In Cupertino, Ella Stiller not only gets the opportunity of a lifetime for any working actor, but for any artist in the 21st century.

The CBS series, created by Elsbeth and The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King, follows attorneys at a firm in Silicon Valley, fighting the good fight every day against tech and big corporations seemingly operating outside of the law. Stiller — who hails from the famed Hollywood family with her last name and boasts Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller as her mom and dad — plays Christy in the show, the plucky secretary to Michael Price (Mike Colter) and Olivia Siffre (Rachel Keller), who is often tasked with the dirty work during their cases.

For a myriad of reasons, Stiller tells DECIDER in a sit-down over Zoom that she felt in her core this would be a part she would get, even if she had nothing but a hope and a dream to go off of before being cast.

“The second I read the script, I was like ‘This is kind of a match made in heaven; I just felt very connected to it and I had a real gut feeling that I was gonna work out. I would say 98 percent of the time, I do not feel that way. Sometimes it’s like, yeah, it would be great, but I don’t get whatever that like magical feeling is. And with this, I felt it immediately,” she explains, adding that she even hid it from her family and friends during the holidays so as not to jinx anything.

So what made her connect to the script and the concept in the first place? According to the young actress, it has everything to do with the show taking on one of the hottest conversations in the industry in 2026: AI. Spoiler alert: the second episode of the show ends with Christy connecting a potential client, Bo (Rob McClure) to Michael and Olivia, only for this man to admit that he is artificial general intelligence.

“Oh, it means so much. And I feel so connected to it. I’m just passionate that humanity will overcome,” she says, adding that she sees AI as “the downfall of creativity.” Given that, she calls it an honor to get to appear in a show that is so directly addressing the issue and doing it in a meaningful and thought-provoking way.

“I also believe deeply that the people who are the real creatives, who are really put on this earth to make art, know that nothing is ever going to take that over because it is our art and it’s just about being human. That’s what it is,” Stiller says.

For more on her role, the show, and what TGI Fridays had to say about her character being one of the best employees out there, check out DECIDER’s full interview with Stiller below.

DECIDER: Ella, I feel like there’s so much to love about this character. Talk to me about coming on board this project and what appealed to you in the first place about Christy Palladino?

ELLA STILLER: I got the audition in December and I was really in a moment where I had no idea what my next job was going to be. And my agent called me, and she was like, “I think I have a really exciting one.” And it was an in-person appointment, which is great, because you don’t get to do that anymore. So to go in the room was incredible and the second I read the script, I was like “This is kind of a match made in heaven,” I just felt very connected to it, and I had a real gut feeling that I was gonna work out. I would say 98 percent of the time, I do not feel that way. Sometimes it’s like, yeah, it would be great, but like, I don’t get whatever that like magical feeling is. And with this, I felt it immediately… Then I had to wait to find out if I got it because everyone went on Christmas break two days after I had my callback. So I spent all of Christmas and Hanukkah literally sitting there and everyone was like, “What are you thinking about?” and I was like, “Nothing,” because I didn’t want to jinx it. And then it was like the second week of January-ish and I [got the call], I couldn’t believe it. But at the same time, it felt really right from the beginning.

I think that this is a show that really starts to take shape at the end of the second episode. How much of the “twist” and Christy’s role in it was explained coming in?

Bo is definitely my territory; I feel very territorial over Bo. Rob McClure and I have a really, really special working relationship because we never get to actually do the scenes together, but we’ll always try to read off camera for each other when we can. I feel very protective over Bo being Christy’s, and Christy feels it too. My initial audition scenes were those first phone calls with Bo when he calls and I’m like flirting and I or I’m I guess it’s the guy from the club. Then in my callback with Robert, he let me do the scene and then he was like, “I don’t want this to change your performance, but I do want to tell you that Bo is an AGI entity.” And I was like, “OK, so that’s different.” But he was like, “Don’t change your performance at all.”

I would love to see the internet rabbit hole that you went down after being told that it was AGI.

By the way, a year ago when they wrote it over a year ago, it kind of wasn’t [normal], like it was a thing of the future and now it’s like we get these headlines that are like “Two AI agents are fighting on some dark web server” like And I’m like that’s literally feels like an episode of our show.

I mean, there is a predictive element to the show. What does that mean to be part of the show that is tackling one of the biggest issues of our time?

Oh, it means so much. And I feel so connected to it. I’m just passionate that humanity will overcome. I am really not into the AI stuff. I really think it’s like the downfall of humanity, I think it’s the downfall of creativity. But I also believe deeply that the people who are the real creatives, who are really put on this earth to make art, know that nothing is ever going to take that over because it is our art and it’s just about being human. That’s what it is. It is about understanding people who are artists are just people who understand humanity on a deep, deep level and just feel deeply, and computers can’t do that. I just love that this show is not heavy-handed; I think everyone sort of can have their own opinion about whatever. The show is just like about what’s happening, it’s not taking a side. It’s like, we’re always against AI. First of all, Bo is like a part of the team almost. It’s really interesting. It’s not black and white.

I know Robert told you not to change anything about your performance, but do you think it changed at all subconsciously as an artist tackling something so anti-art?

I think that it just raises the stakes. And I think for an actor, any time something naturally just does that for you, it Just makes for such compelling scenes and such compelling acting. And it’s fun that it is a person playing this [character]. Robert also really wanted from the beginning for Rob to play it totally human, he was like, “I don’t want any affectation or anything that makes us think this is a robot.”

And I love that Rob is like the most likable person too, which I think is the element that is needed.

He’s brilliant, everyone loves him. He’s so likable, he’s so lovable. He’s also terrifying as well, I think. I watch it, when I watch his first big episode, I’m like, “Oh my God, he’s brilliant.” It’s so scary and the choices he make — it’s all layered and he’s just so great. He’s the perfect, perfect choice and it was always gonna be him. I think they wrote it for him.

The entire cast is incredible. You guys are working with so many great people., . I love the TGI Fridays and servers of it all. Has anyone from TGI Friday’s reached out?

I got a really fun direct message last week. I got a follow from TGI Fridays. I got a comment on one of my posts, and then I got a really sweet direct message that just said like, “Hey Ella, we love all of your stuff on Cupertino and your TGI Friday’s thing.” They were like, “We wanna just send you a gift card or something. They’re like, “Se just love what you guys are doing. We love the show.” I was like, “That’s the coolest thing ever!” It’s so, so fun. I actually need to respond to them because it’s really nice.

That’s so funny.

Oh my God, but so many people on our show have worked there. It’s so crazy the amount of people, like guest stars, everyone who literally did a stint at TGI Fridays, like in their late teens. 

I have to ask you because I love asking people and actors: What was your first job and how has it helped to shape you into the person and actor you are today?

My first job was as a sales girl at a boutique. Retail is crazy. It shaped me because A, it was very motivating to want to do what I really do. And also, it’s interesting because people think they have the right to like comment on your body and comment on whatever. It was an interesting thing of like, “Oh wow, you really see me as like, you can just say whatever.” I think it’s definitely like Christy obviously has done the waitress thing and the secretary thing, but I think Christy in a retail job would be hilarious. 

I mean, I don’t want to see it because I want her to stay where she is but maybe a one-off?

Maybe she can, like, go undercover, you know? 

What do you think Christy goes home and watches? When she goes home and she’s just like, “I need to chill out,” what’s her thing? 

She probably watches true crime documentaries. I think she watches all those Netflix [docs], really the stuff I don’t watch because I find it so disturbing. I think she’s probably really into it and I think it’s like thrilling for her. But maybe now, not so much. I think as her life gets crazier as the show goes on and the stakes get higher and more dangerous, maybe less so, but I can imagine her watching those things and being like, “I could solve that murder.”

Are we in for a Season 2 if the call comes through from CBS? 

If that happens, that is the dream. All we want is to keep making this show. We love this show and I love it so much. I’m just knocking on every piece of wood that I can find all the time that we get to come back. Because we have a lot more story to tell, I think. 

Cupertino is streaming on Paramount+. New episodes air Thursdays on CBS and stream the next day.

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