Michel is just a creative genius, I think, but people really haven't discovered him on a mass level yet. He comes in every day with something that just kind of spins you around and makes you go, “Wow, somebody's thinking, man! Thank you! This is great! Somebody's bringing something to the table.”
He comes in and asks me to do things that are impossible. There's a scene where I come into Lacuna in my memory and I'm screaming at the doctor, and I'm in two different places in the scene. It's not split screen - it's not any of that - it's Michel coming in and saying [in a French accent], “You're going to run around the camera and you're going to put the hat on and take it off and put it on and take it off!” So, that's me going back and forth behind the hand-held camera in the dark. I'm not kidding. That's what was happening in that scene. It was just about how quickly can you run through the dark, get a jacket and a hat on and then completely change your attitude to the person on the other side of the room. And I argued with him. I said, “This can't be done. I can't do this. It's impossible.” He said [in a French accent], “How do you know if you don't try?”
What are the special challenges of a Charlie Kaufman script?
Oh my gosh. This movie has everything going, so when I read the script, I was just... First of all, just happy to be a small part of his legacy because I know that this is going to be one hell of a legacy at the end of all his creative madness. But this script is everything. Most of the time, he stays in this wild, intellectual world. This one just has such an anchor of heart - something we can all identify with on an emotional level, so it's got everything going at the same time. I feel like I won the lottery.
Are you a good 'mark' for actors and comedians? Do you keep yourself open?
Yeah, I just may laugh at different things than most people. I laugh at mistakes. I laugh at how you recover from mistakes. I see when people go off their material and it's actually happening in front of you and that kind of stuff excites me. I've been doing “Lemony Snicket” recently and there's just so much opportunity in that. [Director Brad Silberling’s] been turning the camera on and letting me have fun. I play an 'actor' so I get to make fun of myself and I created a technique called 'bacting,' by the way - for people who have to work in the round. I've just had so much fun with it. I love spontaneity, so when I see spontaneity and I know it's spontaneity, it makes me happy. I don't know why. I think it's like looking at a child or something. When you look at a kid and they're completely involved in something, it's entertaining to watch.
Is your head shaved for "Lemony Snicket?"
You know it’s just going to come in so thick next time. Yeah, "Lemony Snicket." Lots of wigs - tons of wigs. It was so much fun. We're halfway through. It's just so much fun. It's such a different way to tell a children's story. It's very original. It's an opportunity for me to show up as this crazed thespian.
He's evil…
He's an evil thespian, yeah, which is redundant, really.
Did you know much about the books before taking the role?
No, I didn't. I was not aware of the books before. They asked me to read these books and I did. I thought it was a really original voice. To me, it's just an opportunity to have fun just throwing on disguises. One of the characters...we were planning on doing a completely different character. I had an Italian accent, it was all worked out - a character named Stefano - and they put the wig on me in the makeup chair like five minutes before they were going to test this character and the wig had changed. I said, “It's not that guy anymore.” They put this mustache on and it was all the elements of the character before, but they had been altered in a way and I said, “It's not the guy anymore.” Brad came into the trailer and said, “What do you mean? Who is it? Who is it?” And I just started speaking like the guy who belonged to the hair. That's where the character came from, literally five minutes before we went out there and it just blossomed from there. He makes it feel very safe as far as improvising and things like that.
Writer/director Todd Phillips said you brought him the property of “The Six Million Dollar Man.” What's your affinity for that character and what are the comic possibilities?
I am bionic.
Which part?
Hey, hey...that...that's a sensitive organ. They're working on that one. (Mimes being on phone) “Is it ready yet? Q, help me.” Uh...I forget what the question was.
Your affinity for that character and why did you want to bring him to the screen?
We're developing that script so I think it's just going to be a whole lot of fun. I love playing ego and insecurity combined - well, it's the same thing, I guess. Ego out of control. But I think it's going to be fun. Six million dollars doesn't get you a lot in this world these days, so you can kind of imagine where the plot's going to go.
