Even Andy Samberg Doesn’t Know What Andre Braugher Was Doing on ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (In the Best Way Possible)

Andy Samberg was the guest on Amy Poehler’s podcast, “Good Hang,” this week, and as you’d imagine, they spent a lot of time discussing their many mutual friends. Friends like Mike Schur, who co-created both Parks and Recreation (starring Poehler) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (starring Samberg). Poehler steers the conversation toward Samberg’s decision to join B99, which came about after his guest stint on Parks, where he got a glimpse of life on a Schur set. Poehler’s advice at the time - “It’s a good life!” - stuck with him when he accepted the offer to play Detective Jake Peralta on the Fox, and later NBC, sitcom.

And then Amy essentially asks the question we’ve all wondered since his passing in 2023: What was it like working with Andre Braugher? Samberg remembers Braugher as “just a good person. Like, so deeply moral and kind and pleasant and smart and just like, we all absolutely loved him. I miss him a lot.” He called their chemistry “kismet,” something that seemed to click immediately, despite the fact that Braugher was essentially hired over a Zoom call and hadn’t ever really done comedy before.

“The only thing me and him had to even talk about creatively was, in the beginning, he didn’t trust himself to do comedy because he came so strictly from drama and Juilliard. And like, five or six times we would do a more serious topic on the show and he would flip that switch and everyone would be like, ‘Oh my God, what is Andre doing here? He’s so good. Like he should be in, like, drama! He’s like the best.’ But then he would do his Captain Holt stuff and it was the funniest thing on the show.”

Anyone who remembers Holt’s heartfelt talk with Rosa after she comes out as bisexual knows Braugher found plenty of space for his dramatic chops in the series, though it was that same training that made him such a perfect comedic foil to co-stars like Samberg. One thing Samberg says he and Braugher shared, however, was a preference for having specific “alts,” or approved alternate jokes, rather than just riffing on-set.

Unless there was a guest star on the episode with a background in improv, of course: “We let Mantzoukas cook.” Of course you did! He can’t not cook, Andy! Anyway, if you want to check out their talk, it starts around the 24-minute mark on this week’s “Good Hang with Amy Poehler.”