Amy Schumer, Michael Cera on Jimmy Buffett’s cameo in ‘Life and Beth’
“Life & Beth” stars Amy Schumer and Michael Cera chat with USA TODAY’s Erin Jensen about filming in New Orleans with the late Jimmy Buffett.
Jimmy Buffett can be seen strummin’ his six-string in the new season of “Life & Beth.” Hulu’s slice-of-life comedy, loosely based on that of star/creator Amy Schumer, features the king of carefree choruses in the second of the season’s 10 episodes (now streaming).
Buffett died in September at 76 after a four-year battle with Merkel cell skin cancer. For his “Life & Beth” cameo, filmed in New Orleans, the “Margaritaville” singer returned to his humble beginnings of busking in the streets of The Big Easy, a city he loved.
Buffett told “CBS Sunday Morning” in a 2018 interview that he owed his career to New Orleans. “Those years being here really were formative years for me,” Buffett said. “It made me a better professional player so that I thought I could make that leap. This was my training ground for all of that.”
Schumer says she listened to Buffett’s music growing up: “It just made you feel like everything was going to be OK.” The comedian struck up a friendship with Buffett, his wife Jane Slagsvol and their daughter, Sarah “Delaney” Buffett about five years ago.
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“A time when we were hanging out, I said, ‘You know, we’re shooting in New Orleans,’” Schumer remembers seated next to her onscreen love interest for the series Michael Cera. “I said, ‘Oh my God, imagine you were on the show.’ He said, ‘I would do it!’ I thought, ‘No, he’s just saying that.’ But he didn’t waver.”
Buffett picks on an acoustic guitar in khaki shorts singing “I Will Play For Gumbo” from his 1999 album “Beach House on the Moon,” and Beth drops some money in his guitar case for his performance. A title card at the end of the episode reads, “In Loving Memory of Jimmy Buffett, who got his start busking on the streets of New Orleans.”
Schumer says Buffett piloted in for the role.
“He used to fly himself around,” Cera says. “Incredible lifestyle.”
Cera recalls a crowd forming across the street while shooting. “I don’t think they even knew it was Jimmy Buffett,” Schumer says. “I think they just were enjoying it.”
Buffett “was just infectious,” she adds. “And I’m really glad – and his family’s really glad – that we have this footage of him going back to his roots and singing at the end of his life.”
John and Beth travel to New Orleans to tie the knot in an intimate, casually planned ceremony. “It’s a destination wedding in the middle of the week, last minute,” Beth tells her friend. “Nobody’s even going to show.” It’s the same laid-back manner in which Schumer planned her own 2018 nuptials to chef Chris Fischer.
“It was in Malibu for no reason. I’m such a New York (person),” Schumer says. “I was out there doing press, and we planned it in three days. We got married on a Tuesday in Malibu. All of our friends and family are in New York and just thought, ‘No one’s going to come.’ And we wound up having 75 people.”
When Cera inquires if Schumer and her guests took over a hotel to accommodate the occasion, Schumer says they rented a house on the water for two nights that was possibly a filming site for ABC’s “The Bachelor.”
“I don’t know,” she says. “It was really, really dumb. But we had a great, great time.”
While Schumer went for more of a natural look on her wedding day when she hosted guests like Jennifer Lawrence and Chelsea Handler, Beth’s bridal beauty was inspired by Teresa Giudice. When the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star wed businessman Luis Ruelas in 2022 she donned a crown and a towering updo that required more than 1,500 bobby pins and cost $10,000. Schumer is a big Bravo fan and sported a more modest version of the look for “Life & Beth.” (Her false eyelashes rival Snuffleupagus’.)
“(Giudice) was the reference photo, definitely for the hair,” Schumer says, giving props to her hairstylist and makeup artist. “My son was really scared of me that day (laughs). But yeah, that was a definite Bravo nod.”
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