Chi McBride took a break from dramatic projects to tackle the dark comedy, Let's Go to Prison, co-starring Will Arnett and Dax Shepard. Because the film wasn't screened for the media, I'll leave it up to McBride to describe what Let's Go to Prison is all about.
Can you explain the plot of Let’s Go to Prison?
“…It's a comedy about a guy named Nelson Biederman IV, who is played by Will Arnett, who is a rich, spoiled, privileged guy. He's the son of a judge - a judge who has
really made Dax Shepard's life a living hell. He plays John Lyshitski.
And after several run-ins with the penal system, he wants to exact his
revenge on the judge, and the judge has dropped dead. He ends up
framing his son Nelson, played by Will, into going into prison. He
ends up in prison. I play a character named Barry, who is the head
of the black G Lords. Bad motherf***ers! Don't worry, it's R-rated.
You'll be safe. (Laughing) But I'm actually in the prison and I'm a tough
guy. I'm a head of a gang, and I'm also looking for love, and I
think I've found it with Will Arnett's character. So it's a dark,
subversive comedy, and I think you're really going to love it.”
How much research did you do with Will Arnett?
”Oh, you want to know...? Yeah. ‘No men were kissed in the making of
this movie.’ It was easy, man. I mean, to play that kind of
relationship, you just play it as though you were playing it with a
girl. That's what makes it funny. The realer it is, the funnier it is.
When you really try to play up certain aspects, it's the intimation of
what's going on. It's the implication of what's going on. The playing of
that is what makes it real.
I think that movies have gotten to the point - movies and television - we live in a world where our entertainment has become so graphic that all of our imaginations are on permanent vacation. I mean, who amongst us didn't think that, as heinous and horrible as 9/11 was, and seeing those planes hit those buildings live...but there was still an underlying sensation of, ‘I've seen this.’ You know, you go back and look at the movie Armageddon, and the last shot in the first scene when the meteors are coming in, when the helicopter shot goes around, it's the Twin Towers on fire. And this was what, three years before 9/11?
I love old movies where you just see Richard Widmark and Dorothy Lamour go into a bedroom, and you know what they're in there doing, man! You ain't gotta see that! But you can leave things to the imagination. And that's what we've done a lot of in this movie, is we leave things to people's imaginations.”
How was ad-libbed and how much was scripted?
”It was pretty much all on the page. I mean, it just was. There were
a couple things that we ad-libbed, but it was mostly on the page. Bob
Odenkirk's a funny guy. We had some very funny people involved, and
it just didn't need that much. I think that’s why this movie worked
for me is I always felt like the realer we played it, the funnier that
it would be. It's when you try to play jokes and make it funny that it
never works and everybody's sitting in the theater with their face
looking like they're taking their picture for their driver's license.
I think that that's what makes it work, and this was no exception.”
What were some of your favorite parts to do?
”The scene with me and Will together in the cell, when I first start
coming on to him, is pretty funny. The last scene in the movie's pretty
funny. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in there that's really, really
funny. A couple of funny montages, very funny montages, when I first meet
Will. There's another scene in a bathroom that's pretty damned funny.
There's some really good stuff in that one. So there are several moments
that I really loved.
I enjoyed the whole process of shooting the film. I loved working with Odenkirk. He's a fast and efficient director, and he knows what's funny. He trusts his actors. He really gives us the opportunity to do what we were hired to do. A lot of times you work with people and they forget why they hired you. That's why, as much as a lot of actors want to get offers for stuff, and I get offers for stuff in TV, but I would rather audition for people, because I don't want to have an arm wrestling match with a guy every time I come to the set. See what I'm going to do and then if you don't like that, don't pick me. We never had those kinds of problems with Bob because he always trusted us.”
Page 2: McBride on Why Research Wasn't Necessary and Comedy vs Dramatic Work
