QQ: We’ll get to see you in “Men at Work” coming up and we got to see you in a recent episode of “Scandal” as well as “Happy Endings." Have those been the most recent projects, or are there any other guest starring roles that have yet to air?
A: That’s all the most recent stuff. That’s exactly right.
Q: You'll also be seen on the upcoming new show "Men At Work," what can you tell us about the premise for the show?
A: “Men at Work” is a sitcom about four best friends who all work together at a men’s magazine in New York City. Danny Masterson plays Milo who, in the pilot, just gets out of a long-term relationship. So it’s a show about him and his best friends all navigating being modern men. How to date, how to text women, how to be men of a more modern age, and it’s sort of told through the eyes of Danny’s character, Milo, who hasn’t been out in the world and doesn’t know how to text, and doesn’t know how to use Facebook, and all of that stuff. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I mean, you could definitely make the argument that all men don’t really know what they’re doing, they’re just giving it their best guess all the time. That’s what I would say if you’re asking about us, but the dynamic is definitely that we’re sort of showing Danny the way a little bit.
Q: We know your character Tyler is a writer, are there any other details about him that you can share?
A: Tyler is a “Features” writer, so in the pilot, I’m interviewing a young actor that we’re going to do a piece on. In another episode I interview a blogger that the magazine is doing a piece on. Tyler is sort of like the bottom line guy; he sort of tells it like it is. He doesn’t have much patience for people who are what he perceives to be sort of like “full of it." So he’s kind of like a little bit of a whistle blower and he definitely tries to be the voice of reason for the most part.
Q: Is there something about the role or the show that really made you want to be a part of it?
A: I really thought the script was just super-funny. There's nothing wore than doing something in front of an audience and they’re not laughing. So I just knew it was super-funny and I felt that Breckin Meyer really understood the relationships between all these guys and knew how to be funny and how they would be able to stick around through multiple seasons. He really had a sense of the world loosely based on him and his friends, and so I really saw that just in reading and having never met him, and then in the process of auditioning over and over again for the show I really got a good feel that this was a cool guy to work with as well. That’s always the biggest thing for me. It’s like, are the people that are involved fun people to be around? Because we spend so much time together, you have to work with people so you have to be sort of vulnerable and supportive, and everybody that I’ve met along the way is somebody that I would want to work with again. It was like a no-brainer, certainly. I was more excited about it than many of the other opportunities I had last year.
Q: You've done some comedy in the past in theater, has comedic timing come naturally or is it something you've studied? Is comedy in theater different than television?
A: I think that I definitely have studied a lot. I studied improvisation, which isn’t just comedy, but it is very much connected to comedy. That definitely, more so than anything that I’ve ever studied, has informed my acting and improvisation. For the most part it’s not really all that different. "Men At Work" is a four-camera sitcom that we shoot in front of a live audience so that has a very direct relationship to theater. The cameras are still there and at the end of the day we’re still shooting it for the people who are going to watch it on their TV. For me, personally, people say that each of the different kinds of TV and film have different acting hurdles that are inherent to each other, but for the most part I sort of do the same thing and sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s serious, and sometimes it’s something in between.
Q: Is there anything about the role that you do find challenging?
A: Yeah, definitely. The most challenging and my favorite thing to do every day in rehearsal and at work is just to sort of try to break it down and figure out how we can make it as funny as possible and as truthful as possible. That’s what I consider to be my job as an actor. As the role, specifically, I definitely get my opportunity to be uncomfortable or out of sorts, but for the most part I’m the guy that the other guys turn to and that’s like a comfortable vibe for me. I have that vibe with some of my friends so that’s sort of a comfortable thing for me to recreate. Definitely having an audience there I just get super nervous every Friday night before we tape, which I really like. Single-camera the hours are a lot longer for the actors and so it gets to be a little bit of a grind, but on Friday nights, we’re all sort of nervous, jumping up and down back stage sort of like excited and nervous and don’t know what’s going to happen in front of an audience.
Q: You have an incredible cast for the show, did the chemistry with the guys instant or did it take a little bit of time to develop? Did you know any of them beforehand?
A: No, I didn’t know anybody. Our show-runner is the actor, Breckin Meyer, he created the show and he brought the show with Matt Tarses. Breckin and Danny knew each other. James (Lesure) and Danny knew each other a little bit. But the four guys on the show are James, Danny, myself, and Adam Busch. The four of us as a group didn’t really know each other. James and Danny didn’t really know each other. So we had a few days to hang out before we started working together and then we just sort of had to jump into it and start shooting. That’s how it always is. You know, the response that we’ve gotten from people when they watch the show or when they watch us rehearse is that we all seem like we’ve been friends for a long time. So the chemistry has been really good and I’ve been comfortable the entire time. I really enjoy working with these guys and I think it’s a really great group of guys and I think that it translates. I’m hearing from other people that it’s translating really well into what you’re seeing on screen which is the best situation you can have for sure.
Q: Many of the previous project you’ve worked on social media sites weren't around at that time. Now with the invention of Twitter and Facebook, are you planning on live tweeting during some of the episodes?
A: Yeah, absolutely. I’m not on Facebook, but I’m on Twitter and I love Twitter. I really do enjoy people being able to directly contact me. I’ve worked a little bit since I’ve been on Twitter but like you said I haven’t worked a ton, I’m not on “Community” right now or something like that, so I don’t have people tweeting me every Thursday night. I go on Twitter, like, once a week and just Google our show's name to see what people are saying about the promotion. I’m curious what people are thinking of the jokes that they put in the commercials. Show business is a weird thing where you make your gig in a vacuum, you don’t really know where it goes and then a year later the movie comes out, or three months later the show starts, or whatever it is. So I’m really excited for that aspect of it and I’ve enjoyed the little taste of it that I’m having with my different appearances here and there on different gigs. People for the most part are so kind, I feel really supported as an actor by it too. It’s really great. We had like a half-hour conversation with the Turner, TBS network publicity people, who were like this is how you use Twitter and Facebook to promote the show and they’re on top of it for sure, and it’s great.
Q: You mentioned getting to interact with all the different fans, were you kind of surprised when you first joined Twitter to see the international fan base that you have?
A: Yeah, that’s exactly one of the surprises. It's really hard to keep track of what happens to the shows, especially TV I think, what happens to that stuff once you are done with it. It’s hard to keep track of reruns, and it’s really hard to keep track of foreign countries. We don’t get a phone call to say hey, you’re on in England now. So hearing from somebody from Peru or Argentina, certainly, a lot of people in the UK have reached out to me, and hearing from those people, and hearing that they’re seeing my work and they like it, especially from people who are seeing it in a different language. It’s hard to get my brain around that they’re not even hearing my voice, but it is a pretty cool gig that I have. I’m able to go to work every day and the jokes that I tell on the show will be broadcasted to people around the world. That’s like a phenomenal thing that I really can’t get my brain around. I don’t really know how to do the math on that other than it’s super cool and I feel very fortunate about it. But Twitter definitely expanded my understanding of how that has all come about, how those waves have sort of rippled across continents and stuff like that.
Q: Is there something that you'd like to say to fans maybe to tease about the show or about their support?
A: The thing I would say certainly to people who appreciate my work and follow me between jobs is I really appreciate that and to the extent that I can get my brain around that, I just give it my best and I’m grateful that people appreciate it. The show, I think, is like The Hangover if it was a TV show. I think it’s super funny and I think it’s sort of all of us trying to help each other through thick and thin and guys who totally have each other’s backs but still know how to make fun of each other and do all that stuff. I think it will appeal to women as well because I think women are constantly having conversations about why the men in their lives do what they do, and hopefully this will sort of comedically explain some of the stupid stuff that guys do. I hope it sheds light on that and I think at our best we can do that as well.
