Jason Bateman & Bill Hader - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

[Music] welcome to actor chat I'm your host Jason Bateman's a we're talking to Bill Hader star of bury bill thanks for joining us thanks hi I'm Bill we're also with actor chat and we're here with the Ozark star and director Jason Bateman pleasure pleasure bill I drew the short straw and I'm going to ask you the food so can you tell our our audience at home how did you first come to bury Alec Berg the co-creator and I just is one of those rare things we actually got set up by your agent and it worked do you know what I mean yeah yeah five like oh you're gonna have coffee with the guy anyone okay and so we went had coffee and we talked about ideas and then we kept on talking about ideas we would just go a meet for breakfast once a week wait so was this somebody that you do say your agent your manager my agent did your agent also represent a Leclerc see my April they're just so here's a way I figure I can double dip I don't want you to go on to breakfast lunch dinner coffee I don't care what the hell you do business a liqu yeah you guys figure out something to do I can get both sides of it subject matters up to you yeah I don't care what it is I just need these guys are ready anchors but but it actually worked you know sometimes those happen and you meet the person you're cool and then you just never speak them but that one I hear he's a good guy he's the best you know Silicon Valley Curb Your Enthusiasm Seinfeld like he's working all these things so we we hung out we talked and then we came up with this idea and I remember saying well what if I was a hit man and he went oh I hate hit man I hate the that you know the guy with the skinny tiny two guns the only a sideways and looking rad and all that and I just went no but it would be me okay yeah I know that's good you know so reluctant conflicted yeah just a dork he was like you just I go me being me would be interesting like and not and not pushing it you know keeping it grounded or something and he was like oh that's cool I like that and then we said oh he should be in an acting class because it was you know the thing he wants to do he should be bad at and so did you think that the acting class and the whole sort of the hater approach to being a hitman and that he's reluctant he's not super super comfortable in it that it would be like kind of a hitman an actor class would be sort of like this base to kind of figure out basically a story about who somebody wants to become and yeah identity well we didn't have that initially it was actually again we pitched it to HBO and in KC boys as long as like oh so he's becoming a he's taking an acting class so he couldn't because he shut off emotion the acting class is making him he's learning how to be a human and you went exactly yeah no it's totally what we will did you yeah how what took you so long to figure that out Einstein yeah so that's how he came to it and did they give you ten episodes right away or did you oh we had eight and we just said let's just do eight we kind of like the small order I don't know about you like the smaller order we can kind of craft 30 minutes right and I kind of the way we always describe is I tend to build up I kind of see it as one big story because I like movies right so I just kind of go oh it starts here and it ends here right and off of the palette goes with 7/8 and we have another writer Liz Sarnoff who worked on welfare is not very good she's can barely speak English um no she's amazing lost and and Deadwood and things and she they were really helpful and teach me of like know Bill but each episode it has to have its own arc character has to have you can't just make it a big story and you know what I mean now there's a lot of ways I can do this for you one of them is I could stab him in the nut that's something I did once and I'm very comfortable doing it again was that a thing when you were doing ozark of going oh I know we're headed to a place and then how do we but how am i keeping the emotional track of all these characters so much going on in that yeah it was it was it was we wanted to do basically like a 10 chapter movie rights like a 600 page film and trying to chop all the fine find where in this beginning middle and end where the natural chops would be yeah these little parts and the original goal intention was was for me to direct all of them that's that that's why I wanted to do it I wanted to sort of a a glutton or a masochist depending on how you look at the role of directing I wanted to take on that that challenge and then as we got into budgeting and scheduling we couldn't really create enough time to prep them all so I ended up just directing the first two in the last two and hiring some people to do the middle three of the middle six middle three slots because we do two at a time but then that that sort of that EP position as you know you you've got this that that that that privileged position of oversight that it that a director has in film where you can satisfy that that creative challenge if you want to and you do a great job on on your show I've seen four of the five I hear the five one is we're skipping so I just go straight to is it okay you can follow but but yeah chopping it all up into parts is is kind of as opposed to just doing ten episodes where it's just kind of a beginning middle and end of each one of those and then standalone is a fun way to do a series but that's more of a series as opposed to what what we're trying to do which is kind of like as I said one long movie and then earn a sequel you know yeah that's a good way of playing it also did your juror feel like that with the creative what was our character that that was there ever a fear of this is like massive changes that go throughout those characters I'm like what you're just describing of like normal television the kind of thing is we're gonna reset and try to keep this stuff the same do you know what I mean at least I knew when we started doing Barry Alec had come from this kind of Seinfeld world where he was like oh what if we do that then the whole everything changes and it was like yeah do you know and that's kind of fair the characters changes the whole dynamic of the world can change you know what you're shooting in order right so then you can sort of pivot and react to well this storyline is kind of working or that's like not that compelling or this character is not really or this character is and so let's write further and deeper into that one four four towards the end of the season so you can react to what's working and what's not right as opposed to you don't cross board them all and shoot yeah it's more like yeah it's like it's like on I guess what I say like on Seinfeld or something you can never have like the apartment burned down right but I feel like there is this thing now and I feel like all our shows have it where it's almost as kind of Glee of like no that's different now it's like throw that out and now it's this now it's yeah you kind of go now we need to be on the run right you know what I mean where a lot of things go whoa wait well if they're on the wait what happens wait there where does it take place and right as you know what I mean and that's I think that that is what the the sort of premium cable or streaming audience is accustomed to and expects which are these big plot or premise swings that are interesting to the audience like oh god how are they going to keep the show going now and usually it manifests itself in killing a main character well yeah the end of Game of Thrones I went don't don't wait what happened you know yes they're all ghosts I mean I had no idea what you want just roleplay it okay I'm detective whoever and you're the wife of the top money launderer for the second largest drug cartel in Mexico go jason bateman yep hi oh hey sweet what's it like what's the difference between doing calm and drama what's it like wearing the mask right the happy one right but then you knows there's the other I don't know if he knows this thing there's the comedy tragedy there's these two masks I have a tattoo of it on my back it's very low tailbone it's a surprise under that just says breathe for a brief what's it like wearing the comedy mask and what's it like what do you like a great question bill well I'm I'm a fella who doesn't really do and I'm not trying to be falsely modest but I don't I don't do real funny stuff or real drama stuff with the characters that I play I'm usually the guy standing next to the very funny guy or running away from the very scary guy so there's not much of a big change for me and what I'm doing I what I really like to do is kind of be us I like to be the audience and so I'm really attracted to characters that are sort of the everyman or the straight man or the same guy or really just a proxy for the audience and it's probably I'm drawn to directing as well because like that that Lane is sort of the where the audience kind of has their in to what's going on and and as you know as a director you you're kind of pulling all those levers and deciding what the audience is seeing and feeling and hearing and all that stuff so it's not it not it not a huge difference for me but I do get I think what people mean when they say the comedy is harder than drama I feel like that when I want I am asked to do something that's kind of wacky that you have to still be believable yeah and it's harder to be believable when your character is is crazy yeah it's it's a heightened bar of a believability like you know it's it's I think it's it's simpler to just be real to react or situation as opposed to reacting in a real way to a situation if you're batshit yeah that's that's that's uh that's harder to do that's what was so nice about rest of development when I was watching that show was realized and then starting to do this as a career and everything how hard it is what you're doing Joe is like everyone has all this stuff and I've done it a lot as well we're like we were talking about earlier being the base and a thing yeah trying to grow you did it just just seamlessly we're and that takes a lot of discipline as an actor I'm sure you felt like here you go can I go wow you know go crazy here and why isn't working you realize that well if if I'm as crazy as the crazy characters now we're all on Mars and there's nothing weird about Martians on Mars like I got to be earth and then all these big Martians are hanging out around me slash us the audience then things comedic Lee pop I think ya know do you know how you and I talk all the time about my purpose you think acting could be your purpose I don't know I just I just feel really motivated right now or some really good okay but what about what we do together Barry being the lead on the show and and trying to manage all the the apparatus behind the scenes as well and keep all the trains running and hire the directors and the actors and making sure the scripts are what you like and do you find that that's more challenging than then you thought or that you wanted or is it it's just make it even more fun I find it fun cuz you know what it's like being when you're just the actor on a thing and once you kind of understand how things work it can guide like I feel like that's when I started become like slightly difficult because I was like you know we can shoot out that wall and be done right you know like why are we I worked on a thing once we'd shoot one person's coverage and then we turn around our reset on my coverage and in the middle of shooting my thing they go oh my gosh that's hilarious she should do that and they would turn back around shoot her coverage and go back to me no gets ya and I go guys guys guys no can we just and it's the it's a curse no way of knowing how you can make things work so that's a nice thing but I enjoy it I just I like I know it sounds corny but I like I love being on set and I like hanging with all the technicians I like I love costume meetings I like going to mixes I love going to camera tests with the DP and going like oh here's this version this version and I go that's cool that's right I like I love grabbing scenes from movies and watching and going like how they do that and learning like well they're actually in a really long lens and they're they oh can we try that and and I bet you but like I has the nice thing about being an act I mean I grew up wanting to be a director and a writer I mean like very young age 1 that's my thing I was like making short films and stuff and then moved out to LA and they started acting you know and it was just weird got you know taking improv classes and got SNL while I was taking improv classes and then it's like this weird secured Asst route where a lot of my friends growing up when the first episode of Barry aired and it's a directed by Bill Hader the amount of my friends from high school went dude you did it you know that's hey congrats you know like they knew that that was an important thing but I don't know if you really did I used to love the romanticism of like you know Stanley Kubrick wouldn't talk to Shelley Duvall when they were doing the shining to get her into a place or whatever and then I'm like now that I'm acting I'm like you don't need to do that as an actor it's all you have to do is you hire the person and you go yeah man like do your thing and if it's not you could go a little this way a little that way maybe but yeah that romanticism of it gets knocked out of you and in a very healthy way how do you how do you what is what is your instinct when you when you see an an actor so when you're directing and you see an actor playing a scene in a way that is wildly different than than how you had imagined it either while you were prepping or maybe if you were actually writing it is your is your is your instinct as a director to do rekt that actor to play it in into the way that you have imagined it or you try to recognize the version of the scene and the character that that actor is trying to do and then your notes try to help them do that yeah it's kind of like well it's two things one you're going you know like anything you're reacting to them in that moment and sometimes great things come out of that I've worked with actors where you know because you know like your show Barry is very like there's a very clear point to every scene and this is this leads to this so we need to hit these notes or whatever but my attitude is like as long as that information has been out whatever you want to do I mean Stephen routes a guy that every take you get something totally interesting and different we did a scene in in one episode where he tells me after yeah he's like you got to kill this this marine and I go I can't kill a marine and he did three takes angry with me and standing up over me mm-hmm angry with me I was great yeah man you know and I was like I'm good right now and he went I would try something he was built cuz it just stay standing all right and he did one where he sat down and leaned and he was hey man why don't we just and he did it like this and when they do that to you you just you're not acting in that moment you go and it did a different thing for me in a way and I went okay yeah yeah no that was great and now at Berg was at the video village with Hyrum your I who directed episode and they went that was awesome and and so giving people that freedom because I don't know if you have the same experience where you you know directing actors you want kind of the experience you would want as an actor right you know and and I've had those experiences really come out and go you can do anything just have fun and then you do a couple takes and go hey can you on this one word can you take a beat and there's a comma there for a reason yeah okay you know and you go okay I'm no I'm a puppet for the you get a little frustrated and so you just go I don't want to put anybody through that yeah I'm just a big advocate of letting people do that which you've hired them to do as long as everybody has a mutually agreed-upon finish line whether whether they're actors or crew members or whatever you want them to have the right to exercise their instinct as as creative people like how you get to A to Z is totally up to you just know we're starting at a and ending at Z it's uh III like I really like being able to set establish and-and-and and maintain that that vibe on the set is it hard when you have to do a big dramatic scene like the scene in the pilot where essentially you set up the show yeah and you're directing how what's that like cuz I remember going he's directing this Annie has to give a ton of you got a lot of not some but you got a lot to say in that scene you got a lot of words you got a long way you got to be I'm just putting myself in your shoes okay I'm directing this I'm on my knees I just watched this guy kill everybody there's no reason you should let me live he's about to kill me and I have to literally convince him not to kill me right and basically set up right the show and you do it seamlessly by not I thought what I loved about that was you didn't it wasn't pushed at all it wasn't the begging it was like oh this guy is doing his his job this is what he's good at he's getting facts he's kind of going I watched on to somebody but my question is yeah in that moment how do you you after that you do that do you go I I felt good or how do ya well you know you can feel it's probably why you enjoy the directing so much is because acting is so comfortable for you so it allows you to just be open to the other parts of the process like you know that jibs kind of moving over there and yeah if that if you know that it has to be all the way over here by the time you speak next you're gonna figure out a way to take a beat before you talk you know and so some some actors are enjoy getting deeper and deeper into their part and like they can't be bothered with a mark on the floor if they're shadowing somebody and but for some reason I've always really been excited about what all these guys and girls do like making this fake life is is it's sneaky tough and and so I love being a part of those meetings too like you were talking about it's and you don't get any credit for the 95 percent of the work that it takes it just to make it believable to make sure that that lights not in the shot and this booms not in it and this chair was picked and from there then it's got a spike and that's that's that's the interesting part but the that scene in particular was simple because the the writing was was so good and all that stuff made sense and you just have to say it in a believable way what was difficult that we had a lot to shoot that day and and it was all shot at night and everybody's tired and he just have to go in there fully prepared like we were talking about before it that was one of the big eye openers for me as a director was was how much of the film gets shot before you start principal photography and I prep is is is fully immersive and as actors you know you think well let's get going when you show up on that first day it's like neuronal guy we're done and you just need to hit your mark and say your line for the next few weeks and and then we'll be finished yeah I have a business opportunity that requires cash sir there's no business opportunities that require that much cash that legal ones well I agree to disagree where's my money how do you think you've been funding your whole life I'm sure of it but since you've been paid to be funny if you've noticed that it's that it's changed it all have have you changed your your your your your levels your strategy on how you're gonna make people laugh not really I mean it's all kind of out of yeah you know it's like it's intuitive it's like a weird they were talking about directing I think you know you're just saying the reason I like prepping all that stuff is so you can get to a place where you just go out and be intuitive and kind of go I just want to try this and try that and it's the same thing with comedy I mean I do think you sense like different generations of comedy like certain things you know don't fly for you know what I mean for a you know you just can't make certain jokes you know what you're probably good do you know what I mean or you joke so you just can't make okay here we go goodbye career no but you know it's like a good example is like on and it's a good thing but you know it's like we on a when we do Stefon on SNL and we would say and then we got a letter saying you can't say that yes you know and we went you're right and so when we went and did that again I didn't we per Plast time I did it when I hosted we didn't say it and and I'm fine with that we know PC term what is what is little people yeah so and then but the I think that's a lot of people bristle at that because they think you're saying I'm a jerk you're saying my instincts are wrong or this is so lame and doesn't matter or whatever and my thing was I go yeah that matters to them so I don't why make them mad I don't understand that weed yeah and and also it is ignorant because I didn't I didn't understand that and I go oh now I understand somebody gave me a lesson about that on to like you know just gets thrown our thrown around a lot and you know second you have kids and you go through that process of that the this this the the miracle first minute or two minutes when that kid comes out and they just take them and they run these arbitrary tests about whether your kid can hear you know whether your kid can see what the and it's and you're gonna take whatever answer they give you and it's it's just such a miracle that every every kid or a lot of them come out you know with with with ten toes and and fingers its I was like oh I get it there's a million different words I can use in that moment and now when I read scripts I will I'll give those notes to the - I don't like - listen I finally get to the same place - and they you're being you know but I work at South Park sometimes and those guys do it they know oh let's not they they're known for being all and you know whatever and we're going against that but it's not it you can sit just takes a little more work to figure out there's a name that there's more of a I think I think it's a good thing but more of an empathy and good comedy right now and also grounded stuff I mean that that's the other thing is when I was younger I always wanted to to me it was like Naked Gun airplane the insane stuff and and I realized one how hard it is to pull that off and what those guys did by casting not just the real actors that you would see in those Airport movies and that was the genius of that you go oh that's part of why that works in no ranking the no winking and playing it totally straight but it's a little it's Leslie Nielsen it's not Steve Martin right you know what I mean and that's why it works and you go oh wow and then and then writing stuff you just realize how hard it is to keep the grounded stuff is way harder it's kind of what we were talking about before with performing you know it's like oh like in train wreck it's going while Amy's a stand-up and she's doing all this really funny stuff and LeBron James if it's me and LeBron James I have to make him look funny and he is funny right but if I'm trying to out funny him the thing doesn't work you know and I and I and you know and that kind of goes into the comedy of Barry too is we never we never sit there and outline or talk about a script in terms of jokes or comedy you go you talk about in terms of the story and the emotion and the logic and then as you're writing the scene you say oh what if he said this and we all noticed that there's there's really there's not a lot of jokes in your show what you guys are doing it for the most part seem to be creating these these these characters that are deeply feeling deeply flawed they're all pretty broken and you're putting them in situations where their dignity is getting exposed and from there comes the humor and so you would think that those scripts I'll bet don't table that well like there's not a lot of jokes oh well if people legged them and go okay like we got to see the performance matched with this this this character based comedy and the combination of those two things only then will it be funny and so here it's risky to table scripts like that right the without writers it does go okay I do another show Club documentary now those table awful cuz people are like what are we watching but it's okay like Henry at a table Henry Winkler Tory will will sell anything and Darcy Cardin Kirby you know we have like so you know writer Doyle and II carry we have all these great actors who can sell stuff because you can get a comedy rhythm on a thing but you know it's like we'll have it in the outline you know Barry's unsure of himself and you know kusa know henry winkler's character says he get he gives him assignment which is to do the Glengarry Glen Ross monologue so we go okay so he has to do that you have to do Mamet that's all it says and you get what Barry's emotion is but as we're writing it you'd come up with like I'm gonna give you 10 cc's of mana and we all start laughing and then it's like let the cat out and all that but that comes because you know the character right you know instead of like let's lead with a joke Jason hommes one of my favorite shows last I don't know ever was the rest of development how is it how is the show how has that experience um the best experience of my life I think I mean it's certainly a most beneficial experience for my life for my career I was kind of a reset button for me I was sort of did you feel that when you read it got it going this is gonna be your thing for me well did that when did you go oh my god was I I kind of knew that what sort of career what what the position of my career was at the moment I I was I was just trying to get another job trying to get a pilot and right then a television comedy was kind of transitioning from multi camera in a single camera multi camera it's sort of gone out of fashion and and here comes this the single camera show that was not only single camera but it was sort of a mockumentary so it was even even more sort of deconstructed and like we don't need any of the stink from you know you you sitcom people and so when I got an audition for that I knew that that was a big big big deal and they probably don't want to see me but somebody probably pulled a favor and so I went in there very very nervous and and just hoping that I was guessing right with this character and mature which is really sweet to me and and um yeah and he a nice guy so he and then like the dream scenario happened where he followed me out after I finished auditioning and he said hey so you're supposed to come in for that other pilot I'm producing tomorrow that multicam but but this right and I said yeah I love this that's good so I got in my car as I really did well oh man that's the best feeling yeah so but we really didn't know if that show was gonna last I mean there was there was a cover sheet on the script that said any actors that are not interested in having their dressing rooms be a honey wagon and there's no makeup no hair no lights really no marks on the floor it's going to be kind of a student film mockumentary type of style so so the agents I was with currently were like you don't want to go in on that but my old agent had called me and she said I noticed you weren't on the the sheets for this thing and I really think you'd be good for this tell your current agents to get you in there so her name is Lee Brillstein she would did a really really good favor for me there with telling me about that but yeah we thought it was just gonna be a really cool thing but but not really last and it didn't really last and it was a cool thing and thankfully the people in Hollywood watched it and then gave Wendy do you feel though that it was that was the wind it was there a moment that you can go well this is this help me yeah when we got we got a Golden Globe nomination that was that was big because I think we're pretty close to getting chopped by by Fox and then we got that nomination they were like damn it we got to keep him on and then and then and then we got an Emmy nomination and then we won that and they were like why we want to get ready you guys yeah it's still only lasted two and a half years I think it was two and a half three not it ruled I mean where I was at with Tom you know that was right when you guys premieres when I started SNL and that was all we talked about I was like did you see it was like I don't know being a musician the 60s and Sergeant Pepper coming out or something everybody just goes well now we have to change everything that we were thinking about Jeffrey Tambor I think was a really really really big what for me it was a huge part of that and remember he had the first scene of the first episode first day and he had this monologue and we were all off camera coverage was on him first and it was the first time many of us seemed what was what was the tone of the show going to be because we didn't do a table read or we did it we couldn't really tell what the tone was and watching him do what he does so incredibly well which is that no winking thing I thought oh so we don't have to throw to the back row in this show this isn't a sitcom with an audience it's ill grat well good those here yeah it's not funny to any many of these characters yeah this is this is deadly serious and I thought ah that's what this funny is that's awesome yeah speaking of us and out when you just recently hosted what was it was it I'm sure it was a blast but what did you the one time I was lucky enough was like the best week of my life hosting I I thought this is the best job in the world yeah I would love to be a part of this cast every week doing this did you did you feel that going back something that you really missed or I well oddly enough the week you hosted not if you know this the Tuesday night of that ride a night was the night they saw me that was the night that I thought that I did a show in New York know and Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers came to the UCB theater to watch me do a show really and they go we got to get back as Jason Bateman's host you know we were like oh wow what's that like you know I mean I is a dick yeah yeah they want we got to go save this one now that they were but I was you know wow they're hosting but that was the week that they saw me and and and then but it was fun you know it's a fun experience where dits like going yeah everything is true it's like going back to high school or you know and you're like oh the lockers are different now and oh this classroom is oh it's not this it's not a classroom anymore wait what is that you know what I mean it just feels different there it's so impressive they just they just do a great job and I love the current cast and it's just weird it's like I remember Kate McKinnon auditioned and I laughed during her auditions which you're not supposed to laugh but I learned in the back and they went you know try not to laugh you know why are you not supposed to laugh I don't know they like it if you don't laugh but they laughter remind Tina Fey laughter in my audition I don't know if it's a spoken rule or whatever but it's do they let you know that before you start your audition that don't be surprised if you don't mean oh no you start out and I remember when I auditioned the guy a buddy of mine went up before and he came back anyway I just I could hear myself walking around up there is terrible and I went out and I auditioned and I induced myself on and I go there's a character named Vinny vedecci and I just immediately started doing them and Tina Fey we could see my way like that and I uh oh okay good and I relaxed but Kate McKenna and just watching her come out all nervous and she did Temple Grandin at the Emmys not get a word and as they were doing the acceptance because like the story was based on my I'm sorry okay based on my life if I cope sorry and it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen and I started laughing so hard that they were like yes blast we'll get bill out of here he's laughing towards but um but seeing those people now are the seniors and running the show is so interesting to me I remember Kate was someone gonna go in like a you know Cecily strong you know that's a bear and all these people I remember coming in all hey how's it going or whatever now they're there the star the crew of that - the infrastructure of that the way that you guys don't really lock what you're gonna do until Thursday we don't like I didn't know what my monologue was until about five minutes before we went out there sketches themselves in other words their their ability to prop the ass and build those sets it's like 24-48 hours yeah like sometimes less we would do sketches sometimes on a Friday night and go have a meeting with Lauren and hey but like it's not working maybe instead of a you know a pirate ship it should be a spaceship let's still make it work and Wright would build wigs for that yeah I remember I was again Vinny vedecci sketch we had a a ostrich in it puppet and we went hey instead of an ostrich public can it be like a big mechanical horse like a Mount hor that goes like this and they go okay and they made it happen in about 30 minutes and it looked great but but no my monologue I had they were we were talking about my monologue as the the they were the the audience was loading in and Lauren's going maybe it's about I'm happy to be back and you know he's kind of ruminating I'm going I'm gonna throw can we please do this and he goes when in doubt talk about your kids and if you watch it that's what I do well because the cue cards ran out the guy was doing the thing and then there was no more cue cards because Mike the writer came up as I'm getting ready and you know they're like you know Saturday Night Live and I'm putting the thing on getting ready but I go out they got the stopwatch they're looking at me and he's going I think I got everything on the cue cards for the monologue but um if you don't want to talk about your kids so if you see it but cute cards Wally the cue cards went out and he just went and I go I just want to say hi to my kids I want [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 624,714

Rating: 4.9431963 out of 5

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, Barry, ozark, actors on actors, jason bateman, bill hader, Saturday Night Live, SNL

Id: FR604kpfqVY

Length: 38min 2sec (2282 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 08 2018