“I Wished for It, and It Happened”: Kat Dennings on Her Return to Sitcoms With ‘Shifting Gears’

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Kat Dennings

[Editor's note: The following contains some spoilers for Shifting Gears.]

Summary

Kat Dennings manifested a chance to do another sitcom and finds working with Tim Allen on 'Shifting Gears' a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Dennings enjoys the energy of performing in front of a live studio audience and the laughter helps shape the jokes.
Showrunner Michelle Nader's unique writing style and ability to balance different flavors makes collaborating with her a joy for Dennings.

The ABC sitcom Shifting Gears is about Matt (Tim Allen), the widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop who suddenly has his estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) step back into his life and home with her two kids. Riley is tired of putting up with her musician husband’s lack of interest in his family and instead decides it’s time to mend things with her father, as her kids get to know their grandfather. While the father and daughter might not ever see eye-to-eye on things, they do clearly love each other and seem willing to give each other a chance to rebuild their family and find their way together.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Dennings, who's also a producer on the series, talked about manifesting the chance to do another sitcom, what makes Shifting Gears a once in a lifetime opportunity, the experience of shooting in front of a live studio audience, what it’s been like to collaborate with showrunner Michelle Nader (2 Broke Girls, Dollface) for so many years, working with Tim Allen and her TV kids, and why she typically sticks to the script when it comes to jokes. She also discusses what she loves about getting to play Darcy Lewis across the Marvel Cinematic Universe in various projects.

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Collider: When this came your way, what was the pitch? What got you interested? Had you been looking to do another sitcom?

KAT DENNINGS: I hadn’t said anything about it to anybody, but it was something I was thinking about, personally. I was watching a lot of classic sitcoms, like Seinfeld and Friends and all the good ones, and just thinking, “You know, this was really a great medium. It would be fun maybe to do another one. But who knows?” And then, literally the next week, I got the call about this show, and I was like, “Okay, this feels very meant to be because I just said this.” And of course, when they said, “It’s Tim Allen,” I was like, “Oh, my God, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” So, that’s how it happened. I wished for it, and it happened.

Kat Dennings Finds the 'Shifting Gears' Live Audience To Be the Most Fun Thing Ever

Kat Dennings as Riley looking back from the driver's seat of a car in Shifting Gears

Sitcoms with a live studio audience seem like their own unique experience. What is that energy like? Do you enjoy having that to work and play off of, or does it ever get distracting?

DENNINGS: The live audience is really incredible. I remember on 2 Broke Girls, I had only previously done small films and things like that, so it really freaked me out, at the beginning of that show. I was really unsure of how to navigate the crowd, and it just felt really crazy. And then, I got used to it. Now, I really love it. They feel almost like another character. They’re a tool. We know something works if they laugh. Sometimes they laugh in a place that you don’t expect, where you don’t think that’s the joke, but they think it’s funny, so you’re like, “Oh, my God, I have to reorganize this joke now.” So, it can be a challenge, but in a very good and fun way. I love it now. I think it’s the most fun thing ever.

It must be weird to adjust to having a room full of people applaud for you when you walk in a room.

DENNINGS: It’s very weird. The intro is my least favorite part, actually. It’s before we start shooting and I get so nervous. And then, as soon as we roll and do a scene, I’m not nervous at all. It’s just when I’m trying to say hi to everybody, I feel like I’m 6 years old and scared, but it’s great.

Custom image from Jefferson Chacon of Tim Allen smiling and looking off to the left for Shifting Gears

“Humor Has Saved My Life So Many Times”: ‘Shifting Gears’ Tim Allen on Laughing Through Life and Sitcoms

"Five episodes in, and it was like this cast had been doing this for 10 years," says Allen, of the cast chemistry on his ABC sitcom.

This is the third series you’ve done with Michelle Nader. What do you like about working and collaborating with her? What makes her suited for this series?

DENNINGS: Michelle Nader is one of my favorite people in the world. We met 16 years ago on 2 Broke Girls, so we’ve been together, professionally and personally, for so long. Every day, we were like, “I can’t believe we’re still together. This is the best thing in the world.” It varies series to series, as far as what it demands, what her role is, and what my role is. But with this, she’s got this freshness to her writing style. She’s so funny and she’s such a fantastic boss. She’s so kind and generous, but also just knows everything. It’s a joy to work with her. You can ask her anything about anything, and she knows the answer. I’m so used to working with her that everything almost feels like one continuous thing. It’s really incredible. I almost don’t know what it’s like to do any work without Michelle there, and I don’t know if I ever want to know what that’s like. I wanna work with Michelle forever. She brings her own unique perspective to the series. There’s this element of Tim Allen, who is fantastic, and he’s stubborn, and he’s got this whole car restoration shop and that flavor, and then there’s my side of it and that flavor. She is able to navigate every single thing and bring it together and make it very funny.

The Father-Daughter Relationship at the Heart of 'Shifting Gears' Is Very Relatable

This is a father and daughter who are very different from each other. They don’t really have the same viewpoints on anything, from parenting to politics. They’re bickering, but it never feels like it crosses a line that would turn people off. We all have those family members that we just never agree with, but we know that and we still love them. What’s it like to find that balance?

DENNINGS: That’s the goal. We want to convey this fun, natural, and relatable scenario without it being grating at all. That’s a testament to the writing and the directing and knowing when to pull it back and how to play it and things like that. Tim and I have such a fantastic relationship that we can really balance each other out in all these scenes, and we know what to do with them, so that it’s still fun. Like you said, we all have a family member or a friend or somebody at work that we just cannot agree with, but we love them anyway. It’s like, “Let’s not start this conversation.” We all have that. It is a very relatable situation and there’s just endless potential for comedy with that kind of thing. Hopefully, we get many, many seasons to do it. That’s what I hope.

Your character is coming back home as a single parent with two kids. What’s it been like to work with your TV children and to find a comedy rhythm with them?

DENNINGS: I think this is the first time I’m playing a parent. I hope I’m right about that. I haven’t Googled myself in a while but I’m pretty sure. It’s really amazing. She’s supposed to have had children really, really young. The kids are just so fantastic. They’re just amazing actors and people, and they’re so fun. They’re having a blast. I’ve worked with child actors before where maybe it wasn’t their idea to be actors, and that’s the worst. That’s so terrible. But these kids are the opposite. They want to be there. This is their dream. They’re having so much fun. It’s a joy to watch them. And it’s just naturally developed. I really respect them and just let them do their thing. I don’t know how to be a young mother of two children, so I’m like, “You know what? I’m just gonna be me and see how it is. It’ll just naturally work out.” And I think it has.

It’s fun because they give it back to their mother sometimes, and they give it back to their grandfather a bit. They really have their own voices in that way.

DENNINGS: Yes, they absolutely have their own voice, and there will be episodes highlighting that even more. They’re just doing some amazing stuff, those two. They’re fantastic.

Tim Allen’s ‘Shifting Gears’ Unveils First-Look Image of Father-Daughter Duo

A premiere date has also been set for the sitcom starring Allen and Kat Dennings.

How often do jokes change on this show? Do you do improv during the episodes? By the time it gets to the live taping day, do you stay pretty close to the script?

DENNINGS: It varies, series to series, but on this one, I never go away from the script. I am word for word. Tim sometimes changes a joke, here and there, and he’s done some very funny things. And Daryl “Chill” Mitchell does a couple of his own takes on stuff sometimes. But everybody sticks pretty close to the script. Sometimes on show night, the writers will come to us and give us an alt, which means an alternate joke. They’ll be like, “Okay, instead of this, say this.” And then, we’ll say that. That’s always fun. But by the time show night rolls around, we are on script.

Kat Dennings Pinches Herself Over Playing Darcy Lewis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis smiling in glasses and a knit hat in Thor

Since you first played Darcy Lewis in Thor, you’ve gotten to return for sequels, a TV series, and an animated series. What’s it been like to be a part of the Marvel universe in that way and to have the unusual experience of playing a character across different mediums since getting to play one character over different formats is not something that typically happens?

DENNINGS: That’s so true. It’s not. I pinch myself about that. I told my husband (Andrew W.K.) the other day that I think the coolest thing that’s ever happened in my entire career is when I became a Darcy LEGO. They’re called LEGO Minimates, and there’s a Darcy one. I literally can’t believe that I’m a LEGO. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, besides meeting my husband. It is the best thing, ever. I can’t believe that this character became this thing that’s gone over so many different things. It’s one of those luck of the draw things because that role originally was just supposed to be an assistant that was in a couple of scenes in Thor. And for whatever reason, they expanded it and expanded it and kept using me. Every time, I was like, “I can’t believe they want me back. This is the best!” So, every time they ask for me, I will always say yes, no matter what. I just still can’t believe it.