D’arcy Carden, who played both Janet and Bad Janet on The Good Place, in addition to Natalie on Barry, appeared on this week’s episode of Justin Long’s podcast, Life Is Short. On the podcast, she spoke about her years working as the nanny for Bill Hader, and also revealed that, though she was born “Darcy,” she was inspired to change her name to “D’Arcy” by the bassist for the Smashing Pumpkins (D’arcy Wretzky).
On Justin’s request, Carden also shared a terrific story about Harry Styles that she told a couple of years ago on Conan. On the podcast, however, she had more than three minutes to tell it, didn’t also have to promote a project, and had a delightful post-script.
For context: D’Arcy Carden is a huge non-ironic fan of One Direction and Harry Styles, and has been “obsessed” with them since their first appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2012. She’d also seen them in concert around 9 times, and she always went and saw them on SNL when they appeared (her husband works there). In fact, to illustrate what a big fan of Harry Styles and One Direction she is, this tweet is from 2014, long before Carden became a fairly well known comedic actress.
Harold and D’Arce
pic.twitter.com/4YNf1u1NQB
— D’Arcy Carden (@DarcyCarden) December 21, 2014
More recently — Carden originally told this story on Conan two years ago — Harry Styles was on James Corden’s show, and Carden was invited by a friend to come and watch from near the stage. Carden jumped at the opportunity.
After he performed, Styles entered the backstage area, where Carden and her sister were hanging out.
“He looks at me,” Carden tells Long, “and his eyes light up. He comes over and gives me a hug. And we’re chatting, and I can’t believe he remembers me. What a great memory! He’s giving all of these really sweet compliments about what a good job I have been doing, and I think, ‘Oh my god, he watches The Good Place,’ which is so nice of him. He’s so nice, and he’s so polite.”
After that, Styles moved along and began talking to other people. Later in the evening, however, the stage manager quiets down the entire room, and Harry looks over at Carden again and says, ‘What are you guys talking about?’”
“Nothing,” Carden sassily says, as though they are friends now. “Mind your own beeswax!”
And then, Harry Styles looks around the entire green room and teasingly makes an announcement. He says, “Everybody, Sue won’t stop talking about the promotion she got. Give it up for Sue! She’s doing so good!”
“When he says, ‘big promotion,’” Carden continues, “my heart drops. I’m like, ‘Please, get me out of here.’ [My sister] grabs my leg, and we both go [under our breath], ‘Oh nooo. Fuuuuuuuuu*k.’”
Carden very quickly realizes that Styles thinks she’s someone else, someone named Sue who recently got a promotion. Carden had no idea how to respond. Does she tell him that he’s confused her for someone else? Does she run away? What happens, however, is that she ends up talking to him three or four more times that night, never corrects him, and continues to let him believe that she is “Sue.”
“I just wanted to disappear into a ball of dust on the ground.”
Before the night was over, “he gave me a hug again, and said something like, ‘Good to see you again, Sue!’”
And that was the end of the story, as she relayed to Conan two years ago. However, the post-script is that she’s seen Styles a few times since she originally told that story on Conan. “He’s so sweet, and he’s so hilarious about the whole thing. It’s been cleared up. One of the first times I saw him after telling that story was at a party and he looked at me and said, ‘Hi Sue!’ and I thought, ‘Oh fu*k,” and he said, ‘Just kidding!’”
“He truly is the most wonderful person,” Carden said, completing the story.
Source: Life is Short with Justin Long