Catching Up With Angela Kinsey of The Real Hotwives of Orlando
Catfights. Drunken confessions. Air kisses. Denounced friendships. Overturned tables. With all its outrageous drama, the Real Housewives franchise is ripe for spoofing—and someone has finally done it.
Seven episodes of the new series The Hotwives of Orlando , starring Casey Wilson, Angela Kinsey, Kristen Schaal, Tymberlee Hill, Andrea Savage and Danielle Schneider, are currently streaming on Hulu.
Kinsey, best known as the uptight Angela on The Office, plays the deeply religious (although she’s never read the Bible) Crystal on the series. Paste recently had the chance to chat with Kinsey about her new series, when she first realized she was funny and how people still have trouble letting go of her Dunder-Mifflin character.
Paste: How did you get cast on The Hotwives of Orlando?
Angela Kinsey: A lot of us ladies had sort of known each other in different circles just doing improv in LA. Danielle [Schneider], one of the co-creators, she emailed me and said, “We think it would be so much fun if you came on board. Give it a read. See what you think, we’re just kind of doing it on a budget, doing it for fun.” And I read it and I thought it was hilarious, and it would be great to have a chance to play with these amazing women who I already thought were so smart and so funny.
Paste: I read that you had never watched an episode of any of the Housewives before you were cast.
Kinsey: I hadn’t even seen any of the Housewives shows. Jenna [Fischer] had always liked them and would come into hair and makeup talking about them and I was like, “Oh my God. What are you watching, woman?” When I told the producers I had never seen any of them, they sent me a few episodes to watch, and you catch on pretty quick. It almost comes across as bored housewives who get together and drink wine and yell at each other.
Paste: The show is a satire but it’s not that far-fetched from the actual Housewives franchise.
Kinsey: It’s very close, I feel like. We’re only a few hop-skips away. I watched one from Orange County and all of these parties have these themes. And all of the sudden it’s a luau party and there’s guys eating fire and there’s women doing Polynesian dancing but they kind of just look like out-of-work actors that got off from Disney late.
Paste: The series shot seven episodes in seven days. What kind of prep work do you do to prepare for such an intense shoot?
Kinsey I was a little bit luckier that the other girls because I only did four days; I already had a hard-out commitment that I promised to do, but on my four days, I was there until 3 a.m. it was intense those four days. What I wanted to do with Crystal, what was fun for me, is she’s not the bitch, she’s kind of ditzy and clueless, and she can be mean to her sister. But she’s also so in love with Orlando and her life in Orlando and just trying to find that earnestness in her. She’s religious, but I feel like her religion is more like a social club, a country club religion. She’s a weather girl for Orlando, which she loves. I just always try to approach any role and find some kind of honesty so that way when the situations get a little crazy, I’m at least coming from an honest place. When the wacky happens there’s something in it that you still believe.