Nasim Pedrad Can't Connect to Actual Kids Despite Playing One in Chad

Saturday Night Live veteran Nasim Pedrad, who plays a relentlessly awkward 14-year-old boy in the new series Chad, explained the weirdness of playing that role alongside actual child actors in the show on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

"When you're filming, it doesn't feel strange, because I'm playing a character and we're all 14 and we're in the moment," Pedrad said. "We're on the same page, and then the director yells 'Cut!' and then it just really hits you that you're a 39-year-old woman trying to connect to a 14-year-old boy... It's just so crazy. They're actual kids, so they're talking about K-pop and TikTok and I'm like 'you guys, I think my landscape architect is a pathological liar,' and they're like 'what? We don't understand how to engage with you.'" 

She also spoke about the parallels between herself and Chad, which include trying to Americanize her Iranian name. "He was born Feridun, but there's an episode where you find out that he changes his name to Chad, which I could really relate to, although I was unsuccessful in changing my name to Nicki. I had a real campaign going on at the age of 8 for a while. It didn't land. It was because I would go to amusement parks and it just really pissed me off that I could never find the tiny keychain with my name on it... My parents were like 'Nasim's cool, it means cool breeze' and I'm like 'it's not cool, everyone calls me Nissan,' you know, the car no one's excited about. That's what people would call me. Even to this day, my very own iPhone that I'm constantly typing my name into always wants to autocorrect Nasim into one of two things: basin or Nazism. Oh my god, I've fired off so many emails that have been like 'great catching up with you, talk to you soon, Nazism.' You've seen my name before! You're a smartphone! I'm not trying to touch on Nazism ever!"

Chad premieres Tuesday, April 6 at 10:30 PM ET on TBS.

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.