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Exploring Dorm Life with Nora Kirkpatrick
The actress talks to us about her hit web series and her Transformers 2 role.
by Eric Goldman

May 27, 2009 - Now in its second season, Dorm Life has become an example of the kind of notable success a web series can attain – becoming the most popular such series on Hulu, and topping 5 million views in the process. Originating at www.dorm-life.com, and now also available on MySpace and YouTube, the mockumentary style comedy follows a group of students in a college dorm, as they go through the many rites of passage such an existence leads to.

I recently spoke to one of the stars of Dorm Life, Nora Kirkpatrick, who plays Courtney Cloverlock – a character so off the wall that she transcends the "ditz" label into something far more offbeat. Raised on movies like This is Spinal Tap, Kirkpatrick has taken classes with the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) and was a natural fit for the semi-improvised comedy of Dorm Life. A true multi-talent, Kirkpatrick is also the accordion player for the band Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, and will be seen in several films soon, including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - where according to IMDB, she's playing "Beautiful Girl", a role I asked her about.

IGN: How did you first get involved in Dorm Life?

Kirkpatrick: I went to UCLA with a few of the kids and the guy who plays Mike, his name is Chris W. Smith, he asked me to come and audition, because I think he had seen me do sketch or improv. So I auditioned and then they asked me to do it. There are six creators who write and produce it.

Dorm Life star Nora Kirkpatrick
IGN: There are a lot of web series these days. What do you think it is about this one that helped it find success and such a following?

Kirkpatrick: I think with web series, so many come and go – and there's a lot of high school ones that come and go – but I feel like this one has developed such a following because it's so relatable. It's not like the sensationalized high school with the drama. We took all these stories from our life. We brainstormed. So I feel like people go, "Oh yeah! Undie run!" or "That Valentine's thing, we did that!" So I think that's why ours has been so popular.

IGN: So it's safe to say that a lot of the stories come from your own life?

Kirkpatrick: We really had brainstorm sessions. I think every episode comes from someone's life. Pranks, frat parties, fights… All of the sports stuff. Makeovers, all the ridiculous stuff you have to go through when you live in the dorm. And the roommate situation… I had the craziest roommate my freshman year. Just crazy. [Laughs] It was a great experience because they really do take polar opposites and see how they get along. And we figured it out!

Kirkpatrick in Dorm Life
IGN: Your character has some great non-sequiturs.

Kirkpatrick: I think the way they wrote it and the way it comes across are very different and we talked about that. I think the second season is more what developed as opposed to the way it started, which was kind of the stereotypical, blond sorority girl. But then as we started doing improv, she started coming across a little crazier and maybe she has delusions and is very stringent in her opinions and always gets what she wants and kind of manifests things. So I think that's started to come across and in Season 2, they kind of wrote it more that way, which is also nice. And also, in the webcams I got a chance to show my subtext realized. I could act out all the scenarios that I wanted to off camera. I loved doing those, because there were no rules and it was all improv. Nothing was planned. Every one of those is me sitting there for how long, just playing games. I could go crazy as I wanted and I did go crazy. I was screaming and yelling! It was a really good outlet, actually.

IGN: How much of the show is improvised?

Kirkpatrick: I would say most of it is written but we do a lot of on-set improv and I think it feeds the characters a lot. If a line sticks and it's funny, we'll go for it or we'll do one [take] the way it's written and then we'll say, "Okay, do whatever you want this time and we'll see what fits." It was very open-minded. No one was saying, "No, it must be this way!" It was, "Whatever's the most funny works."

IGN: A line of yours I loved was, "Does James Woods s**t in a bear?"

Kirkpatrick: [Laughs] That's so funny that you heard that, because nobody got that! I remember we had a screening at UCLA and I knew this line was coming up and I was like, "Oh god, I hope someone gets this," because we all thought it was really funny but didn't know if anyone was going to get it. And I said it and it was silence. Dead silence. And I was like, "Ahh!"

IGN: I assume it must be fun to play a character this off the wall.

Kirkpatrick: It was so fun, because you do get stereotyped a little bit based on how you look and I think it was just nice to have this much freedom. Your director is your friend and he doesn't have to report to anyone creatively, so you are your own creative director, which is really nice. And I think that is the benefit of being in a company that starts from the ground up and as yourself, because it's you. It's whatever you want to do it, which I think makes it more fulfilling for all of us.

IGN: Where do you shoot the show?

Kirkpatrick: At a Buddhist college in Rosemead. They had an empty dorm and they let us shoot there, which is so funny. We would go out during the Slip-N-Slide episode and we're all in bras and underwear, slipping and sliding and the students would come out and stare at us in dead silence. We'd all eat together in the cafeteria and it would be like the crazy side and their side, which was focused, studying.

IGN: Acording to IMDB, you play "Beautiful Girl" in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Not a bad credit to have!

Kirkpatrick: [Laughs] No, not a bad credit!

IGN: What was your experience with that film like?

Kirkpatrick: They hired me and I flew to the east coast - Princeton is where we shot. And it was actually pretty much improv, again. I don't know how much I can give away, but I'm in a scene and I have a crush on Shia LaBeouf. I was there for like a week. Michael Bay was great. It was kind of my first experience on a huge budget movie. There were cranes and 300 extras and smoke machines. It was really fun. It's going to be good. It was cool, because I'd come from shooting a really great indie movie before that. But it was so interesting to go from that, where everything was small and all-involved, to where I went [on Transformers]. I was just like, "Okay! This is much bigger than me!" Trailers for days… the whole thing.

IGN: You did a couple of episodes of John From Cincinnati. How was it working with [Deadwood creator] David Milch?

Kirkpatrick: He kind of wrote my character on set and we just sat in my trailer one day and talked about it. It was great. He seemed like such a creative guy. Really open to inspiration hitting whenever it does and being open to changing things around. That was a really cool experience. It was right after I got out of college.

IGN: Have you had much interaction with fans of Dorm Life?

Kirkpatrick: Yeah! Oh my gosh, they're so into it. Every time I sign into Courtney's Facebook page, I have like 50 new friends. They're really interactive. They send messages of support, if something's going on in the season. People are really supportive. It's nice to have that interaction because you don't always get that on TV.

IGN: So you write things in-character for that?

Kirkpatrick: Yeah, we each do our own. We respond and we Twitter. I send updates. My character is recording an album right now, so I'll write, "Oh, I'm in the studio today," which I have been , recording this thing. I'll get responses – "Oh, cool! I'm so excited for it!" So it's just nice to feel that what you're doing people are appreciating.

IGN: Wow, so you're actually recording in-character?

Kirkpatrick: Yeah. Courtney is writing four songs. She's almost done! A friend of mine is helping me produce the whole thing, and I think it's going to be pretty good! They're funny songs. There's one about the president. One's called, "S-S-S-S-Stutter." One's called, "Sweaty to Ready in Fifteen Minutes," and I think the fourth one is called, "I'm My Own Pet." The album is called Four-Leaf Clover.

IGN: So has there been talk of a third season?

Kirkpatrick: We have talked about it. I think they're talking about bridging the gap over to TV. I think it would segue nicely.

IGN: What was the film you shot before Transformers?

Kirkpatrick: It's called Growth. It's a Lionsgate film. It's about the Manhattan Project. It's really great. It should be coming out soon. There's great special effects. It's a thriller. My character is much different from Dorm Life. I had a great experience there. We shot in Martha's Vineyard. She's the friend of the protagonist and she is kind of a ball buster and always gets her way. She wants this guy and you kind of get to see her figure out a way to make him want her back. They were great scenes. It was more of a romantic thing than I have in Dorm Life. And she's a schemer - and very haughty.

Dorm Life's Courtney (Nora Kirkpatrick) shows off the same accordian skills the actress possesses in real life

IGN: Meanwhile, you're also in a band, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros . How did that come about?

Kirkpatrick: This whole thing happened about a year ago, the band, and it's been great. [They were] friends of friends and they asked me to come play. Music had always been a big part of my life and still is.

IGN: How would you describe your sound?

Kirkpatrick: Oh boy. There's eleven of us. It's a big sound! We have everything. There's trumpets, there's drums, there's organ, piano, guitars, bongos, everything... I play the accordion.

IGN: When did you start playing the accordion?

Kirkpatrick: A couple of years ago. I always played the organ and I think I just wanted to be more mobile.

Dorm Life can be seen on several sites, including www.dorm-life.com, Hulu, MySpace and YouTube.