Sure, Tig Notaro would like to meet her Army Of The Dead castmates someday

Uniquely in cinema history (unless you’re the late Christopher Plummer, perhaps), Tig Notaro got to see an entire, finished film before deciding to be in it. As the stand-up comic, actor, and newly minted, internet-certified “hot badass” told Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s Late Show, there were some pluses and minuses to being a late addition to Zack Snyder’s zombie heist flick, Army Of The Dead. Taking the minus side first, sure, Notaro did have to act almost completely alone as she, like the aforementioned Plummer, was belated subbed in for a previous actor laudably fired for alleged monstrousness after the part was already in the can. As she told Colbert, most of the time it was just her, a skeleton crew of techies, lots of green screens, and—if she was lucky—maybe a tennis ball on a string to emote with. Notaro said that costar Ana de la Reguera did pop by for one scene where all the CGI in the world just wasn’t up to the task, which sounds like a nice little afternoon.

On the plus side, as the One Mississippi creator and star told Colbert, at least she got to wear some very un-badass comfy shoes from time to time. With Colbert showing a photo of one completely greened-in setpiece where Notaro’s zombie-killing fatigues-and-assault-rifle ensemble is only slightly undermined in its badassery by her out-of-frame toeless sandals, Notaro chided Colbert for “blowing my cool.” The internet would respectfully disagree with that, as Notaro noted that being a 50-year-old object of unexpected but undeniable online thirst has its benefits when it comes to one’s self-esteem. As Notaro told Colbert, thanks to him, her cigar-chomping, chopper-piloting, be-jumpsuited ass-kicker image is going to revert back to being “a very typical gay woman in comfortable shoes.” Plus, Notaro has never actually gotten to meet Army Of The Dead star and “slab of empathetic strong-man sensitivity” (according to the A.V. Club), Dave Bautista, so that’s gotta go in the minus column, too.

So what’s a neophyte action star to do when she’s not blasting the undead or stealing scenes in space? Well, for Notaro, her downtime is occasionally spent laboriously unpacking the carnival-grade cotton candy machine sent to her as an unwieldy holiday present by one Stephen Colbert. Colbert feigned horror that mother of two young kids Notaro hasn’t been whipping up spun sugar treats all year, but Notaro assured him that his present will get a surprise workout at her five-year-olds’ June birthday party, which sounds like a pretty badass mom move, honestly.

Army Of The Dead opens in select theaters and on Netflix this Friday.