Danny Pudi Had a Different Experience on “Community” Than His Costars —Here’s Why (Exclusive)
Danny Pudi Had a Different Experience on “Community” Than His Costars —Here’s Why (Exclusive)
Raven BrunnerSun, October 25, 2026 at 5:30 PM UTC
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Danny Pudi on ‘Community.’Credit: Jordin Althaus/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty -
Danny Pudi reveals why he had a different experience on Community than his costars
PEOPLE caught up with Pudi, Joel McHale, Ken Jeong and Jim Rash after their reunion panel at New York Comic Con
“I discovered I really like being in the middle of crazy,” Pudi said of his work on the beloved sitcom
Danny Pudi had a different experience on Community than his costars.
PEOPLE caught up with Pudi, Joel McHale, Ken Jeong and Jim Rash after their reunion panel at New York Comic Con, on Oct. 10, at Javits Center, in New York City.
While reflecting on working on the hit sitcom about a study group at a fictional community college, Pudi, 47, says, “I discovered I really like being in the middle of crazy.”
The actor added that he felt challenged by his character Abed Nadir’s vast knowledge of popular culture. Every episode, he’d be faced with references to things that he knew nothing about.
Pudi said creator Dan Harmon and the writers would “challenge” him to become an expert. “I’d be like, ‘I don’t know any of these shows. I don’t know these references.’ So I’d have to quickly speed up,” he explains.
Joel McHale, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash and Danny Pudi attend New York Comic Con at Javits Center on Oct. 10, 2026 in New York City.Credit: Jason Mendez/Getty
The actor praised the scripts and emphasized that his character always had “beautiful chunks of things to say.”
“I loved it. It was meditative for me to just sit there with a monologue in a corner,” he says.
Pudi’s costars acknowledged that his time on set was different due to those quirks. McHale, who starred as suspended lawyer Jeff Winger, says, “The sheer amount of dialogue he had every episode was unreal.”
But Pudi said he found learning his paragraphs of lines “so fun.”
He continues, “I knew whenever I got those pages, I was just like, I know it’s going to be ridiculous and insane. I’m going to have to learn it.”
Jeong, who played Spanish professor Ben Chang, remembered that Pudi “always had to lock in.”
“That was different from all of us,” Jeong, 57, says. “We would do bits in between takes, but there would be those five seconds where Danny has to lock in as Abed, which I think was different than everybody else on the cast.”
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While Pudi had a unique experience on set, he still leaned on his castmates for support.
During the reunion panel, he said, “I didn’t know a lot of the references. So I always felt a little bit of pressure because I would show up and they’d be like, ‘Okay, we’re going to be talking about Farscape.’ And I’d be like, ‘I don’t know a lot of these references.’ But I felt so fortunate because I would walk into our study room and I could talk to Jim, Ken, Joel, the smartest actors I know. And they would always fill in the blanks.”
The cast of ‘Community.’Credit: Vivian Zink/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Rash, 55, also had a different experience on set due to his role as Dean Craig Pelton. He joined the cast while they were filming the pilot and was unsure of his character’s future.
“At that point, I didn’t know whether it would be a recurring role or not. It was just a guest star. I shot the day really quickly. It was the beginning of the pilot, introducing their characters. I don’t even remember getting to have a moment with anybody. I might have met them all really quickly in the quad,” he recalls, noting that he quickly clicked with McHale because of their scenes together.
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Community premiered in 2009 and ran for six seasons. Produced by Anthony and Joe Russo, the ensemble cast also featured Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover and Chevy Chase. The show also has a movie in the works that was announced in 2022.
The latest update on the movie was at the panel, during which McHale said, “We have the money, but it has not lined up for schedules.”
While speaking with PEOPLE, the Animal Control star shared the lessons he learned from playing Jeff.
“Everyone was always like, ‘You’re just playing yourself, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, this guy is not married, he doesn’t have kids. He’s a definite womanizer.’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, but other than that, it’s like you.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, am I always this much of a d---?’ ” he jokes.
On a more serious note, McHale added that he learned how to deliver his lines fast to keep up with the speed of the show.
“This is more general, but Joe and Anthony Russo, when they were directing the first few episodes, they would just go, ‘Cut, do it faster. Cut. Go faster.’ So that taught me to just say it fast,” McHale says. “It really cuts out a lot of my bad habits. We were like, ‘Oh, I didn’t need to enjoy that moment or dwell on that moment.’ It just happened.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
