Conversations with Alan Tudyk

Wow I've never seen this room so full in an afternoon thank you so much for being here I'm still happy to welcome you to this egg after a foundation comes a conversation with an actor who is very likely in at least one of your favorite movie he has played everything from a pirate to a space cowboy to a lovable droid to the world's dumbest rooster and along the way he's earned two stag nominations and Annie award and of course countless fans you can now see him every week playing Bruce Wayne's cousin on powerless please welcome Alan Tudyk [Applause] thank you thank you very much wow these are your people like a lot they are all my people I thought they were all reserved see nobody's here to see me a [Applause] little more so this is obviously a stag audience I'd like to start by asking how did you get your tag card ooh how'd I get my sag card I uh I don't remember they was a commercial it was a crime extent it was a commercial I did my first I got yeah I did a commercial where I was a stock boy General Mills was dropping the price on all of their cereal and I was a I was stamping the price on every one down I was yeah putting sale prices and then there's a herd of people like who was that rumbling and then I get trampled and then it's like I come up and go what happened in all the time I'm just like that what was that and they cut I remember they cut my hair for it so it's stuck up like this which basically just means like cut that out cut that out cut I like thanks for the day's work and I left there I was like oh he didn't fix Vance now how I look this is crazy but I think I actually remember that commercial really as you're telling now I have a screenshot of it yeah yeah was your hair like bright red yeah my hair was a lot brighter when I was younger teaching so the do not work for like another year cuz you're this horrible haircut sorry no I just had a short haircut for a while but I did yeah I I kicked around the New York for a while I got my start on it on a in a play called bunny bunny yeah so I took that to Philadelphia and then it came to New York off-broadway was about Gilda Radner Alan Zweibel wrote it it was about his relationship with her he was a writer on the first season the first few seasons of love the call they I sent left I got to play some of his I think someone's best writing because it was Gilda Radner and Alan Zweibel the characters by Paula kale and Bruno Kirby and then I played everybody else right you're like a waiter yeah yeah French waiter with it they're like just bits like the best like sign that live be like I asked - what would you like what would you like - I'm sorry what would you like to unpack and then leave and then I was a camera operator - like this and she was great and then I was uh big-boned judy who interrupted a decadent just bluster oh I got her boyfriend you guys have your date I'm gonna be over here and it was like run backstage wigs dress and come back on do a little bit leave stage glasses wig so I played 27 roles you're kidding is that many yeah it was cool and I really was helped out by the director Chris actually who in the program put Alan Zweibel Bruno Kirby Gilda Radner Paula Cale and then Alan Tudyk camera operator Alan Tudyk French waiter Alan Tudyk it's like a lift that long Wow so when people are getting ready to see the play they look through their like who the hell is Alan then it became a game of who's he going to be next yeah no it really I think that almost more than my performance really because they could have just said Ellen took everybody else yeah which yeah a lot of places would have just done saving ink yeah and I'm sure it's because I believe you were born and raised in Texas yeehaw yeah I'm born in El Paso and raised and right outside of Dallas in Plano your family go ahead go Bobcats or Panthers or wolves of that other one I was like a bingo there's three now they're huge yeah there's there was about 1500 my graduating class and now then there was playing C's which didn't exist when I was there I like 1500 as well graduating right but like your graduating class of the days yeah so many people I didn't know the two guys on either side of me to get our diploma Daniel I never it was alphabetical to be like really how are you today's and maybe we would have Turner at some point Turner we would sat next to each other some class yeah I mean is that where you developed an interested in performing I don't think your family wasn't in the business and it wasn't no I did plays my mom put me in like little plays during mother summer the part Boulevard players and the regional I don't know I was performed at a mall once but I got into a pretty fast there was competitions in school which is a big Texas thing like you know hack things right you know yeah they you know can we get a trophy out of this I'm in let's do it did you ever win I get I won a lot when I was in the eighth grade I was a but there was like group improvisation there was impromptu where you get like little strips of paper that'll say like bacon frying in a pan or your microwave blew up and you have one minute to think of a three-minute speech and then you pick one of them and then give a speech and I would always do characters oh so that's how I how are you at this now because lard you just they just go away that nobody because I could would you two be like well it was lard was first made in like uh obvious ways if you could just start anywhere else like I'm gonna go with lard all right everyone right this way right it's not you not you not you okay come over there and we're going to see how the Crisco is made you're mine you like hella well taken a completely different way than still got it yeah me I could kick the crap out of some six seven eighth grade yeah you said it you won between six and eight did you just speak then and I got drugged enough to haul phone out I kind of quit you know I went through the pit I was boarding and I I did one play and then the drama because I could still do plays and six seven eight grade and then the drama teacher said you can't be in drama in plays if you're doing that I have to give the roles to my drama students so that I don't care about you either then I I started I started failing classes that I wasn't a great student in Ross Perot who is still digging down said I think it was a smart thing did no pass no play if you don't pass you can't do any extracurricular was meant for football players who weren't getting an education get anybody I guess you know I'd be keeping people out of the drama department yeah so I couldn't compete I compete every once in a while and in my I still do it I still did it in my junior and senior year which is its own school I think great public schools there really I mean I know I know those are the left okey well that's Houston we're better but not a contest I mean it surely is not a con humans there's any men [Laughter] if so yeah my teacher there Charlotte English who I think was going to divorce I don't know she thought from some book that was like a divorce book but involved a lot of meditation and it involved stuff that was great for just relaxing and getting focused and you know not listening to that man being your own woman and no codependency but she told me I was going to go into hotel management I was doing yeah cuz I didn't want to become an actor cuz I did want to be poor and anytime I met a teacher when I was going to school public in school they'd all say I was an actor I was an actor what's like the drama teacher says like yeah I acted like what happened what happened why are you here doing this now and then like oh well you know I did a play here I wrote a thing and then I got married and it always stopped it married and kids and though I felt like if I was going to be an actor I couldn't get married and I couldn't have kids and I was going to be poor and that was really my reasoning and I was also working at Taco Bueno which is like a little better than Taco Bell wait I got a nothing is better than Taco Bell so you've just outed yourself as a hot smoker III I didn't actually know I was in but a lot of people are doing it I'm a big man I think it is illegal I hope that more or less Jeff Sessions will figure that one out this is he's working on it but I was the assistant I was almost an assistant manager and I felt like I was really good at my job I talked a boy I know and we're definitely stuck oh good right yeah we're good talker oh and it was really Battaglia ironic the burritos were the best thing they keep you guessing and burrito bueno actually sounds better well it does there's the alliteration there mischance could Taco Bell to come over really they ran them out there they're the top one and Y is Del Taco doing business anyway exact crap there's I have no idea like RC Cola Mexicans actually love royal crown uh yeah but I like flat overly sweet things anyway I don't know I haven't drank that a long time I haven't had any way so I thought I was very good hotel manager restaurant management so I got into this after-school program where I was following around a hotel manager at this fancy hotel in Dallas and my drama teacher found out about it and she said I thought what you're doing and I said yeah I think that's what I'm gonna do and she said I think you should be an actor and I said no what like these other guys Jeremy Schwartz Greg Wilson who's a stand-up comedian now in town my dog this I thought oh she has to see that um your dog my dog in the home [Laughter] we have it a top avoid Oh hotel management oh yeah oh yeah she's divorced leader that give Charlie you said you should be an actor and I said but Greg Wilson and Jeremy Schwartz they're better than me look at all the trophies they win because I can never be I couldn't I could really put it together and she was like you're better than them and and I think one of the reasons she gave me because I was different and I've like I would cut up my knees on accident at lunch I would go skateboarding at lunch and I would let the blood run down into my socks and I wouldn't wipe it off and I wore crazy clothes to school I had lunch lady appreciation day a couple of days where I were all white but they would give me the plastic gloves and the thing because they loved it oh and my sombrero oh no oh yuge some rare oh and I would wear it around in a class of 15 I felt like a number and I would complain about that and so I decided I would do these things and she sort of pointed to that yeah and my bloody socks you can be an actor I just thought you needed attention quick way to therapy I guess you just didn't see me as a hotel manager a good point yeah so I really like Juilliard which yeah someone who didn't have great grades I mean that's kind of impressive well they don't care about oh really okay they don't realize it's an audition process yeah it was an audition process it's now a lot stricter when I went you basically just auditioned with a two-minute contemporary piece in a tomb in a classic piece classical PC I'd have a song ready and you went in I went to New York and did it and then like for my song they were like okay okay take your song and you're putting a three-year-old to bed and sing your song to the three-year-old so then it was about an improv and it was about my in my the song I had was from working which was the song was if I could have been so it's kind of a perfect song because it goes if I could have been what I could have been I would have been something so I'm putting down this little girl and I had done I had done improvisation in an improv group in Dallas called rubber chicken and I learned a lot doing that and so I said so I can change and move things around in the room like yeah but for Juilliard like yes yes of course you can dragging things in and making you know things they just wanted to see somebody who you know had it had spit eager to go and wasn't you know I don't know they were into it did you take your sombrero I did not I had to give it back to me me mcgrill I actually taken it from her older brother who is college and he came back and wanted it is gorgeous it was gorgeous gorgeous yeah but yeah I got in with improv I think my improv is what got me and even I did have a good contemporaries Mike my classical piece was terrible it was a monologue from a monologue book not from a whole play oh but it was great it was called the sex organ by Quincy is John Quincy long that can't be right if that sounds like something then it must be him yeah what a statesman or something it's not alright John Quincy long and it was written if you saw it on the page it was confusing because it was it said beer bud bud beer beer bud buddies with beer beer buddies and it was a ad guy coming up with a ad and so it was just that kind of thing wait wait guy go friends guy friend friends and guy guy friends they're fishing they're casting their oh he's got one he's got one he pulls up a beard that's terrible it was like that and it was it was really fun to do and they liked it no no I got it I mean how jarring was that though going from growing up in Texas to Julliard it was it was big I was very eager to work I had done a two-year Junior College which was really didn't have good acting instruction there terrible in fact and then I did two years in Dallas where I did the bean crop and it was big city there wasn't a campus it was Lincoln Center you're just kind of in it which is brilliant but I guess the Central Park was our campus so I mean really you're in New York and a lot of dancers like where you went down the drum you got off the elevators you look this way for the drama department you look this way and with the dancers they'd all be in the hallways with their legs up here and like wearing nothing just like stretching and being beautiful and I married one so I did get married but I just six months ago so yeah thank you to a dancer that I fancy back then who was one of the stretchy dancers down that's really married yeah Carissa Barton yeah why did you stay in touch all these years they're kind of we think well they even sound a little nebula no well it was so many years yeah she had the huge life in so many different directions in my life went in so many different direction we had kind of one direction but all over the place and she's like a dancer and then she ran a software company good service software for a long time for five years in New York and then sold it and then worked for a created this charity for these people that she ran for seven years and did all this work Wow yeah and we would we would connect every once in while whenever we end up in the same city she came to see spam a lot which we talked about backstage and yeah is cool so she saw that and she's like I'm like Christmas coming and then she shows up with this guy ah well then I met him and I'm a cop he's just a dancer that she works with that guy's gay boyfriend says he was very um meeting very gay to me and he is now but not then and so it wasn't a good time and other times we met up and I was that somebody so but we always had an eye on each other wait this needs to be a movie I'm curious about this I forget your career let me talk about your wife yeah she's great she's a choreographer she just started a program for dancers that there really isn't a program for dancers coming out of college and then going into the real world to sort of bridge that gap and she started it's called access connect and she just did their first year last year and now they're about to start the second year she brings all these people together because she danced for a long time and her sisters or I'm sure if I should just so impressed me her other her older sister worked in Cirque de Soleil doing choreography for a while and then her Azure Barton travels the world and puts pieces on huge companies and so the three of them are part of its kind she started it and she started hahahahahaha and and like last year they do a week in New York the week here and they had like associate choreographer Hamilton come in and teach them all the one of the numbers from Hamilton and then she basically did a mock audition she's like you you everybody else sit down now I'm going to tell you why and like gave them that education and then ended up hiring the two people there in the touring company now I have chills I think that it's just so amazing we should have that four actors right and she just started that she's just like this there's a need I have the ability to do this I know the people to make this happen and she did it and this year it's even better so she's amazing you're like the trophy husband yeah I guess I just hang out I do speak to the dancers last year I spoke to the dancers for about an hour and it was good I don't know how much I helped them so I was such a busy year last year I kept crying hear your speech terrible and her mother was there oh I came by I was like Roz I'm sorry you had to see me like that I didn't want to be weird in front of you hahahaha Alan from the first moment I met you I knew you were weird and I love it I love it like I was talking about acting and talking about the imagination and the importance of things as steaks and imbuing things within the scene that don't it might not be the words you're saying or the action that's happening but if you have a if there's something that scene that can help you invest in what your character is doing this is all very vague right now but make it meaningful for you make it meaningful for the character and I kind of went into a few things that were meaningful or let's say there was a rock I was talking about a rock but you can feel the rock and do you feel the Oz it feels it's smooth is it rough in your hand we really identify with that and I'm like I'm sorry but rocket shoot some reason that is really affecting me right now all the imagination stuff is yes that's triggered my emotion and stuff very tired well that actually doesn't surprise me because I remember when you did dodgeball I'm gonna pause for applause god I was shocked to hear how seriously you took it like you studied pirates then you compared it to like the man who thinks he's Henry Ford you know that the Steve the pirate really had to believe he was a pirate right Henry for Henry for I had foreign support weird which is really kind of interesting right now I've been thinking about that place where like a Pirandello plays at Henry Ford with a guy he's crazy he's very rich he wakes up one day and he said I'm Henry the fourth and everybody I'm like huh that's how he was that hahaha I'm Henry four and I go yes your highness and then they all decide to just go along with his idea of being king or president or something and they all just service that and the yeah the question is will who's to say he isn't Henry the fourth of everybody around him City where he believes Henry the fourth and why is me Harriet fourth that he's getting to act like Henry the fourth or president or whatever so it was that a pirate who wakes a guy wakes up one day and says he's a pirate he had a mental breakdown in my mind oh you doing a whole back story yeah we have to do that before you need the pirate yes that is going to be I mean I said Garn yarr a lot my main line but there is a moment where he says you're not a pirate and he kind of he wanders the streets for a little bit there need to be something behind that oh yeah it's heartbreaking actually even if it's just a little a little bit you know he needs that turn and you actually went to pirate conventions I went to a pirate I was all fortunate I had I the guy who made my gold tooth you know that guy the gold tooth guys smell Richards smell remember his name because he did my makeup for patch Adams so many years ago and I had hives when I showed up to work I had really bad reaction to them food and he's like could you take off your shirt so I'd get some pictures of those hides because he's really good hives I got like a leprous evening I'm doing really horrendous stuff and you're selling it right now I remembered his name and he did Mike to the thing I started talking he's like so tell me this pirate thing make him fun a pirate no no the guys are fighting things even priorities like I'm a pirate I didn't have long hair and that's a lot of little jewelry things he's like we actually have a convention coming to a get I don't know what they called it it was like way out no hi and he invited me The Rum Runners was his name of their pirate clan and I went there with missi pyle and who was in the movie as well and and we hung out with pirates and drank the rum they made some rum there were birds and there were like on your shoulder and they oh they all look like great pirates I know I was kind of crappy pirate but I you know figured it out they like wrestling there's like gar and yeah they did a lot of that they swashbuckle doing that all over the place buckling and squashing I have to imagine you've heard every pirate joke there is Jim a favorite I don't think any of them are good that I've heard you know what the punchlines like she's driving me nuts oh the steering wheel yeah oh there was a good one about what our learning pirate's favorite letter and then should know I don't remember I think you understood the driving me nuts joke if you actually tell the joke it's pretty funny if you he has what I don't remember he's got a thing in his pants and a steering wheel on his pants to his penis and so I asked him why why that it's driving me nuts [Laughter] and why I never went into stand-up comedy right there I heard did you actually try stand-up comedy once I did in Jacksonville Texas where I went to the two-year school that was didn't go well I was just bad school great drama program and I did stand-up for a JC's talent contest in town and I won Anna Anna enterprising manager of the Holiday Inn bar caught my act and said hey would you come up and do stance and do it at my bar once a once a week I think Wow and you do it 30 minutes set once a week and bring two friends yeah so I was writing really a lot as I had to write a lot and some guy threatened to kill me one night because and I didn't do anything doing it I've met him before at the buzz just kind of meeting people and this guy's name was Ray he was very drunk is with a woman and two women and he was I can see him now he was right there ha ha ha why not run and I said ray no every time these joke if it didn't go well my god ray gets it right Jenson come on Reagan everybody follow Ray's lead and he got sick of being called out his down do you love it oh [Music] yes I'll kill you [Laughter] sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry oh this is terrible that was last time really really Rea stop yeah no gray wine I then did but then I went into group improv thinking I have a group of guys around me took three well because then because in improv comedians are always the toughest you want them at your back so you left Juilliard with it to do bunny bunny uh kind of yeah I'd started it my second year there's a thing called New York stage and film that's up in Poughkeepsie advice or and it's a lot of new playwrights a lot of new plays directors who are emerging I had when I went to Julliard I didn't like it I did not like it at all and it wasn't the work that I didn't like it was all my class to my class and just the experience of it was very difficult for me we had four years of people and four years at the school he had 20 people in a class and then they would get smaller as the years went on as they came evil out and you never got to work with the other other actors and you never got to work with the dancers the game of the fancy ha ha ha ha Italy where the dancers getting to work with the musicians you just didn't you just did your own thing and it took up all your work and it was frustrating to me and then my class was insane there were some really brilliant people individually in there but together we were nuts and myself included but one guy was in a mental hospital while we were at school and they're like he should play off fellow Oh a girl playing des des must miss that glut I'm sorry why it was hard to get to work and it was just dealing with all this drama that surrounded the work so I went to this place so I started doing anything anytime anybody said would you help me do a reading would you help me do anything yep props whatever I'll do the stage readings for anything got any connections I want to get out of the school and David Auburn who's not done very well for him yes was in the playwright's program that year and he would always I was like his go-to actor then they'll not fall in my phone oh it's not ringing I keep checking it's not ringing but luckily back then he would say imma do this and he was it was a night of little plays and he I did it and somebody a producer of New York stage in film said would you come up and do they didn't they didn't take David Auburn but they took me Wow in your face burn probably why he doesn't call it is I guess realized undermined him somehow yeah so they I did this I worked with David Strathairn I played his son in a thing and I was supposed to be a two-week thing and then they said could you stick around and do bunny bunny this new off-broadway player of this play that they're hoping will go someplace and I did that and then somebody fell out of Kim's sister a play that was actually a big play so I stayed there doing that and I'd luckily saved up enough money waiting tables that I could just take the whole summer off and do that cuz I didn't pay anything but I met all of my contacts there all of the new directors I met directors whose names I don't remember Bobby yeah no he was not there so he got me in touch with Nicky silver who then I auditioned for Nicky Silver's next play and I and I I didn't like the audition I went to the park I got home and like screw that I went to the park and when I got back home there was three messages from Nicky silver on my phone and then I finally got him on the rise like oh my god I hate calls could we get set to Playwrights Horizons theater then I called him he's like oh you're amazing you're the Muslim where have you been hiding you're so amazing oh you're not getting the role you're completely wrong for us ha ha ha ha but I did call three agents because you don't have an agent and I hope that's okay and so I got an agent out of that so with that that helped pull me out of the thing helped me get me out of school and that's how I got out and then was your idea thank you very much all the thrilling stories are did that was your plan just to do the theater did you always want to do film and TV the plan was my dream was what a lot of people was the same as many people streamed that were around me was you do theater and you have an apartment in New York City and then you do well enough to do Broadway and movies and things that come through town little TV things who knows well you know whatever you can catch in there and have a house upstate so you cannot in a car and that's the best that's the perfect life and now it's a very good school I've been back I know a lot of the teachers now some of the teachers who were not good teachers who were very much in that punishing teaching thing like you'll never - my friend Eddie you have a Smith Liz Smith Eddie you will never be a Shakespearean actor professionally you just don't have the voice and it's screwed with this guy and he's like in professional productions of Shakespeare going on but I'll never make it that's my favorite thing but I'll never make it like because they they break you down entirely you don't know how to sit you don't understand you don't have a talk and you know Alexander Technique all this really good stuff when they build you back up but you are completely dependent on them to fill you back up and to be gentle with your raw nerves and trust them to say this is this is different this is this is how I sit now this is it's okay this is how I stand so I'm supposed to talk and with some people David Lamm you are a hamburger what's so American you're a hamburger I mean now when she was right total hammers but luckily they like to me they were nice to me so I really wanted that story to end with you saying and that man was Eddie Redmayne the Mahlum said ed a solder Ramirez was in my class oh you're clearly not who won the Tony and Spamalot and I actually for lady the lake was mainly the song divas lament which if you haven't seen it it's online and it's incredible she is such an instrument and she was at 17 so we're the youngest people who came into the school but we were in the same class and we end up doing Spamalot at the same time she's on Grey's Anatomy now is nurse fun yes uh nurses the doctor doctor fun to see Kelly Ramirez Callie Ramirez on Thursday night at 8:00 very good that's thing I know that because my shows on Thursday nights at 8:30 once you do the first half-hour Grey's Anatomy how do you walk away I mean you comb their hair I don't know what they do on that show they don't think they solve medical crime what do they do anyway she's woman was on that she just left did she yeah she just left really I hope she goes back to probably cuz you see yeah what was lost on you on stage I did prelude to a kiss at the roundabout theater with John Mahoney and Annie paris' who I also knew back in the day like all these people who it's amazing she was going to Ford him anyway uh so yeah I did that at the roundabout for three months it was cool I got to be the guy it was like 10 years ago that wasn't it yeah yeah yeah and that was a last time I did do a play look seven years ago with this brilliant clown and it is going to come out again and just clowns are going to take another huge hit and I feel like in my career uh clowning was something I did not do I think it was that other thing where I was like I'll be poor sometimes rich no no you'll be you'll be poor yeah you can't be a clown and be rich I don't think it was your your edge your cred yeah when I was in Julliard I was having obviously I was having a difficult time and we had clowns coming they did not do one of them things I didn't like also I should say is that they did a new comedy and none of the people in my class liked comedy and it frustrated me we did have a comedy section that we were supposed to do in our second year and as it approached and I was so looking forward to it they changed it to Greek tragedy which is funny but not funny and so I went to the head was Michael Khan who runs the water the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC still he's and the artistic director there and I said what are you doing I'm dying I'm dying I need to do comedy you need to do comedy we need to do comedy and he started bringing in clowns and he brought in several and after I read after each one I would come up to his obstacle no really you're juggling we need to learn comedy you're like what is funny and how you know let's break it down and and then they got this guy named Chris Bayes who came in we also we called him angry clown and he gave our class it was only our class he was getting these clowns to sort of you know test them out and it was me who was going back to him going know that I'm the authority on this and kind of that guy yeah and he came in he was like okay um this is a simple exercise there's a line on the floor one two three four five you guys get up go over there change your look you can arms do punch up whatever you want change your voice however come around one by one and when you hit the line consider like a diving board type of situation we need the line say hello and make everybody laugh oh and if everybody doesn't laugh you didn't do it right and you go back to the end of the line and do it again till you get it right and oh it was so scary and so brilliant and beautiful because what you end up having to do it's it's it's just another acting class just done in a different way where people come up and they go haha I never like that's not funny there's really nothing true in that and it is until you find real truth in real honesty like you need to enacting just in that situation does it work and there would be at least one person she could do it they call in the fifth on movement just broke right sit down reconsider next five and I gotta and built on that from there and a good friend of mine Orlando Paabo toy was in the class underneath mine has now since gone on and he's done amazing performances and when I go see his clown shows but she directs a lot he doesn't perform enough from my opinion but they make you feel good it's not it's not funny I did a play so the play that I did last was called La MaMa theater soft hop hop Broadway but it's an institution off La MaMa it was called that beautiful laughs it was a clown show which is three people yeah three people plus two musicians and Orlando directed it and we kind of wrote it kind of all together and it's about the laughs it's about that the one time the world forgot how to laugh in this world the world forgot how to laugh so they made up laughs they made up big laughs and small absent and giddy laughs and twenty laughs and all of that but no one could remember how to laugh that beautiful laugh and it's in this world that this these clowns try to discover the beautiful app and at the end of the play after everything goes wrong we had this egg that I gave birth to three without my but that says what kind of clowns they are and I get birth to myself and then I also give birth to an egg this little red egg and it's afraid come out of it's shell and so we have to teach it about the world and I can talk to it uh haha tell him what what he just said and at the end of the play he's ready to come out of his shell if he was with shadow puppets on all of this stuff and the birds and the bees is not so much fun and what's the fly and we had this target and we put it on the piano and I'm like he's going to fly he's going to fly all around your head Neil and on your shoulder he's going to go out of the theatre he's going to do this in that man and he's gonna land on this target right here and ready one two three go Oh we try to put and prevent carry this baby in the whole place would people laugh or gay right yeah it would laugh and then cry because we we had a funeral for it and there was a guy singing I'll be seeing you can all the old familiar place a god I didn't sing it he's hanging in a beautiful voice and as we just with this procession witness cortman is crying just tragically and a little thing we like a coffin and and then we're just sitting on the edge of the stage just sad and done and people are sniffing and then one of the clown's gets an idea and we to it the other two of us scoot off to the side and she goes around and comes through the curtain there's a little curtain with these two doors this real simple stage on the side she comes through the curtain goes at the audience did she go ha ha it's like if somebody made that sound and she does her thing and then one of the codes through it haha and then finds a lab for my wife and then mimics it compiled with as best as we can you know his favorite lab and then I came through I had a jar and I'd catch laughs and then and then do different laughs and that till I found the most beautiful laughs and then it was a light that could then you knock on the door then open the door and there were stars and it was just so beautiful so sweet and so touching and moving it's just crazy how clown work can do that but I said to Orlando who directed it what happens if no one laughs and he said yeah I I'm interested hopefully that will happen at least one I have to be there man up in the booth er like I don't know that they'll think this is funny he goes funny if fish is funny we failed we want joy and then he cried again but we were I'm actually going to be disappointed you don't cry many like I fail he's right there it's like I'm ready to go um I didn't have you know and it's true it has to be joy and joy because you'd leave his plays that one in the ones I saw before when I would watch them especially you'd feel good for days after and it's not just that you have a oh that would that was a funny line that was a funny bit it somehow makes life seem better and the human condition and that connects you connect with it and such a bit can be so beautiful and then he also said he's a town the people are going to laugh anyway he said laughters everywhere and was late at night we'd get such a truncated rehearsal process / creative process and he said there's laughter here right now and then he I just don't know how he's just such an amazing he just kind of turned something on and then he's kind of scooted like a foot with them just like a minute we were all dying laughing he didn't say a word it's just he has that muscle trained after so many years and he just has this mischievousness in his eyes you know people like that we were like you've got people that clown and I'm breathing like they don't have to really say anything funny they can just be they just have to be and it's fun and thank you thank you I am say anything else that is not your phone it's all nice tail I'm sure so did anyone ever was there ever a night where P someone didn't laugh or did the laughter all it come there the one night like the second performance I came out and it's already been done twice Oh everybody knows what's coming and you know I don't do the first laugh I have to wait for someone to laugh so everybody's just kind of sitting knowing this was going to happen and I there was a woman and I did the think kind of the thing that Orlando did where I just inched over closer to her and close to her and then got a little bit closer until she laughed and I didn't it was the New York Times critic I didn't know it's her oh yeah you didn't know I did it I had a pat on her lap which I did notice once I got close enough dark she was cute random I picked the person with the pad she was cute I wasn't dating Chris at the time so you know yeah and she laughed and then that started it and then that once one goes and you can do it now and I had the jar which was the new thing yeah and yeah how long ago was that I was deaf I have 2000 I think it was like 2000 God's almost 10 years ago now yes 11:12 come again so it's been a while it has been a while since I've done stage Wow Of Mice and Men thank you I did just do a stage production of Mice and Men musical version that I wrote renamed I'm with stupid last three years thank you whoever said that thank you very much these last three years and why I was so weepy and crying so busy in addition to Star Wars and powerless thank you yes I created this show with a couple of friends called con man about thank you it's about con men mean convention man Comic Con conventions it's a it's a play off of Firefly and I when I decide I had never done conventions before it was back in 2003 so they weren't what they are now and I learned a lot about that world and the people who were behind the scenes were the more interesting people everybody liked those things are crazy the fans are crazy it's like actually the fans are kind of constant you know what you're going to get with the fans they're very enthusiastic the very generous and nice and the people backstage are crazy mental and so I wrote a story about a guy who was on the space show just like Firefly and he flew the spaceship I'm like I'm Firefly and Nathan Fillion was the captain of the spaceship but he put Jack more and I was right merely more in nearly whatever so I play the nearly guy who after the thing in Sparta soon gets canceled by Fox my career goes he makes bad career choices and his only income as than going to conventions and he resents his life and nathan fillion career his best friend becomes like matt damon famous or at least ben affleck like one one of the two and so that's what it's about and it's about all those behind the scenes and i can i use a lot of the people that are from that world so I'm with stupid was with Lou Ferrigno and and the idea is that Lou Ferrigno is doing I'm he's doing I find out that he's what's it called again what's called not now looking here's I'm with stupid it's a Mike amendment he's talking up my cement off-broadway and I'm interested in we end up peeling off of everybody at the convention and gets going to this boiler room and the door shuts and and I find out pretty quickly that it's a musical and it I don't like this is off-broadway yeah off Broadway right by the Staples Center and okay I thought it was the other bro okay and we and we read it and and he's reading the same lines and I'm like wait a second he's like I'm playing Lenny oh no no I'm playing George perfect like you and I'm playing Lenny you're the I'm I'm the hulking creature the size of a bear yeah yeah and you're the slim and quick small bindle stiff uh-huh that's me thought I'm stupid so I try to leave but it's locked and she's like let's do this and start rehearsing now and then people keep getting trapped in this room and so just getting bigger and bigger than we put on the play and Mindy sterling is in it and Leslie Jordan talk about somebody who can just stand there and be funny yeah and Nolan North who's a big motion capture actor he plays the second the second best motion capture artist in the world just under Andy Serkis which you know I've got it anyway so it's brought for all my experience and yeah demons and whatever end up in this thing and we did it we did it we made like five five numbers or something Wow yeah that's really fun you can get it on comic-con HQs where it lives now you know Lima January right we wrapped it up in Jam I got shingles I was the same yeah because I was too had to go juice and go to Star Wars reshoot a nice oh I don't know it was it was I was I was editing season 1 in while I was doing Star Wars so I would finish shooting then go home and edit and then sleep and then go back and shoot and then at lunch start getting notes back from LA and then finished the day and at the end of the day they would have implemented my notes and I would go over those notes and then make new notes it was really crazy I learned more in my life doing this writing producing directing all that all that together with this production that I have it's changed it's changed me I am changed would you do it again I mean are you interested in writing and directing more a season free writing absolutely directing I don't know enough about directing I like talking to actors and I like having the ability to affect what we're doing in a scene like to come in and go oh I got a bit um get rid of these do we have something round that we could put here I want something round and and then change things and go oh no we'll do it like this I love that part of directing and that's my favorite and some great stuff has come out of that and I've been doing powerless now and I've just kept doing that part of it whether they like it or not they have been very open to it they've been very very very open to it really like we get the read-through and then I write an email and say here are some other lie here's some other punchlines I want on this one and what if you know I haven't too many times with a couple of times I said you're missing a joke on this character there's a payoff to the joke that you don't that we don't have right now and you know everybody has a blind spot and they say no or yes but they've made me said yes and it's so cool to see that level of getting to write jokes for other people I love that part you got something I've noted I mean you've done a lot of TV but I'm thinking specifically of sort of the three series we did with Firefly and Suburgatory and now powerless they have amazing ensembles right and that seems to be something that you gravitate towards a lot whatever it really is its crapshoot you don't know you know I've done a lot of pilots where you're like this is going to be great and then you put some great people together Julie Bowen I didn't want with Julie Bowen wants and just didn't work she wasn't good I wasn't good I did Ty Burrell and I played husbands didn't work Wow that would have been great yeah it wasn't I think he was I I wasn't he's very good he's very good um anti morality you know I'm an act I'm an actor that auditions for stuff I'm an actor you know somebody's asking me so what do you choose to do am I choose I mean in a way I choose but my choices are always more in the negatives as far as no I won't do that and no I won't do that less than I'm ready to do one of these the audition oh yeah really but you wouldn't be good at it I mean you work a lot I guess I do all right yeah I mean really you don't know I mean I there I'm at a place and I don't know where I am now you never know where you are you can't always see you can't see your career but or how you're perceived but and I mean this is a whiny thing this is just this is just the truth it may have changed they may have changed but I get a lot of because there's less than this movies made these days fewer and fewer movies so there are more accomplished actors who are unemployed and looking for the same work that used to be you know these guys were working and then these guys would get these roles now these guys are going for these roles and you've got a you're fighting big guys for roles and also names make for better box office and so I've had a few times and sometimes they ended up with the role a death at a funeral I ended up with the roll but the point is thanks that directors have to go to the mat for me I Frank Oz had to go to the mat to give me that roll because they're like we need a name he's like he's the best one for the role they're like and what does that I don't care a name can be mediocre it will be better at the end of the day than a guy who you think is going to make the movie better I get this guy you direct him or I've had you know direct them to be better you know or they'll the director will say I wish I could cast you I just can't well you know I've got to go with somebody else who has a name you know they don't they're not always that forthcoming but I did have one two years ago it was like you're great sorry you got next that did not you know the thing that all actors and artists and everybody no matter what you do you know that meant to be fun you know it's just not meant to be and a lot of times it turns out like if I want if I got that thing that I couldn't believe I didn't get and it pissed me off and I I wouldn't been able to do something that you end up getting to do you know wanting to do actually it's funny we have a lot of death of a funeral question okay thank you brought it up if you don't know I know if you don't know some we made death at a funeral in England with a bunch of pasty white people that's what the way it's written there's very button-down English and that's what made it so funny it's a definite funeral and one small thing happens people get very upset and they they hold fall in in the rear you know your aunt isn't tough knocked over the coffin with her husband and she's in tatters woohoo but it made that tension it made for a really nice force and it's a true farce and and those are so hard I think to write they don't do a lot of them and Frank Oz directed it was only here for a short time and then was gone a bomb huge in Australia really it was huge there really it came in the theatres and then I am Legend came and knocked it out of theaters and then it beat a legend again like it went back to number one and I'm Legend faded stayed in the theaters they took it out of these it came back into theaters like I talked to be like yeah they put it back in mind I can't do that back in my say it and I went there and was famous but first on my life where I went there and be like oh my god he's here oh who did you think I am was voiceover something you were always interested in pursuing or did it just develop as your career did ah the play that I did where I played all the roles the first bunny bunny a casting director saw me and she I went to do audition for Ice Age movie they were going to call Ally sage and they gave me a stack of characters pictures and said do a voice for each one of these and I just thought did a voice for each one and then I got a call in like eh you've got three voices and I did three voices in that and then it was years before I got work again I think was Ice Age too and I have like one line I had another character that they cut and then I have like this this fructose intolerant bear and farts and had a great role in the video game where you had the Scrat had to jump in his fart wind really to get blasted up to a cliff to get these coins anyway so anyway so I played inky's badly I'm sorry and he was farted and then I was really when I did a king candy from I know that role from wreck-it Ralph oh yes and I got that role sort of it was supposed to we were supposed to the read-through or there was a read-through and it was supposed to be somebody else and he'd sell out and because you had to fly to San Francisco to do it Southwest Airlines plane when you've got Sarah Silverman here you got you know got Sarah Silverman here you don't put her on Southwest groupie for crime so anyway we flew up there and I did the roll and john laaser said it's really wonderful to meet you and after that I gotta they gave me a role in frozen where I played the Duke of weselton which was happening right away and yeah and I played I had another character before the Duke of weselton that they had that now he exists in the movie I can still see him everyone saw Butler but he had a bigger role where he was he loved cheese and he was sort of there he took care of them a little bit as they were kids they're like we can't have anybody take care of her kids they need to be all alone so he went away and then the Duke of weselton got bigger and then after that I think because they said well let's keep to look around because after those two hits he's the I don't know what the hell they call three ingredients and that was it that was sort of a thing so anyway they decided that was the thing so then I did a voice in the hero six and I did a voice in Zootopia and then Milan I played you obviously don't audition for something like that that they just asked me to do it yeah and and they didn't that after after a record Ralph they've just said come in and gave me roles and they're like here's they just do this role what do you think let's say you just work with it for a little while until you find something and they'll go that's good that's it there you go no that's really any much as you come into it like 20 minutes later you're the Duke of weselton ha ha ha no you're the new John Ratzenberger for them kind of yeah that's that I'm not a Republican I'm very political I apologize it's such a crazy time um but he does his own voice you're right it was kind of like you know when you're listening to him I'll be quick yeah I think he was in dory there was one little character mowing his lawn right it was like that's him I think that they'd pitched it up and so I'm kind of an except I'm always like hiding I hide in there yeah so it's neat do you are there any cool perks about working with Pixar like do you get to go to club 33 or its Disney which is different from yeah I'm sorry um yeah you get dinner you get Clarkie you get a party every year it seems like the Oscar parties that girl always up for an Oscar you had to hang out lin-manuel that was pretty cool calls me on Twitter whatever your tweets not like woodland like this Oh delete delete delete keep it pg-13 what would lay do that there's a dinner before every when a before movie comes out you all go up to the animation building at Walt Disney want the Hat and if you've ever seen it and you go have dinner there with the whole cast cuz you don't get to meet everybody so you get a chance to sit down with everybody have this really great dinner and oh you watch it first and it's not necessarily done they go right up to the last minute so I like there was frozen with big chunks of white like that's gonna be a mountain and King candy was like on that last race there were big parts of it that were just blocks and stuff but they had dinner then you take pictures and you have that nice sign in like the premieres a couple nights later and now we're friends with the Lassiter's you know I mean there I read the Lassiter's there laughter and I realized how spoiled I was this last time when we did Moana because Carissa and I were going and I was like oh they give you a menu first and like duplicant the steak last time was that good I can't remember the steak was gonna go fish this time I'm going fish I remember like that's like how many of these we've been to a lot of them now it's very very eat have you seen there's a great BTS footage going around right now on mallanna where you're voicing hey hey yeah yeah and then you stopped to remind everyone you went to Juilliard yeah that was one of the most fun recordings I've ever done it was similar to pirate Steve a little bit from dodgeball in that he said yar and gar and a lot of that was just putting a yard gar in the right spot and having him doing it with the yeah you know whatever whatever was happening in it you know this is part of the scene that it was macaque but just different situations and but I got to watch it without a point in the animation that I could watch cool you know so I could just follow along and I think I spent 3 to 4 2 to 4 hours there just screaming as a rooster and I play a couple other roles into I'm this guy who wants to eat the rooster at one point right at the beginning I can't do that boys don't remember it and then a guy's going to tattoo so we're just going to come in and do yeah do some rolls and you get all in one day or yeah yeah just is all in one day oh that's amazing too like when it's a bigger role it takes many days over the years we had a question from Ryan Jarrod's it is when you're doing a voiceover character do you give the studio or casting director multiple options or you come in with a set character yeah now you a lot of times I don't even know what the character is before I come in really yeah like so it's this here's what we have here's some sketches here's some early drawings what do you got I did yeah that's it when it came to Star Wars was that something you like to audition for or yeah really I had a Skype session with Gareth the director but I did not take it seriously at all I thought I really I thought he was calling me to find out about robot acting and because she did I did I Robot and I'm you know I've done a motion captured robot before and Lego you're gonna want to talk to the robot guy and I had a very candid conversation with over two princes over Nathan Fillion thousand trying to go on a hike like I got to do this thing and afterwards I told my rocket he's like you prick going back going back coming back right now and I did I did call him back and I he didn't pick up um but i Skype with him and he was like you know I'm gonna you know my plan is to any movement you know I'm going to capture and if you make a mistake you know if the hissing you you know if you make a mistake I don't want to change that either because that's the real thing that actually happened in the day what dude don't do that are you crazy don't even hem yourself in by saying that was how I talk to him like no you know you're gonna be able to pull the head off of the guy from take one and put it on the body movement of take three doesn't don't don't don't don't you've even perfected perfected you gotta be tool at your disposal use the tools you have and he cut that with how the conversation went I mean I was also like Muhammad sounds great cool and all of that stuff and just went into what the process was for Sonny which was very fee acted like spent a month there before figuring out how he moved and that was the best part of that whole project it was like I wasn't doing theater mask work there was we had books on the cockscomb I'm we even watched him know theater different lab it was brilliant so much fun to do a Will Smith movie I'll say I'm sure you see the no theater when you watch that movie like I get it there it is but so you know talked about all of that and then I was asked to audition and it was first I had a scene that didn't end up in the movie I did it three different ways one with my accent an American accent one with sort of the action eighties for Sonny which was the Julliard accent the standard middle whatever it's called standard speech what is it not mid-atlantic speech in Atlantic speech what are that that well it's the way that they teach you to talk we do their wave that's does that not sound normal to you that was a way to project your voice at the back of the wall it's very strange that like some of your best-known work is you're not you don't you're not seeing on screen or do you kind of like it I don't this is an answer bit I don't mind it I really like k2 because I saw the performance prior to his animation and it does so much yeah you know I you don't capture everything on my face but it doesn't matter it is so great looking and I think that as a robot and as a mask it's a great mask and they follow my eyes where my eyes went which really does say a lot sunny was a little hard for me I was younger I expected something else the theater part was fun I saw my performance in that a very different character he's a he's the one robot who feels and nobody knows what did he kill his creator what is he doing and he's confused by why doesn't everyone you know he's ank he gets angry he gets emotional and it he's being accused of murdering his father he's sad about it and then they're gonna kill him and he's wondering and when I die will what happens like all these great things to wrestle with and a wonderful role I learned a lot about acting you know about you know I just questioned so much it made me think about about yeah how we tell stories and then because motion capture is a motion capture in that one they came to me and and I love cake - I don't want to say but in that one so separating cake - that one they came to me and said Alan we just need to get a real quick surprise faces what we need to get some surprises like just off somewhere the guys gave me likes okay like surprise it's a surprise party or is it surprise I'm going to have a baby or is it surprise your house is on fire guys whatever we did in the scene is the surprise or not that should be don't just put any generic surprise in this why you hired me and that's why you have an actor and when you do I did some motion capture for a video game because I wanted to see what if the technology was also I was writing for comment at the time something that Ray would do so I would say yes to anyway so I did this video game I went in this new process they do they have cameras all around you like a bunch of actual just camera camera camera switches and then you have this list of faces you need to do medial left medial restricting or something like you'll be like that thing and you go and just farther but keep this one down farther farther farther keep your eyes down teacher teacher now do it the right way and now do your things like that now do your things like that and all of this stuff so that they have this menu of things to use and it was the same thing it's like what are you doing you're mapping these uninspired faces that are but that's how that's part of the process as it is now and I you know Andy Serkis has a school called The Imaginarium and he they use all those dots and things and now there's cameras that are around you all the time and it's I think it's changing that way it's still it's still evolving the great thing with cake too I didn't have to wear any of that because I think he's going to have such little movement facial movement that they could just see it and then I had a suit on for my my movement on stilts and we got to play and it was so much fun but still people think it was a voiceover a lot and I explained you can't do a character by committee so if I didn't do the role they would have gone in and had a lot of animators decide surprise face yeah I'm not not have the through line and and all of the stuff that we did there's like this scene where I hit him which we came up with there where I'm some stormtroopers and they're like why are you taking a prison prisoners they're prisoners like it's figuring it out taking them to the prison prison them and that was all made up and fun in the moment and and I hit him and said and they have a fresh one if you mouth off again and they put it all in the movie and you cancel one place in the movie where you can see Diego they only play somebody cracks on really where when I hit him he comes like this these covers covers the space that you see just this product girl up well now I'm going to go back and watch it yeah yeah and the DVDs are out right man we're out of time but I do I call selfishly just want to close with a question from Adam all right in the French we already talked about deaf at a funeral so could you tell us any funny story from A Knight's Tale I'll tell you a story that I just told the other day that isn't really that funny really selling this but there's a movie coming out about Heath Ledger yeah that looks really beautiful and poignant he was such a beautiful guy and it's so sad that he's gone but I don't know if there's an interesting story but my my connection with him just to tell us sir about beautiful he was and there was a great time we did have on that movie we were all miss me double movie and we were making medieval movie we were in Prague for five months in this medieval town in a bar when somebody made noise and called somebody that we all stood as one and we were like that we were rowdy it was a little cagey it was fun we really just kind of tore that city up and he was 21 I turned 21 on that movie so it was a good time but my friend died while I was shooting that movie and it seems ironic that this great man who he was my friend larger than life and Heath actually knew him oddly they had crossed paths he stated at his house but that's how Andy's life was like how did you what he said what how did you met him and because I was going through the movie and he's like oh yeah he stayed at my husband's long ago so when I found out Eddie died I went to the bar downstairs and like I need a bottle of Jack Daniels and they're like we don't sell bottle we settled shop it's like okay then figure out how many shots are in a bottle and sell me the bottle shoots dude and I got up and I was just sitting in my apartment and I got a call from Heath and he's like where are you in my apartment it's like come over right now and I stayed with him for three days and he took care of me until I could go to the funeral and like looked after me even though he was younger than me he was it was weird he was like older than me he he was a great guy and he was there he was there if I you know whenever I wanted to be in contact with him sadly I didn't I put him in contact a lot you know some yeah so I'm right after he did a Brokeback Mountain this was one of the last times I saw him I'm like so what okay back up back up with Tong remember that big part of it and enemy a nice step people get together whenever I'm going to see bride held one tomorrow night Victor who wrote and directed it tomorrow night and you did 42 with and I did 42 which which he cast me in that role and he fought there's another one of those as I keep talking I I auditioned for the role and he's like he did it this is my guy and they said yeah no and he calls me he's like Alan you got to come back in again I'm like so what I need you different he's like yeah I don't know so I go in and do it again they said no and they gave you to somebody else then I went to New York into my little clown play and while I was doing my clown play I got a call from Brian he said you still want to do the movie and the guy that they had cast I don't know who it was he got another movie tonight and he had to choose between the two and he chose the other movie and he said can I hire alan tudyk now and they said yeah so like it was one of those everything's on your side is like yeah I can't he goes if I fight for you that's my last fight on this movie and I got a lot of fights to come so sorry and we're still friends because anyway no but we are so well we're gonna make a nice tail to but that's another all right stop go back I would always hassle about I thought he wrote he started writing while we were doing it he had a pitch on it was called a pirate Taylor's before party here would you play I play why iris because we I bought a ship there's even a shot because we're now rich at the end where were all at the thing and he's over there making out and I say I bought a ship and like what I bought a ship and that would be the beginning of the movie so we did shoot it so we would have the connection where we it cuts to us in a ship we're in changed and we're in speared we're rowing and there's a guy in front of me whose mouth is sewn shut his eyes are so much other's ears or some I guess his mouth and I have to open something his tongue was cut out that's what was and he has this intricate tattoo on his back and we're rowing and it's all you have to look at is this tattoo and it's like you know what you know this kind of looks like those islands and if that was a wait a minute this is a map this is an act oh my god this has gotta be a map of something can you tell us oh can I swing the guy says and then as he's getting whipped pieces of a mapper go Oh take it give it a me no I was I was my fault really and that we end up getting our ship back and then Adam are had taken the princess and that's about as much as well yeah well you're seeing Brian tomorrow talk to all about this well no we're not going one piece died uh yeah you can't have knocked out with that unless you do it as a TV show which I think they should do well I like that idea I think they tried in it sucked so what are you looking thank you so much [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 27,621

Rating: 4.9433198 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Alan Tudyk, Jenelle Riley, Rogue One, K-2SO., Zootopia, Moana, Powerless, Con Man, Firefly, Trumbo, Wonder Boys, 28 Days, A Knight’s Tale, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Death at a Funeral, Knocked Up, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, 3:10 to Yuma, Serenity, Premature, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Transformers 3, Suburgatory, Dollhouse, Frasier, Justified, Q&A, Interview, Career, Retrospective

Id: hwk9VIvCRvs

Length: 82min 42sec (4962 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2017