You know him, you love him, we love him and we love this interview with SO favorite Rob Corddry. Let’s give you a little rundown. He was in 2003’s Old School. (Umm… hello! Anyone who is anyone was in that!) Arrested Development saw him a couple of times and then he was in Blades of Glory, The Heartbreak Kid, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Semi-Pro, and (the winner!) Hot Tub Time Machine (as Lou). Not to mention he was awesome in Cedar Rapids and Butter and had parts in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and Warm Bodies. Have I mentioned enough titles to get your head to spin? And he’s coming back! Amongst an assortment of additional titles in 2013, he is about to shoot Hot Tub Time Machine 2 in his role as Lou. (You know, the inventor of “Lougle.”) Oh and he also just happened to create the cult favorite slash brilliant “Children’s Hospital” on Adult Swim. It’s a miracle if you haven’t heard of or seen this guy (one of those terrible, horrible miracles that no one actually wants to happen to them), and we want you to see what a comedic genius he is. So check out our interview with this stellar American and then hop on over to check out some of his funny tweets @robcorddry. Happy Monday!
Serial Optimist: As a student at University of Massachusetts Amherst, you bounced around until you found theatre. Was there a defining moment when you thought, “Ok, this is what I want to do?”
Rob Cordrry: Half joking answer: I was living in a fraternity at the time and pretty focused on drinking and having sex with as many girls as possible. One of my frat brothers signed me up for an audition, we both got parts, and I almost immediately got laid. The pool of men who give a shit about that kind of thing is a lot smaller in the theater world, at least where I was at the time.
Half-Serious Answer: I’d been avoiding it since Junior High. I never really got along with the theater crowd at my high school so I only ended up doing two plays, after they had all graduated. But I knew then that acting was something I could do and really enjoyed. I don’t know why it took me a few years in college to get back into it. Fear, most likely.
SO: We know you’ve done a lot of comedy and work with the UCB in NYC. Do you have a “greatest ever” memory from your days with “The Naked Babies?”
Rob: We had a showcase for SNL people one night. A lot of the established UCB comics and sketch groups got to perform for Lorne Michaels and his team in the hopes of getting an audition for the show. None of the Naked Babies got to audition but we did the impossible: we made Lorne Michaels laugh. Lorne is famous for many things but one of them is not laughing at anything. I don’t remember the joke or sketch but he – I’m going to call it – GUFFAWED. A triumph for us that went exactly no where.
SO: What was it like landing your part on The Daily Show? It had to be amazing. When we talked with Rob Riggle about this exact thing, he truly made it sound life changing. It was awesome. SO LIVE UP TO THAT THANKS!
Rob: Landing that job was Riggle-like. The thing is, I worked my ass off on the audition because I knew I could do it. I was confident about it for some reason and therefore I worked harder on it than any other audition. I hung my sides on a wall so I’d read them like a teleprompter.
SO: You have quite a list of films you have been involved with over the years. A lot of them are staple comedy movies that have really made you a household name (or face, for people who aren’t good with names). But let’s start at the beginning: How did you fall into the part of Warren on Old School?
Rob: Every once in a while I get a “Hey, loved you in Old School!” I’m like, “Really? What did you like exactly? How I stood behind Luke Wilson so well? I had been improvising with the writer Scott Armstrong for years and had just done a series of commercials with Todd Philips the writer/director so I was a legacy hire, I guess. They cast me as one of the old guys in the frat and cut all of our lines after test audiences were completely confused by what the fuck we were doing there. But I was happy to sit there for two months with Eddie Pepitone, Simon Helberg and the world’s most famous extra Jesse Heiman and watch Will Ferrel with our jaws hanging open. It was an amazing experience.
SO: You’re known for your incredible sense of humor and comedic timing. We must know—how difficult was it to essentially NOT SPEAK in Warm Bodies?
Rob: It was way easier. The hard part to wrap your head around when your trying to learn lines is that if you know what you’re DOING in a scene then you will always know what your saying. Not only did I have very few lines in Warm Bodies, I had very little knowledge of what was occurring. So it was a committed to “flying by the seat of the pants” which was refreshing and successful IMO.
SO: Your role as The Car Czar on Happy Endings is nothing short of phenomenal (you may take a moment to bow). What has it been like working with such a wonderful cast of people and can you see yourself working with any of them in the future? (RIP one of our favorite shows, sad face.)
Rob: I would work FOR/WITH/NEAR any of those people at any time. I loved that show because it was as close to an absurdist comedy that you can get on network TV these days. Purely joke based and with just the right amount of fake-heart to get it on Network TV. And cancelled. RIP. They took you too soon!
SO: Is there a little bit of The Car Czar that you identify with on a more personal level? If so, do indulge.
Rob: He’s an unapologetic MAN. Only he’s cursed with stupidity.
SO: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Rob: The father of a 12 and 9 year old, so… in the clear!
SO: On May 3rd, you tweeted: “Subway restaurants smell like a loaf of bread’s asshole.” How do you know what a loaf of bread’s asshole smells like?
Rob: Hey, FUCK YOU. Don’t break that shit down!
SO: And that sounds about right. Thank you, Rob, for making Mondays (and every day) easier!
___
SO: For more funny business, check Rob out as the Car Czar on Happy Endings (RIP) and then skip over to @RobCorddry.