'2 Broke Girls' Star Made Lemons Out of Lemonade
Jonathan Kite whips up laughs on 2 Broke Girls as Ukrainian chef Oleg. He recently took a break from learning his punch lines to chat with ETonline about his role.
The Chicago native taps into the rich Eastern European culture of his hometown to convey an authentic accent. "My friends were first generation American," he explains. "English was a very distant second language [to their families]."
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Much like the sitcom's central characters Max Black (Kat Dennings) and Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs), who launched a cupcake business for additional income, Jonathan was also an entrepreneur as a youngin'. "I had a lemonade stand when I was a kid and it probably didn't do as well as they're doing. I don't think the lemonade was any good. Too much sugar," he reminisces.
The girls have their recipe perfected, though. Jonathan has an affinity towards red velvet, but wants to expand his taste palette. The woman who works with the cast on baking "was telling me about a peanut butter and jelly cupcake that I really want to try. There is a banana cream one that is really good," he enthuses.
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The live studio audience should bring their appetite because they are served Max and Caroline's signature flavor, the maple bacon spring break cupcake. The girls introduced The Ludacris, a fried chicken and waffle inspired cupcake, on last week's episode for their Cupcake Wars audition.
For his acting method, Jonathan has made a habit of circling the jokes on each page of script to make sure to hit the intended punch lines. "The other shows I auditioned for, we have twice as many jokes," he says. "It's like nonstop… The jokes don't come at the expense of the storytelling; you don't have to break from what's happening." He has full confidence in the talented writing staff, so he doesn't contribute his improv skills to the dialogue. Jonathan would, however, love to see a blooper reel compiled one day.
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Many of Oleg's scenes are in partnership with Sophie Kachinsky (Jennifer Coolidge). The two have a sort of friends with benefits-type relationship. Future storylines on the show are kept so secretive, Jonathan didn't even know Jennifer was joining the cast until he "read it in a newspaper." The following week's script is waiting in the actors' dressing rooms to review upon wrapping the previous taping, so no one has advance knowledge of what will happen. He thinks he and Jennifer have great chemistry and hopes she is kept onboard "for a very long time."
2 Broke Girls airs Monday nights on CBS. Later this season, Cedric the Entertainer will lend his comedic timing as a guest star.