Exclusive: Comedian Fortune Feimster Shares FUBAR Fun!

When it was announced that Schwarzenegger was attached to the Netflix series, FUBAR, I was pumped but when I heard Fortune Feimster also had joined the cast, my excitement level was through the roof. I had been following this commedian’s career for a few years now on TV sitcoms, watched her Netflix stand-up special and I’ve attended a live touring performance in a sold out auditorium. You might know Feimster from her roles in Life In Pieces,  Word: Generation Q or The Mindy Project but her role in FUBAR will surely be our favorite. 

Fortune, sitting on her chair with her dog Biggie on her lap, was happy to give TheArnoldFans all the details on working on FUBAR and her blossoming friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

TheArnoldFans: I'm pumped for FUBAR. It looks amazing. Did you see the new trailer?

Fortune Feimster:  "Oh yeah. I'm excited. I think that Arnold's fans hopefully are going to love it because it's the best of what he does, the action and the comedy."

TheArnoldFans: What’s your character’s name and what can you say about her involvement with Arnold’s character, Luke Brunner?

Fortune: "So my character's name is Roo, R-O-O, is short for Ruth, and she is a co-worker of Arnold in the CIA. They're on the same team, so they often-times do a lot of missions together. My character's the sharp shooter and the mathematician, but as you'll see also the comedic relief of the group, which as a comedian was good for me because I know the comedy world a lot more than I knew the action world."

TheArnoldFans: What was your perception of Arnold before you got to meet him and how was that perception changed after wrapping FUBAR? 

Fortune: "Well, he's been famous for decades, so my first introduction of Arnold was when I was in elementary school. They used to roll in these big televisions and would play these fitness fun exercise videos for kids that Arnold was doing as part of the initiative to get kids in shape. So I remember him very early on and then he was always a part of our childhood and all these giant movies growing up. Kindergarten Cop, Terminator, so many iconic roles that I just knew him as this larger than life guy. But then he was also Governor of California, so there was different aspects to him, but I didn't really know what to expect working with him. And I was a little intimidated, but as soon as I met him, he was asking questions about me and he was really interested in the standup world and was telling me stories about his friendship with Milton Burl. And I found that really fascinating, that old Hollywood tidbits. And I just immediately felt at ease with him. Once we started filming, we quickly hit it off and became friends. And then I found a lot of joy in trying to make him laugh. And so a lot of our rapport was making each other laugh throughout the shoot."

 

TheArnoldFans: In the trailer, I saw you firing some weapons. How you felt about that, the training for shooting guns?

Fortune: "That whole world was very new to me. I definitely had to get some training in the beginning, but by the end of the season I felt like I really knew that world a lot better and I felt like I was hopefully passing the test as far as looking like I know what I'm doing."

TheArnoldFans: Except when you misfire that bazooka, right?

Fortune: "Yeah, there's a reason that I did that, but you'll find out when you watch the show."

 

Arnold said he did an action scene that's one very long continuous take in FUBAR. Have you ever done such a long scene where you're nervous about messing something up that you have to start all over again?

Fortune: "I know, right? That one, I don't think I was (there), the one that he's talking about. I was in some, but I don't think I was in that one. But there's definitely this pressure. You have to have everything choreographed and it's all about timing. I've definitely done some of those things where if you mess up, you'll be right at the finish line and somebody does something and you're like, "No," and you got to reset the whole thing. So it's a lot of pressure. They didn't do a ton of that, but sometimes you have to to get a certain shot you want, but he's such a pro at this, watching him was so cool because it's just so second-nature to him."

TheArnoldFans: Arnold sometimes gives out nice gifts as a film wrap gift. When the production was over, did you get a box of cigars from Arnold or any other special item? 

Fortune: "Yeah, He made shirts for the entire crew and cast. They're really cool that said FUBAR and it had the CIA emblem that they had on the show. That was on the front of it and so everybody wore those and we took a picture. He handed each of us the cigars with the FUBAR emblem on those. So that was really cool. Four of us went to his house in October right after we filmed and he had an event, he invited us there and it was so cool to see his charity working with the All Stars program. It was cool too because he would talk to us about his charity events and the things he does, but to see him putting that into action was really cool. And it was at his house so he showed us all of his memorabilia from different movies and just very gracious and welcoming to us. He had the cast and some of the crew over to his house during Christmas time as well. I couldn't make it to that, but everybody said it was really lovely. He just treats everybody like family."

 

TheArnoldFans: How will you approach juggling your time between actor and comedian…and might you be working in any Arnold stories into upcoming comedy tours?

Fortune: "It's definitely a balancing act because I really love acting and have been fortunate enough to be in a lot of shows. And I also love standup. And since I put out my Netflix specials, standup has gotten a lot busier as well. So it makes juggling the two worlds a little bit more tricky, a little trickier, but they try to give you a good idea of when filming would be. The show was really good because this show came out of nowhere for me and I had this whole tour booked and I was about to shoot my second special. They were really good with working with me to let me still do those dates. So for the first three months of the filming of the show, I was balancing these two worlds and I would film all during the week and then get on a plane on Friday or Saturday and fly to a city, do a show. And then I filmed that special, Good Fortune, right in the middle of production. So it was a lot at first, but I just love the two worlds so much that I'm happy to do whatever it takes to be able to do both. But my hope, we're trying to be a little bit more diligent in the planning of this tour to not bleed into if we were to get a second season (of Fubar), but nobody knows at this point what's to come because the show has to air. And we will see if we get picked up for a second season, we certainly have our fingers crossed and then we don't know how long this writer strike's going to go on for. So everything's up in the air right now."

TheArnoldFans: I saw that he invited you to the Arnold Classic and I think you went to that, right? Did Schwarzenegger try to get you to work out at 5:00 AM or very early like how he normally does? 

Fortune: "Well, it was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. I was doing a show in Cleveland and I had to drive to, I think it was Cincinnati, and I stopped in into Columbus for a coffee and all the streets were just packed with people. And I was like, "What in the world is going on?" And the guy, the barista was like, "Oh, it's the Arnold Classic and 150,000 people are in town." And I was like, "what? Are you kidding me? So I texted Arnold's guys and I was like, "That's so funny." I go, "I'm in Columbus getting a coffee." And they were like, "Where are you?" And I told them, they were like, "we're five minutes from you." They were like, "come surprise Arnold." And I was like, "well, all right, I want to see what this is about." And so I surprised him and he was so happy and he was like, "you got to come check out the competition." And so I went over and watched the World's Strongest Firefighter competition and just had a blast. he was a kid in the candy store showing me all the different aspects of the event and was so proud because it's been around for quite a while and I was just really happy that worked out."

FUBAR, the eight-part series premieres on Netflix on May 25th. For more information on Fortune or to see her tour dates, go to fortunefeimster.com. 

Fortune: "I'm glad we're bringing these two worlds together with me and Arnold.”