The stars of the film “Honey Don’t!” visited the New York Times studio kitchen to toss some pizzas.
Aubrey Plaza and Margaret Qualley star in “Honey Don’t!”Taylor Miller for The New York Times
Welcome to the Pizza Interview, a new series from The New York Times Cooking where the Q&A has a catch: Our guests have to make pizza.
“Honey Don’t!” follows Honey O’Donahue, played by Margaret Qualley, a small-town private investigator on the trail of some strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. Aubrey Plaza plays MG Falcone, a police officer who becomes romantically involved with Honey.
Watch the full video below (or on YouTube) and read ahead for excerpts from the outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.
Have you ever made a pizza before?
Aubrey Plaza: Nope.
Margaret Qualley: No.
What are you cooking at home?
Qualley: I like to cook breakfast. I love to make eggs. I love to make smoothies. French toast. Scrambled eggs on toast. I’ll eat that any time of day. I love a breakfast for dinner.
Plaza: I like to make pasta. Simple sauces. And steak. I like to make steak.
Qualley: I made you a really bad steak once.
Plaza: No you didn’t. That was good!
By The New York Times Cooking
Do you have a favorite pizza place?
Qualley: Papa John’s.
Plaza: Grotto Pizza. Wilmington, Del., represent.
Qualley: Domino’s delivery is really not bad.
Plaza: Honestly, I agree.
Aubrey, we heard you love hot peppers on pizza.
Plaza: I don’t know who told you that, but yeah, I love peppers. Sure.
Qualley: Who told you that?
It was in a ‘Hot Ones’ interview. It was in a BuzzFeed interview.
Plaza: Oh, did I say that? OK. I was lying.
Have you ever worked in the food service industry?
Plaza: Yes, I’ve been a waitress, a hostess. Never a bartender.
I will never go back to Joe’s Crab Shack after someone I worked with stole everything out of my car in the parking lot. Took my keys right out of the hostess stand. Stole all my CDs. Didn’t steal my car. And there were a lot of Swedish rap songs on there that I’ll never find. That’s all right. I forgive whoever that person is. They probably needed all those CDs to survive.
What’s your comfort meal?
Plaza: SpaghettiOs.
Qualley: Really?
Plaza: I don’t know. As a baby. Not now. I would never eat it now.
Between the two of you and your co-star, Chris Evans, who’s most likely to start a cult?
Qualley: I guess that guy.
Plaza: I would honestly pick Charlie Day. I feel like Charlie Day would start a cult by accident, because he’s so funny and charming, and everyone loves him. … I just feel like: “This guy gets me. This guy sees me.”
Was there a scene the two of you couldn’t get through without breaking character?
Plaza: No, we’re both very professional, and we would never do anything like that. Right?
Qualley: Right.
Plaza: The bar scene. There were some laughs.
Qualley: That was fun.
Plaza: It was a stunt almost because I had to pretend I was doing the deed to Margaret, and then I had to, under camera, dip my fingers into this cup of coconut oil. It was kind of like a video game because I couldn’t look at it. I had to Tetris my fingers in there, and the poor makeup artist was just sitting on the floor holding a cup of coconut oil.
Have you ever had to learn a cooking skill for an acting role?
Plaza: I had to learn how to make perfect scallops and risotto. I mean, I didn’t really have to.
Qualley: What was it for? You went the extra mile.
Plaza: It was for a movie called “About Alex.” It was kind of like a remake of “The Big Chill,” and I played the Mary Kay Place character. There was some scene where they wanted to really film me making these beautiful scallops. It was fun.
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