In Reunited, Awards Insider hosts a conversation between two Emmy contenders who have collaborated on a previous project. Today, we speak with Niecy Nash-Betts, who stars in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Alex Borstein, from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. They previously worked together on the series Getting On, which ran from 2013–2015.

Ten years ago, Niecy Nash-Betts and Alex Borstein starred on HBO’s Getting On, a series in which they and Laurie Metcalf played employees of a geriatric extended-care wing in a struggling hospital. It was a comedy, but it allowed them both to exercise their dramatic muscles in ways they hadn’t been able to before. At the time, Borstein, who’d come up through the improv circuit and Mad TV, and Nash-Betts, who was known for Reno 911!, were better known for their comedy chops. “It opened lots of doors for both of us,” Borstein says now.

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The series only ran for two years, but it had a lasting impact that led to the career-topping work they’re currently doing on TV. Borstein recently wrapped up her fifth and final season as talent manager Susie Myerson on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, a role she’s won two Emmys for playing. Nash-Betts has already won a Critics Choice Award for starring in Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the 10-part limited series in which she plays Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of the infamous serial killer.

Together, they look back on the significance of Getting On on their careers, how they watch (or don’t) their own work, and their thoughts on the current writers strike. 

Vanity Fair: When did you first meet?

Alex Borstein: I guess it was like a table read [for Getting On]. 

Niecy Nash-Betts: And then shortly thereafter we had to go on rounds to visit senior homes.

Borstein: That's right. We went out to the Motion Picture Industry in Woodland Hills. We went out there.

Nash-Betts: I still have pictures of us riding on the back of a golf cart around those facilities and I was like, "Man, HBO is not playing around." They're like, "You going get this. You going to know how to do this when you show up to work."

What did you notice about each other's acting styles or craft that stood out to you? 

Nash-Betts: I had already known who Alex Borstein was, and I knew she was hilarious. I just noticed just a very, very unique ability in improv. She can give it, she can receive it. And it's always going to stay in rhythm with the intention of the scene. And that's a special skill set.

Borstein: [The show’s creators] Mark [Olsen] and Will [Scheffer], I give such credit to them because they took a chance on these two people that were really known for broader bits of comedy. We had these larger than life moments in our past, but they saw something else in us. I think watching them work with Niecy was really inspiring and really amazing. Because I remember you saying, "I know how to..." Was it slap a line or spank a line? 

Nash-Betts: I can spank it. I can spank it.

Borstein: Spank a line. And they were kind of like “get your hand off your own ass, stop spanking and just be you.” And then watching her kind of make that transformation was really something. It was really cool.

Nash-Betts: It was very different for me totally. I had never done anything like that. And it opened the door for people to see me for drama.

Borstein: Yeah, it opened lots of doors for both of us.

That kind of comes full circle, Niecy, because I remember in a recent award speech you were saying how you had wanted to start out in drama, but that people told you to stay in your comedic lane. Obviously with Dahmer, you've gotten to really show what you can do in drama.

Nash-Betts: Getting On was the impetus to all of that.

Borstein: It was. I had worked with the Palladinos [Maisel creators Amy and Dan] before, but Getting On was something that totally opened it up. Amy talks about it, seeing that and seeing my work on that and all of our work on that really opened their eyes and other people's eyes. Even my own eyes. Let me believe I was capable of a lot more.

On Maisel, Alex you got to play Susie for a significant amount of time. How did it change for you as you got more comfortable and really knew this character as the series went on?

Borstein: My confidence as an actress changed. I think I stepped onto the set more confident each time, and as I knew things were working, Amy would, I think, lean into that as she wrote. So in some ways it becomes easier because they're kind of tailoring things for you as it moves forward. But she also peeled this character like an onion and made it really difficult as it progressed. She got very vulnerable and had to bear her heart many times and expose herself. And it was really hard for Susie and hard for me as an actor.

Niecy, Ryan Murphy called you and said he had written Glenda with you in mind. Did that help with the confidence to take on the role? 

Nash-Betts: It didn't help. Why would that help? No, that didn't help at all. And with Ryan and I, I'm always backing myself into a corner because he calls and goes, "Hey, I want you to do this thing." And as soon as he says it, I'm like, "Okay." And after I say okay, it's like, "Oh, and here's what it is." And then it's like big gulp in your throat. But what I do appreciate is the same thing Mark and Will saw in me for Getting On, to play something so grounded and it still be funny. And for him to say, "I know that you're this funny person in the world, but I also know that there is a depth that can be tapped into, and I know you can do this." I mean, I was grateful that he saw me that way.

Both of you worked with showrunners that I think are visionaries and they have a clear style and idea how they want to tell the story. What did you find was the best way to collaborate with them?

Borstein: With Maisel, Amy is like, "This is the character. You do it word for word. There's no improvising. You don't conjugate when it's not conjugated." And she'll take things from my real life and she would take things from the table read and throw them in there. But every once in a while I was like, "I'd love to wear a vest next season." "Okay." "I want Susie to smoke a pipe. I want these the keys on her neck," and very tiny things. But in terms of saying, "Here's the arc I see for my character," I would never dare.

Nash-Betts: Much like Alex and her relationship with the folks at Maisel, I was playing a real life person. So you can't come in and be like, "Well, I think she would..." No, no, no. No you don't. You take these words, you take this experiences, and you are the conduit. You're playing a person who has a family, who has had impact in the world. You have to deliver it with as much commitment and respect for that person as possible. So there weren't a lot of conversations about that bit of it. No.

Alex, what does it feel like to have*__ Maisel__* ending? 

Borstein: It's devastating. I mean, there's the goodbye to the family. Getting On ended after we were on hiatus and we didn't know whether it was coming back or not. And I thought that was the worst possible situation ever. "We didn't get to say goodbye, really. And we didn't know. And we had no foresight." And now I've been in the other position where we knew, and it was just as heartbreaking. It just fucking breaks my...

After Getting On, I said, "I'm not going to fall in love again. I'm not going to commit to people on the show. I'm not going to make friends. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to open up." And I did it and I'm heartbroken once again. [For Maisel,] we had a finale celebration the other night and they showed a sneak preview of the final episode on the big screen. And believe it or not, I have not seen the series. I still haven't seen the complete series of Getting On yet.

Nash-Betts: What?

Borstein: Laurie and I had planned to do a wine night and we were going to watch it from start to finish, and then COVID happened. And we keep saying we want to do it together. 

Nash-Betts: Wait. Time out. When can we get that on the books? Invite me. 

Borstein: I'm game if you are. With Maisel, I've seen the first two episodes because we had to watch it at a premiere in Berlin way back when. And then the other night I saw most of the final episode except for the last scene because they pulled me away for press.

My plan is I've got a little girl that was born two months before we started shooting Getting On. So she's now 10. And my plan is to start watching the whole show with my daughter.

Is it intentional to not watch your work? 

Borstein: I can't do it. I get so caught up in what I look like, and I'm so hard on myself. The first two episodes I saw, all I noticed was that my forearm looked like Popeye. I couldn't stand what my forearm looked like. So for the rest of the entire show, you see me hiding my arms if I'm in a short-sleeved shirt. I am a crazy person. 

Nash-Betts: I'm the opposite. Because if you remember when we were doing Getting On, we would do it and then I would run back around the monitor and be like, "Can you play that back?" Because I wanted to make adjustments and tweaks. So I watch everything. For me, it's how I grow. 

Borstein: It'll be interesting. I've got a movie that I've written that I want to direct. That'll be a challenge I'll have, directing myself. It would be different, if I'm wearing a different hat and I'm judging it as a whole piece and the camera and the action and everyone else's performances and not just hyper-focused on me.

What is something you both require as actors in the preparation before a project?

Nash-Betts: Sex and champagne? [Laughs] That was my real answer, but it was supposed to stay inside my head.

Borstein: Every character requires hours and hours of sex.

Nash-Betts: And gallons and gallons of champagne.

Borstein: I don't really have any method of preparation or anything, so to speak. With Susie, whenever I'm backstage and about to go on, I get very kind of tightly wound. I kind of pace, like a shark in a bowl before they open the gate. But there's no meditation or I don't know. I learn the lines. That's my biggest fear is not being able to know the lines wanting to be off book. And with Maisel, there's so many lines and fast and you can't not know your lines. There's no showing up and having a day where you just can't. There's no time and there's no patience for that. And so that's probably the biggest prep is just making sure I know those lines backwards and forwards.

Nash-Betts: I just feel like for me, any character that I play, I can't enter into anything until I understand the visual. I could learn words, but I won't feel it in my body until I know what she's supposed to look like. So that's very important because I spend 95% of my life looking like a Vegas showgirl. I'm more comfortable and used to looking shiny, and every character is not that. So the way she moves and interacts with people is going to change.

Niecy, I saw you out on the picket lines. And Alex, you're talking about being a writer-director. How is the writers strike affecting you directly?

Nash-Betts: There isn't any work. But I was out there and I will continue to be out there until we get on the other side of it. It's necessary.

Borstein: Yes. I've been a WGA member since, God, I don't even know, I guess 2002 or something like that maybe. So it's been a good long time. And I absolutely believe in the strike. We've got to make these changes. And now SAG, we are probably going to be striking as well next month. So it's going to be a sticky, sticky mess. The hardest thing about this is the work stoppage. These crews, you've got 300 people on a crew that are not working, and a lot of people do not have a massive savings. It's really crushing. 

But I also believe in the things that we are asking for. I don't think we can move forward anymore. Streaming is no longer an experiment. We know what it is. It's the new wave of television. And artists, they need royalties for their work.

What sticks with you from your time together on Getting On?

Nash-Betts: I feel like I would, in my heart of hearts, be able to say, "Alex Borstein is my friend till the day I die." I don't care when she calls, what she calls. I don't have to talk to you every day, but if you need something, you already know.

Borstein: I would say that I think that, too. That the last season of Getting On, I was going through splitting up with my then husband and Niecy was someone that I was able to talk to and go to. And recently, I've had issues that I could text her and say, "Hey, I need your help on something." And she's there.

Nash-Betts: I'm forever changed. We were changed from that experience as an actor and an artist. It just grew me up. It's like when you go away to summer camp and then you come back home and your mother, "You grew three inches." You know.

Borstein: If they were to reboot that or do a special or a thing, I would be there in a heartbeat.

Nash-Betts: You and me both. Back in my scrubs, baby. Ready to get it.