Interview with Archer’s Aisha Tyler
We join Aisha Tyler at New York Comic Con to discuss who the father might be for Lana's baby, why Lana made that decision, and what a Who's Line is It Anyway?/Archer crossover may look like.
Aisha Tyler is a very, very busy woman. On top of her frequent castings in movies and television shows that range from Ghost Whisperer to Talk Soup, she can currently just now be seen hosting improv sketch comedy series Who’s Line is It Anyway?, co-hosting CBS daytime chatter The Talk, and starring as everyone’s from political activist-turned corporate spy on FX’s Archer. It was in promotion of that last gig that she was kind enough to find time to sit down with us at New York Comic Con over the weekend, and to briefly talk about her experiences as Lana, aka the solely competent member of Isis’ entire staff. I go over with her Lana’s choice to become a mother last season, what her favorite lines have been, and desperately avoid saying Lana…Lana…LANA! So can I get this one out of the way: Who’s the father on the show? Aisha Tyler: I can’t tell you. Of course I can’t tell you! [Laughs] You’re delusional, man! Yeah, I think that is going to be a big reveal for this season. I know who it is, but if I told you, it would ruin all of the fun. Were you surprised by who it was? No. Could I ask then why do you think Lana made the decision she made and how close was she to picking Archer or Cyril in that one episode? I think part of the reason that she decided to get pregnant was that she realized that this life at Isis wasn’t necessarily that fulfilling. I think she had a lot of designs on taking over Mallory’s job and then I felt like that wasn’t going to happen. I think she just wanted to have something in her life that gave her some direction and some meaning. The whole crisis that she had in the desert with thinking “Why am I doing this stupid job with people who don’t give a shit and for a company that is run by an alcoholic maniac who keeps sending us after her sex tapes?!” I think everyone has that crisis at some point. And most people have children because they want someone to wipe their ass when they’re on their deathbed. I think that’s a big aspect of Lana’s motivation. “I’m going to die alone and I seem to hold an abiding amount of affection for a guy who is probably going to die of massive crystal and gallstones at 45.” [Laughs] I think her decision to—we don’t know [who the father is]. I know there’s a line at the end of last season where she said that there was a donor. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t tell you. I know that is what she said. I think the thought process behind it—When we finally find out who the father is, I think we’ll be surprised, and her reasoning may not be entirely clear. She may have made a crazy choice. Who knows? I’m hoping it’s Burt Reynolds! That would be fucking awesome, right?
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David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…