FRED Entertainment

By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

You have to see this film. You just have to.

One of the things I keep coming back to is that Steve in this movie is a lot like Charles Bovary in “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert. They’re cuckolded, emotionally beaten yet the two of them share that sense of ignorance that makes them endure. Steve Coogan’s turn as a teacher who is inspired more by the thought of succeeding than the actual succeeding itself makes for a few moments where you’re just pulling for the guy who needs to taste a little bit of triumph. However, it wouldn’t be a comedy if he actually did so it is his continual downward spiral of bad decision after bad decision that makes this not only funny but poignant in that you wonder if he will ever rise above the odds that seem inexorably against him.

And that’s what makes this movie so vital for people to see themselves. It’s a movie filled with diametric opposites that add to the film’s greater comment on the movies we’ve all seen where the inspirational teacher is the one who brings order to chaos. It’s Steve who brings chaos and he’s wickedly sharp about where to draw the line between believability and complete farce. Dana Marschz is a consummate positive thinker who genuinely believes in the world around him and it’s a story filled with the dark truth about how smart and resourceful students really are, teachers always seem to be the primary fount of inspiration in these films, and how he gets caught up in his own psychological issues to put on the one movie musical where you will honestly be humming the soundtrack on the way out.

I know a lot has been made of Steve Coogan’s “almost there”-ness here in the States, his brilliance seemingly ignored by everyone with a modicum of influence, but it’s going to be how consistently be funny that will allow people to feel this man’s power as a comic performer who deserves a lot more than he’s been given. Thankfully, HAMLET 2 is all Steve’s to helm and he does so with the kind of orchestration that should have him in more prominent projects. Aside from all that, the man does have a nice ass.

I met up with Steve the morning after the HAMLET 2 screening at the San Diego Comic-Con and he was thankfully introspective about the work he conducted on the film.

HAMLET 2 opens today.

STEVE COOGAN: I heard the reaction was really good.

CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Yes. loved the movie. I didn’t know what to expect but that’s not what I was expecting.

COOGAN: Oh good. Great.

CS: It seems like it’s a chance for you to do what you have done in England for so long. What was your reaction when you got the script and saw what you would be able to do with Dana?

COOGAN: Well, being on the sidelines of the movie industry here, scripts come my way, I’m pretty low down, but I’m on that list”¦

[Laughs]

So scripts come my way and sometimes they are formulatic and they don’t have any heart or backbone or have no attitude ““ they are hacky. And this one came along and it had a real ““ felt like someone had written it from the gut themselves. The voice of the writing was authentic and it made me laugh in a way ““ and I read a lot of scripts and I write comedy so I think I’m a pretty tough audience ““ it made me laugh in a real fresh way.

It also wasn’t just cynical ““ it was smart and edgy but there’s a little bit of love in there too. I’ve always been a fan of Pam’s writing and I love South Park and Teen America and read other scripts she’s written and I met up with her and was very keen to get the script off the ground. The studios passed on it because they couldn’t see how it could work or who would be right for the part so it was a privately financed movie. That was the only way to get it going because it’s not easy to pitch the movie in one light. It’s hard to describe. People would say, ” What’s it like, an inspiration teacher movie? But there’s laughing. It’s called HAMLET 2. Is it serious? Is it like Hamlet?” And I would say, “Not really, no.” So it’s a tough one. The only thing that makes the movie work is for people to go and see it and tell other people about it. That’s the only way it’s going to work.

CS: Right. And it’s absolutely something that lends itself ““ it’s got Pam’s sensibility, it’s got that cynical edge – but you’re right and I think one of the things that ““ leading all the way to that final moment when the kids actually put on Hamlet 2 it’s one movie. But, honestly, it was that one moment when Dana ““ the triumphant moment when he says he forgives his own father that it becomes something else entirely but was always there. I think that had one of the most genuine moments I had ever seen in a comedy. Did that come though on the page, that one part that brings everything back?

COOGAN: Yeah. It was salvation but not in a ““ it’s very difficult to do those things in both a comical to make you laugh but also touch you a little and you can’t do it all the time but there are moments when you can do it and it’s hard but, yes, it did come through on the page and I felt like I wanted to do that character.

I had a take on it.

And Andy, Pam and I talked regularly and hung out and talked about all this stuff ““ about our attitude to what’s funny and we just felt very in sync ““ not the cliché of doing things and following your gut instinct. What was great about this is that it was not run by committee ““ it was privately financed ““ no one saying change this, change that and because of that, the film is an authentic voice and not the result of marketing consultants establishing or instilling what’s going to make the movie work. So, it’s just got a feeling of genuine authenticity.

And still has edge, and takes risk, and sail close to the wind.

CS: One of the things about Dana is that he seems ““ and that’s other thing about this movie too is that Dana could be almost be a foppish kind of man but the way you played him you root for him ““ you feel kind of bad for him ““ he’s given up alcohol so you obviously have that back story there ““ you feel genuinely for this man who seems to be trying and trying and nothing is working in his life. How did you want to get that across? When you got the script and this Dana is failing ““ a failed actor, can’t even do high school drama right, when you saw it how did you”¦

COOGAN: What you see is someone who believes in himself ““ someone who is passionate someone – who’s a bit of an ass but not selfish, not cynical, he really believes in something and in that kind of postmodern world it’s very fashionable to blame everything else but he has this, in some ways, a little bit of naivete but another way”¦belief. He has moments of self-doubt but he believes in art, believes in trying to make people’s lives better.

Well, you can imagine, you can’t see it in the film, you see the head teacher but ““ you imagine that the head teacher is kind of cynical, obviously living in a world where they are just servicing these kind of students, not really inspiring them and he’s trying to inspire them so, however bad his judgment is, and it’s true of his character and true of the movie, there is kind of a ““ he has some sort of a vision, however, skewed or distorted it is. At least he has some idea and some passion and in a way, my theory was ““ I said to Andy, “How will you make the script that people believe that this play from this guy who is a bit of a buffoon? How are they going to believe that this play will become successful?” And he said it’s not really the concept of the play, it’s the fact that it’s done with passion by people who are passion about it – students who are inspired to give the best performances – that itself is just life enhancing. People can be charmed by the sheer chutzpa of something and it just enhances your life having seen it a tiny bit. I think that’s true of the movie and the play within the movie. You can believe that it goes on to become a success.

CS: I absolutely agree. I think the Gay Men’s Choir of Tucson ““ that was a brilliant musical choice when they were actually singing, Someone Saved My Life Tonight. It was utterly brilliant.

COOGAN: When I watched it the first time I thought something you don’t feel when you are making because it all has to be pieced together…This was something ““ you kind of have to stay with the movie because first you really have to find your feet and once it starts motoring, then you are with it and it does build. When I watched it I felt like I really feel for this guy and this strange bizarre mutant play. It touched me. I thought it worked.

CS: The musical numbers ““ when you saw what you would be doing – the very titles of the songs…

COOGAN: Again, I was a little nervous some of these songs like Raped in the Face“¦.

[Laughs]

Rock Me Sexy Jesus…you have to ““ when you do comedy that is risqué there is a danger that comedy can just be ““ “Look at me, look at me, trying to be offensive.” Almost like adolescent type of comedy. “Get a load of me!” That can be ““ sometimes people who are starting out in comedy or who have the type of comedy that has the potential to be offensive but manages to get the balance right the mistake they make is, “Oh yeah, it’s about pissing people off.” No, it’s not. But when I read it I thought”¦that concerned me but I know enough that to do good comedy ““ comedy that is ambitious you have to be slightly scared by it. When you look at it crazily, like I do, you have to have a little bit of fear because if you’re not worried about it, then chances are you are not really being bold. You have to feel slightly scared. Which I was. But I also knew that if you go forward and run across the hot coals concentrating, as it were, and focusing, then you can come out on a level that is less offensive. So, what should be offensive ends up not being offensive.

CS: And to that point, one of the things that has made you so recognizable outside of America is your British comedy. Is there really a subtle difference between the comedies between American and British? Especially with Dana as you did this ““ are there sensibilities that you have to be aware of that American audiences respond to?

COOGAN: Yes, I think so, yeah. I think ““ only subtle ones. I think in the sense that American audiences want to be reassured or given elevation emotionally in the comedies they watch and the characters they like. British are more predicated to losers and failures. We like failures. The British are often more cynical audiences. They tend to shy away from sentiment because they see it as a weakness or morkish or unrealistic or a rose-tinted view. That’s my observation. America is such a huge, huge, the USA is a huge nation ““ so many different tastes there is room for all kinds of comedy. Just by facts of numbers the amount of people in America, the niche taste, the people that want that can be sustained because there are enough people to make economic sense. Programs like Curb Your Enthusiasm can sustain itself.

But I think just the shear facts of numbers it’s very disparate. You just can’t make generalizations. It’s easy to make a generalization about British comedy because it’s smaller. The taste seems to be a bit more uniform. Over here, people would say “American comedy is not as good as our comedy” but I would say, “Hold on a second.” There is Larry Sanders of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld”¦consistently good quality ““ even Friends ““ consistently good quality stuff that manages to be both broad ““ I look at South Park, Family Guy”¦they are knocking it out of the park.

So, like I say the Americans are more professional about it. There is more structure and is more of a business. But that business can produce some really exciting comedy. In Britain, there are a few maverick people who find their voice, find a way for their comedy to come through.

CS: Who are some of the leading edge guys in Britain?

COOGAN: Simon Pegg who is here in town is a good friend of mine. Simon supported me when I did my last live tour; he was my support act. He filled in on stage while I was getting changed.

CS: Really?

COOGAN: Yeah. If you Google “Steve Coogan Live” you might find some stuff that Simon and I did together.

And then he went bang. But Simon is someone I worked a lot with about 10 years ago and we share ““ he’s someone who can make me laugh ““ those are the kind of people who can just make you laugh a lot. Sometimes when you meet someone you respect creatively, there’s kind of a competitive edge but what it means is it’s the nicest kind of competition because you both are trying to see who can make the other one laugh the most.

And you can do things ““ you can indulge in the kind of taboo comedy that you couldn’t really do publicly because you are doing it in a way that you both understand the sophistication and know exactly where the other person is coming from because you know the mechanics. Anyway, he’s a person that is really great. And, there’s Sasha Baron Cohen ““ all these guys I’ve known for a few years. Although I came along a little before they did in the UK. I’m playing catch up with them now.

CS: And I know we only have a couple minutes left but the last question I really have ““ when people see the movie, especially the way when you read the script, how does Dana change from the beginning where he starts to the end ““ how does he come out through the other side?

COOGAN: I don’t think he really does change a lot to be honest with you. I think everyone else changes. It’s everyone else ““ he doesn’t become enlightened or change his attitude ““ he stays pretty much true and pure to what he believes in the first place. It was the doubters who fell in line with him. I think he’s just vindicated. Maybe he’s lost some of his neurosis because he finally gets approval. But what’s nice is that however much people knock him or set him back he doesn’t change. He stays true to who he is. Not a lot I guess.

By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

True story. I took a girl on a date to see THREESOME. Now, for those among you who would give me the benefit of the doubt and think this was an honest mistake if I didn’t know what I was getting into should actually not give me said doubt. I had seen the movie the week prior and thought it was actually a funny, warm, careful examination of self-discovery at a time when it seems like so many of the jokes people make that start “When I was in college…” actually come from. I still value a lot of what the movie was about and what it ultimately had to say. Besides that, the soundtrack was just manna from heaven in the form of a compact disc; where else could you hear U2 mixed in with some Bryan Ferry, New Order, Apache Indian (a sweet track) and one of the greatest songs ever put to CD, The The’s “This Was The Day”? Yeah, I guess the REALITY BITES soundtrack was pretty damn close but Andrew’s film, however, had a little something extra to day about the lives of young people who were caught in that time in their lives when it wasn’t about a career as it was just finding a path that led to where you wanted to go.

Needless to say, and I wish I were kidding, after seeing the movie I think the girl pegged me for a perv. Que sera, sera.

On the other side of that spectrum you have Pam Brady. Extracting what part she had in making SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER & UNCUT, along with TEAM AMERICA and many other co-writer credits she has, so sharp is a moot point. Pam, to her credit, knows how to take a subject that needs to be dressed down, stripped, tar and feathered and sent on its way with the kind of pop sensibility others simply can’t manage to do on their own. The reason why South Park has lasted as long as it has is because everyone involved in producing the show know how to make a show that is at once a piece of entertainment and a sly switchblade of social commentary that manages to stay just beneath the veneer of a jolly cartoon show.

HAMLET 2 marries together the best elements of Andrew Fleming’s directorial skills and Pam’s ability to take a situation an imbue it with a subversive element that is not always readily obvious. From the heart that Steve Coogan gives to the hapless teacher who means so well but is completely, throughly ill-equipped to do anything but mess his own life up to the kids who don’t necessarily fit the archetype of rising above their lot in life the film is simply a wonderful commentary on horrible teacher/student pictures and what it really means to finally face the one thing that has held one man back for so long. Besides, where else can you see Jesus re-enact the KARATE KID crane kick while dancing to a song that you absolutely, positively won’t be able to get out of your head.
HAMLET 2 opens this Friday, August 22nd.

CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I saw it last night and loved it. Loved the movie. I think it already was a good movie, but I was just telling Steve [Coogan] that what I thought really brought the movie together was The Gay Men’s Chorus of Tucson singing “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” I think that was a pivotal point where everything is brought together. When you two were scripting it out, blocking it out, how did you get to that point? Did you have an idea to begin with and how did it eventually had get to that moment?

ANDREW FLEMING: That song, is the one. The play wasn’t really fleshed out. That song was always in the script from the very first draft

PAM BRADY: Yeah.

CS: Really?

BRADY: But it’s way more emotional. You already knew it was going to be emotional but it seems like a joke. It seems like it would be funny for these guys to sing this. It kinda hits home.

CS: I was laughing but I got those little hairs on my arms standing up as I realized how important that scene was.

FLEMING: It’s a great song. And the words are like a poem about “¦..being near suicide from being in a bad relationship and breaking out of it by somebody leaving and that it can save somebody’s life. It wasn’t a joke but I don’t know why that song is so good.

I always love that thing about music ““ you can do all the legwork but you need the right piece of music to make you feel the right thing at the right time, at the right moment. Music is important. It really is.

CS: In scripting out Dana, he seems like a guy who would be almost easy to make stereotyped ““ failed actor, failed teacher ““ what was important to you when you wrote it out to not make him a hackneyed kind of character?

BRADY: We always love delusional characters because we truly love them. I don’t think there was ever any kind of superior feeling. I feel like everyone can kind of get in touch with that part of themselves that feels like they are just not going to make it and feel like a failure but put themselves up and motor through it. So I think the most important part was to never judge him as a character. We always truly pull for him. Know what I mean?

CS: Yes, exactly.

BRADY: We are trying to tell a story about someone we actually love as a character and then look at what happens to this guy.

FLEMING: And then putting on this play, everybody has something they are trying to do and they feel like everybody is against them. Obstacles are thrown in the way and you are just trying to pull through and it’s just chaos. And that play becomes ““ I remember feeling like that making the movie. Like, “You idiot”¦.Get everybody on board!”

[Laughs]

BRADY: Yes, and I think everybody has the feeling where you sort of want to be cool and you sort of know ““ like you. You know how you want this interview to go and how you want it to come across but it probably isn’t but we sort of know how to play it a little bit ““ I think that feeling is a universal feeling. I don’t think it’s just me or Andy.

FLEMING: But it was a reaction to “Let’s do a movie about a teacher ““ What are other teacher movies?” and we were going down this list ““ there actually are some very good ones like BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, TO SIR WITH LOVE. Those are good but it gets worse from there. Some of them are fine movies but there was always like the sense of self-satisfaction or superiority ““ the teacher is there to teach and it’s like that’s really not how it works. The teacher is this person in the room and they are a human beings and they are not inherently superior to their students.

There was always this sanctimony to those characters.

BRADY: Yeah. And also that great white hope kind of feeling that we’re going to go into the inner-city school and jack up some kids against the locker to get through to them.

FLEMING: And teach those ethnics a thing or two.

BRADY: That’s why we wanted to make sure that Octavio [Joseph Julian Soria] was going to be brown because he was so incredibly high achieving. It’s insulting how it’s presented in movies.

FLEMING: And the kids are always “types.” And you just peg them and that’s all who they are. And we just wanted to come up with a fresh batch of who those kids are. We actually did a pilot, but it didn’t get picked up, and it was set in high school and we were shooting in Ventura and all of our characters ““ these cute skinny white kids in faux thrift store gear ““ it was actually all from Barney’s. Really adorable.

BRADY: Very bright colors.

FLEMING: And they were all done up. A cute bunch of kids but the real kids of the school where we were shooting were all wearing blue and black and all had this kind of attitude. It was like, “Why are we making a movie about them?” They are more interesting and is the reality. Let’s get something going about those kids.

CS: So it’s set in Tucson ““ I’m from Phoenix.

FLEMING: Phoenix is a big city ““ a big interesting city. Tucson is not.

CS: The idea of place ““ that this is where dreams go to die.

[Laughs]
BRADY: Does sound rougher when you say it.

CS: Just speaking from experience. These kids they seem a little bit different ““ like you said ““ high achieving. “We’re going to put it on the big play, things are going to go well…” and so speaking about Steve it was that fine line of keeping the “Hey, look at me…I’m putting on a play about Jesus in Hamlet 2!” It’s a thin line of being subversive but not being obnoxious about it. Was that a problem? Was it effortless to know where that line was or was it back and forth?

FLEMING: I think we were trying to go for obnoxious.

[Laughs]

No everything’s a fine line. I think for us it’s between silliness and sadness or lightness and darkness or something reassuring and heartwarming and something disturbing. Being in the netherworld between those two things is always of interest to us.

BRADY: And part of the songs too like RAPED IN THE FACE ““ it’s like, “What is the worst thing he could sing right now to this group?” And it’s not deliberately set out to be shocking but we sort of wanted to see how far we could push it. If we were in high school and we saw our teacher was getting in touch with his inner self and wrote a song about being raped in the face that would be pretty shocking. But it all works and it only works because the way he plays it and Andy directed it you feel it’s real. You feel like this guy exists. If he was a joke, it wouldn’t matter.

FLEMING: It comes from something he said. Some inner feeling he had and it’s an honest image. It’s coming from something he really feels.

It’s an inappropriate bunch of words to use around minors, of course, but it’s real.

CS: You’re right. In some ways you are pulling for Dana and he’s such a miserable man ““ one after another, failed this, failed that, but on the other hand he’s someone you genuinely try to root for, he’s trying to quit drinking and he genuinely cares about trying to make a difference. He ends up just getting shafted every which way. So where did you guys say ““ “We got this guy, we want to make him a loveable loser” – but at the end how do you want people to see Dana ““ after the play is done ““ how did you want the audience to look at him ““ like, “Ah, he’s been vindicated”?

FLEMING: No, I mean he’s had some kind of affirmation and it’s actually very important to us in that last scene he’s still a bit of a boob and he’s still peeing in the sink.

[Laughs]

And he’s not really paying attention to what people are saying about protestors and the meaning of being on Broadway and the message. He’s still a bit of an ass but he’s a little happier than he was.

BRADY: And the fact that that the play becomes about his very destructive relationship with his father and it’s sort of like that he faced that straight on in the only way he knows how and it’s raw and the feelings are raw it’s almost that that’s what the movie is about ““ if you can face it down, then you can overcome it.

Even if you have no talent.

CS: It is so cathartic at the end when they were singing that song ““ what pulls it all together is that he’s confronted it. It was like, “I was laughing just moments ago and here’s this great moment that just shines right through.” Honestly, I didn’t get it until that moment happens and then I get it. Hamlet ““ the father, the ghost.

BRADY: He was haunted by his father.

CS: So, what came first, Hamlet or Jesus?

BRADY: That’s a good question.

FLEMING: I think there was always some talk about Jesus and Jesus being hot”¦.

[Laughs]

CS: It’s the truth. Those abs!

FLEMING: Jesus has been sexualized throughout the millennium.

BRADY: Yeah. I was raised Catholic and he’s up on that cross and it’s no accident that he’s cut, like a swimmer.

CS: Describe the collaborative process when you guys came together. Day one when you started to write it out ““ what was that like ““ back and forth? Pam, did you have the idea?

BRADY: Oh yeah, it was all me.

[Laughs]

FLEMING: We were already working together so we just said “Let’s write a script” and went through it step by step and it was a shared madness.

BRADY: It’s true. I was actually cleaning out Andy’s gutters doing some odd job and he said, “Hey, do you want to come in here?”

But we started with the character first. It all started with the character. We wanted to find the guy that you would feel the most sorry for.

FLEMING: Which is good. In the past we told stories and started with structure and then found the character but we built everything around who this guy is, which made it go better and easier and took our time, which is really good. We didn’t have any deadline ““ kept going back to it because we enjoyed it.

CS: You obviously did because you got someone to independently finance it. You’ve worked with major studios ““ Paramount, what have you ““ What made you think you were going to take this one privately and do something else with it?

FLEMING: I think we were feeling adrift and we did set it up briefly at New Line. It was mostly to give us a sense of self worth.

BRADY: I know. That’s true.

FLEMING: We could have begged.

BRADY: Just option it for six months.

FLEMING: Which they did and nothing happened and I think we were very lucky we didn’t make it there because we would have gotten caught in a maelstrom.

BRADY: We did it for fun. That’s part of the story ““ that we enjoyed it and I think when we work together (we did two pilots together) it’s so much fun except that you keep getting these questions all the time like, ” Why would he do that?” And sometimes with comedy I don’t know. You can’t go to meetings and just defend everything.

FLEMING: We instinctively, for no logical reason, just realized later that that was a good idea after the fact. We only made HAMLET 2 because it made us laugh.

BRADY: And with a 2 to make it look like LETHAL WEAPON. That’s the worst idea.

FLEMING: And we had to go like, ” Wait, what happens in Hamlet?” We actually didn’t do the homework we should have.

BRADY: I actually watched the Mel Gibson version of it.

FLEMING: But it turned out to be the perfect play to use. It wasn’t even until the last minute we thought, “Let’s take all these characters and undue the tragedy?” ““ That evolved much later.

BRADY: But it’s normally towards the end of the process that you realize what you are writing about. What you are trying to say. And the idea that culturally we are taught that everything can be worked through with therapy.

FLEMING: The Oprah of it all.

BRADY: But in a way that actually ended up being true with us.

FLEMING: That’s what I love about that.

BRADY: Making fun of it.

FLEMING: It really is frustrating watching Hamlet. It’s like, “Why doesn’t he just get his shit together and work though his stuff?”

BRADY: Hamlet 1 wouldn’t be a hit today I don’t think. I don’t think the audiences are up for that.

CS: Although if he was the Dark Knight ““ if it was Batman – it probably could work.

BRADY: Maybe Christian Bale can play him.

FLEMING: Christian Bale can play anything.

[Pam Laughs]

BRADY: I was going to say something rude but I didn’t. Laughs. I held back because it’s Sunday. The Lord’s day.

FLEMING: Be nice. We’re being recorded.

CS: Looking back on it, you have the finished product – you’ve now seen it with audiences – how do you two look at what you’ve done and what you put on the screen? What kind of distance do you have ““ you know, is it thrilling from a personal standpoint in that “We’ve done something that we love and this is what we have to show for it”?

FLEMING: Basically it’s our way of saying, “Screw you world.”

BRADY: How funny. I thought you would say it’s a love letter to the world.

[Laughs]

BRADY: It’s both. Take that.

FLEMING: It’s fun. It’s a lot of work to make a movie and at the end of it when people are laughing and telling you that they like it it feels good. There is no denying that.

BRADY: It fills up all the empty places.

By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

What’s in a place?

Many times it’s just a perfunctory element tossed in just for s and giggles but in MY BOYS, the television series on TBS, being a part of Chicago’s environment seems integral to making the story of a female sports columnist and the men in her life who define her life as a working woman. While I wouldn’t suppose that Chicago is one of the only defining elements of this series MY BOYS is a step above many of the weaker sitcoms in that the cast is exceptionally adept at, ironically enough, not being sitcom punchlines. There are real elements such as the lead, PJ (Jordana Spiro). She’s not window dressing, she’s not just a pretty face in a crowd of other actresses but rather, if I could make a comparison, she’s like Maura Tierney’s character in NEWSRADIO. PJ’s smart and has enough wherewithal that you would hope many other women would posses.

And then there’s Kyle Howard. The guy does not know the meaning of the words “sit on your hands.” As an actor in the Hollywood system for more than a decade, and only being 30, the man has made the transition from young actor to mature actor without the series of burnouts, bouts in rehab or paparazzi run-ins that seems to define what it means to be young in a town that wants to chew ’em up and spit ’em out. He’s incredibly grounded in his approach to his job as an actor and, as you read what he has to say about working as one, he’s got an outlook that, frankly, I don’t know if I would be able to posses; I would be given to feelings of constant paranoia and despair, moving from acting job to the next, but that’s why I keep my paranoia and despair locked in me as a writer.

Apart from also being funny, he’s got a great technical eye for what has made this series a winner for TBS and why he feels so safe in the hands of Betsy Thomas. He also deserves credit for being a Cubs fan, that instantly gets him a free pass for anything he does ever again from me, but deserves the most credit for being honest about the series and where he sees himself going.

MY BOYS airs on TBS, Thursdays, 9:30/8:30 Central

CHRISTOPHER STIPP: One of the first things I wanted to start off with is this ““ I didn’t realize until I looked into it is that this is actually TBS’s really first foray into original programming.

KYLE HOWARD: Yes, it was. The year that we did our pilot it was us and Ten Items or Less which is their sort of improv sketch show that they have. But the two of those were, as far as I know, their first run at that and are both still going at this point. That’s pretty exciting.

CS: But it must have been interesting from a taking-a-job sort of standpoint that here comes this opportunity where the water has been untested for TBS ““ But from a practical standpoint do you share studio space with anybody or did they build a whole new studio just to accommodate what your production?

HOWARD: No. We just, Sony, the studio behind the show, rents space from Paramount mainly because they have a back lot there that we try to sell the whole Chicago thing so it wasn’t anything to build a studio for us or anything like that. But it was sort of new territory for them.

CS: And for the show itself, it’s ostensibly set in Chicago and do you do exteriors here in Chicago?

HOWARD: Yes, we have in the past. We didn’t this season actually but the previous two episodes we came out there and did our finale of our first run ““ the Wrigley Field episode that was just so fun. We spent the whole day there and running around the field and playing catch in the outfield and it was amazing.

CS: Really?

HOWARD: Then we came in there again at the end of our second chunk of episodes and we did pieces from maybe three or four different episodes ““ we shot at the Sears Tower and the Art Institute, Oak Street Beach and just sort of sprinkled in there throughout and it really helps to just authenticate things a little bit. The majority of stuff is at her [PJ’s] apartment or at the bar or at our regular weekly sets but just to have that stuff in there here and there really legitimizes that whole Chicago thing that we are tying to sell and I think people in Chicago appreciate that too. They appreciate all the references that we make to restaurants and cross streets and whatever. I think they appreciates seeing the city from time to time too.

CS: Was it the writers ““ or the guys who came up with it or women who came up with it, was it their idea or were they from Chicago or any reason why, ultimately, they wanted to focus on Chicago?

HOWARD: Yes, Betsy Thomas who created it, went to school there. She went to Northwestern and a bunch of the other writers on our staff went there as well. It’s really cool ““ our whole writing staff ““ a whole bunch of them are Betsy’s old friends from back in the day ““ part of this sort of group we are portraying ““ in fact the Brendan character in the show is directly based on one of our writers Brendan Smith who has been a friend of Betsy’s forever. I think they even shared an apartment for a short time. PJ’s character is based on Betsy’s life so all of that stuff is really cool too. Just knowing that a lot of the stuff we do is coming out of real experiences they’ve had or that they had way back in the day or whatever so we end us just sitting around and hearing a lot of those stories which is kind of cool but Betsy’s ““ the short answer is yes, she’s from Detroit but then went to college to Chicago for school and met a bunch of those guys there and that’s where that came from.

CS: And for you being on the series represents steady work. Is this the longest string, so far, of one constant job? Looking over your resume I see a lot of one episode performances”¦

[Laughs]

HOWARD: Yes, I think I just passed my record of how many episodes I’ve done on one show ““ in fact there was a kind of funny story ““ when we did this pilot I met everybody, met Jordana and I apologized to all of them in advance and just explained to them that I’ve done a lot of pilots and a lot of them have been picked up but not very many of them have run very long and I just said I think I’m kinda cursed and if this goes down I take full responsibility and they are all like “No, no, don’t worry about it…We’re going to break the streak” and so far we have. It’s not like we’ve been on the air for years and years but we’ve been doing it since we’ve done the pilot which has been two years now and I think we’ve done 30 ““ 31 episodes or something like that. So, that’s great for me given my track record. I’m definitely doing alright.

CS: Seriously, for just your mental health that must be nice.

HOWARD: Yes, totally. That’s every actors thing is a little bit of stability goes a long way and the fact is we never really have it ““ just like right now we finished work last week and the show is on now all summer but we don’t know if we’re picked up again and won’t know until September so once again we’re sitting around sort of wondering if we have a job or not. It’s just sort of one of those things you have to accept and I’ve been doing this since I was a kid and I’m pretty used to the routine of it all so I try not to get too worked up over it. If I had my choice of course I really like this particular job and really like the people and I would be happy to keep doing it for a while.

CS: Fourteen years by my adding you’ve been doing this ““ and I have to wonder as a working actor, people obviously probably would see you on screen and think that he’s making millions because I see him on television ““ what’s it like for you, knowing what I do about professional working actors who need jobs just to pay for the rent? I would imagine you have some kind of perspective based on the 14 years you’ve spent in this business.

HOWARD: Well, it’s weird, when I started out, I wasn’t a little kid, I was 16 years old, but I still lived at home and stuff was taken care of. My parents prepared me and I had a place to stay and I had food on the table. When I started doing it, it was just more or less a hobby for me. Know what I mean?

CS: Right.

HOWARD: And then, at a certain point without me even realizing it because I just kept doing it steadily until I was an adult at a certain point I realized it had become my career and become my livelihood and I think that’s a nice way to transition into it because I never felt a lot of pressure to survive and to work and to get a job. Every actor has a little bit of that thing like “Oh wow, it would be nice to get this job” or that job or be nice to get some work by the end of the year or whatever it is but I guess I’ve just always sort of trained myself to have a more relaxed sort of feel about it, and like I said, transitioning into it from being a kid it was just already what I did ““ that made it easier.

I kind of believe that the more stress or desperation that you put on something the sort of opposite effect it can have so I just do my best to kind of think, it’s been fine up until now and it will continue to be fine. If this keeps going, great, and if it doesn’t then I have to find the next thing.

CS: That seems so realistic in a town that is filled with desperation ““ people scrambling to find the next thing to do. A project like this ““ it’s a great show ““ it must be nice to throttle that back a little and say “You know what, it’s been a good two years…” and being ravenous about it.

HOWARD: Absolutely. It’s been a treat for me to not have to do the whole pilot season thing the last two years. That’s always just sort of a game in and of itself. It’s nice to just see my friends, reading pilots and going to pilots ““ even if we’re not working on the show at the time I just know it’s coming back and it’s nice to sit back and skip that for a couple years.

CS: And on the subject of MY BOYS ““ it centers around PJ and it’s been described as SEX IN THE CITY with dudes ““ what initially attracted you to the series?

HOWARD: The thing that initially attracted me was Betsy because I had done a show with her a few years prior to this. Another comedy she created for the WB, RUN OF THE HOUSE, and it was also sort of loosely based on her family life and I had a blast doing that and I thought then that she was a great writer and a great boss. She’s such a nice personality to have around at work everyday. She always has a real clear idea of what she wants and she’s just goes about everything in such a nice and friendly and productive sort of way and that trickles down throughout the rest of the crew that works on the show and on the cast.

So anyway, I had a great experience with her on that and then I heard that she had a new pilot but I hadn’t read it yet. My manager sent it to me. They were going to bring me in for this Bobby role and I read it and I thought it was great ““ it was funny, it was real but wasn’t totally convinced that I was the Bobby character because I read him as the sort of leading man ““ love interest type of hunky guy that you read in almost every pilot that you read and I’m just wasn’t convinced that I was that guy. I’m usually ““ I tend to like more character-y kind of guy ““ the kooky best friend or quirky love interest ““ you know what I mean? And I had this conversation with Betsy and she said “Yeah, I had the same thought but we’re not making a soap opera here ““ we’re not making one of those shows with beautiful people playing those formulatic roles ““ we’re going to do something real here and something relatable and something sweet” so I came in and ended up reading with Jordan and we had great chemistry together and met with the studio and the network and ended up getting it and at the end of the day I was thrilled. I was convinced that I was right for it and could do it. Then I was very excited about it.

CS: One of the things about the program, the way I see it is that it’s different. First of all it’s a very fresh way to approach something like this where you see a lot of ““ for better or worse ““ on primetime network shows, sitcoms that are just that – pretty people. THE HILLS, LAGUNA BEACH, if you are not a 10 they are not interested. It’s interesting to hear that the writing here was all about creating something that was not necessarily about models and more about characters themselves so what’s it been like over the two years to see where you signed on the dotted line saying “Yes, I’m going to start doing this” and then to see how your character has progressed over the two years?

HOWARD: I really can’t complain about any of that. Like I said, in the past my sort of normal thing is a little more character-y…a little more goofy than Bobby is on this show and every once in a while I feel like I’m sort of the straight guy of the group because a bunch of the other guys on the show are very broad and very big and hilarious and I crack up at work all day watching them and I crack up seeing them on the show and occasionally I’m like, “Give me more jokes ““ I want the jokes.” But really, I can’t complain. I’ve had a lot of fun with the character. I’ve had so much fun getting to know everybody else. It kind of like the luck of the draw situations when you go to cast a show. None of us ever met one another except I met Jordana when we read together at one of our auditions but other than that I hadn’t met anyone until our first table read. So, who’s to say that these people you are throwing in a room together are going to click and have chemistry on screen ““ which we all do ““ and on top of that, who’s to say that we’re going to click as people and become friends and generally like to be around each other ““ which we do. So with all of that, I feel super lucky.

CS: In your years of doing pilots and being on television and being part of a series, do you ever find that the network tries to get too involved with the way ““ like you said, everyone has this natural chemistry with one another ““ has there ever been a time when there were too many fingers in the pot trying to force things just simply for ratings or what might look good on television?

HOWARD: Sure. I think that’s a danger on almost every television show out there. There are so many people involved ““ so many writers, so many producers, and so many people at the network who essentially have the final say on everything. That was one of the things that I had talked to Betsy about before we did the pilot because I have never done the cable thing before and I expressed a sort of concern to her “What’s with TBS? They’ve never done original programming before. What do I expect from that? What am I getting into?” ““ that whole thing. And she said “Kyle, look, I have the same questions” because she hadn’t done a cable show before either and she said, “All I can tell you is up to this point it’s been such a treat dealing with them as a network for that very reason.” From the beginning I think I felt so much less pressure from them and so much less of them trying to sort of distort this show she had brought them and she felt they were really giving her a chance to make the show that she wrote. That said, there is always notes from the network and there is always going to be and there’s always several people with several different opinions and that’s just sort of the politics with any show.

But I do think we are lucky at TBS to have a way-scaled down version of that ““ if you would compare it to situations at some of the bigger networks.

CS: Looking at it now, you’ve said the difference between basic cable and network and looking at your resume over the 14 years, is it really a big difference when you walk into work in the morning? Does it feel any different than network vs. cable? TBS vs. NBC or ABC, or anything like that?

HOWARD: To me it really doesn’t. As actors we don’t really deal with the network very much. There are always a couple people from the network at our table reads and we see them at parties and press things but for the most part, it’s really the writers that deal with that and have that sort of constant influence so, no, it’s not something I’m normally aware of that presence there as an actor just because we are not directly influenced by them as the producers and writers.

CS: If I had just one more question to ask it would be, I’m awfully impressed looking over and seeing how much work you have done in the past ““ it’s more than a lot of people could say for themselves when you see many other actors trying to make a go for it as a living. Where do you see where you’ve been the last 14 and where do you hope things go in the next few for your career?

HOWARD: I feel super lucky to have stayed this busy as I’ve had and, yes, my first goal would be to continue that. I just like to work and obviously on things that I’m proud of and that I like the people on and whatever and I’ve also been very lucky with that and have had very few bad experiences. I just like to be busy and I like to act so my main goal is to just to continue with that. For the last couple years I’ve started writing some and I’ve started directing a little bit and both of those things are things that I sort of want to explore more and pursue more in the future but I don’t have a real pressure on either of those things. As boring as it sounds, I just want to stay steady and keep going as it’s been.

CS: One more side note: I know what the answer will be but I’m going to ask it anyway ““ I saw that you are not a huge sports fan but being from Chicago and seeing how this interview is taking place in Chicago right now, is it true that you are a Cubs fan because everyone knows, White Sox fans are dirty and smelly and not very well educated.

[Laughs]

HOWARD: I’m totally a Cubs fan. I grew up in a family full of Cubs fans. My mom is from Chicago. My dad went to school in Chicago. Ever since I was a little kid, me and my sister were both diehard Cubs fans. I think she still has the card to the club and everything. We still go back there occasionally, me my mom and my sister went back last fall and went to a game and I’m not your typical sports guy and watch football and that type of stuff but I do love the Cubs ““ that’s been really fun for me and my family to have that tie in with the show ““ they love all the references. It also would be really cool if the Cubs did something amazing this year and we got to write that into the show as well. I think that would be really exciting.