John C. Reilly on How to Impress Your Co-Stars: “Just pretend like you belong there and maybe you’ll rise to the occasion”

John C. Reilly is one of those rare comedians that can pull off drama very well — in fact, before Reilly became known as one of Will Ferrell‘s favorite co-stars, he was nominated for an Oscar for Chicago and won acclaim for his supporting roles in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Gangs of New York. Reilly has certainly proven that he can hold his own.

But that doesn’t mean Reilly doesn’t get intimidated when he’s cast in a film with an all-star cast. As one of the leads in Roman Polanski‘s latest film, Carnage (an adaptation of the award-winning 2006 Yasmina Reza play God of Carnage), Reilly spoke to Moviefone about being in such an acclaimed production.  “That’s one of the difficult things of being an actor that I’m still not used to. You have to go, you have to show up at these places where you know nobody, and sometimes with really impressive, high stakes people like Roman Polanski. You just have to be confident enough in yourself, ‘I belong here! I belong in this room, little John Reilly from the southside of Chicago belongs in a room with Jodi Foster and Kate Winslet and Roman Polanski.’ A friend of mine in acting school said, ‘Fake it ’til you make it.’”  He adds a summary of that good advice: “Just pretend like you belong there and maybe you’ll rise to the occasion.”   Read more

John C. Reilly talks about on-set improvisation

John C. Reilly, currently starring in Cyrus, talks about how he developed his character through on-set improvisation with Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei.

He talks about improvising at the 2:30 mark.