‘Indebted’ Star Abby Elliott Dishes on Chemistry With ‘Icon’ Fran Drescher and ‘Very Funny’ Cast (Exclusive)

Since first breaking out onto the scene in 2008 with a starring gig on Saturday Night Live, it’s no secret that Abby Elliott knows exactly what funny is. With starring roles in How I Met Your Mother and Odd Mom Out, among a plethora of movies, the 32-year-old actress has shown her comedy chops throughout the years and her latest role on NBC‘s Indebted alongside Fran Drescher, Steven Weber, Adam Pally and Jessy Hodges has her absolutely smitten. In an exclusive with PopCulture.com, the Connecticut native dished on what it’s like not only working with the “very funny” cast, but “icon” and classic sitcom star, Drescher for an intergenerational comedy about a broke baby boomer couple moving in with their millennial son and his wife.

While Elliott admits the lead role has been “really refreshing” as her character Rebecca is quite “similar” to herself, she shares the entire cast has become really close since first signing onto the hysterical comedy.

“We really just became close immediately,” Elliott told PopCulture.com. “Jessy [Hodges] and I are best friends. Adam [Pally] is like my brother, and we all have a text chain with Fran [Drescher] and Steven [Weber].”

Elliott goes on to explain how she’s also known co-star, Weber for years and that it all ties into a familial connection for the two of them. “I was his kids’ nanny when I first moved to L.A. 10 years ago,” she laughed. “It really felt like home and like family, and we just fell into a really comfortable dynamic really easily. And we’re all very different and have very different senses of humor, but I think that comes across, and it’s all very complementary within the show.”

While viewers have been pleading for a firm Drescher return since her beloved sitcom, The Nanny ended in 1999 and Happily Divorced in 2013, Elliott admits she was absolutely starstruck by the comedian and writer — especially since she gets to play her daughter-in-law.

“It is [such an honor],” Elliott said. “I mean, I was super-intimidated at first — you never know what you’re going to get. She’s such a massive star, an icon, and she just could not be warmer. She’s just hilarious in person as she is on TV, and she’s just very warm and also very helpful, just with timing. And she could do this in her sleep. She’s been doing this forever, and so, she just knows how to do sitcoms and how to land jokes and where to hold for laughs.”

Elliott admits that while she too has tried a similar technique for garnering laughs and “takes a second to get in the swing of things again,” Drescher has been “very helpful with all of that.”

Following millennial parents, Dave (Pally) and Rebecca (Elliott) as they work to reclaim their life after years of diapers and sleepless nights, the Dan Levy created series takes an unexpected turn when Dave’s parents, Debbie (Drescher) and Stew (Weber) show up unannounced and broke. Having no choice but to help them out, the boomer parents aren’t great with boundaries and the lines of parenting oftentimes get blurred between the two couples, producing hilarious results evident in everything from popular culture references to child-rearing practices.

“I think whether you are the baby boomer or the millennial, you can totally relate to both not really fully understanding the other generation and having those moments of really appreciating the other generation and needing them,” Elliott said. “So it’s not just them relying on us, it’s them teaching us as well.”

Indebted airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC.