Jessica Williams Never Settles — The Comedian Talks Her New CarMax Commercial and 'Road House' (Exclusive)
Williams said, 'We were all on the same page with trying to put out the funniest, best spot possible.'
Who would expect to see the bubbly Jessica Williams cracking jokes in a bathtub as they're shopping? Now, vehicle retailer CarMax has made that unexpected scene a reality in a new campaign that features a few laughs and shows how the brand aims to make the buying process as seamless as possible.
In the ad, the Shrinking actor and The Daily Show fave is seen lathering up in a home goods showroom, much to the staff's dismay: "CarMax has test drives," she says. "You can't have test baths?" She later critiques the "market prices" displayed on a menu at a fancy restaurant and asks a tattoo artist for a 30-day money-back guarantee.
PopCulture spoke to the quick-witted comedian about her new commercial, asking, indeed, the Emmy nominee could certainly have her pick of sponsorships, so why CarMax?
"I like CarMax a lot because I have a lot of friends and family that have actually used CarMax, and I like the transparency of CarMax," Williams said. "The idea of the spot is to never settle, and I feel like, especially as a millennial, I think it's important to try and have as much information as possible about where you put your money because it's empowering, and it's literally something that will get you to and from places."
She continued, "And I think I heard something like the car is your second most expensive investment and purchase that you'll make in your lifetime. So to me, it's really important. I think growing up, my parents, when I'd see them get a car, they would go to a dealer and they didn't necessarily purchase it with what they felt like was all the information.
"With CarMax, I like being able to research the value of the car, seeing the dings beforehand, knowing what I am getting online, as well as having the ability to go to the dealer in person. I'm a researcher. So, I like being able to research beforehand."
Williams admitted to being "a bit shy" sometimes when going directly to a dealer and thinking more about their interaction than the actual car. "Almost like when I test drive the car, sometimes I'm just worried what the dealer thinks about my driving rather than if I actually like the car."
"It's almost like when you're good at typing and then somebody's looking at you type and then suddenly you just kind of like don't know how to type. But well, that's kind of like me when I'm test driving a car with a dealer, and I don't necessarily have all the information about the car," she added.
A key message of the commercial is to never settle for less, and Williams said she strives in that regard, especially when it comes to transportation. "I think never settling is a journey, not a destination," she explained. There are some things you have to settle for sometimes. If it's my car, I definitely don't want to settle for that because it's the way I get places. Also, I grew up in LA, and I'm one of those people that actually really loves driving."
"Especially as an actor, you are living in your car, going from audition to audition all around LA. I have so many memories of waiting for an audition, pushing my whole seat back, and literally changing clothes in my car, going from working at the mall to an audition. It's so sacred.
"You run lines in your car. I like to sing like Ashley Simpson in my car at the top of my lungs. It's the way that I can have a private call with my therapist if I want to do a therapy call, and I don't want my boyfriend to hear I can go sit in my car. I treat it like a private room, so it is really important to me to have a really, really great car and have it be reliable, too."
And Williams wants the same for her loved ones. "And I want that for my friends and family, too. I don't want my mom driving a car that I know just doesn't work that well, that would bother me."
When filming the commercial, Williams found the perfect partner in CarMax, who won her over with a humorous concept that was relatable and funny. Williams said, "One of the reasons why I really wanted to work with CarMax was they sent me a really nice deck, which is essentially a pitch that looks like a slideshow presentation. And one of the really cool things about it was the deck was really cheeky, and it had jokes in it, and it felt specific to me.
"And then also Jody Hill was directing, who I've been a fan of for a while and I wanted to work with him. He comes from a really, really good hard comedy background. And so I just sort of trusted him, and I trusted the Martin Agency, who kind of helped put it all together. And I felt like we were all on the same page with trying to put out the funniest, best spot possible."
CarMax was a willing and open collaborator, and Williams felt free to express herself openly and tweak her performance when necessary. "You know, I wanted it to look good. And they wanted it to look good. And so, anything like if I kind of necessarily wanted the copy a little different, they were down for that. If I wanted to do the joke a little differently, they were down for that. I come from an improv comedy background, and I think Jodie does too."
She added, "He was willing and able to jump, and I could riff, and I could kind of go if I wanted to, and everybody at CarMax was really excited to play as well. I think they had approached me having seen my work, so they didn't try to fit me as a square peg into a round hole. And I really appreciate that. They just hired Jessica Williams to do Jessica Williams. And that doesn't always happen all the time. So that was really exciting."
As far as future projects, Williams briefly touched on her "cool, badass" new role in the upcoming movie Road House with Jake Gyllenhaal, a remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze film of the same name. "For the character, I play the owner of the roadhouse, which is really exciting," Williams said. "It was really fun to shoot, and it's directed by Doug Liman. Jake was really fun to work with, and he worked really hard, and I'm excited to see it."
Besides Road House, Williams has another undertaking that is currently taking up the bulk of her free time — a new puppy. "Loving him is like a full-time job," she said. "It's funny to learn his personality. I've had him for about a month and a half. But it's like getting used to him in the house, and he's a really good fit for me, but I'm just trying to be a good mom for him.
"I'm a researcher, like same with CarMax. So, for months before I got him, I was researching how to be a good dog mom, like positive reinforcement training, clicker training, play dates, and just learning about him and his breed. And so I just want to try and figure out how to balance my job and having the dog."
In addition to being a dog mom, Williams has also picked up some new skills since the writers strike. "I've been learning guitar since the strike. So it's very exciting. My dream is to do an open mic night this year and be in, like, three bands with my friends. So that's my big goal. "
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