I’m so used to playing the weirdo goofball,” Carden says with a laugh. Let’s work together.’”Ĭarden still had some nerves when taking on the role of confident, flirtatious first basewoman Greta Gill. This was just two friends that were like, ‘I love you. Usually it’s through your reps and your agents, negotiating shit. The next day, Jacobson left a baseball glove on Carden’s doorstep to seal the deal. This can’t happen without me.’ I told her right away, ‘I’m so in.’” “I remember saying to my husband, ‘I have to do this. “I got a phone call from Abbi one night - if you get a late-night phone call from Abbi, you’ve just got to answer.” Jacobson shared that there was a role in the series for Carden and sent over the pilot script.Ĭarden was hooked instantly. With perfect timing, Jacobson delivered a role as far from not-a-girl, not-a-robot Janet as possible. “Do not do something in the world of Janet.” “My advice to you is to do something as different from Janet as possible,” Carden recalls him saying. When “The Good Place” ended earlier than Carden expected, she sought co-star Ted Danson’s guidance for her next career move. If someone calls me Janet in 50 years, I’ll be happy with that.” “There are worse things” than being known as a beloved character, Carden acknowledges. Year after year on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Twitter floods with memes of the character explaining, “Fun fact: Columbus is in the Bad Place, because of all the raping, slave trade and genocide.” That’s not an easy task when Janet still seems to follow her everywhere. But then you’re like, ‘Let me show you what else I can do.'” “In a way, it’s all you could ever ask for. “There’s something Mickey Mouse-ish about Janet. When ‘A League of Their Own’ came out, I didn’t even know there could be a sports movie about women,” she says. I was a sporty little kid and I really liked them. “In the ‘80s and ‘90s, there were all these baseball movies. While the new series broadens its scope, Carden, who’s 42, has nothing but fond memories of watching the “life-changing,” ‘brain-busting” original film. In 2022, getting eight hours instead of two hours, we were able to tell a bigger story. So let’s see what else is out there,” she continues.

“They set out to tell a more inclusive story, because we’ve already seen the story from the straight white girl lens.

This really opens the lens,” Carden says over brunch ahead of the series premiere. There’s a taste here and there - but, if anything, it’s one story, one character.

“We really haven’t seen this time period through a queer lens.

A League of Her Own by Karen Rock