Ed Helms: "Let’s just say it was damn hard. I've got the bumps and bruises to show for it. It’s funny because things that don't even look that bad on screen were still extremely painful. Like when Mr Chow’s henchmen come up on the car and then they pull, they actually drag us out of the window of the car. It really hurts to get dragged out of a car window. And on the tenth take, you've got a lot of bruises and probably a few raspberries here and there. And over time, I mean Advil was a good friend to me on this movie. I’ll put it that way."
So action is not where you're heading in the future?
Ed Helms: "I've no idea. I'm pretty sure no one’s reading action scripts saying, 'This has got to be Ed Helms.' But that said, you know, as much as you do get beat-up doing even small action sequences, it's incredibly fun."
Was it really?
Ed Helms: "Yes. So cool, so fun, and so as long as it’s funny, sign me up."
And Mike Tyson's in this - I never knew that guy was funny.
Ed Helms: "I certainly didn’t."
Was he easy to act with?
Ed Helms: "He was fantastic. Well, here's the cool thing about Tyson. It turns out he’s a huge fan of Old School, which was one of Todd Phillips' earlier movies. So he got to the set and he already liked Todd and he trusted Todd."
That's a good thing.
Ed Helms: "Yes, and so, god bless him, I mean a lot of times you get non-actors on a set and they get really self-conscious, especially when doing something crazy like singing along with Phil Collins. They get sort of reserved and self-conscious. Mike completely trusted Todd and totally put everything into it. And this word gets overused in describing actors but I think it applies to Mike in this case – he was totally fearless. He jumped in and played with us comedically and improvised a lot. A lot of jokes in those scenes with him are from him improvising."
But how do you tell Mike Tyson that something's not funny?
Ed Helms: "Oh Todd doesn’t care. That's part of his genius as a director, he will say anything to anybody. They actually struck up a really pretty incredible chemistry, those two, and I think they really trusted each other."
So is a lot of the movie improvised? Did you guys play around a lot?
Ed Helms: "We played around and improvised a ton, and I think it’s hard to say at this point what's what. Gosh, I wouldn't even know how to take a stab at it. The script was so good that we really didn’t need to improvise very much, but I think we just found a lot of moments on the set. It’s really cool when you get onto the set of a movie and you start shooting the scenes and you start to actually incorporate the environment. The piano song that I do in the movie, it’s a great example, that was never - that wasn't in the script."
It wasn't?
Ed Helms: "No. I mean, how do you put that in a script? It wouldn't even make sense in a script. So like I just would sit on a set, we were on that hotel suite set for like two or three weeks, and I would just fool around on that piano - because it was there - and fool around and try to make the crew laugh and whatever."
At the screening I attended your song got the most laughs.
Ed Helms: "Oh, that's awfully nice to hear. So I was just fooling around with the piano and Todd was like, 'Hey there's a great spot in the movie where we need a little bit of a breath in the narrative. You should write a song and stick it in there.' And I was like, 'Well, what should the song be about?' And he said, 'The tiger.' 'Oh, okay.' So I went off and I wrote this song. I came back and Todd and I tinkered with it a little more and then we shot it right then. It all happened in a day."
How tough is it to come up with something that quickly?
Ed Helms: "The way I see it, it’s a craft. It’s my job and I've been working at it for a really long time. The Daily Show was an incredible training ground for that kind of thing. It was all about discipline and generating material constantly. So, you know, it’s like anything, woodworking or playing the violin. Over time you can sort of apply skills that you've built up and, in this case, come up with a goofy song."
Do you come up with your own songs often because you're usually singing stuff that exists in The Office, right?
Ed Helms: "Yes, I guess. I mean the fun part about when Andy Bernard sings on The Office is he usually embellishes the songs in fun, stupid ways. That's just something that I do in life, like in the shower or whatever. So a lot of that stuff is pretty spontaneous."
Are you going to have that written in all your scripts from now on, that you must have one part where you sing?
Ed Helms: "It’s incredible how big a part of my acting career music has become. I get asked about it all the time, and I love it. It’s one of my favorite things, and I'm so glad that I get to sort of work that in. And then people now genuinely respond to it and associate me with music. It’s really fun."
You have a couple of scripts in the works. Have you written in singing parts for yourself?
Ed Helms: "No, but it’s really funny. I'm working on a script right now about Civil War re-enactors who go back in time to the actual Civil War. It’s kind of a big, crazy Back to the Future comedy. So, of course, it’s the Civil War - I play the banjo. I was just having a conversation with one of the producers about some of the material and he was like, 'You know, we have to work in a scene where you play the banjo. And I was like I’ll get behind that."
Page 3: Ed Helms on Working with a Chicken and a Real Tiger
