- 6/12/2025
John C. Reilly joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic characters from his career so far: from his portrayal as Dale Doback in Adam McKay’s comedy classic Step Brothers, to his role as Cal Naughton Jr. in McKay and Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.“There’s a lot of stuff in that movie that came from my own personal life,” says Reilly as he revisits scenes from Step Brothers. Watch the full episode of GQ’s Iconic Characters as John C. Reilly breaks down his most iconic movie roles.After introducing his musical vaudeville show Mister Romantic in 2022 and performing sold-out concerts across the country earning critical acclaim, John C. Reilly will release his debut album as Mister Romantic, What’s Not To Love? – out June 13 via his own Eternal Magic Recordings.Pre-Order the album here: https://misterromantic.lnk.to/WhatsNotToLove----------Director: Jameer PondDirector of Photography: Brad WickhamEditor: Louville MooreTalent: John C. ReillyProducer: Camille RamosLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Paige GarbariniCamera Operator: Carlos AraujoGaffer: David DjacoSound Mixer: Mariya ChulichkovaProduction Assistant: Shanti Cuizon-BurdenPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Stella ShortinoSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Billy Ward
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00And there were a couple times when we were doing those improvs where I remember some guy started an altercation in this restaurant where we had stopped to get something to eat, and the owner of the restaurant was like, do something to me! And I was like, I'm not real! It's a costume! It was the most impotent feeling I think I've ever had in my whole life.
00:24Step Brothers.
00:25This is how we do it!
00:32Hey, I never asked you!
00:35Do you like guacamole?
00:37People ask me, do people always come up to you about Step Brothers? And I say, only when I'm in public. And every single time I'm in public.
00:48It's a really beloved movie, I think because it appeals to a lot of different people at different ages.
00:54It actually appeals to young kids because the stories that we're telling in that movie really happened to me and Will.
01:01Like, someone made Will lick white dog crap, like, for real! Like, that whole gang fight thing was real happened to me when I was, like, trying to start a gang fight with some friends who abandoned me and then the other gang found me.
01:14I did have a brother who had a drum set, for real, who was very particular about his drums and would notice if there was a nick on the sticks.
01:24There's a lot of stuff in that movie that came from my own personal life.
01:27So, in a weird way, even though it's a really over-the-top movie, I'm really proud that it's one of the most noticed movies that I did because so much of it was personal.
01:37So much of it was really my real life, you know?
01:40Also, like, I wrote it with Will and Adam and Will was, like, the transcriber. He would be at the keyboard and then we'd all just kind of take turns telling each other stories and making each other laugh.
01:50So it was, like, improvised in the writing room and then we'd improvise on top of that.
01:55And Will is one of the funniest people I've ever met. And what's funny about him is when you're with him, like, on an everyday kind of basis, he's funny, but he doesn't even really know why he's funny.
02:08Both him, his father, and his brother, Pat, who I know pretty well, there's this quality that they have that's just, I don't know.
02:15I always say, like, Will could read the phone book and make you laugh. He could just put a certain stank on something and it just becomes funny.
02:22It's like magical fairy dust. Another thing I noticed about Will was when he swears, like, the filthier he gets, the funnier it gets.
02:32And the angrier he gets, the funnier it gets. Me, if I swear, like, I'm from the south side of Chicago, you know, it comes out pretty hard.
02:41Like, even if I'm trying to be funny or over the top, there's a little bit of violence or something in it.
02:46But Will, Will can say the craziest swear words and it's funny every time.
02:52And then you sit down and you write Dale and Brennan a check for $10,000.
02:56I love it.
02:57Are we going to shove one of those fake hearing devices so far up your ass?
03:01Brennan!
03:02You can hear the sound of your small intestine as it produces shit!
03:06I love that guy. He'll always feel like a brother to me, I think.
03:09Walk Hard, Dewey Cox Story.
03:14Walk hard.
03:18Hard.
03:19Walk hard.
03:21You're always looking for something that is going to take everything that you've got to pull off.
03:26When I did Walk Hard, it really was, like, right on the edge of what I was capable of.
03:32All the singing and all the acting and all the—I played 14 years old at the beginning of the movie.
03:37I think we wrote 35 original songs in six months, like, before we started shooting.
03:44I mean, a lot of people don't write 35 songs in their whole career.
03:47We had this amazing stable of songwriters and musicians around the movie.
03:52You know, Mike Andrews and Mike Viola and Dan Byrne.
03:56Marshall Crenshaw wrote the title song.
03:58So, yeah, we were kind of like—it was this sort of musical laboratory.
04:03And in a weird way, that was part of the writing process of the movie,
04:07because the script had places for these, like, then he sings a 1950s ballad.
04:12You know, like, all right, we've got to come up.
04:14What would this character—what would he say?
04:16Take, take, take my hand.
04:20Take my hand.
04:22We're gonna walk to the heart.
04:24A lot of the process was me kind of learning the character as we were writing these songs
04:29and then injecting lyrics where I thought I could help.
04:33And yes, I did sing all—I did all my own singing.
04:36And the performance of those songs—we lip-synced them for the movie,
04:40but we had already recorded them, so it was like lip-syncing to yourself.
04:44So we were making a satire of biopics.
04:47But the truth is, if you look at Ray Charles' life compared to Johnny Cash's life,
04:52compared to, you know, Jerry Lee Lewis' life, compared to—
04:56there's so many similarities in these musician stories.
04:59A sensual traumatic event when they were younger, the loss of a sibling,
05:03the loss of a sense, like, you know, going blind in Ray Charles' case.
05:07Even though we're kind of—we smashed them all together, they're—you know,
05:12it's not like we were pulling it out of the air.
05:14Like, these things really happen in a lot of these people's lives.
05:17Let me lighten it up just a bit here.
05:19Tell me, you're so busy, Dewey Cox.
05:21Do you have time to stop and smell the roses?
05:24I've got no fucking sense of smell.
05:26I wish it had done better at the box office,
05:29because when it came out, you know, I think—I don't know what the competition was at the time,
05:35but we kind of got, you know, our asses handed to us that first weekend.
05:40But as traumatic as that was for something that we all worked so hard on
05:45and put so much love into, at the end of the day I said to myself,
05:49well, you can either have a box office smash, or you can have a beloved cult movie,
05:56but you're really not going to get both of them, so which would you rather have?
06:00And I think I would rather have a movie that people are obsessed with in a cult-like way,
06:06like musicians across the board.
06:09Everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Jack White's in the movie.
06:12But after we made the movie, I went and saw Jack on tour one time,
06:16and he didn't know I was coming, and I knocked on the tour bus door,
06:19and he opened the door, and he's like,
06:20Dude! We're watching the movie right now! Come on in here!
06:23Glenn Frey turned to me at a Lakers game, and he's like,
06:25that's like a documentary, that movie!
06:28We were trying to be as over the top as we could be,
06:31you know, while still maintaining, you know, some reality for the periods,
06:35but it wasn't over the top enough.
06:37For some people, like this, you know, Glenn Frey was like,
06:40well, if you were around for the Eagles at the height of our fame,
06:44like, it was even crazier than the, you know, the dark places you went as Dewey Cox.
06:49But that was a really special, special thing.
06:52I'm really proud of that movie, and I think one day we probably will go out on tour again,
06:57because I did like an eight-city tour as Dewey Cox,
07:00because now people know the music, so I think they would show up.
07:04Boogie Nights.
07:09Can I ask you something?
07:10Uh-huh.
07:11Do you work out?
07:12Yeah.
07:13Yeah, you look like it.
07:14What do you squat?
07:15About two.
07:16Super.
07:17Super.
07:18What do I do?
07:20I'd already done a dozen movies when Paul, you know, asked me to do that first movie,
07:25but he was the first person who was like,
07:28I know you.
07:29You were in this, and you were in that, and you were in this,
07:31but I know that you have more to give than what you've given all these other directors.
07:36I see you as like a leading character,
07:38and he really was the first person in my life who even realized that I had done 12 movies at that point.
07:44Before that, every time I'd meet a new director, they'd think they were discovering this amazing actor,
07:49which is really flattering, but after a while you're like,
07:52well, I've been doing it a little while now.
07:54Like, isn't anyone piecing this together?
07:56And Paul did.
07:57Mark had only done one movie at that point, this movie Fear,
08:01and he was known for his underwear ads, you know, but he really fell right into it.
08:05And I always say Boogie Nights was the funnest summer of my life, you know,
08:10because it was filmed all throughout the summer.
08:13It was just pool parties and doing fake cocaine, and it was fake, by the way.
08:18It was like the cocaine in that movie was made of like lactose,
08:23or like the sugar that's in milk, I think, and then dried.
08:27So we'd snort that stuff, and in a weird way it would make you hyped up because it was sugar, you know.
08:34So you get these like bursts of energy when you do it.
08:44I remember thinking like, what's happening to this cocaine that I'm snorting?
08:48Because we were doing a lot of it on camera, you know.
08:51And then one night I was getting home and I was like in the shower,
08:54and I was blowing my nose in the shower, and like these chunks of white sugar-like gelatinous stuff
09:00that are coming out of my nose, I was like, oh, that's what happens to the cocaine.
09:03It just lives in my sinuses until I eventually like absorb it.
09:08You want to take it from the top?
09:09Yeah, let's try it.
09:10Okay.
09:11He will rock you.
09:17He will roll you.
09:22The one that was original was Feel the Heat, or Feel My Heat.
09:26I wrote the music to that one, and Paul wrote the words.
09:29I mean, I get like royalties from that song, Feel the Heat, still, because it's like an original composition.
09:35I'm not sure how proud I am of that song, but it's definitely a funny moment in the movie.
09:40All that stuff in the recording studio, too, is all improvised.
09:43In a way, it's really scary, but it's also really empowering.
09:46You're like, alright, let me add it.
09:48Paul knew my tendencies.
09:50Phil Hoffman, too.
09:51Phil Hoffman improvised a ton of stuff in Hard Eight when he's at the craps table.
09:55So Paul already knew, like, these guys can already kind of vamp on a theme if I just give them a direction.
10:01So when he wrote the script for Boogie Nights, it already had things in it, like John Riley talked to them about the tapes and getting the tapes back from the studio.
10:10Like, that whole scene where I come into the recording studio and I talk to Robert Downey Sr., you know, it's Robert Downey Jr.'s father.
10:17He played the head of the studio, and so none of that was written.
10:20It was all just me desperately trying to say whatever I had to say to get this guy to give us our tapes back so we could go get a record deal.
10:29Now you're talking above my head, alright? I don't know this industry jargon, YP, MP, whatever, okay?
10:33All I know is that I cannot get a record contract. We cannot get a record contract unless I take these tapes.
10:39And granted, the tapes themselves are your bi-, are your-, you own them, okay?
10:44But the magic that is on the tapes, that fucking heart and soul that we put into those tapes, that is ours, and you don't own that.
10:51That character has to be one of the craziest I think I've ever played.
10:55I remember seeing a magician at the Magic Castle who had that same outfit.
11:00He had the same thing, like, naughty ladies as his assistants, you know?
11:04And we were like, oh, well, there he is. Like, that's the character.
11:08So I was basically doing an impression of a guy that we saw perform at the Magic Castle.
11:13He had different hair than me, but... Magnolia.
11:18When we were trying to get boogie nights made, and we were struggling, we were just kind of dead in the water for a little while there in the summer.
11:28And Paul and I were obsessed with the show Cops at the time. It was a pretty new phenomena.
11:33I had a goatee beard, and Paul kept teasing me, like, you gotta shave that thing off, man.
11:39Come on, you're like, what are you, some kind of hipster?
11:41And he just really teased me about the beard.
11:43And finally I broke down, and I was like, alright, I'll start to shave it off.
11:46And then I was like, well, why don't I just see what a mustache looks like?
11:50Because I'd never had one before.
11:52And I was like, oh my gosh, it's like the perfect cop mustache.
11:55And I called Paul, and I was like, we have to do our version of cops.
11:58He was like, totally.
11:59Just calm down.
12:00Calm down.
12:01Calm down.
12:02Okay, I got a call to this apartment.
12:04Report of a disturbance.
12:05There's no disturbance.
12:06Okay, I got a call of a disturbance.
12:08Your door was open, and I just want to see what's going on.
12:10Yeah, but there's no disturbance.
12:12Okay, well then you got nothing to worry about.
12:14He got me a real LAPD uniform.
12:16I bought, like, a 9mm looking BB gun from a sports store.
12:23And we just started improvising.
12:25We'd drive around in his car, like, just to make each other laugh, really.
12:28And just kind of recreate cops.
12:30Some really crazy stuff happened during the improvisations with Phil in particular.
12:35At one point, I stopped carrying that BB gun because it's already a felony to impersonate a police officer.
12:42And if you have a gun on you, then it kicks it up into this other level.
12:46So I left the gun at home this one day, and then Phil, like, escaped from me while I was trying to arrest him.
12:52And I went for my gun because it was like, this is when you would go for your gun if someone was running away from you.
12:59And I was like, I lost my gun.
13:02I lost my gun.
13:03That's the worst thing that can happen to a cop.
13:05I lost my gun today.
13:06What?
13:07I lost my gun today when I left you, and I'm the laughing stock of a lot of people.
13:12I wanted to tell you.
13:14I wanted you to know.
13:15And it's on my mind.
13:17And it makes me look like a fool.
13:19And I feel like a fool.
13:21I made you look like a fool.
13:26We eventually did get Boogie Nights made after we made those videos.
13:30And the movie, you know, Boogie Nights came out.
13:32And then when Paul was sitting down to do his next script, he really loved that character.
13:37In fact, the name Jim Curring was just something I made up on the spot.
13:42So Detective, or Officer Jim Curring in Magnolia, the whole character was based on those improvisations.
13:48And then Paul took those tapes and made them like more romantic.
13:53Gave me that love interest with Melora Walters.
13:55He turned the losing the gun thing into like this really critical emotional moment for the character.
14:02It's really funny though when you think like I just did it to cover up the fact that I didn't have my fake gun on me.
14:09And there were a couple times when we were doing those improvs where I remember some guy started an altercation in this restaurant
14:16where we had stopped to get something to eat.
14:18And the owner of the restaurant was like, do something to me.
14:22And I was like, I'm not real.
14:25It's a costume.
14:27It was the most impotent feeling I think I've ever had in my whole life.
14:31Not being able to step in.
14:33Everyone looking at me like, do something.
14:35Chicago, the musical.
14:38Honey, it's me, Daddy.
14:41Daddy.
14:44I can't as soon as I can.
14:46First of all, I'm born and raised in Chicago.
15:00So even though we really didn't shoot any of that movie in Chicago,
15:04I have a soft spot in my heart for that movie.
15:06I grew up doing musicals from the time I was eight years old.
15:09That's all I did.
15:10I was involved in theater and community theater and theater at school.
15:13And that's all audiences wanted to hear in my neighborhood were musicals.
15:17And then I went to acting school and I kind of took this opinion like,
15:21well, musicals, that's what you do if there's nothing else to do.
15:26Like in my neighborhood, like I had to do musicals
15:29because I was interested in theater.
15:30And then that movie came along and I realized like,
15:35oh my gosh, I can really do this.
15:37Like I already know how to do this.
15:39I know how to sing a show tune, you know.
15:42And then I realized like, you know,
15:45you should not be looking down on musicals.
15:48American musical theater is one of the few things,
15:51other than maybe jazz, that was actually invented in this country.
15:55It was like a real return to form for me.
15:58And it was very moving and very personal,
16:01like that journey back to musical theater.
16:04And I also remember just really trying to play that character
16:06as honestly as I could.
16:09You know, it's already kind of a satire in a way.
16:13It's like a social satire, that movie.
16:15And I knew it was going to be funny
16:17and I knew the music was going to be entertaining.
16:19But I knew also that for it to really work,
16:22for you to care about Roxy Hart in that movie,
16:26someone has to love her.
16:28And Amos Hart really loves her, you know.
16:30You actually did your own, or like kind of curated your own makeup.
16:33And the costume, too, had a lot to do with the costume.
16:36I grew up doing clowning, doing mime work and clowning.
16:39I went to, I think, a clown ministry at my church,
16:44where we'd go to like nursing homes or like street fairs or whatever.
16:48I almost went to Clown College,
16:50which was a thing that Ringling Brothers used to have down in Florida.
16:54But then someone warned me, like,
16:56if you go to Clown College, you're under contract for five years.
16:59And they may be calling you a clown in the circus,
17:02but you're really shoveling up after the elephants.
17:05So maybe, you know, you got a good thing going here
17:08in the Chicago theater scene.
17:11Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
17:14Shake and bake in full effect.
17:16It's always been like that.
17:17Me and Ricky, since we're little kids, man.
17:21We go together like Chinese food and chocolate pudding, let's face it.
17:25Yeah, but Cal, those are two things that don't really go together, though.
17:28We go together like cocaine and waffles.
17:30No, like, for instance, if I say peanut butter and...
17:34Ladies.
17:34Will and Adam asked me to do Anchorman, the movie,
17:37but I was doing another movie at the time and I couldn't do it.
17:40So it was like this big damn it moment for all of us.
17:44Like, oh, I really wanted to do that.
17:46You guys really wanted me to.
17:47So when they finally put Talladega Nights together,
17:50like, you gotta... we gotta have you in there, man.
17:52And I was, like, all over it.
17:54So when we were shooting that movie,
17:55we had to be in the infield of a real race.
17:58You know, it's just rawr, rawr, so loud.
18:00We're shooting on racetracks is not fun.
18:02It's awful, actually.
18:04It stinks from all the burning tires and fuel.
18:07And it's so loud, you feel like you're losing your mind.
18:11I would go and hide in the trailer and put, you know,
18:15you know, what do you call it?
18:15Ear protection on.
18:17Just because you'd almost start to feel sick from the noise,
18:20like, somehow.
18:21It was, like, really, like...
18:22Anyway.
18:22Poor me.
18:24I was making a comedy about NASCAR.
18:26I got a message for all of them, right?
18:28Shake and bake.
18:30What does that do?
18:31Did that blow your mind?
18:32That just happened.
18:34What is that, a catchphrase?
18:35Or is that epilepsy?
18:37Shake and bake.
18:38Yeah.
18:39What?
18:39Shake and bake.
18:40We had to do these driver introductions.
18:43It's a real thing they do at NASCAR.
18:44They announce, this is so-and-so driving car number 32,
18:48hailing from wherever, North Carolina, Cal-Anon, Junior.
18:52Ha!
18:52And then next, it's like, hailing from Paris, France, Jean Girard.
18:57Boo!
18:58Did they hear the word France?
19:00And I thought they were going to, like, rush the stage and tear them apart.
19:03And he came out, he was like, mm, yeah, like, making these faces.
19:06And I was like, I had just met Sasha at that point.
19:09And I was like, Sasha, I'm sorry, man.
19:11Are you okay?
19:11And he's like, are you kidding?
19:13I live for that.
19:14I love that.
19:15That's what I want to happen.
19:17I want to piss the audience off so much that they want to attack me.
19:20That's, that's like my happy place.
19:24I remember we did, like, driver training at this place where you actually get to go into a NASCAR,
19:31a real, you know, stock car, and go, like, 140 miles an hour or something.
19:35And so me, Will, Adam, and Sasha all did this.
19:38And then afterwards, they gave us our times.
19:41I was the top time, I'm proud to say it.
19:44And Sasha, I think, was third out of the four of us.
19:47And then Sasha, these kind of good old boys who are running the racetrack, are like, all right, all right, y'all.
19:53And he's like, and Sasha, you came in third place.
19:57And Sasha goes, am I the fastest Jew you've had?
19:59And these guys were like, they just couldn't believe.
20:05And he was like, they were like, you know what, I think you might be.
20:09I think you might be.
20:11But that's like Sasha's stock and trade.
20:14He loves, like, figuring out what is it that's going to make you uncomfortable.
20:17And then, bam, like, try to hit the target right in the middle.
20:22He's a genius in that way.
20:23Winning time, the rise of the Lakers dynasty.
20:28Look, Fred, I know I'm still the freshman of the class, and you're the big man on campus.
20:35I get that.
20:36I respect it.
20:37But I wanted to meet because I'm asking for your help.
20:40I'm trying to build something out here, like you built Boston, like a real dynasty.
20:46And frankly, I think that would be good for the league.
20:48It was a really special character because I had about a week to get ready.
20:55Someone else fell out of the part, and then Adam McKay asked me to do it.
21:00And I had seven days before we started shooting the pilot.
21:05And so I was really, like, kind of guessing.
21:07But he was of the same generation as my own late father.
21:11And there were a lot of things about his sort of swagger and his optimism in the face of everyone telling him things couldn't be done,
21:19or this was impossible, or that was impossible.
21:21My dad also had a really similar thing, like, oh, yeah?
21:24Well, wait till you see what I do.
21:26Maybe that would be impossible for someone else, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to do it.
21:31And then the scenes with Jerry and his mother.
21:34Like, I lost my mother very suddenly.
21:36I was not able to mourn her in the way that you would if someone had a long illness, you know?
21:41So in a weird way, these scenes that I had with Sally Field were me processing the death of my own mother, you know?
21:50It was like this heavy stuff.
21:51And then, you know, to have someone like Jeannie Buss, his real daughter, who's also portrayed on the show,
21:57to have her tell me, like, you know, you smoked just like my dad.
22:02Like, you nailed it. You were just like my dad.
22:05Like, and I never met the guy.
22:07And there's very few, there's very little footage of him.
22:10There's, like, very kind of staged interviews where he's giving a certain version of his personality to the camera,
22:16you know, just talking about the business of the team.
22:18A lot of what I had to go on in terms of that character was what people said about him,
22:22or things that were written about him in books,
22:24or the very few little glimpses that you got of him on TV.
22:28But, yeah, that was, that was another one of those roles that I felt took everything I had at that moment to pull off.
22:38Wreck-It Ralph.
22:41Question, Ralph.
22:42We've been asking you to bat it on for years now, and tonight you, you finally show up.
22:48Why is that?
22:49I don't know. I just felt like coming.
22:51I mean, I suppose it has something to do with the fact that, uh, well, today's the 30th anniversary of my game.
22:59Happy anniversary, Ralph.
23:01Thanks, Satan.
23:02Uh, it's 17, actually.
23:05Got it.
23:06I think I said no for, like, eight months, and then this director, Rich Moore, just kept coming back.
23:11And then finally he was like, just tell me, why is it that you're resistant to doing this?
23:16And I was like, well, it's Disney, it's this huge corporation, they're going to kind of control what we do.
23:22And I've heard the way that they make a lot of those animated movies, you're not even talking to the, the other actor that you're working with.
23:29You're sort of pretending in these scenes.
23:31And, like, I just know that that's not going to be my vibe.
23:34Like, it's not, I'm not going to succeed in that kind of, you know, situation.
23:39He's like, we don't have to do it like that.
23:41We can do it however we want.
23:42We can have the other actors in the studio, we'll do that.
23:45And you can improvise as much as you want, you know, like, we'll just edit together what we need, you know.
23:51And finally I was like, okay.
23:53And I came around, and thank God I did, because, number one, it was like one of the best paydays of my life.
23:59And then it turned out it was just like a dream job.
24:02I got to improvise every single day.
24:04We went in there, and we're never pressed for time.
24:07I don't have to put a costume on, I go through makeup.
24:09I just show up and goof around for a while with the guys, and then we're always ahead of the animators, you know, because it takes them so long.
24:17It was a wonderful experience, and Disney was like, yeah, do whatever you want, like, as long as you're turning in funny stuff.
24:24Hi, mister!
24:27Hello!
24:28Oh, man, you scared me, kid.
24:32Oh, nearly soiled myself.
24:34What's your name?
24:35Uh, Ralph.
24:37Wreck-It Ralph.
24:37You're not from here, are you?
24:39Having children myself, and gone through a lot of children's movies, I always thought, like, ah, it's such a shame when they sell kids short on the emotional stuff.
24:50When they just make it, like, kinetic, dynamic energy that's meant to just distract you like fast food or, like, candy, you know?
24:57Like, I wanted kids to have something they could hold onto emotionally, you know?
25:02I was like, this movie is about a male character and a female character having a friendship.
25:11It's not a daddy and a daughter.
25:13It's not a romantic thing.
25:15It's about a man and a woman having a friendship.
25:19Those are the main characters of the movie, and I was like, that's a really special, beautiful thing.
25:24And it's something that kids really understand, you know?
25:27Something that comes very naturally to them, I think, as younger kids.
25:31And then as they get into the tween and teenage years, it becomes a really fraught thing.
25:36Like, how do I have a friendship with someone of the opposite sex?
25:40Like, how do I navigate this?
25:41And I thought that was a really important thing for us to try to be honest about.
25:47You know, this is what it feels like to be friends with somebody.
25:49This is what it feels like when your friend lets you down.
25:53Like, this is how you call them out.
25:55Or this is how it feels when you let your friend down, when you act in a selfish way instead of doing what's right for your friend.
26:02Like, you know, if you could put all that stuff into a really entertaining movie with lots of candy in it, and racing, then I think you're really, you're giving something of meaning to kids.
26:15And it worked like a charm, I must say.
26:20Stan and Ollie.
26:21Like, when I was a kid, I would always have, like, one best friend.
26:35Like, one ride-or-die person, you know, whether it was Terry Rafferty or Jim Lampasona or whatever.
26:41Different periods of my life, I had these people that were, like, we were just really joined at the hip, you know.
26:47There's something about me that is uncomfortable with a solo starring spot.
26:54Like, there's something about me that really loves lifting up another person, you know.
27:00Because I think you're kind of taught that in Chicago theater, in a way.
27:04Like, the way I always explained it to myself was, like, well, in Chicago, you're not going to become a star overnight in Chicago.
27:12Whereas in New York, if you're on Broadway and it shows a hit, like, boom, the whole country is going to know about you.
27:17Or L.A., you do a movie, boom.
27:19Like, you really could become a star overnight in those two places.
27:23In Chicago, it takes a bit more work.
27:25And really, the way you succeed in Chicago doing a play is make the other person really good.
27:31Because both Steve Coogan, who played Stan Laurel, and I both really understand.
27:37We've both been part of duos.
27:39And we both understand what it's like to be a performer, to be, you know, traveling a lot together.
27:45And having to present something to the audience, no matter how you're feeling inside, personally.
27:50I have a phobia with my eyes.
27:53Like, I don't, I have a lot of trouble with people touching my eyes or getting close with makeup.
27:59But I knew I had to have brown eyes for that part.
28:02And I was like, John, you've got to do this for Oliver Hardy.
28:05You've got to get over this eye thing.
28:07And it took a long time.
28:10But I did eventually learn how to put those contacts in over and over.
28:13And then I did it for Jerry Buss, too, after.
28:15But anyway, it was like this labor of love, like this holy mission to help people remember who Oliver Hardy was and how important those guys were.
28:26I mean, they, there's so many incredible things about them.
28:30The fact that they didn't know each other before they started working together.
28:34Mr. Hardy, I believe you've suffered a mild heart attack today.
28:39I also believe there is some evidence of congestive failure.
28:44Oh, dear God, I knew it.
28:46The prosthetic stuff was really interesting.
28:47It was like wearing a mask on your whole body.
28:51Like, the only part of me that you could see for real was this right here.
28:57And the ends of my fingers.
29:00The rest is like prosthetic here, prosthetic here, you know, this big thing.
29:04And I wore these weighted, like, sacks inside of the suit because one of my pet peeves is when you see someone in a fat suit, like, all of a sudden they're like, oh, they just start moving way too fast or too agilely for someone of that size.
29:21And so I wanted to weigh myself down so you could have a sense of the effort it took for this guy to move through the world.
29:32I remember sitting outside sometimes when we were making that movie because I had to stay cool all the time where I would get heat stroke.
29:39So they had this cooling thing with pipes that went inside this T-shirt and cold water would go in there.
29:46And then sometimes I would just sit outside on a stoop, you know, outside of a theater in a T-shirt, you know, like with this whole get up on.
29:55And it made me realize, like, how hard it must have been for Oliver Hardy for his whole life to be that big.
30:03Because he did not want to be that big.
30:05Even as, you know, as a child, all the way through their fame and stardom, he was torn up about the fact that he was as big as he was.
30:13And I always thought that was a real kind of, like, personal tragedy for him.
30:17And then I didn't really realize what it felt like until I was sitting there outside of a theater in London.
30:22And people would walk by. They couldn't recognize me as myself, of course.
30:26They just, you'd see them coming and they'd clock me.
30:30And then all of a sudden, as soon as they realized, oh, he's a terribly fat man.
30:33Like, they would look away as if they're embarrassed to make eye contact with you.
30:39And going back to Mr. Cellophane, it's a feeling like that.
30:43Like, you don't want to see me.
30:45You think I'm an embarrassment to the world.
30:48So you don't want to see me.
30:50And people don't mean to be cruel in that way, but that's how it feels, you know.
30:55Check it out with Dr. Steve Brule.
30:57Well, I was the executive producer on that show, and it was one of the crazier things I've ever been involved in.
31:21I produced it with Tim and Eric, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
31:26I'm really proud of my involvement in that show.
31:29Just because it's such a, it's so unique, you know.
31:34It's one of the most original things I think I've ever seen.
31:38Like, and Steve has a real particular point of view.
31:40I'm not sure what kind of doctor he is, but I'm not, yeah.
31:46I don't think his advice for medical matters would be my first opinion.
31:51I might get a second opinion on that.
31:52The best diet consists of food that occurs in the environment.
31:57It's natural food.
31:58Doesn't have a barcode.
31:59Doesn't have a lot of processing.
32:00I know.
32:00Doesn't have a lot of ingredients you can't pronounce.
32:03I know.
32:03It's real food.
32:04Apples, berries, pears, watermelons, corndogs.
32:08How's Dr. Steve doing these days?
32:10You would have to ask him.
32:12I don't know.
32:12Like, apparently you have to fax his friend Denny, and then Denny pages Steve, and then Steve pages Denny back, and then you get a fax back.
32:24It's a long process, but he is a pretty mysterious person and hard to reach, you know.
32:29I learned early on doing theater when I was a kid, you know, like, don't go in the lobby in your costume.
32:35Like, that is like a no-no, because you break the spell for the audience.
32:39You say, like, you remember that thing you just watched that you really enjoyed that you maybe went along with and believed I was this whatever I was?
32:46Then afterwards, if you see me in the lobby in my costume, it's like, oh, that was all fake.
32:52Like, in order to keep the illusion real, you've got to leave the character backstage or onstage.
32:59I personally think that's really important for audiences.
33:02It's a beloved show for a lot of people, and I'm glad, because I think the world needs more weird things in it.
33:10Mr. Romantic.
33:11So I started this show called Mr. Romantic that I do now.
33:15It's a vaudeville show where I do songs of love, and he's this kind of mythical vaudeville clown, very much in the vein of Mr. Cellophane.
33:24Yeah, we have an album coming out in June.
33:26Really, the inspiration of wanting to do this show, Mr. Romantic, was the world is in a tough spot right now.
33:33I started doing it about three years ago, and I remember looking like, man, like, empathy is on the run here.
33:40Like, people are really divided, and there's just so much misunderstanding among people.
33:47And I thought, what can I do to make things better?
33:50And I thought, well, I can sing.
33:52I can dance.
33:54I can tell people that I love them.
33:56I can do a show about love.
33:58Could I be loved forever?
34:00You know, could you love someone else forever?
34:03Are you lovable?
34:05Then I have to say, the show has been an incredible, sorry, when I go out there on that stage to be Mr. Romantic,
34:17because it feels like this sort of holy humanist, you know, mission that I'm on.
34:28Testo Okroce, or Heads or Tails.
34:31One of my latest films that hasn't even come out yet, I don't think at this point, is called Testo Okroce, and that's Italian for Heads or Tails.
34:42And it's a spaghetti western kind of that takes place in Italy in the 1800s.
34:47And in it, I play Buffalo Bill Cody, the real Buffalo Bill Cody, who had this crazy Wild West show that created, in many ways, created all of the myths of the American West.
34:59And he took the show for real to Italy four different times, in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
35:07I always wondered, why is it that Italians all of a sudden got into westerns?
35:13Where the hell did that come from?
35:15Where did the, why would you make a spaghetti western in the first place, even in the heyday of those movies?
35:20And I realized it all comes back to Buffalo Bill Cody, so I was like, wow, that is fascinating, that's how it happened, you know?
35:28It was a really fun character to play, he's a real P.T. Barnum kind of character, you know, he's just selling, selling this story,
35:35because he had a real gift for like telling people what they wanted to hear about themselves.
35:40And if you look for at all, he's like, oh, these are real gifts.
35:58And what's the only thing that you're like?
36:00It's not as old!
36:02But thatromagneticreated offended decidedly accomplished, he was wow!
36:08Amazing.
36:09ediated, rewardediedz Bernie, he was wise.
Recommended
2:00
|
Up next
1:55:23
1:10
2:01
1:55:23
10:39
35:19
2:08