A Woman You Should Meet: Mikaela Hoover

You may not know her name but you’ve definitely seen Mikaela Hoover’s face. Typically cast as pretty, ditzy girls on shows like Happy Endings and The League, Hoover will surprise you with her comedic chops. With a cameo role in Guardians of the Galaxy under her belt this summer and a guest spot in a new web series Zombie Basement, she’s not taking any breaks. We talked to her about her love of horror movies, Kim Kardashian surviving a zombie apocalypse and the mock trailer for a movie we can’t even show you.

How was filming Guardians of the Galaxy?

Have you seen it?

Not yet, no.

Okay, well I’m just a tiny, tiny, tiny cameo for a few seconds. Blink and you’ll miss me. But it was really fun because James Gunn, the director, is a really good friend, so it was cool to be able to work with him. I love seeing him in action and watching him direct. All of my scenes were with those two and Peter Serafinowicz, and those three were all wonderful.

How’s the aftermath of such a huge movie been?

It’s really cool, the attention I’ve gotten because of it. It was just a fun thing to do. James actually offered me the role and I had to shoot at the same time that I was supposed to be the maid of honor at the wedding of my best friend whom I’ve known since I was a little girl. So, I had to miss the wedding because I had this quick cameo in this amazing movie. But I’ve been surprised at how many people have picked up on it. It’s really cool, all the media attention I’ve gotten from this tiny little thing.

You’ve also done a ton of guest-spots on a few shows that I absolutely love. You’ve been on Happy Endings, How I Met Your Mother, The League and Two and a Half Men. All funny shows. Do you like working in comedy?

I love working in comedy. Especially because the people you get to work with are just so funny and so talented. There’s this energy to comedy that’s just so warm and happy. Happy Endings was actually probably my favourite. I got to work on the pilot of Happy Endings and doing the pilot of a show is such a magical experience. It’s a lot of work but everyone is working really hard to make it succeed.

I’m so curious to know about the cast dynamic on The League because I love that show too. I know you played a girlfriend of Taco so you have to tell me what it was like to work with those guys!

Well, I found out at 9 or 10 pm the night before that they were looking for someone to play Taco’s girlfriend through my manager who also represents the guy who plays Taco, Jonathan Lajoie. I didn’t know anything about it, I had never seen the show and they told me ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s a lot of improv.’ And while the show is of course scripted, it is a lot of improv. It was so funny to just watch the guys with each other and hear the stuff that they come up with.

That makes me so happy, I find those guys so hilarious. I love knowing that it’s mostly improv.

Don’t get me wrong, the writers are incredible too, and the scripts are great, but it’s true, there’s a lot of improv. The stuff that you see, that’s them. I started watching the show after I did the episode because they were so funny on set and now I tell everyone that it’s the funniest show ever. It’s brilliant. It’s clever, quick humour that a lot of people don’t catch right away. And they’re all friends. Which makes it even better.

Let’s talk about this web series you worked on called Zombie Basement.

It’s directed by Brian Dannelly and Randall Whittinghill. It’s about these two kids who survived the zombie apocalypse and are living in their basement and as entertainment they have their own web series that they put out for the other survivors who have been able to escape the zombies.

As you do. Who do you play?

I play Kim Kim. She’s their neighbour who’s a little bit of a Kim Kardashian type of a girl. She’s a little silly.

How did your character survive the zombie apocalypse?

I can’t say! It’ll give everything away.

Do you think the real Kim Kardashian would be able to survive a zombie apocalypse?

Oh Jesus. I hope not [laughs]. No, no I’m just kidding! I have no idea. No comment. How about that?

Let’s just say she probably has the resources that she needs to stay alive.

Yeah, you’re right. She does, she definitely has the resources.

That’s an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians that I’d definitely watch.

Oh my god, I would love that fucking episode. For myself, if there was a zombie apocalypse I would just join them. I’m not going to fight it. It’s too stressful to fight. I’d join, no question. I tell all my friends ‘if there’s a zombie apocalypse, don’t open your door for me because I’m one of them.’ Living as a survivor would suck. In all the zombie movies you see the survivors and their living conditions, I’d be like ‘fuck that’ just join! Who knows, maybe the zombies are living it up!

Tell me something funny about you.

I remember when I was younger I asked my parents if I should change my last name into my middle name so I could get rid of Hoover. They were totally supportive, but I just never got around to it. And now it’s just out there. Some people think that I changed my name to be Hoover and I’m always like ‘why the shit would I pick Hoover as my last name?’

What’s coming up for you?

There are a few things that I can’t actually talk about yet. Zombie Basement is starting in the fall. I’m also in a horror movie called Hide & Seek and it’s going to show at the horror film festival in Spain called the Sitges Film Festival. It’s produced by Peter Safran who also produced The Conjuring and the new movie Annabelle. So he knows a thing or two about scary movies.

How was the switch into horror?

It’s my favourite. That’s what I want to do. I love scary movies. Not the gross torture-porn horror movies; I don’t condone them and I don’t watch them. But a good psychological mind-fuck? I’m obsessed with those. When I first got into the business, I was offered a role in a horror movie, but it had nudity so I turned it down. I was also offered the lead in a horror movie last year, but it had nudity so I turned it down too because I just don’t think that it’s necessary for a horror film. It cheapens it.

I saw a title on your IMDB page and I promised myself I would ask you about it because it made me giggle. A movie called Fleshlightning. What’s that about?

[Laughs] It’s exactly what you think. It’s a parody. You know what a fleshlight is, right?

I do.

Well, I had no idea, so I had to be explained before we started filming. Once I had processed the information and had said ‘that’s so disgusting’ it was like, okay, let’s read the script. It’s a fake trailer for a movie called Fleshlightning and it’s about how a guy becomes obsessed with fleshlight of the pornstar Jenna Haze. He has sex with the fleshlight and somehow in the universe, Jenna becomes impregnated. I play his dorky best friend and I’m in love with him and he’s actually secretly in love with me, but he doesn’t realize it until he gets Jenna pregnant. At first he thinks he wants to be with pornstars, but finally realizes that all that stuff isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Watch the trailer on Funny or Die, it’s friggin’ hilarious.