Interview: Our Kinda Girl- Cristin Milioti Opens Up About Her Joe's Pub Concerts, Life on the Bg Screen, Return to the Stage & More!

On July 12-13 (9:30 & 7:30PM) Cristin Milioti will return to Joe's Pub after numerous sold out concerts, including the prestigious Lincoln Center's American Songbook. Cristin is known for her dramatic, comedic, and musical work on stage, television and in film, but best known for starring as "Girl" in the Broadway smash hit musical ONCE, for which she won a Grammy Award and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.

On film, Milioti was most recently seen in Martin Scorsese's THE WOLF OF WALL STREET playing Jordan Belfort's (Leonardo DiCaprio's) wife, Teresa Petrillo. Milioti also played Tracy McConnell aka "The Mother" on CBS's hit comedy, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, and most recently joined the cast of season two on FX's Golden Globe-winning drama, FARGO. Last fall she starred in the NBC comedy, A TO Z. For tickets, visit: http://www.publictheater.org

She's busy preparing for her new concert, but she checked in with BroadwayWorld earlier this week to update us on her life on the big screen, her upcoming return to the stage, and so much more. Check out the full interview below!

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What can you tell me about this concert without giving too much away?

Well we've been playing together for a few years. We were just talking about this actually. I think our first show was in 2013, we did the American Songbook at Lincoln Center. It was SO much fun and that was the only concert we had ever done together and it was such a blast. So then we started reaching out and exploring other venues and places we would go and perform and we just looked at Joe's Pub because it's so great there. So we've done a few.

With my schedule, I'm back and forth between L.A, Canada, and here and our drummer has a baby and so it's a crazy, crazy schedule. So we usually get together two or three times a year at Joe's Pub and this one, this one we are doing some of the songs we used to do. There's a lot of covers, there's some original, there's a lot of Fiona Apple and Sia and Radiohead. I don't like giving too much away! There's some Pearl Jam... it's like a really eclectic list of things.

There's no musical theater. It's a lot of dark songs. We were doing it today and we were going through really up-tempo sad songs, there's some happy one's too, but we were all like, 'Oh my gosh! There's just sad one's here.' I think of the show as really intimate and we get really real. It doesn't seem like it's a performance but I try to tell a story behind each song and why it's important to me. I want it to be like we're all singing in a living room together. So, that's sort of what we shoot for because those are my favorite types of concerts. So everyone curls up with a glass of red wine or whatever they order and we go through it.

Will any special guests perform?

Yes! Broadway's Alysha Umphress will perform. She performed with me at the one, oh gosh, maybe a year ago. We did a cover of "Royals" by Lorde. So this year we are just doing different songs. So yeah, she's coming. So actually, what I said before isn't true, we will be singing some musical theatre songs!

Are you excited to get back in Joe's Pub? It's such an awesome space!

Oh it's the best space. I get quite nervous. I get nervous because it means so much to me that people come out and see me still. We did one last year and I think the show was at midnight on like a Tuesday and people came! That means so much to me and I don't ever want to disappoint the people who come. So I'm equal parts excited and nervous. I'm a little less nervous each time, I'll say that.

You've had an amazing few years in film and TV since the success of Once. Do you miss being on the stage at all?

I mean, I love being on stage and this is really - I feel like my sweet spot a little bit. It's what I love to do. I love singing, I love these guys that I'm playing with so much and it's songs that I love and I can talk with the audience and that's my ideal. I love it. It's where I am my happiest, so yeah, I am always excited to get back on stage!

Is it fair to say that Once was a real life-changing experience for you?

Oh my God, yes! Without a doubt. Once changed my life. I think Once made me a better actor. I think it taught me things about being a human being that I will always take with me. Once really, really changed me. It changed my life in the ways that I can directly point to- like How I Met Your Mother came directly out of that. You know? And other things did too but that is where people saw me! It changed my life in ways that were way deeper than that. That experience, I am super nostalgic for it. I think of it with such fond memories, it was such a happy time.

Do you have any interest in coming back to Broadway soon?

I do! We have some things cooking, which I'm not allowed to talk about yet. I will be coming back, not to Broadway, but in a different show that I also don't think I'm allowed to talk about until they announce it, but I think that might be this week!

This is exciting!

But yeah I will be back, which is really exciting and super nerve-racking.

You've obviously been in the business for a while, but having recent success on screen, do you find that people recognize you more from How I Met Your Mother? Do you ever get stopped on the street?

Yeah, it's weird. It happens in waves. Sometimes it will happen a lot in a day, like 5 people in a day! Then I'll go for a week with it not happening. I would say what mostly happens is that people think we know each other. That happens more than anything because I also have really short hair right now and I don't really wear makeup. So I don't look like how I look on TV, I think. There's a pound of foundation and eyeshadow on me. So, usually it's people that are like, 'Oh my god! Hi! It's so good to see you.' And we've never met. I'm always really flattered by that in some weird way.

What do you do when that happens? Do you just play along?

Yeah! I never say we never have met because what if we have actually met before? I don't know. I'm always just like, 'No I don't think we have.' And then they go through the list of like, "Well did you go to this school? Did you go to that school? Did you go to this camp? And I'm just like, 'Nope!' And then I go on my way.

I know you are going to be on the next season of Fargo! Have you done filming yet?

I'm done filming. We finished. Yeah I started filming in I think late-January and I wrapped in May. I think it comes out in late-September and that show is just so brilliant and I think the second season has just totally upped the anty.

And the second season is a new storyline, right?

It takes place in 1979 and it follows the main girl in season one, Allison Tolman, who's a brilliant actress. It's her character and her character is like 5 or 6 years old in this season. So it's 1979. There's some crossover between the 1st and 2nd season, but it also stands on its own. I think it's going to be awesome. When I would read the scripts I would be like, 'Oh my god this show is so brilliant.' It's so brilliant and so insane. The risk that it takes and how it absolutely backs them up. It's so good.

So, back to your concert...looking at this from a few days away, what are you most focused on in getting yourself ready for Sunday?

I'm most focused on sleeping. I'm not a very good sleeper, which obviously can affect your voice. I'm just most focused on having a really good time, I think. Having a good time because I think that my ideal night is being in a room filled with people who want to be there and sing songs that have deeply affected me and my life and hopefully affect them that night. That's the most beautiful thing about live performance, right? It's so specific to that moment that you are there. You can't replicate it and that's why it can be so powerful. So, I just want to be in a room with people that are there and share something really special together and have SO much fun. That's my goal.

I'm sure you will!

And of course, I hope people come! That's another thing I should say! I hope in some ways being there is super cathartic for me and if I can offer someone three minutes where they can maybe look at their life or maybe embrace their life, I don't know... music is so incredibly powerful and power is infinite. I just want to get together with a group of people in a room and celebrate that.

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