Olivia Wong
Brenda Song is promoting her chaotic new cosmic comedy “Operation Taco Gary’s.”
“Extra” spoke with Brenda about the role and how her partner Macaulay Culkin helps her with acting gigs!
When Brenda’s running lines, Macaulay is by her side.
She noted, “It’s so wonderful when you have someone, your partner understands what you do and is such a thespian. He like reads with me, so if I do a self-tape, he runs it with me and he will record me.”
Culkin even gives Song useful tips! She said, “It’s the best because he knows me so well, so he’s able to break me out of my certain habits. He, like, knows how to loosen me up. He knows, like, when he’s, like, ‘You gotta stop. You’re micromanaging.’ He knows when to, like, tell me ’cause he knows me so well. And he’s not afraid to hurt my feelings, and that’s really special, and so I feel really lucky.”
Brenda and Macauley have been together for “almost nine years” and have two kids together.
She shared, “I feel like we balance each other out really well because I’m very Type A. I like things on a schedule. I want to make sure, I’m the one that overpacks and he’s the one that’s like, ‘Honey, relax. Let go.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean let go?’”
“I’ve given him more structure and he’s loosened me up in every aspect — in our work life, parent life, in our personal life,” Song stressed. “We’re each other’s biggest supporter.”
Nearly a decade ago, the pair connected while working “Changeland” in Thailand.
She recalled, “Seth [Green] directed and starred and wrote this movie and he hired a lot of his good friends to be in it, so we were in Thailand… We were there for like six, seven weeks… So, a lot of that time was us just, like, hanging out and Mac and I kind of became BFFs… We just got along on so many different levels.”
She went on, “When we wrapped in Thailand, I literally said to him — because we traveled back together — I remember at the airport being like, ‘See you never.’ Like, I thought I had, like, this fling in Thailand and my longest fling ever.”
According to Brenda, it was a “slow progression” of their relationship. She shared, “I think it was just something that I was like, ‘Oh no, this person is my person. I can’t imagine doing this life thing without him.'”
As for “Operation Taco Gary’s,” Brenda plays a character who is supposed to help two brothers cross the border after they learn that a fast-food chain is the secret headquarters of an alien invasion.
Brenda believes the movie is about “embracing chaos and kind of surrendering to what’s happening.”
Song can also be seen alongside Kate Hudson on the hit show “Running Point,” based on L.A. Lakers boss Jeanie Buss.
Brenda is a diehard Lakers fan, so it’s been a “dream job” for her. She added, “I have waited my whole life for this moment because I grew up loving sports.”