Clowning just comes naturally to Sedaris

No one is more surprised that the Comedy Central series Strangers with Candy spawned a feature film prequel than its star and co-writer, Amy Sedaris.

After the series left the air in 2001, she and her collaborators, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello, began writing a book, but funny ideas for Candy's Jerri Blank kept occurring to them. "By the end of the book, we had this big file of Jerri Blank stuff, so Paul thought it would be fun to write a movie," she says, sounding a little bewildered still.

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She insists the idea of making a movie had never occurred to them during the series. "No. No, no, no, no. We never think ahead like that, none of us do," Sedaris says. "That's why we never called ourselves a group. Then there's expectations and that's pressure."

She knows that other movies have sent grown-ups back to school, as her film does, but she is adamant that they did not influence her. "I've never seen any of those movies, but I know they're out there," she says. "With Jerri, it's never about her age. None of the students ever comment about the fact that she's so old. That's never the issue. We create this other universe, so people can't feel that that's the way high school was like or not like. We just made it up."

Sedaris grew up in a family with five brothers and sisters, including performer, comic essayist and radio commentator, David. "With six kids in the house, you're always competing for attention," she says. Still, she adds, "We're so supportive. Everyone does something artistic, but David and I are the only two that stand in front of an audience."

Although she is now 45, Sedaris says, "I'm doing exactly what I was doing when I was 3, 4, 5 years old. I've never stopped, so I never look at it like a job or a future, that that's what I want to grow up to be. It just kind of happened."

If this comedy thing had not worked out, Sedaris says, her life would not have been much different. "If I was a waitress, I'd try to be the funniest waitress. You know what I mean?"