Interviewing a comedic actor can be difficult. You never know if you’re going to end up with someone who just jokes around the whole time and doesn’t give you real answers, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case with Rob Corddry. You probably know Corddry from his old days on The Daily Show and his latest work in films such as Harold and Kumar 2 and What Happens In Vegas.
If are a fan, then you also know he’s pretty damn funny. If you didn’t get a chance to catch Hot Tub Time Machine in theaters then you should do yourself a favor and catch it on blu-ray. While it did somewhat respectable business in theaters, it’ll surely be more appreciated on video. Here’s what Corddry had to say about Hot Tub Time Machine in part one of our interview with him:
I believe Steve Pink gave you a time travel book, what book was it?
I actually gave him the time travel book. It was called… I’m blanking on the name, but it was basically about this guy from a This American Life story. It was about this physicist who basically invented time travel. He proved it was possible and invented it. It’s viable, but the problem is that his theory is sound but you cant build a machine large enough to execute his theories. Also, if you were to build a machine that big it would only send you back in time far enough to when the machine was turned on. It was really this tragic story about this African American physicist who was always trying to prove himself because he was African American. He basically didn’t want to out himself as this time travel expert since that would completely destroy any of the credibility he built up over the years. It became this thing where he wanted to see his father again, because his father died when he was a little kid. He was just obsessed with seeing his father again and he actually came up with viable time travel theories.
When you came onboard the film I know the script was quite different, but what changes were made?
Yeah, it was really different. When John Cusack came onboard he definitely made it…it’s hard for me to say believable in this context since it’s about time travel, but it somehow became a little more grounded.
I heard tonally it changed quite a bit.
Yeah, definitely. Before he came onboard it was really farcical and pretty broad. It was broad, but it’s hard to describe. There was a scene in the previous script where my character rents a DeLorean thinking that all DeLoreans are time machines and he’s pissed that the Delorean doesn’t have a flux capacitor. That’s just dumb (laughs). It was full of stuff like that where you just groan.
I think you could buy Lou doing that.
I don’t know. I mean, for a movie about time travel that one scene to me would be breaking the rules of logic.
One scene that you could definitely argue breaks the rules of logic is Lou wearing a suit when we first see him, why is that?
That’s a really good question. That was actually a big problem for me too. The backstory for the character and all the stuff that got cut out was that he was a derivatives trader. Just this evil banker who screwed people out of their money. He ended up losing everything in the wall street explosion. He wasn’t doing well to begin with, but this was the last straw. So yeah, that’s why he was wearing a suit. He was coming home from his last day at work.
Do you know why that was cut out?
Well, it doesn’t really move the story along at all. There’s no reason for it to be in there. It also was just a series of lines. There was actually this huge scene that we actually reshot where Cusack was this insurance salesman. He sold disaster insurance to people. It was really this crazy opening to the movie that just never worked. At the end of the day, who cares what these people do? We just know that they’re sad.
On paper, all the characters actually are really depressing. Even with them going back to the eighties things for them then didn’t seem all that great.
Well, my character at least tries to float the idea that the eighties was all free love and they should be taking advantage of that. They really never figure out how to do that. I like that the real moral to the story, if there is one (laughs), is at the end my character stays back in time and re-lives his life again but doing everything right. All he does though is just steals other people’s ideas and makes a shitload of cash. So, really that’s the lesser moral to it. At the end of the day, money saves everything (laughs). It’s a dubious moral. It’s just like in Grease when Olivia Newtown-John finally dresses like a slut everything worked for her.
With Lou, you really did have to play the toughest character with having to walk a fine line when it comes to playing a dick. You could easily go too far, but I was wondering how much do you care about making Lou sympathetic?
Well, a lot actually. I think that’s the key. You can’t present a character to audiences that is completely unredeemable. That’s where you become a bad guy and most people don’t like bad guys. Bad guys are due some comeuppance, but with Lou, you feel bad for him. He’s this tragic figure and that line Craig has where he says, “You know how every group of friends has an asshole? Well, he’s our asshole,” and it’s like he’s special to them. He’s their asshole.
How do you make sure you don’t go too far though? You gotta be a dick to get some of those laughs, but you also have to be restrained enough not to lose likability. That’s very hard to do.
It is. Well, you know I can’t really answer that question. I don’t really know. I can only say with all modesty and humility is that I’m just really good at that (laughs). I’m really good at being the creepy guy you really care about it.
You mean it’s more so a subconscious thing?
Yeah, it is. My manager actually pitches me as that: the douche-bag you end up liking.
I brought up to you before how you do play a lot of douche-bags. Is that something you just get offered a lot or do you go for those type of roles?
Well, that’s a good question. The thing is, I’m a bald gentleman. It’s just that I’m not going to be spoken about in the same conversations that Hugh Jackman is. I’m either the best friend or the bad guy. It’s essentially the same thing. It’s a plot device. There was a time where I was thinking I’d graduate from this one day, but now I’m like, why? I do it well and I really enjoy it. I have no problem being that.
So you have no problem being type-casted in a sense? I mean, I think you play different type of characters every-time but…
No not at all. I mean, I never play the same character. I have no problem being type-cast, but just do different things. Douche-bag is a huge umbrella and it’s like there’s a rainbow of douche-bags to play. I mean, there’s Ari Fleischer to Lou. There all very different guys. I would never play the same character twice.
When it comes to playing broad, how do you try to ground yourself in realism?
I improvised with Upright Citizens Brigade for about ten to fifteen years before I ever started working in movies or TV and that’s sort of their modo. You have to keep a character grounded and you just can’t take it to crazy town. With that, no one relates and no one believes it. I think that’s really influenced me. There’s gotta be some voice of reason and there’s gotta be something people can connect to.
Could you compare say playing a character like Lou versus Ron in Harold & Kumar where you do get to throw realism out-the-window?
Oh, yeah. That’s also the stuff that makes me laugh the most. I’m not interested in making documentaries and that’s just the stuff that works for me. I have a show on Adult Swim called Children’s Hospital where we’re running a web series July 11th and we shot a season for TV that’s longer and prettier. That starts on August 22nd. That is the epitome of the shit that makes me laugh the most. It’s completely farcical, all rules of physics and human nature are out-the-window, and it’s just my favorite type of jokes. Harold & Kumar is definitely in the same family as that. I would try to convince the writers that my character actually didn’t die at the end of of Harold & Kumar 2. He jumps out-of-the-plane just to shoot at those guys, because he wanted to kill them so badly. Like, he’ll kill himself just to be able to kill them. My theory, he actually thinks he can fly. He just jumps out thinking, “I got this” (laughs) My pitch to them was: what if he can fly? What if he’s a super villain? Apparently, they’re shooting right now so they didn’t buy that.
I’m definitely interested in what your overall approach to comedy is. I was talking to John C. Reilly a few weeks ago and he mentioned that he doesn’t try to be funny. He just lets the circumstances and setting affect him. Is yours similar to that or completely different?
I see what he’s saying and that’s gotta be the first thing you do. I mean, let the script do the heavy lifting. At the end of the day, it really is your job to bring something else to the dialog. It’s all about making strong comic choices. I agree with him and I completely disagree with him. It’s a lot of work to be funny all the time and you really have to plan it out.
I know how you based your character in Harold & Kumar 2 off Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, but do you do that for all of your roles?
Yeah, stuff like that to verifying degrees.
Why do you find that helpful? Is it easier having a source to base your performance off of?
Yeah, it’s all subtext. I just think when you have a little subtext to draw off of it just makes the character seem a little more three-dimensional, to me. It just puts a little spark in your eye. It gives you a little extra twinkle. For instance, my character Lou in Hot Tub Time Machine, was that he was the web master for the fourth most popular Howard Stern blog. He had a really unsuccessful Howard Stern fan blog (laughs). That was just something where I thought it was totally this guy. I know those type of guys. There was a moment where something clicked where I realized he was that type of guy. I got him after that. I actually used it in the film where there were some Howard Stern references in the movie.
Can you name a few?
One of them was… do you ever listen to Howard Stern?
I don’t have SIRIUS radio so I can’t.
So, you’re really poor?
(laughs) The economy is tough.
(laughs) Well, I’m a hollywood actor so I can afford it. I have money all over-the-place.
(laughs) So you think you’re kind of a big deal, huh?
Yeah, I do! I seriously am. What was I going to say, there was the one scene where I was having sex with Cusack’s sister- Cusack’s character’s sister- so Clark Duke’s character is born. While I’m ejaculating I say, “Oh, dropping fucking loads,” and that’s a very popular Howard Stern drop. There’s a porn star that says that and they play it all the time. It was definitely a homage.
Make sure to check back in the next few days for part two of our interview with Rob Corddry where he further discuss his acting process and some of his upcoming projects as well.
Hot Tub Time Machine is now on DVD and Blu-ray. Check out our review here.