John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill on ‘Cyrus’, Improvising and more!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:34 — 10.0MB)

John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, two of the best comedic actors around right now, are currently starring in the new film, Cyrus.

Cyrus is a bit of a departure for both actors (although you can’t tell from the trailer). Reilly plays more of a grown up then he has recently and Hill plays it serious but it’s still an incredibly funny movie. The film, one of the highlights from SXSW, was mostly improvised and solidifies just how talented these two guys really are.

So do you think the era of the John C. Riley, leading man romantic comedy is finally here?

John:  Yes (laughter).  I don’t know.  Is there an era right now?  I hope so.  I’m a very romantic person.  I like doing parts like this.  And I think there’s lots of people out there that are not represented in movies that have romantic feelings whose stories don’t get told.

Exactly.

John:  You know what I’m talking about (laughter).  Neither of us look like Brad Pitt.  Let’s not fool ourselves.  I’m with you brother.

Yeah, I’m happy to see you do this genre and bring a reality to it that’s missing, an emotional reality.

John:  Yeah we try to be truthful in our emotions in this movie.

Did you think of yourself kind of as the straight man in this, if you’re gonna call it a romantic comedy?

John:  No, you know, the “straight man” is Marisa’s [Tomei] character because she doesn’t know what’s going on.  We’ve got this whole secret battle happening standing in front of her like it’s not going on. Because I’m a very foolish character in this movie, too, I make a lot of mistakes and bad choices and yeah.

But with a little more maturity though I think.  I like the maturity of your character.

John:  Yeah, that’s one thing I really did enjoy playing in this movie, you know I’m not a kid anymore.  I often play or have played man-child kind of characters before.  It was really great to be able to just sit in a scene and be as mature as I am in life.  And I think that’s some of the best moments of awkwardness between Jonah and I when he’s like, ‘Seriously dude don’t fuck my mom’ (laughter), and my comeback, you improvised that line, and my comeback was, ‘Well, I’m not going to lie to you.  Your mom and I did have sex.’  It’s just one of those moments where you’re being truthful.  Alright, if this is the situation, regardless of what the script says, this is how I would deal with it, if I was sitting across from a 21-year-old like, Mommy and I are –

Jonah:  Special friends (laughter).

Read more

Ty Burrell: “Modern Family”, improvising and single-camera comedies

From Movieline:

What did you first think of the show’s concept?
It’s funny because I have worked with Chris Lloyd on three shows and for Steve Levitan, this is my second. I loved the concept, but they could’ve told me it was about two guys who sit in the same room for 20 years, and I would’ve loved it. I have so much faith in their writing, but I mean I loved the idea and thought it was something totally new, using this style for a family comedy. I was really excited about that.

How was this experience with Chris and Steve different?
I think everybody’s getting to do new stuff, which is exciting for the writers and us. I’ve never gotten to do a show that give us some things that are more intimate, that get into the nooks and crannies of the character, and allow more room for movement as far as minor amounts of improvising and stuff. For them, I sense that it’s similar, that they’re getting a chance to write in a way that allows for some humor that doesn’t always work well in multi-camera comedy. You know, it’s such a precise medium, multi-camera. This one really allows for movement, for lack of a better word, a lateral movement. The longer silences, awkwardness, and also just some humor that’s a little bit more abstract. The good thing about it is an old-fashioned comedy still works in this medium. You can still do slapstick too.

Modern Family seems to stand out even among single-camera comedies. How would you categorize it?
I think it’s different from a lot of single-camera comedy in that Chris and Steve are writing it with heart, and it’s not so much so that it’s schmaltzy or saccharine, but it’s also not keeping you at arm’s length with irony. It makes it different from single-camera comedy that way. And it’s different from multi-camera in that we take some of the pressure off the jokes; the precision is gone, and you can’t see the punchlines coming as much as you can with most multi-camera.

Read more