cartman.”

With a résumé like that, you could anoint Dennings as some sort of queen of quirk. But that would be a mistake. “I hate that damn word!” she shouts. “Quirky is what a guy calls a girl he doesn’t understand.” She would not, however, be offended if you called her weird. “I don’t think I’m a weirdo in a bad way. I just have a lot going on in my head,” she says. “If I could put my finger on my exact weirdness, I’d be able to change it.” That, too, would be a mistake.

Our cover girl talks about her new TV show!

This Fall, Kat Dennings returns to TV in the Michael Patrick King comedy, Two Broke Girls. Read her interview here, then check out more quotes and photos in the September issue of NYLON, on stands now.

Your show takes place in Brooklyn, but you film in LA. What’s that like? The studio we were filming at has “fake New York” sets, and they look so real. It’s really creepy. When you watch it, it really feels like they’re in New York… And that’s actually a Michael Patrick King thing. He can really infuse [the show] with New York spirit. And this is a very different New York than Sex and the City.

Yeah. Not as glamorous
No. This is Brooklyn… I’m familiar with the whole Williamsburg scene, and I think it’s depicted pretty well… But Zach’s Diner looks so much like the Double R Diner from Twin Peaks.

Oh my god! I just started watching that. It’s so good!.. Season 2 starts to wane for me a bit, because I can feel Lynch stepping away. I can feel him being like ‘fuck it’. Because Season One is all Lynch, then Season Two is a little bit of Lynch. It feels different. But it was too much for me, because I had a viewing marathon. I spent like three days just [watching] Twin Peaks. I saw no one, did nothing except watch Twin Peaks. I slept on my couch because I was too scared. It was insane.

Tell us about your new show, Two Broke Girls. They hired one of my friends, Molly McAleer, to be a writer, and I am so excited. Do you know her blog, Mollshewrote? She’s fucking brilliant! I’ve been a fan of hers, and then we found each other on Twitter, because she’s friends with my brother’s best friend from Brown. It’s a whole thing…. And she told me that they were hiring writers… I called [the producers] and I was like “Hire Molls McAleer. TRUST ME!” and they did! Because she’s brilliant.

How would you describe your character? She’s very tough and very Brooklyn. She’s been broke her whole life basically, so she’s a really hard worker. She’s really committed and she’s very smart, and very sharp. Her whole life revolves around paying her rent, but she has this sort of secret joy she gets from making cupcakes, and she sells them at the diner and makes a little bit of side money through that. So she’s a very complicated girl.

Do you think being broke makes her bitter? Maybe, but it’s funny because when she meets Caroline, played by Beth, she’s bitter toward her because she’s rich and whatever, but she’s broke now. And that kind of evens the playing field. and then she sort of opens up and realizes that.

Have you ever been like that? I mean, I always sort of resented people who just got handed stuff. You know what I mean? I can’t even name any names, but there’s no one in my family who has anything to do with acting. There’s no one in the business. I ice-picked my way up. I had no connections; no nothing. So I can relate to that with Max, because we didn’t have a lot of money we didn’t have any “ins” with anything, so it’s just pure luck and tenacity that I got anywhere, and that’s kind of where Max is coming from. So I can really relate to that, and I’m an East Coast girl so I can relate to that. I love diners. I’ve never been a waitress… But I’ve done some pretty ghetto acting jobs in my life.

So how did you ice-pick your way into the business? My brother’s friend growing up, his friend from karate class – for real – sometimes had a guest spot on Nickelodeon shows like Pete and Pete. So I was like, “How do I do this?” And he introduced me to his manager, who’s in Philly, and she signed me, and I started going off to auditions in New York, and I just started getting stuff, like commercials. I was just the funny-looking kid in Philly, outgoing and whatever. And then I just kind of kept getting stuff. I didn’t really realize that was unusual. I got, like, two commercials in a month or something. But I was in New York almost every day. It was real a financial commitment for my parents, and a real time commitment for me and my parents, because they completely supported me, which was amazing. And then weirdly, Michael Patrick King hired me to be in an episode of Sex and the City when I was like, 13.

Tell us about that. It’s called “Hot Child in the City.” I played a Bat Mitzvah girl who hires Samantha to be my publicist… But isn’t that weird? [Michael Patrick King] kind of gave me my first big job and now he’s kind of giving me another gig.

Why did you decide to do a TV show? It’s more like a film with the relationships. Because I was like, “If I’m doing this, it has to have some kind of truth to it.” Otherwise I’m just selling out, you know? So that’s what people can expect, more real investment in the people, which I think doesn’t happen that much [on TV].

Do you watch a lot of TV? Actually, I definitely watch Cupcake Wars… and I watch shows that are already on DVD. The Nanny is my favorite. Golden Girls… we’re talking about classics right now… Twin Peaks obviously, and My So Called Life is my number one… God my first boyfriend looked just like [Jordan Catalano].

Really? Lucky you! Yeah. He was so beautiful… I saw [Jared Leto] at a NYLON party… He looks like he’s 20 years old!… Not a wrinkle on his skin. It’s crazy. [I think] he’s drinking virgin blood from Transylvania…. I met him. I think he’s really nice!

Source.

The Black List
Birthday Bash
To close out BlackBook’s 15th anniversary, we asked actor Kat Dennings, the star of CBS’ biting new sitcom 2 Broke Girls, to dig her claws into the 15 things she hates the most. (You’re probably one of them.)

1. Buffering/Loading. Every internet streaming experience will doubtless be interrupted at some point by buffering/loading. This is unacceptable. We can do everything on the internet—order pizza, buy clothes, adopt puppies, do taxes, talk to people in Lithuania— but we can’t watch Puffball: The Devil’s Eyeball without interruption.

2. Boatneck tops. Are you serious? Who in their right mind would wear a boatneck? I’ve never wanted my clavicle to be a focal point. People who are actually on boats don’t even wear boatneck tops. They wear coats and stuff.

3. Marzipan. It’s disgusting. I can appreciate the shape it’s sometimes molded into, but that’s as far as it goes. Someone once told me that right before you die, everything smells like almonds. It probably isn’t true and that person sounds like an idiot, but it brings me to this conclusion: Marzipan is made from almonds, almonds smell like death, and therefore, marzipan smells like death. Fruitshaped death.

4. “Hilarious” tip jars. Stop it. I was going to tip you anyway but since your tip jar is “hilarious,” it makes the whole thing much more difficult than it has to be. I’ve got news for you: God does not save a kitten every time I tip, and how dare you prey on my weakness like that. Here’s a dollar.

5. Nazis. Hate them.

6. Bicycle people. I can’t even deal with bicycle people. Don’t be in my lane. Be in the designated bicycle lane or on the sidewalk. Also, wear some sort of head protection. What do you think cars are made out of? Marshmallows?

7. “On accident.” It is not “on accident.” It is “by accident.” Example: “Your Honor, my prosthetic leg flew into his face by accident.”

8. Your/You’re, Too/To, and They’re/Their/There. Not to sound like some kind of asshole all over this list, but it just gets my goat when people confuse these.

9. Surprise full-body scans. “Step over here, please.” “Okay.” “Put your hands up like this.” “Okay…wait, why do I haaaaagghhhh! Damn you!” I’ve been tricked into airport full-body scans one time too many. Most recently, I stepped out of the machine and the security guy smiled at me and said, “Nice.”

10. The “Keep Calm and Carry On” signs. Don’t tell me how to live my life. Maybe I want to “Go Apeshit and Give Up.” It’s none of anyone’s damn business. These signs were originally meant to raise morale among the British public during World War II. Now they’re on mugs and the dorm walls of people I don’t like very much.

11. “Quirky.” Just cut to the chase and say,”Kat comes off as an empty, female-shaped shell occupied by a mustachioed British demon.”

12. That old lady that one time. I’d been walking down a delightful suburban street, listening to some Beck and generally minding my own business, when I looked up just in time to avoid bumping into a seemingly harmless old lady. Oh, sorry, I said, and kept walking. Something about her face stuck in my mind, and I thought to myself, Was she terrifying? I’ll just steal another look. I turned around and she was staring at me with and evil, toothless grin. I almost fell down, and then she laughed at me and walked away. That old lady that one time—I hate her.

13. Mass texts from people you met once. No, I do not want to go to your “awes0me BBQ;).” Nor do I want to find you a roomate by the end of next month. I deleted you from my phone but that didn’t do any good, did it? Because now your texts just display a bunch of numbers instead of whatever your name is.

14. When I’m out of chickpeas.

15. People who hate cats. Do you hate babies? Do you hate bunny rabbits? Do you hate sea otters? Of course not, so why would you hate cats? I’ll tell you why. Because unlike other animals, cats know you’re a dick. You don’t hate cats; cats hate you. Especially Kat Dennings.

Source.

Kat and Beth had a tiny note in People Magazine, thanks to Elvira for the photo! If anyone has a bigger one, or a scan, please feel free to email it to us and we’ll put that up in the gallery.

Daily Billboard also posted some pictures taken of 2 Broke Girls billboards, which are also now in the gallery.

I also want to remind everyone that if it’s annoying to check this site for Kat news, you can also follow us on the following sites; Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. And if you use your Google Reader, just paste “http://kat-dennings.net” into your feed. :)

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2 Broke Girl isn’t your typical New York City sitcom (apart from that distracting laugh track, but we’ll let it go). It goes like this: heiress (Caroline, played by Beth Behrs) goes broke. Heiress gets waitress gig in a cheap-ass diner. Heiress makes friends with snarky co-worker (Max, played by Kat Dennings). Heiress and snarky co-worker brave the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, together with just a few dollars to their name. Hilarity ensues.

KAT DENNINGS
Max is very tough and very Brooklyn. She’s been broke her whole life so she’s a really hard worker. She’s really committed and she’s very smart and very sharp. So she’s a very complicated girl and she seems really tough but she’s actually really sweet; she just doesn’t really get a chance to show it.

I recently had a Twin Peaks viewing marathon. I spent like, three days watching it. I saw no one and did nothing and I slept on my couch because I was so scared. It was insane. Zach’s Diner [where Max works] looks so much like the Double R Diner from Twin Peaks.

Michael Patrick King hired me to be in an episode of Sex and the City. It was when I was 13 and [the episode] is called “Hot Child in the City.” I played a bat mitzvah girl who hired Samantha to be my publicist. So, [Michael] gave me my first big job and now he’s giving me another gig.

BETH BEHRS
I was moving apartments when I found out that the show got picked up. I had a box in my hands and when I got a text from [co-executive producer and actress] Whitney Cummings telling me the news, I dropped the box, I was crying, I called my parents… it was exciting.

Kat and I get along so well. It’s like being with your best girlfriend all the time. And Jonathan Kite [who plays Oleg, the diner's cook] does amazing impressions – his Vince Vaughn is insane. I’m always like “Do Vince Vaughn! Do Vince Vaughn!” He can talk the whole day like him.

I thought a lot about what a crazy life change Caroline’s going through. For her to go from having a doorman hand her a Starbucks every single day – no concerns – to having nothing. And she lost all of her friends because no one wanted to talk to her after that.

KAT DENNINGS

Before she was asked to star in the CBS odd-couple comedy 2 Broke Girls, the 25-year-old actress (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Thor) had been exclusively focused on her burgeoning movie career. “But when something like this falls into your lap,” Dennings admits, “you have to re-evaluate.” After reading the script for the pilot, in which she plays a struggling, cynical Brooklynite who takes a newly penniless heiress under her wing, she was won over. “In the past I’ve done small movies that I’ve poured my heart into, and they never get seen,” she says. “So the idea of having something on the air in two weeks—it’s instant gratification.”

Araks’s cotton blouse. Alexis Bittar earrings. Styled by Moses Moreno. Hair by Terry Millet using L’Oreal Professionnel; makeup by Jo Strettell for Chanel Beaute. Production by Stardust Visions. Fashion assistants: Anastasya Kolomytseva and Thomas Carter.
Photographs by Kurt Iswarienko
Interviews by Fan Zhong

Source.

You should get to know Kat Dennings. From her role as a vapid teenager in The 40-Year-Old Virgin to her breakout turn as Michael Cera’s jaded dream girl in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, the soon-to-be-25-year-old actress is fast becoming one of Hollywood’s hottest young commodities.

After growing up in the woods of Bryn Mawr, the homeschooled beauty made her way to Hollywood, where she honed her untrained acting chops on the small screen with bit parts in ER, CSI: and Sex and the City. She soon graduated to film, where her innate cheekiness won over audiences in Virgin, The House Bunny and, of course, Nick and Norah.

Today Dennings is busier than ever, shuffling between an incongruous mix of dark drama, outrageous comedy and even a giant blockbuster. She’s currently delving into the lead role for Renee—its namesake, Renee Yohe, the inspiration behind the nonprofit addiction-and depression-treatment organization To Write Love on Her Arms.

Meanwhile she’s anxiously awaiting this month’s release of Thor, her first foray into big-budget Hollywood, costarring good bud Natalie Portman. She’s even back on the small screen, signing on with UPenn alum Whitney Cummings to star in the comedy pilot Two Broke Girls. Somewhere in between takes, she sat down and talked to Philadelphia Style about eschewing industry norms, her obsession with Twitter and endearing childhood memories of Philly.

Tell us about growing up in Bryn Mawr.
KAT DENNINGS: I grew up in the sticks; we lived on a hill in the woods. I seriously had such an amazing Laura Ingalls Wilder childhood. There were a lot of wood activities, playing with the horses, doing farm-girl stuff. Talking about it makes me sad! I look back and I’m like, Why didn’t I take more pictures?

What do you miss most?
KD: I hope it’s still there, but there’s a place called The Head Nut. I have such fond memories of that place. And I always hung out at Wynnewood Lanes and Flower Mill Park.

Do you ever make it back here?
KD: I still have some family there, and we try to head back for the holidays.

Did you always know that acting was something you wanted to do?
KD: Since I saw my first movie when I was a baby. I really didn’t know what it was, but I knew that whatever movies were, that’s what I wanted to do. We went to an actual theater only once every six months, but we would just check out movies from the library—classics like An American in Paris, Madeline Kahn movies and Steve Martin movies. I was spoiled; I had a great film education.

Do you feel more like a Hollywood insider or outsider?
KD: I’m kind of outside the culture of my job. I don’t really enjoy the schmoozing, the parties—it’s not really my thing. I love the people, but I would just rather get coffee than get all dressed up to go to a restaurant that nobody wants to be at.

You had been in a bunch of movies before you broke out with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. What was the best part of that experience?
KD: It was really a collaborative experience, and it taught me you can speak up and talk, which I couldn’t do before that. And the friendships—it was like camp. It’s like watching home video of you and your friends, only hopefully, it’s not as annoying.

It was just announced that you’re doing a pilot called Two Broke Girls with Whitney Cummings. There seems to be a trend lately of feature-film actors jumping into TV pilots—what made you take this role?
KD: First of all, I’m kind of obsessed with Whitney! But TV? It’s super weird and not something I ever really considered, but [executive producer] Michael Patrick King is the nicest person you could ever meet. I worked on Sex and the City with him when I was 12, and he has been a force in my head ever since. Once I saw it was his show, I was like, Whoa, this might be an interesting, kind of amazing thing to do. I literally read it, thought about it for two seconds, and then said yes.

You’re now playing Renee Yohe, the inspiration behind the charity organization To Write Love on Her Arms. Are you channeling anything in your own life to play her?
KD: Renee is about depression, addiction and suicide prevention, so I go through some dark things. But the message really is about love and what you do with it, if you let people in to help you. I’m notoriously straitlaced; I’ve never had any substance-abuse problems. But we all have been hopeless and sad and lost, and have had tragedy in our lives, and I draw from that.

You’re filming Renee on the heels of Thor, which couldn’t be a bigger departure from what you’ve done. What was it like to work on such a big-budget production?
KD: Oh my God, the difference between what I’m used to and that movie was so incredible, so awe-inspiring in every way. It was a complete 180. Kenneth Branagh directed it, and he is amazing. He is my personal Thor.

What kind of acting haven’t you done?
KD: I really want to do a period piece. Badly. Maybe it’s the corsets. I want to do accents and that kind of stuff.

You’re known for your blogging and your obsession with Twitter. What’s the fascination?
KD: It’s a way for me to see if I can be clever in 140 characters. It’s a writing challenge for my own perverse entertainment.

Source.

See more images in the gallery.

Rach scanned her copy of Vogue April 2011 and the high quality scans are now up in the gallery! I typed up the blurbs accompanying the photoshoot.

The five-foot-four-inch actress (“Steal of the Month,” page 294) rebelled against her mother’s health food as a teenager but now credits exercising with Jason Walch (who also works with Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake) for her better posture. “He makes you want to be healthy. He’s not pushy at all.” The Pennsylvania native and youngest of five still considers herself a newcomer to L.A., and uses curve-hugging dresses as shields. “I’m a little bit shy,” she admits, “so when I have to be out and about for my work, I like to feel strong. Clothes can really help you feel that way.”

Mid-Century Modern
The hourglass architecture of fifties dressing is no less alluring today.
Photographed by Norman Jean Roy.

That fifties silhouette, which once dominated runways from Prada to Marc Jacobs, is supposedly last fall’s news (in favor of a freer seventies swish this spring) but endures for its ladylike charms. “It’s universally flattering–whether you’re thin and tall or short and curvy,” says actress Kat Dennings, who buys vintage versions at home in Los Angeles. The tug in at the waist and push up of the cleavage, combined with a knee-length hem that reveals the slimmest part of the leg, was a look favored by Leslie Caron, Sophia Loren and Rita Hayworth in their day. “Those women were unapologetically hot,” says Dennings of her style inspirations. “And a lot of it was their feminine, iconic dress shapes.”

So how does Dennings modernize the look to avoid retro pitfalls? “A cropped leather jacket would look great over this dress,” she says of WHite House Black Market’s painterly floral frock. “And I’d wear cowboy boots by day and heels at night.” Then there’s her pitch-perfect cat-eye Nicole Miller glasses, a souvenir from her role as Darcy, the cynical, spec-wearing assistant to Thor’s love interest, scientist Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman), in Kenneth Branagh’s May release, Thor. “Dresses that embrace my hourglass figure work best,” muses the 24-year-old, whose red-carpet appearances, from the premieres of The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, are rapidly increasing. “Whatever I wear,” she says, “I need a waist!”

Click the image to be taken to the rest of the scans.

Kat Dennings was home-schooled. Did she learn anything? Who knows. What we do know is that she is very nice. She graduated high school when she was 14, and convinced her family to move from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles so she could pursue acting. She’s been acting her ass off pretty much ever since, and now she’s not only acting in movies, she’s writing movies. Thanks for nothing, College!

So, during the eight years most people are in high school and college, Ms. Dennings was steadily chomping away at Hollywood, and this spring the 24-year-old has reached the pinnacle of artistic and financial success for an actor—she’s in a comic-book movie. Thor is about the Marvel character Thor, who is in turn based on the Norse god Thor. The film features beautiful men acting like tough men and beautiful women acting like extremely beautiful women. Thor! Word to Walt Simonson.

What is your favorite thing about yourself?
Jesus, that’s a really hard question. I think I’m a loyal friend. That’s very important.

What does that mean? What do your friends get out of that?
I don’t know, it depends…friendships are so different, from person to person. I appreciate each of my friends as the person they are and try to respect them and love them in the way that they need. Be there for them.

What would you like to change about yourself?
That list keeps growing. [Laughs.] That’s a process. I’m still young and I’m hoping to learn as I grow.

Choose one.
I wish I was a less anxious driver. L.A.’s a stressful place to drive, and I tend to seize up when I drive. I get very nervous when someone goes in front of me. I’m working on that. I’m getting better at it.

I got deep into heavy metal because of driving, it calms me down.
Do you listen to Slayer?

Yes.
I love Slayer. I understand that, it’s very cathartic.

Were you ever a shoplifter?
No. God, no. In fact, I stole something when I was a little kid. I stole it from my friend Anna, from her sewing kit. It was a snowflake bead. I’ll never forget, because I love snowflakes, but I felt so bad. The next time I went over to her house, I snuck it back in.

Did she ever find out?
No. I guess she will now.

Did you take anything from the set of Thor?
No. They gave me stuff, but I never stole anything. [Laughs.] I have a problem; I don’t like to do things that are bad.

You’re better off. Follow the Golden Rule.
I’m a very do-unto-others type of person.

What did they give you from the set?
Oh, they gave me a book from the set and a poster, just little things.

Book and a poster?! What were you, an extra? What book did they give you?
I’m not sharing all the secrets. Maybe when you guys see Thor, you can try to pick it out of the movie.

They gotta give you some cooler stuff.
No, that is so cool. A book is the ultimate present for me.

Oh, then you hit the jackpot.
I did, oh my god. Huge jackpot.

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