The Rocker is Teddy Geiger’s first film. How was working with him and since he’s a musician, did he give you pointers or did you give him pointers?
“Teddy’s great. I think he acted for a couple of days on a TV show but other than that he hadn’t done any real acting. He worked with an acting coach and we were fortunate that we were able to get a little bit of rehearsing in on some of the bigger scenes kind of before we went and shot them because we shot this in such a short period of time and it was such a pell-mell schedule, but he did fantastically. I mean he just really was the character. I mean it really kind of is him.
He’s this suburban kid who is this insane musical genius. His first album that’s out now is really pop-y and stuff but his new stuff that he’s doing is really much more inventive and intense and cool. He’s this suburban kid from like Buffalo or wherever he’s from and he just was this prodigy. His parents told me the story about how they came in…he was kind of slow in school and they weren’t sure what he was going to be doing with his life. He would just come in and just pick up musical instruments and he would just like spend days and he would like figure them out. He played guitar, prodigy, and just like drums, piano, anything musical. He just had this gift. And he plays all his own instruments on all of his music.
But he just kind of was the character of Curtis, you know? Kind of this tortured suburban kid who’s just living the rock and roll dream and he was able to capture that, and Peter was able to help.”
What do you relate most to about Fish? What did you see in him?
“Well I really felt for this guy that gets a chance to grow up and gets this second shot at fame, and gets to kind of live his dream, you know? I was an actor for a long, long time before I had any kind of real success. I mean I was always working. So I can certainly relate to someone kind of late in life like getting another shot at celebrity. But I just really like the heart of Fish. I really like that he’s a warm guy, an openhearted guy and you know I think you get to really get behind him because he doesn’t really have any other agenda. He wears his heart on his sleeve.”
How would Dwight (from The Office) react to being kicked out of the band? Would he react different than Fish did?
“He would. He would probably blow up the band that kicked him out. Or shoot them with a paint ball gun, like right on their foreheads or something like that. So, yeah, that would be a little different.”
What was it like working with Christina Applegate?
“Like so awesome. This girl has been famous for so long. She was like the most famous sex symbol as Kelly Bundy like 20 years ago.”
Did you have a crush?
“Sure, every American male had a crush on Kelly Bundy. And she’s just so cool and laid back and fun and it was great to work with her, and it was even greater to kiss her.”
What’s happening with the Bonzai Shadowhands movie that you were supposed to do?
“Bonzai Shadowhands is still being written by me in my spare time.”
Are you going to work on that over the summer?
“I’ve been working on it. I was working on it last week. I was on a little vacation and getting ready to – I handed in a first draft to Jason Reitman and that’s what we’re working on together, and getting ready to hand in this next draft to him.”
When do you anticipate going back to The Office?
“End of July is when I anticipate going back to The Office.”
Do you think you’ll still be having an affair with Angela?
“Well I don’t know what’s going to happen there. Actually I have a zero clue what’s going to happen in season five.”
