Q&A: Ed Helms on his ‘Office’ promotion, career path and how the show might end

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Ed Helms had no idea his character on The Office, Andy Bernard, would be promoted until a few weeks before shooting when he and Executive Producer/Writer Paul Liberstein – who also plays Toby on the show – sat down for lunch. “That’s where I learned of the news,” he said.

Steve Carell’s Michael Scott may be hard shoes to fill, but as Liberstein said, Andy is a great choice because “any little problem that anybody’s having, he would feel very deeply, which makes him very suited to be a comic lead in the show.”

I talked to both Ed and Paul in a conference call where they talked about Andy’s promotion, Helm’s career path and how The Office might end.

Follow Ed on Twitter!

The Office airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

How did the process go for you in terms of taking the new job? Did you know ahead of time?

Ed Helms: I knew about three or four weeks before we started shooting. That’s when it kind – the news sort of broke internally. And Paul and I had lunch actually and that’s where I learned of the news.

Were the actors vying internally for – or lobbying on behalf of their characters to get the managerial position and having your character getting it, was that a way to capitalize on your film career?

Ed Helms: Well I can only – I can speak to the first part. But the – I kind of felt like – I’ve always really trusted the creative judgment of the show creators, Greg Daniels and Paul Lieberstein and felt like they’ve gotten us so far. And there was a lot of internal sort of wondering and questioning what was next, who might be the next boss.

But I, you know, I think it’s a testament to this cast and the dignity of everyone involved that we all sort of took a little bit of a, I don’t know, just a back seat to the creative considerations upstairs. And what – and we’re sort of eager to support whatever decision came down.

Paul Lieberstein: I think in terms of vying, you know, I haven’t seen an actor want a specific role. I have – I think what an actor wants is in general is something interesting to play and to be challenged and stretched and, you know.

And we intend to do that with all the cast and so, you know, the – a movie can be about the lowliest guy on the street or the President of the United States and if it’s – it’s not so much who’s the manager, you know, you can find something interesting.

So no one really was pressing. They just want to be engaged and challenged. You know, and that’s what we wanted to show as well.  Read more

Q & A: Maya Rudolph on ‘Up All Night’ and SNL: “It’s like a fun drug”

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Former Saturday Night Live star Maya Rudolph has been busy the past couple months. Starring in the massive hit Bridesmaids, raising 3 kids with her partner Paul Thomas Anderson and now, filming her new series, Up All Night.

On the show, Christina Applegate stars as Reagan Brinkley, a successful career woman and, new-mom who is determined not to compromise her career or reputation to the cliches of motherhood. She tries to adjust to life with a baby and returns to work with the support of her stay-at-home husband, Chris (Will Arnett). Rudolph, plays Eva, the “ambitious yet vulnerable” talk show host who constantly tries to throw Reagan off balance.

Maya and series creator Emily Spivey talked to me on a conference call about the show, working on SNL and how the two of them create a character.

Up All Night airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

Maya, can you talk about Ava and how she represents people you may have met in the entertainment industry?

Maya Rudolph: I’ve never met anyone like Ava. Ava is a Spivy-Rudolph creation, for sure. And I say it that way because Emily and I have been creating characters together for a really long time — for like 15 years.

So it’s just very much something that is funny to our tiny universe that we find funny. We don’t know if anybody else says, but – I mean, I think that she’s got a lot of – I tried to give her a lot of the presence that a daytime talk show would have.

You know, somebody who’s commanding. And give her some, you know, some of the flavor of what people are doing right now, you know, on all the daytime talk shows.

But no, she’s kind of a – I don’t know. I haven’t met anyone like Ava. And if I had I would definitely remember. She’s an amalgam. She’s probably an amalgam of some people we’ve met but also of our — like you said — our universe of characters.  Read more

Q&A: ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Star Theo Rossi on his expanded role: “I couldn’t be happier”

Sons of Anarchy started its 4th season a couple of weeks ago and with it, Theo Rossi‘s ‘Juice,’ is coming to the forefront of this season’s storyline. 

Finally, right?

Theo said that he “couldn’t be happier” about the new storyline. “Anytime Kurt [Sutter] writes anything for me, I’m more than pleased.”

I talked to Theo on a conference call where he gave some scoop on what ‘Juice’ will be up to this season, how he reacted when series creator told him the news of his expanded role and what he does on his hiatus.

Sons of Anarchy airs on Tuesdays at 10pm on FX

With an ensemble show, it’s harder for some of the other actors who aren’t in the main cast to get screen time, and I just wondered what surprises you the most about the evolution of the character over the four seasons?

Theo Rossi: I’ve been so lucky.  Kurt has eleven series regulars to deal with. I’ve been really blessed and lucky with this character, with “Juice,” because, through the first three seasons, I’d really gotten to do some pretty memorable stuff.  Some really great memorable scenes that the fans seem to have loved and it’s really shown this guy as the soldier that he is and what an enormous and integral part of the club he is even though we haven’t really gone into his back story and really put him as the focus.

So to now bring up this issue and to exploit on this story line, it’s just the right time and I couldn’t be happier “and I just—when Kurt told me what was going to go down before the season and how it was going to go, it’s just great.    

Anytime Kurt writes anything for me, I’m more than pleased because I just think he is by far—and I think it just shows in the ratings and the fans reactions and everything.   There is no writer, there’s no show running that delivers like Kurt’s. It’s just great. It’s great. I’m excited for him.   Read more

Q & A: ‘House’ Star Odette Annable on being the new cast member, nerves and pulling double duty with ‘Breaking In’

Odette Annable is the newest cast member of FOX’s long running series House. She plays prison clinic physician, Dr. Jessica Adams who isn’t afraid to challenge Hugh Laurie‘s cantankerous Dr. House.

Odette has been acting since she was a kid with her first part (and audition) was for the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Kindergarten Cop. When she got that role, she was just learning to speak English (Spanish is her first language) and she’s been acting ever since.

Lately though, she’s facing a problem that every actor might dream about: She’s a series regular on two shows. House and the just brought back from the dead Breaking In. Although she has no idea how the shooting schedule will work, she say’s that her “number one priority right now is House.“

I talked to Odette and series creator/executive producer David Shore in a conference call where they talked about her pulling double duty on two shows, what’s it like to be the newest cast member and the loss of Olivia Wilde and Lisa Edelstein.

House airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX

Odette, you started acting at a young age and I just wanted to ask you a little bit about how that happened that you started acting when you were so young?

Odette Annable: Well, the short answer was that I was a very introverted child, and my parents didn’t know how to get me out of my shell so the better option for them was to throw me into the entertainment business, which I think is ridiculous but now it sort of worked out.  I was about 4-years-old and a family friend was doing commercials and they thought well let’s see what happens.  

My first audition happened to be for Kindergarten Cop and I took that role.  I was only starting to learn English at that point.  Spanish is my first language, so they made me a speaking character in the movie and I ended up—I didn’t really know I was shooting a movie.  I was just having a lot of fun with 30 kids my own age, and my parents thought well if you want to keep doing this great.  If not, no worries, and I really had a great time and I continued to do it throughout the years.  

I’d still focus on school but my passion really was to act.  It was either to be a CEO of a company, which may very well still happen, or to really push through acting and I did.  I took it seriously and I’ve been very lucky and I’m so grateful to be on House now.  It’s sort of a dream.   Read more

Q & A: Raising Hope’s Martha Plimpton on being a child actress, guest stars and Twitter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:53 — 8.9MB)

I have to confess that I’d never really watched FOX’s Raising Hope until last week’s season premiere. I tuned in and in 10 seconds, I was hooked. 

After it aired, I immediately gave it a season pass on my TiVo and went back to watch some of last season’s episodes. The show is hilarious and the stars Martha Plimpton, Garret Dillahunt, Cloris Leachman and Lucas Neff form a comedy ensemble that is one of the best on TV.

I got a chance to talk to Plimpton and creator Greg Garcia last week in a conference call where they talked about working with the cast and upcoming guest stars, how they got their start in the industry and how twitter has become a great way to communicate with the fans.

Follow Martha on Twitter!   Follow Greg on Twitter!

Raising Hope airs Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c on FOX

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

Everybody now, except for baby Hope—maybe she has an account too—is on Twitter.  I’m wondering how that has been such a great asset to the entire show and the cast, with the promotion?

Greg Garcia: Well, technically, we have everybody but Lucas Neff who I was actually just pretending to be Lucas Neff for a week and just—torturing him by tweeting like really silly things like, “Tummy aches are a drag” and things like that.  But I actually came clean.  So he’s still Twitter-free.

Martha Plimpton: Yes.  Lucas doesn’t believe in technology.  Read more

Interview: All My Children’s Vincent Irizarry on the final day of shooting and taking the show online

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What’s it like to play the same character for the better part of 10 years? Vincent Irizarry, who played the villainous heart surgeon, Dr. David Hayward on All My Children, told me that it was “exciting” and an “enormous opportunity” to “travel that journey.”

All My Children, which ran on ABC for 41 years, aired its last episode Friday, September 23^rd but the good news is that Prospect Park, the company that acquired the rights to the show, has announced that they will bring it to the web. Vincent said that the company is just now starting to reach out to “a handful of actors” but that they are still in the negotiating stages.

I talked to Vincent, who won a Daytime Emmy in 2009, about his time in the fictional Pine Valley, memorizing 30 pages of dialogue, what the last day of shooting was like and his upcoming fan event, A Tribute to Pine Valley.

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes [The audio is a bit wonky due to the phone connection. Sorry]

You’ve been playing the same role for, what, 12 years now?

Vincent Irizarry: Yes, I left for two years.  I left to do another show for a while.

What’s that like playing the same character for 12 years?

Vincent Irizarry: I’m sure you can appreciate this as an actor, to have the opportunity to play him for 12 years, that’s an enormous opportunity. I really do feel like I know the intimate details of this character, being who he is and what makes him tick.

Just to travel that journey with him. This character is such a complex character to begin with because his father committed suicide at a young age, when he was young boy he was 11 years old. And his mother provoked him to do it. So, he is really very damaged and that’s the reason why he became a cardiologist to begin with, every time he saves a life it’s as if he is bringing his father back. 

So, he’s very complex but in many instances, actors who get to do a play for a limited run or even night time television, you might do it 5, 6, 7 years but if you spend years with a character… it has been exciting.   Read more

Q & A: ‘Terra Nova’ star Jason O’Mara on how he got the part, the challenges he had to face and the difficulties of shooting on location

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After some highly publicized delays, rewrites and re-shoots, Steven Spielberg‘s Terra Nova finally comes to the small screen this Monday in a big two-hour première on FOX.

The show, starring Jason O’Mara and Stephen Lang, is set in the year 2149 at a time when humankind is threatened with extinction. In an effort to save the human race, scientists develop a time machine that opens a portal 85 million years to prehistoric Earth.

The Shannon family, Jim and Elizabeth and their three children, travel through the portal to establish a new human colony in hopes of saving the future earth.

Jason, whose credits include In Justice and Life on Mars, stars as Jim Shannon, “a devoted father with a checkered past who guides his family through this new world of limitless beauty, mystery and terror.” And dinosaurs. Yes!

I talked to Jason in a conference call about how he got the part, the acting challenges he had to face and the difficulties of shooting on location for months at a time.

Follow Jason on Twitter!

Terra Nova airs on Mondays at 8/7c on FOX

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

How did this part and this show come to you?

Jason O’Mara: Well, to be perfectly honest it was one of those kind of things that was—okay, let me start at the beginning.  I was in London doing a play at the Donmar Warehouse.

What play?

Jason O’Mara: It was called Serenading Louie.  It was an off-Broadway play from like 1972, I think, or ’73, that was being revived and I did it with Jason Butler Harner, who is a great American actor.  I think he’s going to be in Alcatraz on Fox in the mid-season.  Simon Curtis directed it, who’s married to Elizabeth McGovern and he’s directed a lot of stuff recently, actually.  He’s just directed My Week with Marilyn, which is coming out soon. 

I really had a great time, but I really felt—I had skipped pilot season because I was in London for all of that and I thought that Hollywood had completely moved on and had lost interest in me, which would have been fine, you know, whatever.  Things go in cycles.  I came back and my agent called me and said, “Just so you know I’ve had several conversations with Dreamworks and Fox about a production that they’re working on called Terra Nova and Steven Spielberg is highly involved in the casting and is signing off on everything related to the production.  That’s a hoop that we need to jump through before we progress any further.”   Read more

Q & A: It’s Always Sunny’s Rob McElhenney on the new season, his weight gain and doing the show “as long as possible”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:51 — 9.0MB)

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has just started its seventh season and last week I got a chance to talk with series creator/writer and star, Rob McElhenney.

Before this season started, McElhenney, who is usually really fit, grabbed headlines by gaining 50 pounds – 53 to be exact. He did it because he was watching a “popular sitcom” and noticed that the actors got better looking over the years. So, he thought, “what would happen if the character would completely just let himself go and his age caught up to him?” After eating probably thousands of doughnuts (yes, that’s what he ate), he was successful. I’ve seen a couple of this seasons episodes and he’s right, it does add a lot more to the character and the show.

Rob also talked about their plans beyond this season, how he and the rest of the cast are involved in every aspect of the show and if there will ever be another Nightman Cometh tour. 

It’s Always Sunny airs Thursdays at 10 on FX

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

How much of the show is scripted versus you guys just ad-libbing?

Rob McElhenney: Well, we usually try to do at least one or two takes completely scripted. So, we very carefully and arduously over probably the longest span of the production cycle spend writing, and I’d say we get at least one or two, maybe three, takes of it exactly as scripted. And then from that point forward we’ll ad lib and maybe change the scene, or if certain things aren’t working we’ll make cuts. And then, in the editing room we have either scripted or non-scripted takes, and then sometimes we find that it just works better in script form, and sometimes it just works better as a completely new scene, and we’ll build something completely different in post.   Read more

Q & A: Joel McHale and John Goodman on ‘Community’, sitcoms and the Jeff/Annie/Britta triangle

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:39 — 12.1MB)

Community is back after it’s summer hiatus and this fall, the gang has another authority figure to deal with, Vice Dean Laybourne.

Laybourne is played by John Goodman who, according to Goodman, may or may not be in 6 episodes this year. That all depends if they “can rid of [me] more cheaply,” he said.

I talked to John and series star Joel McHale in a conference call about the upcoming season, Goodman’s return to TV and why Joel keeps doing E’s The Soup.

Follow Joel on Twitter!

Community airs Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

John, do you have any idea of what your episode count is going to be this season?

John Goodman: Six, I think. Unless they can get rid of me more cheaply.

What was it about this role or about Community in general that made you want to be a part of it?

John Goodman: It’s the cast. I think they’re a wonderful ensemble. The writing is out there. It’s just – it’s not a typical situation comedy sitcom. It’s risky and – yeah, it – you know, it’s combination of great things and I’ve – I’m just dying to get back into comedy again. That’s what I like to do. I enjoy it. And I’ve been doing pretty heavy guys lately, so you know, it’s nice to lighten up. Not that that’s any easier, I mean the stuff – I had pages of dialogue yesterday that was really precise and – but it’s good to stretch like that.   Read more

Q & A: ‘Free Agents’ stars Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:56 — 9.6MB)

The great Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn are starring in NBC’s new romantic comedy, Free Agents. Set in a public relations firm, the show is about two co-workers who try and redefine their relationship after hooking up with each other.  

Along with his film resume (The Smurfs most recently), Azaria can still be heard voicing several characters on the long-running animated series The Simpsons, but “Free Agents” is his first series since Huff.

Hahn has been doing some great work in supporting roles in movies (Our Idiot Brother and How Do You Know) but she might be best known for her role in NBC’s Crossing Jordan.

I talked to both Hank and Kathryn in a conference call where they talked about why they came back to TV, working together and if Hank’s role in The Birdcage was really based on his Grandmother.

Follow Hank on Twitter!

Free Agents airs on Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

It’s been a while since have done television. Well, Hank you still do the voice on The Simpsons but what brought you both back to television?

Hank Azaria: The script and the – John Enbom. We love to party down both Kathryn and I. And it was a tough decision for both of us because of the schedule. And we weren’t really looking to do something like this right now but we just kind of couldn’t ignore how good the material was and how fun the people seemed to be.

And it seemed like a really worthy good shot at the very least we would have a lot of fun doing and we have.   Read more

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