Podcrushed with Lizzy Caplan

Date: November 19, 2025
Hosts: Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, Sophie Ansari
Guest: Lizzy Caplan

Episode Overview

This episode of Podcrushed features the Emmy-nominated actress Lizzy Caplan, best known for her roles in Mean Girls, Cloverfield, Party Down, and Fleishman is in Trouble. Lizzy joins hosts Penn, Nava, and Sophie (though Sophie takes a backseat in this episode) for a candid exploration of adolescence, vulnerability, grief, artistic journeys, and the enduring influence of our teenage selves. The conversation is engaging, funny, and deeply heartfelt, highlighting both Lizzy's candor and the empathetic dynamic between guest and hosts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life, Loss, and Coping Mechanisms

• Idyllic Beginnings and Sudden Loss

  • Lizzy describes her childhood in suburban LA as "shockingly suburban, idyllic" (02:38), with doting parents and lots of freedom. This was shattered when her mother fell ill when she was 12 and passed away at 13.
  • "I did have 12 and a half good years." (03:24 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • The sudden shift from ordinary childhood to an "otherness" shaped Lizzy’s adolescence, embedding a lasting sense of loneliness and responsibility for others’ comfort during her grieving process.
  • "I was very young 12…terribly positioned to have to weather anything like this, but I don't know who like is primed for it, honestly." (05:07 - Lizzy Caplan)

• Impact on Relationships & Grief’s Longevity

  • Lizzy reflects on being the “other” among friends after her mother’s death and the discomfort it caused in her peer group:
    "Trying to navigate like other people's discomfort around my tragedy…it took me many years to stop doing that." (08:34 - 10:39)
  • She notes how, as a child, she coped by “convincing everybody I was totally fine, even when I wasn't.”

• Memory and Becoming a Parent

  • "She was just a really fucking good mom…now that I'm a parent, it all becomes like…it rushes to the forefront. And I try to remember whatever lessons I can from that." (10:46 - Lizzy Caplan)

Parenting and Reparenting

• Parenting as Reparative

  • Lizzy discusses the reparative nature of becoming a mother after her loss:
    "It is the single most reparative thing that I've ever done...Getting to re-experience all of that." (13:35 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • She shares her fears of not being there for her son due to her own early loss but feels secure in her husband’s ability as a parent.
  • Penn adds his perspective as a parent of four boys, noting the "mystical" quality of confronting his own childhood through his children. (12:03 - Penn Badgley)

• The "Head Down" Survival Plan

  • As a teen, Lizzy told herself: "Just keep your head down till you have your own family. And then you can sort of write this." This plan became a throughline of her life, a promise to herself at age 13. (16:51 - 17:19)

Artistic Origins & Path to Acting

• From Piano to Acting
  • Lizzy played piano for 10-11 years, entering LA’s Hamilton High for its music academy but soon quit piano to pick a new elective: acting.
    "I was able at the time to like go and play like a 12 page thing from memory...and now I can't do any of that shit." (20:41 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • "Acting was kind of a fame type school… so I said, alright, I'll do acting. And then very quickly I realized how much I liked it." (20:41 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • She considered her trauma as fuel for acting: "Oh, I'm so fucked up because of this trauma that I've been through. Like, that's why I could be an actor, because I have this darkness to me." (21:59)

Classic Tween/Teen Memories

• First Crushes and Adolescent Relationships

  • Lizzy shares she had a "marriage of convenience" with her childhood friend Arik from ages 8-12 — "We didn’t even kiss once in all those years."
  • She passed up a real crush (Kevin, "looked like Dennis the Menace, everybody was obsessed") due to loyalty to Arik.
    • "That was the beginning of a lifetime of...interesting dating." (31:08)
  • She humorously details her cycles of obsession and how it only stopped “probably in my 30s.” (32:02)

• Embarrassing Story

  • Lizzy recounts a mortifying yet hilarious adulthood incident:
    • "I was talking to him...He gestured to me like, 'your dress.' And I looked down, and like a full boob—no, no—was just out. Just out of my dress with the boy that I like. I can still fucking feel it in my stomach when I tell the story." (34:29 - 35:31)
    • "And guess what? It didn’t even work. The old one titty out. Didn't even work." (35:32 - Lizzy Caplan)

• First Love

  • "I had a really sweet boyfriend in high school when I was in ninth grade…a really sweet thing going with each other. I wish that for every young person." (35:42 - 36:16)

Career Arc: From High School to Hollywood

• Breaking In

  • Lizzy credits her uncle, a crisis publicist, with helping her get a manager who started sending her out on auditions.
  • First screen appearance: one line in the pilot of Freaks and Geeks at age 15.
    • "In my mind it was going to be straight to the top..." (40:01 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • Her first year out of high school was “the loneliest, worst year ever,” missing friends away at college.
    • “Just enough crumbs to sort of get me to the next job, like, emotionally.” (42:56 - Lizzy Caplan)

• "Fun" in the Industry

  • Fun on set didn’t arrive right away. “I really do look back and it was like, I remember a lot of fearful times... maybe Mean Girls, maybe The Class...that's when it started to be fun.” (43:01 - Lizzy Caplan)
  • Both Penn and Lizzy discuss the enduring struggle to find joy in their work amid industry pressures.

• Landing Mean Girls

  • The audition process was lengthy, and the studio was resistant to casting her (she remembers being told Kelly Osbourne was considered for her role).
  • She describes the experience as “a blast,” especially because it mimicked the college atmosphere she missed.
    • "It was the funniest script I had ever read. I wanted to be in it so bad. I fought so hard, and then it worked out really." (45:11 - 46:55)

On Fleishman is in Trouble and Artistic Growth

• Recognition of Unique TV Storytelling

  • Penn praises the show for “quietly [being] a little TV revolution...formula-bending or breaking, inverting, subverting.” (54:43 - 55:21)
  • Lizzy credits author-showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s raw talent and inexperience with television for creating something rare:
    • “Had she been a career TV writer, she would know…nobody would do that. But she didn’t know and they championed her. That was a really special, very, very wonderful show to be a part of.” (55:21 - 56:23)

• Connection Between Life and Art

  • Lizzy describes the contrast between her character (a stifled suburban mom) and her real life (new, ecstatic mother in NYC post-pandemic), enhancing her gratitude and insight—“It was totally the opposite, but it probably enhanced that experience for me.” (58:52 - 60:34)

Present Day & Closing Reflections

• Love Story: Meeting Her Husband
  • Shares the serendipity of meeting her husband (a bookended "dove" moment during films 10 years apart) and the joy of building her family. (60:34 - 62:05)
• Revisiting the “Head Down” Plan
  • Asked if she could speak to her 12-year-old self, Lizzy says:
    • “The plan of putting your head down and getting to this point in life with your own family actually is a very worthy goal worth striving for. And there will be many adventures and misadventures along the way…but ultimately…the initial plan…has paid off.” (64:20 - 64:46)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Loss and Adolescence:

  “It was the beginning of becoming different from everybody I knew. And that was the starkest thing…just, you know, like privy to a version of or an intensity of loneliness that I think that people aren't supposed to have at that age.”
  (06:18 - Lizzy Caplan)

• On Finding Joy in Acting:

  “I know that there are plenty of actors that haven’t had that special job and still keep showing up…I need it to also be a worthwhile experience in making it, like that almost matters to me the most.”
  (44:04 - Lizzy Caplan)

• On Parenting as Reparative:

  “It is the single most reparative thing that I've ever done, which is, you know, not the intention, but a huge added surprise benefit. Getting to re-experience all of that.”
  (13:35 - Lizzy Caplan)

• On Embarrassment:

  “A full boob—no, no—was just out. Just out of my dress with the boy that I like. I can still fucking feel it in my stomach when I tell the story. And guess what? It didn’t even work. The old one titty out. Didn't even work.”
  (34:29, 35:32 - Lizzy Caplan)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Lizzy's Childhood & Loss of Mother: 02:38 – 11:46
• Memorializing her Mother & Parenting Now: 10:46 – 13:35
• The "Head Down" Plan & Artistic Formation: 16:51 – 22:31
• Classic Teen Stories & First Relationships: 29:57 – 36:16
• Breaking into Acting, Freaks and Geeks, Early Career: 36:31 – 43:01
• Landing Mean Girls & Industry Reflections: 44:55 – 48:43
• Fleishman is in Trouble, Character/Life Intersections: 54:21 – 60:34
• Love Story & Life Reflections: 60:34 – 64:46

Episode Highlights & Takeaways

• Lizzy Caplan’s journey through loss and adolescence is handled with honesty and grace, merging humor, empathy, and candor.
• There’s a recurring theme of loneliness, resilience, and the ways children cope with adult-level grief.
• Career-wise, Lizzy’s story dispels the myth of overnight success, instead offering a blueprint of persistence, self-discovery, and the importance of meaningful roles.
• Parenting and creativity serve as both healing and transformative forces in Lizzy’s life.
• The episode is a tapestry of nostalgia, hard-earned wisdom, emotional vulnerability, and comedic timing, anchored by the empathetic style of the Podcrushed hosts.

For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In...

This episode is a must for fans of honest coming-of-age stories, behind-the-scenes Hollywood insights, and anyone who’s ever felt “othered” by circumstances beyond their control. Lizzy Caplan delivers heartfelt wisdom and humor in equal measure, making for a relatable, moving, and thoroughly enjoyable listen.