411mania Interviews: Joel McHale
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 04.27.2010
The star of the hit NBC series, Community, speaks with 411mania for an exclusive interview. McHale talks the show's second season, the late night wars, and much more.
Comedian, Joel McHale, formerly of The Soup, is now starring in the runaway NBC hit sitcom, Community. McHale plays Jeff, the disgraced lawyer who enrolls in a local community college with an eccentric student body. Community was recently renewed for a second season and the show will be returning with another 22 episodes later this year. McHale also recently appeared in the Steven Soderbergh movie, The Informant! Earlier this month 411mania caught up with McHale at the Splinter Cell Conviction launch party:
Jeffrey Harris: So what are you doing at the Splinter Cell launch party tonight?
Joel McHale: I'm here for the Splinter Cell launch party.
Jeffrey Harris: Are you a fan of Splinter Cell?
Joel McHale: No, I hate it.
Jeffrey Harris: OK, so did you come along to the bar to have a few drinks?
Joel McHale: . . . Said sarcastically. I love Splinter Cell.
Jeffrey Harris: So what do you think of the new game?
Joel McHale: I love it. I played it for about 5 minutes. It looks amazing.
Jeffrey Harris: So are you a big gamer?
Joel McHale: I am.
Jeffrey Harris: So what is going on with Community is it coming back for a second season?
Joel McHale: It is. It got picked up for 22 episodes.
Jeffrey Harris: So what is it like to be a part of this great, fun show and you got a hilarious ensemble cast?
Joel McHale: God bless you . . . 411mania, God bless you . . . thank you for watching.
Jeffrey Harris: So what's going to happen with Jeff and Britta?
Joel McHale: You'll see. You'll know as things progress. It gets pretty crazy.
Jeffrey Harris: Between you and me, Jeff and Britta is my OTP. My One True Pairing.
Joel McHale: Wow! That is good and bad -- no.
Jeffrey Harris: Are they yours though?
Joel McHale: I refer to our head writer and creator Dan Harmon, our genius . . . I think the character of Jeff that I play, he's learning not to be diabolical.
Jeffrey Harris: At first he's very sort of self-absorbed --
Joel McHale: Yeah.
Jeffrey Harris: But as he interacts with the group, he becomes a better person.
Joel McHale: Well everything has been stripped away from him and he is forced to kind of deal with these human relationships.
Jeffrey Harris: When I first started watching the show, I'm like, "This guy's a jerk!" He's a phony lawyer!
Joel McHale: Yeah.
Jeffrey Harris: It's like why should I like this guy? But then as you see him interact with the other characters, he starts opening up and more and even helping them out like Pierce and Abed. It's almost like the group is coming together as a family.
Joel McHale: Yeah. I mean there's weird little hints that Dan drops in that's like, the guy has not seen his mom in a long time, hasn't told her he's in school. So he's got these hang-ups that he hasn't dealt with. But yeah, these people he would never associate with become his family.
Jeffrey Harris: I'm always impressed when you wear short sleeves because you got a set of guns on you.
Joel McHale: God bless you.
Jeffrey Harris: Do you lift a lot?
Joel McHale: No, I've got a 2 and a 5 year old so I never have time to go to a gym or anything. I don't belong to a gym, but I do a lot of pushups. When I found out I was going to be naked, I started doing a lot of pushups.
Jeffrey Harris: And you got to lift your kids up a lot, right?
Joel McHale: I do a lot of kid lifting.
Jeffrey Harris: So when does shooting start for the next season?
Joel McHale: July 26 is the tentative shoot date.
Jeffrey Harris: Can you divulge anything about the second season?
Joel McHale: What can I tell you? There will be gunplay, I can tell you that. There might be some paintballs. There's going to be men in Dalmatian costumes.
Jeffrey Harris: When you and Pierce played by Chevy Chase were filming the scene for the Spanish class project, where you were supposed to say 5 lines in Spanish and Jeff and Pierce end up doing the whole presentation, did you guys shoot a whole play out?
Joel McHale: No we just get in the costumes and screw around for about 5 minutes and go like, OK we got it, move into the next costume.
Jeffrey Harris: I imagine with a show like that you must improvise a lot of your lines?
Joel McHale: There is a lot of improvising. When you've got people like Ken Jeong, Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Nicole Brown, and of course Chevy Chase and Jim Rash who plays the principal, John Oliver, these sorts of people, they are masters of improv. And like Donald Glover is one of the best improvisers, in one of the best improv groups I've ever seen, Derek. So if you let them go, they will go. And a lot of stuff ends up on the cutting room floor, but some of it makes it in.
Jeffrey Harris: Do they really keep you on your toes?
Joel McHale: Oh well, whenever you perform you got to be on your toes. But honestly, with that caliber of talent, you have to be. If you don't, it will be glaring.
Jeffrey Harris: What's the most outrageous thing that happened on set you never imagined happening?
Joel McHale: Real all out food fight. It's not something that we ever planned on, and when we got to do it, it was like the fulfillment of a childhood dream. I got beamed with everything. You name it. It was in my hair. Oh my gosh, it was as fun as you could imagine. 40 people in an entire food fight.
Jeffrey Harris: Are there any other projects you are working on right now besides Community?
Joel McHale: I'm doing a lot of standup right now. Tons of it coming up. I'm trying to get into movies, so we'll see if they have me.
Jeffrey Harris: When you got into comedy and acting, who were your major inspirations growing up?
Joel McHale: I grew up listening to Bill Cosby. A lot of Bill Cosby and then Richard Pryor. Eddie Murphy for Delirious, there was a lot of that. And then I memorized every show and then every movie they made. And then movies like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were huge and then Woody Allen. I mean, I wore out my Bill Cosby records over and over and over again.
Jeffrey Harris: Now that the show is continuing, do you have any interest in writing an episode or directing an episode in the future?
Joel McHale: We'll see, you know I go in there with a pretty singular purpose which is to try and fulfill this character. And it's long hours and stuff like that, so my main focus is making sure that the Jeff Winger character is real and good and honest to all the stuff that is in his life.
Jeffrey Harris: A lot of people like to poke at NBC and make them the bad guy now.
Joel McHale: Yeah.
Jeffrey Harris: I'm very happy about Community being another great comedy--
Joel McHale: God bless.
Jeffrey Harris: --series and I'm happy to see it continue. But what was it like during that whole period with Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno? Did that come through when filming was going on or did you stay away from that?
Joel McHale: Well it obviously didn't affect our production at all because we are a completely separate entity, but it was a crazy deal and a crazy time. And I love Conan and I love Jay. And it was just -- there's the interview on CNN where Jay's talking about it and I agree with him and I know that Conan is one of the most talented people alive and I know he's going to land well and I can't wait to see where he goes. And I'm glad that Jay is doing well.
Jeffrey Harris: I think it's weird because that was an ordeal but the things that came out of it were priceless and classic almost.
Joel McHale: Yeah. Late night television hadn't been that exciting since the Late shift you know since way back when.
Jeffrey Harris: Thank you so much for your time.
Joel McHale: Hey, nice to meet you, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the interview man. You have really great questions.
Jeffrey Harris: Britta and Jeff is my OTP.
Joel McHale: You got to watch the show.
Thanks to Joel McHale for granting us this interview. The first season finale of Community will be broadcast May 20 on NBC. Remember to bookmark 411mania.com to your favorites for your latest and greatest news and interviews in movies, television, and entertainment.
