Andy Samberg - Was a Fella before he was a Dude (Buzz Sugar Interview)

Great insights into Andy being the face and how they got the Hot Rod gig. Read on...

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Andy Samberg and his friends/Lonely Island cohorts Jorma Taccone (pictured, right) and Akiva Schaffer (pictured, middle) have somehow figured out how to achieve the greatest thing ever. Growing up together in Berkeley, California, the three are now working together on "Saturday Night Live" and are about to release their first feature film, Hot Rod, this Friday. So, basically they figured out how to get paid to make jokes with their high school buddies.





Sure, we were there to talk up Hot Rod, which Akiva directed and which stars Andy and Jorma. But really it started to feel like I was back cracking jokes and shooting the breeze with my old buddies, so relaxed and fun was this interview. I also learned a great deal about these smart, fun guys, including the fact that they call themselves "The Dudes" (formerly "The Fellas"), they have a love of all things 1986, and that being on "Saturday Night Live" was Andy's childhood dream. They are fully responsible for bringing "Dick in a Box" to the world, and have been rewarded with an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics category. Check out all the awesome other stuff I learned about this trio of dudes...

Q. You guys have been friends since junior high school, so before there was Lonely Island, there was…

Jorma: The world didn’t even exist before Lonely Island. (laughs)

Akiva: We were actually born in Berkeley, we all went to Berkeley High School… We got to high school and we all became friends and it basically was maybe eight dudes, and just like we call ourselves "The Dudes" now, in high school we called ourselves "The Fellas." We’ve really matured and grown. (laughs) Pretty much when you’re in high school your dream is to figure out who’s going to pay you to just joke around with your friends from high school, and the three of us went off and the other five are like chemists and studied American Studies in Michigan and are getting their PhDs… so they blew it. They didn’t make it.

Andy: I love that you said, “Eight dudes called themselves The Fellas… before they became The Dudes.” (laughs)



Q. I know you went to UCSC and I was wondering what it was like trying to have a sense of humor in a town that sometimes can be on the sensitive side.

Andy: We were pretty well trained in that growing up in Berkeley, though. If you’re at all a sarcastic person growing up in that environment of Berkeley or even Santa Cruz, I mean, there’s a lot to be sarcastic about, certainly.

Q. You guys were really involved in the rise of YouTube... What was that like?

Jorma: It is funny because we are tied to like, the rise of YouTube, but I think that was just because we were doing our own shorts and producing them ourselves long before maybe other people were, but… if it wasn’t us it would have been somebody else, YouTube would still be flourishing.

Akiva: Other videos have gotten popular on there after our, after "Lazy Sunday," so one of them at least would have drawn everybody over there. But we got a lot of free press out of the fact that they were tied because with the rise of YouTube we always had to be a part of that story, so it worked out to be pretty good press.

Andy: The way you say that, “the rise of YouTube” –

Akiva: I would never say, “the rise of us,” but “the rise of YouTube” –

Andy: It sounds really scary like (gravelly voice) “the rise of YouTube…”

Q. In the earlier Lonely Island stuff, all three of you did stuff onscreen. Was there ever a time when you made the conscious decision to make Andy "the face," the guy who’s out there?

Akiva: No, Lorne Michaels made that decision long ago. (laughs) Because Andy’s the one, (turns to Andy) you’re the one since you were whatever age, had your own dream of being on "SNL" … I mean, it would be truly sad if one of us was the face on "SNL" and you were the one writing since you’re the one that… that’s what you’ve always wanted.

Andy: I did go, the one thing I did outside of these guys is stand-up, I did for seven years. These guys were working on their own stuff and I would drag my ass out to these terrible clubs and did stuff which I think in my audition for the show came in very, very handy. But, that being said, I would love to see these two onscreen a lot more.

Q. What did you learn from doing the shorts ("Dick in a Box," "Lazy Sunday") that you then applied to Hot Rod?

Akiva: Well, doing all the shorts that we’ve been doing since we decided, since we moved to Tinseltown, as we call it —

Andy: We do NOT call it Tinseltown!

Akiva: Just I call it that, then.

Andy: He would give the DMV his address and it would say "Tinseltown, USA."

Akiva: But, doing all those shorts, I was amazed how much on the set of a movie, once you realize what the 200 people around you are actually doing, and you know their names and you’re not as intimidated by the buzzing around of the 200 people, like, the wardrobe people are just worrying about wardrobe, the lighting people are just worrying about lights, how much it would actually boil right back down to the three of us and a couple of friends. Once everything got quiet and it was time to actually shoot, there was really, actually kinda no difference between doing a short and doing this thing in terms of like, you’re just trying to make the little scenes work. It gets very small right after it gets very big.

Q. How did the movie come about?

Akiva: Well, we didn’t write the movie. This woman Pam Brady had written it and had written for the "South Park" series, she co-wrote the South Park Movie, co-wrote Team America with Matt and Trey. And before we were even asked she wrote it for Lorne and for Paramount and then when we got there, first to Andy they were like, “Andy, why don’t you read it see if it appeals to you?” And then after "Lazy Sunday" it became, “Hey, the three of you guys why don’t you read it?”

Q. How did you guys change the script to make it more specifically geared to your talents?

Akiva: Well, she had written it for Will Farrell, and it had been positioned that it would be a vehicle for him and … it was very much obviously for Will Ferrell. When you read it you couldn’t picture anybody else in the movie but Will Ferrell, there were just these lines that he very much made his persona over the years. So, if [Andy] had just done those lines it would have been like, an impression of Will Ferrell. So, we had to go through... and kinda tweak it a lot just to get it to feel like it was ours, and his, and all that kind of stuff.

Q. Andy, how many of the stunts in Hot Rod did you do yourself?

Andy: I mean, I was on the bike a lot, I didn’t ever get airborne…

Jorma: Well, you went off that curb! You got some air, about six inches.

Andy: Yeah, about as much air as I could get... You know, I had never ridden a motorbike, and I was sort of terrible on any sort of wheels to start with — you name it, I crashed on it badly as a kid. So, I was starting from scratch and by that measurement, I did a lot of stuff.

Akiva: You didn’t have to be very good on it to sell the character, he wasn’t supposed to be much of an expert.

Andy: But that being said, what we realized and what we had explained to us is the tricky thing about the stunts in the movie is they all go wrong. And it’s a lot harder to make something look like it’s terribly awry but still be safe. So, I wasn’t allowed to do stuff mostly and to be honest it was the smart move. I think the one I thought I could actually do and looking back I’m SO glad I didn’t do is the pool one. (In the movie, Andy's character tries to jump the motorbike over a pool.) It’s like, what? It’s water! I’ll be fine. But it’s like, “You will die.” The other guy did it and I was like, (whispers) “Holy shit, I’m glad I didn’t do that one.”

Q. Is there a roster of '80s movies that you would recommend as preparatory viewing for this film?

Akiva: Well, Rad. That movie was influential on so many levels. You guys all know Rad?

(Everyone at the table nods.)

Andy: Oh, wow, we gotta go get a beer.

Akiva: It is a rare thing to have eight people at a table together and they all know what Rad is.

Andy: There’s more people [who know it] than I was expecting, you know, there are always one or two people who come in and are like, “So, it was Rad on purpose, right?”

Q. Any others?

Akiva: Well, Footloose obviously. We just wanted it to feel like thousands of '80s movies, like, this is nothing like E.T. but we wanted it to kind of have the tonal quality, picture-wise of E.T. just to kind of remind you of, it reminds us of the movies of our childhood.

Jorma: Just the fact that that Europe album, The Final Countdown, came out in 1986 and Rad came out in 1986, I’m starting to think that maybe 1986 is my favorite year ever.

Andy: I remember being a young lad and being like 1986 is my favorite year so far!

Q. What’s next for you guys?

Akiva: Well, the show ("SNL") starts back up again at the end of September. So we’re going back to that, for now.

Q. How involved are you with the writing process when it comes to the shorts on "SNL"?

Andy: The majority of [the shorts] are written by the three of us.

Q. Do you think you’ll always want to stick together?

Akiva: For a while. Yeah.

Andy: I definitely do. We bail each other out way too often.


From:
www.buzzsugar.com/468656


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Andy Samberg - Made his stache from show dogs (TRL interview)

Andy Samberg appears onstage during MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) at the MTV Times Square Studios on July 30, 2007 in New York City




TRL is Total Request Live, an MTV show where they go through the top music videos, take requests, and interview celebrities.


MTV: Looking at the countdown, what's your favorite video?


Andy Samberg: Hmm ... "Lip Gloss."



MTV: Is there a song not on there that you think should be?


Andy Samberg: Nope! [Laughs.] I mean, I love a lot of music out right now. I'm surprised that The [White] Stripes aren't on there anymore, but I guess it's not really the club music anymore.





MTV: You had your own brush with pop stardom this past year when you did "D--- in a Box" on SNL with Justin Timberlake. How was that experience and can we expect you to reprise that role?


Andy Samberg: I hope so, but I don't know when it would be. What was the process like? It was awesome! [Laughs.]



MTV: Were you surprised that it was nominated for an Emmy?


Andy Samberg: Yeah, I was very surprised. It was, like, the most shocking news I've ever gotten!







MTV: Is working on SNL something you always worked toward?


Andy Samberg: Yeah, since I was eight years old. Growing up as a kid I wanted to do it, and I lucked out.



MTV: You're also a part of The Lonely Island comedy team, who you created the SNL digital shorts and your new film Hot Rod with.


Andy Samberg: Yeah, Akiva Schaffer directed Hot Rod and Jorma Taccone was in it and all three of us worked together on it all the way through.



MTV: What was it like working with your friends on a daily basis?


Andy Samberg: It's the best. It makes it a lot easier and a lot more fun.



MTV: Tell us a little more about Hot Rod.


Andy Samberg: It's full of hilarious jokes and it's way better than that Bourne movie and I also heard that if you go see Underdog your eyes will burn out, but I don't know. I'm pretty sure that's true.



MTV: So that 'stache you rocked in the movie, is it real or fake?


Andy Samberg: I made that. I collected single hairs from show dogs, like really well-trained and top-shelf show dogs, and I took like one hair from each one. I traveled around the world and put it together so it's sort of a supergroup of show dog hair. Only the best for Paramount!







MTV: Aside from the new season of SNL in the fall, do you have any other projects coming up?


Andy Samberg: I'm doing a voice in an animated movie, but I don't know when it's coming out ... hopefully next summer.



MTV: Anything else you want to tell your TRL fans?


Andy Samberg: Um, I love them!






From:
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/trl/interviews.jhtml?interviewId=1565967

Andy Samberg - Has no idea why Chris Parnell got fired

The other day, my brother and I were discussing whether Andy Samberg was funny. I've laughed heartily and repeatedly at several of his sketches ("Lazy Sunday," of course, and the gonzo "Taco Town"), but is he just another shaggy-haired ironist? A self-regarding purveyor of cheap absurdities? Said discussion ended with my brother's obvious answer: "Dude. He's hilarious. Look at his face."

Yes, the subtleties of funniness can be hard to pinpoint, and talking to me, Samberg's in no hurry to try. But if anything, he's a shaggy-haired sincere-ist, and impossible not to like — he greets me with a duderiffic "Pedro!" and comes off as completely unaffected, humble and most of all grateful, eager to throw props in every direction. As one grows older, it can be hard not to resent young, giddy success. Samberg makes you happy for him. — Peter Smith

So, I haven't gotten to see Hot Rod yet.

Well, let me just help you out: it's great.

That's good to hear. Actually, you sounded a little equivocal about it in that New York profile. You weren't sure the movie had gotten weird enough for you.

Akiva and I talked about that after that article came out. We don't actually feel like it's not weird enough. It's plenty crazy. We talked about specific scenes with that guy because we were in the editing process. And it came across like we were disgruntled. But actually, the studio gave us a lot of creative freedom. Lorne protected us really nicely. He made us look cooler, which we appreciated. The truth of the matter is, the movie's plenty strange, especially for a studio film.

The script was written for Will Ferrell, and you retrofitted it. What were some specific changes you made?

It was so well-written, you couldn't read it and not envision Ferrell doing it. It was so clearly his voice. So the first thing we had to do, unfortunately, was take a lot of that stuff away. We didn't want it to seem like I was doing a Ferrell impression. Then you start layering back in stuff that we find funny, that's really more comfortable for me to perform. I don't know exactly how to describe our own kind of humor, but you can track through the stuff we've done for the Lonely Island, the digital shorts — that's all in the movie now.

SNL and your comic style are a weird match. The show tends to go for traditional stuff, and you've got this surreal, absurd style, more like Stella or Mr. Show. Would you rather being doing your own stuff?

Well. . . I'm flattered to be compared to Mr. Show and Stella. At the same time, political or not, I do love SNL and have my whole life. And I feel like when SNL's at it's best, it's more that way. When I look back on it, stuff that I always loved was pretty surreal and strange.



So what are your favorite sketches from the past?

Oh, there's a lot! I used to love Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. And then when Sandler and Farley and Spade got there, it definitely got very strange. And then honestly, when Ferrell was there, with people like Adam McKay and Andrew Steele writing for him, some of that stuff was insane. And even TV Funhouse. That stuff's very surreal as well. So I feel like it's always been there. Hopefully we're just carrying on that tradition.

I guess there's always been Toonces the Driving Cat.

God, I love Toonces! So strange.

Speaking of SNL, why do you think Chris Parnell got fired after "Lazy Sunday" was like the biggest hit SNL had in years?

I. . . I wouldn't even begin to guess. I have no idea.

It seems strange to you?

Yes, in that I love him, and no, in that everything I've ever known about the show has been a little bit brutal — it's a little bit of a revolving door there. But at the same time, I think once you work at SNL and do well there as he did, you're okay.



You wore a National Organization of Women shirt to the Spike TV Awards —

I did! Thank you for noticing! I thought it would be funny, because obviously Spike TV is very in the opposite direction. You know, we were promoting the movie, and it was a good time with a lot of fun people we liked. We went and had fun, but you know, I'm from Berkeley, California, I can't go into that thing wholeheartedly. I had to put a little wink in somewhere to let everyone know back home that I hadn't gone all the way.

I was reading a feminism blog that was trying to decide whether you were sincere or ironic.

[laughs] Totally sincere.

Do you worry about reviews?

Mmm. . . not really. If we think it's good, that's all that matters. And generally that's been supported by people's opinions. We've also tried to look at the way things we like were reviewed throughout our lives. If you look back, movies like Billy Madison, Ace Ventura, formative movies in our formative years, were panned. And now I think a lot of people from our generation consider them classics, and it doesn't matter that they got bad reviews.

Variety gave Hot Rod a mixed review, but it did say you had a sex appeal rare for a male comedian.

I never know how to respond to that. I don't consider myself like that, and certainly don't put myself in that category, and when I look in the mirror I don't see what they're saying. I've got a bit of a haircut, I guess, and maybe that puts me ahead of the pack or something.

Has your fame resulted in a lot of female attention?

Um. . . I don't think any more than anyone. I think fame's just something people are attracted to. Generally, that's not the way I want to be viewed. That's as shallow as it gets. I still see myself as a big dork; people just give me nicer clothes now.

Do you worry about "keeping it real?"

Yes and no. I feel like I don't have too much trouble with that. I've done all my work with the same two friends since junior high school. In comedy, it's a lot easier, too. We're just the next guys doing rubber dong jokes.

It's a proud lineage.

It is indeed!

Ian McShane - Talks about fighting Andy Samberg

Actor rides from saloon to 'Hot Rod'

When clouds of uncertainty gathered over the future of "Deadwood,” Ian McShane was ready to ride for sunnier territory.

So, he moved from playing a cutthroat frontier saloon impresario to the role of abusive modern-day stepfather, which doesn't sound like a lighter turn at all, until it's known that his latest film is "Hot Rod,” an outrageous comedy about an Evel Knievel wannabe from executive producer Lorne Michaels and a new generation of "Saturday Night Live” stars.

"Oh yeah, it was a lot of fun. Always, working with fresh young talent. They're good,” McShane said in his familiar, breathy baritone during a recent hotel press gathering.

The classically trained British actor has long plied his trade in more serious roles on stage, screen and television, often portraying villains, the most dastardly being Al Swearengen, ruthless and larcenous proprietor of the Gem Saloon, who ruled the muddy mining camp of Deadwood through violence, crookery and fear — until production of the award-winning HBO series was suspended after two seasons. "Deadwood” creator David Milch had put the innovative, Shakespearean-styled Western on hold to launch a new series about a dysfunctional surfing family called "John From Cincinnati.”

Having won a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy nomination and enhanced international star status for his work on "Deadwood,” McShane was not happy about the rude interruption. But was that any reason to turn to such cinematic silliness as "Hot Rod,” when so many more substantial roles beckon?

"Well it's nice to be offered something,” he said modestly. "I mean, I'd just finished ‘We Are Marshall,' and after doing that, which was a rather weepy movie, we heard that ‘Deadwood' had been canceled. So, it was either laugh or cry. I guess it was better to laugh, so this came at a perfect time.”

"Hot Rod” stars "Saturday Night Live” regular Andy Samberg as Rod Kimble, a 20-something case of arrested emotional development who has no job, still lives at home and dreams only of becoming a stuntman like his late father, a Knievel test-rider who died in his prime — or so says Rod's mom (Sissy Spacek). When Rod's not risking his neck jumping milk trucks on his moped, he is constantly challenging his stepfather, Frank (McShane), to basement brawls in order to earn his respect. Frank cheerfully beats the stuffing out of Rod every time, taunting him all the while.

When Frank's heart goes bad, requiring an expensive operation, Rod sets out to raise the money by making the jump of his life, so that he can get Frank well and finally kick his rear end.

Samberg, 28, admits McShane, 64, was a little daunting during their rec-room battles.

"McShane was in great shape,” he said. "I would be winded, and he'd be like, ‘Come on, come on,' and you're just flippin' each other around rollin' on the floor, and it was cool. ... I got banged up a bunch, and I'm sure he did, too. But of course, he doesn't complain about it because he's a professional.”

McShane agreed. "Oh, I whacked him around,” he said with a devilish Swearengen grin. "Well, he's a wimp, you know? Get used to it. No, he's delightful. I had a good time. ... I hadn't done any physical comedy, so you learn a lot. I think whatever age you are, you stop learning, give it up. Don't go to work anymore. ... What, ominous pause there? That was profound. I like that.”

McShane will get serious again in the upcoming horror thriller "Case 39,” playing a good-guy detective opposite Renee Zellweger, followed by the adventure-fantasy "The Dark is Rising,” which features him in an Obi-Wan Kenobi-like character. Additionally, his distinctive voice can be heard in the animated features "Kung Fu Panda,” "Coraline” and "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass.” Then he returns to Broadway in a fall revival of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming.”

So, "Deadwood” may seem far behind him now, but McShane isn't sure the Dakota dust has settled yet. There is still a long chance, he said, that two final two-hour episodes will be filmed — if Milch and HBO don't wait too long, and too many cast members aren't committed elsewhere.

"I'd like to think we'll do it, because it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had working in any medium,” he said. "And you have to think about all those people (in the cast). It was too sudden; it was done in a weird way. It was all sort of suddenly taken away from you. ... It was a little cruel on everybody. But that's showbiz, right?”

From:
http://newsok.com/article/3097420

Andy Samberg - Thinks Justin Timberlake should be a comedian

From:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20049008,00.html

Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg knows comedy – and says his "D--- In a Box" partner, Justin Timberlake, has the chops to be a comedian himself.

"He's brilliant at it, actually," Samberg says about Timberlake's comedic impulses. "It's a little obnoxious. He's really good at what we do – as we are – and also really good at everything else."

Samberg, 28, and Timberlake, 26, were both recently nominated for an Emmy for their hysterical "D--- In a Box" music video, which the pair wrote and performed on SNL in December. The video became a viral sensation in no time.

In February, when Timberlake was in New York on tour, Samberg showed up to reprise their hit during Timberlake's concert at Madison Square Garden.

When he got the good news about the Emmy nod, Samberg reached out to the singer. "We did a little texting," the funnyman explains. "He was congratulatory, [but] he helped us make it so we all got nominated."

Asked if Timberlake has what it takes to be a Saturday Night Live castmember, Samberg says: "If he decided he wanted to, he would be on in a second."





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Andy Samberg - Used to work for Star magazine

“People want a quick laugh,” Samberg says. When he was living in Los Angeles six years ago, he spent a few months temping, including a stint “filing stuff” at the tabloid magazine Star. He walked away with more than free paper clips: It was a crash course in the tedium of the typical cubicle drone. Not long ago, if you wanted mirth at the office, the options were grim: Xerox your ass or, worse, buy a Dilbert calendar. Today, all you need is a video of someone hurtling off a trampoline. “I’ve never been at work and thought, *, I could really get into a story right now,” Samberg says. “But it’s easy to watch a guy get kicked in the balls.”

From:
http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2781

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Andy Samberg - The movie that changed him was Billy Madison

Check out the bold stuff for quotes and other cool factoids.



Andy Samberg’s Super-Awesomely Retarded Awesome Zone!
He’s the best thing about SNL, his new movie is hilarious and his * still won’t leave your inbox. Inside the chimp-loving mind of comedy’s reigning goofball.

By Jonah Weiner

Blender, September 2007


In June 2004, Andy Samberg climbed out onto a ledge at the Chateau Marmont — the Hollywood hotel where John Belushi overdosed on speedballs and decadence keeps a pied-à-terre — and unzipped his pants. It was the after party for the MTV Movie Awards, and Samberg had been hitting the open bar pretty hard. “I was about to pee out the window of a second-floor bungalow,” he recalls. “Suddenly, I felt this hand on my shoulder. It was The Rock, and he was talking me out of it: ‘You don’t wanna do it, man. It’s not worth it.’ So finally, I climbed back in, and I said, ‘You know what, Rock? You were right. You were right.’” Sitting in the leafy backyard of a downtown-Manhattan bar, Samberg grins goofily. “That dude is awesome.”

Andy Samberg is an unapologetic connoisseur of all things stupid. He went to a fancy film school. He’s comfortable tossing around cineast lingo like “diegetic space” or dissecting the oeuvre of art-house auteur Jim Jarmusch. But he’d rather tell a story costarring his penis and a professional wrestler. Channel-surfing a few nights ago, he and a buddy caught the 1996 Jason Alexander vehicle Dunston Checks In. In Dunston, Alexander squares off against an unruly orangutan in a stuffy four-star hotel — and poo-flinging high jinks ensue! It wasn’t a hit. Even the orangutan fired his agent. But Samberg, a guy who makes his living discerning what’s funny from what’s not, was transfixed. “I have a deep love of monkey jokes,” he proclaims.

Two years ago, he was just another Saturday Night Live newbie, a Jewish boy with a floppy haircut, trying to sort out his place in the cast. He wasn’t the fat guy. He wasn’t the black guy. He wasn’t the guy who played George Bush. “He’s not someone who can do a thousand characters, and he knows it,” says his SNL costar Bill Hader. But Samberg quickly became the show’s funniest breakout star since Will Ferrell. And while it took Ferrell several seasons to hit his exuberant, cowbell-banging stride, Samberg just did what he’d been doing since graduating NYU four years earlier: He shot a ridiculous video. Airing in December 2005, “Lazy Sunday” — a gangsta-rap send-up in which Samberg and Chris Parnell play dorks celebrating a Chronicles of Narnia matinee — didn’t just dominate YouTube; it made YouTube. Instead of appearing on TV once a week, Samberg was suddenly shoving cupcakes down your throat every time you checked your inbox.



“After ‘Lazy Sunday’ broke,” Samberg remembers, “the producers were like, ‘Let’s let these guys do their own thing.’” (Akiva Schaffer directed the video and Jorma Taccone composed the beat; both have been Samberg’s buddies since junior high school, and they remain his closest collaborators.) A year later, Samberg enlisted SNL musical guest Justin Timberlake for “[Junk] in a Box,” an early-’90s-styled R&B jam that made women worldwide wary of opening their Christmas presents. To date, it’s racked up 24 million YouTube views, the fourth highest in the site’s history. Samberg says he’s heard of “at least a hundred instances” of * placed in boxes in homage. “Somebody told me a dude got fired ’cause he did it at work,” he chuckles. “Sorry.”

Samberg, 29, is the king of viral comedy — a genre second only to porn in its ability to thrive in buffering, 1024 x 768 dpi form. His sensibility, siphoned into three-minute bursts, is perfect for an age where the Star Wars Kid and the Toilet-Flushing Cat have become comic icons without the benefit of a network show or an HBO special. Call it Comedy 2.0. You can watch one of Samberg’s shorts, make and upload your own version (there are about 1,500 “Lazy Sunday” covers and remixes on YouTube), then PayPal yourself a bootleg T-shirt printed with one of his catchphrases: MR. PIBB + RED VINES = CRAZY DELICIOUS.

His gags often begin mundanely, then erupt into surreal logic. On a May SNL broadcast, Samberg frenched a talking sheepdog for 13 exquisitely interminable seconds. “To get Andy,” says Lorne Michaels, the creator and executive producer of SNL, “you have to value silly, to think that’s a legitimate way of looking at the world.”

Now, silly is everywhere. Human Giant, the comedy trio who rose to online prominence with sketches about a crew of bumbling Criss Angel–esque “Illusionators,” can probably thank Samberg for their MTV series. And it’s hard to imagine HBO giving the rock-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords a show if it wasn’t for “* in a Box.” Even Will Ferrell’s gotten into the viral-video business, cofounding the clip clearinghouse FunnyOrDie.com.

“People want a quick laugh,” Samberg says. When he was living in Los Angeles six years ago, he spent a few months temping, including a stint “filing stuff” at the tabloid magazine Star. He walked away with more than free paper clips: It was a crash course in the tedium of the typical cubicle drone. Not long ago, if you wanted mirth at the office, the options were grim: Xerox your ass or, worse, buy a Dilbert calendar. Today, all you need is a video of someone hurtling off a trampoline. “I’ve never been at work and thought, *, I could really get into a story right now,” Samberg says. “But it’s easy to watch a guy get kicked in the balls.”



This summer, he’s up-streaming his act. Samberg plays the title role in Hot Rod, a comedy about an inept stuntman. Many SNL stars have stunk up the multiplex in their film debuts, but Hot Rod feels like an instant dorm-room classic. Will Ferrell and Lorne Michaels helped punch up the screenplay, which was written by South Park vet Pam Brady. Improbably, Sissy Spacek and Deadwood’s Ian McShane show up for supporting roles as Rod’s parents. The result is sublimely silly. Samberg spends much of the movie wearing a conspicuously fake mustache and slamming headfirst into hard surfaces, and the plot regularly breaks into inspired, lunatic detours — like a time-bendingly-protracted fall down a mountain (Samberg: “I love the joke that goes on for way too long”) or a bloody brawl between a grilled cheese and a taco. (The pleasures of seeing a giant sandwich hemorrhaging blood from a head wound, it turns out, are surprisingly rich.)

So Hot Rod could turn Samberg into the next Mike Myers. It could also turn him into the next that-guy-who-played-Mango. Either way, he seems unfazed. Asked how he feels about the film, he beams: “We made a dumb movie.”

Like football, cars and fake Spock ears, comedy is a secret male language: a way for boys to defer adulthood (“Toga!”), avoid intimacy (“You know how I know you’re gay?”) and scare away girls (“Shwing!”). As a kid growing up in Berkeley, California, Samberg was raised by parents he affectionately refers to as “hippies.” His favorite movies were Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Steve Martin’s The Jerk — screwy romps where men fart, talk in wacky voices and act like children. But the film that sealed his comedic taste came out when he was 17.



“The first time I saw Billy Madison, I was in shock; it was so perfect, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”

In Billy Madison, Adam Sandler pushes comedy’s fantasy of eternal adolescence to a sub-moronic, glue-eating extreme. Madison, a hotel-chain heir who has to repeat grades 1 through 12 in order to inherit his father’s company, spends his days speaking gibberish and hallucinating man-size penguins. To a generation of teenage dudes, the movie was revelatory: You could be in your 30s, Sandler promised, and still set fire to bags of dog shit. The eye-opener for Samberg came just a few scenes in. “Sandler’s sitting at the dinner where his dad has all these businessmen visiting, and his dad says, ‘Well, Billy, because you took your sweet-ass time coming down here, these men are going to miss their last flights home.’ Sandler goes, ‘Well, this guy can stay in my room, I tell you that much!’ and he grabs this old dude next to him and just starts biting his hand. Like, gnawing on it. At that moment, I was like, ‘What the * is happening in this movie? He’s literally doing anything he feels like!’”

Samberg took two lessons from Billy Madison. The story is larded with non sequiturs and hand-gnawing departures from reality, which taught him that narrative should never get in the way of a timely kick in the balls: postmodernism meets potty humor. And it featured a hero who would become central to Samberg’s comedy: the overgrown doofus. He may not be able to do a thousand characters, but ever since he played a fantasy­-loving nerd in “Lazy Sunday,” he’s been perfecting the man-’tard.

No SNL skit summarizes this as completely as “Laser Cats,” which features YouTube-ready animal humor and grown men behaving like 10-year-olds. In the short, Samberg and Bill Hader show Lorne Michaels a video they’ve been working on: a cheesy sci-fi fantasy in which cats can shoot lasers from their mouths. Clad in ill-fitting exercise gear and helmets, the two scamper around the NBC studios, firing crudely animated beams out of house­cat cannons. “The older you get as a comedian,” Samberg says, “the funnier it gets to act like a complete child.”



In Hot Rod, Samberg plays an alpha man-’tard: Rod Kimble, who wears a little cape and attempts bike jumps that typically end in humiliation and severe head trauma. “I’ve got a lot in common with him,” Samberg says. “He’s willing to sacrifice himself for entertainment, and I’ve always liked making an ass of myself to make people laugh.” Jorma Taccone, who plays Rod’s half brother Kevin, backs this up: “I remember Andy in high school, singing stupid songs, wearing headbands and looking just as dumb as he could at all times.”

Samberg arrives for our interview wearing a thrift-store tee and battered skateboard sneakers, and his hair strikes a good-natured compromise between shaggy indie rocker and raffish ’70s soccer star — a trademark do so recognizable that Lorne Michaels has forbidden Samberg from changing it. He announces that the funniest word in the English language is dong, slides in and out of goofy voices with a bro-ish bonhomie and generally radiates the grinning sense that everything around him gives him pleasure. "Whenever someone asks me to do an Andy Samberg impression," Hader says, "I kind of think of a Muppet and just go, 'Shmorgy-dorg!'"

When Samberg plays a dork on SNL, it’s an exaggerated version of himself. The guy talks to his parents three times a week. He loves Star Wars. “Watching Planet Earth HD,” Samberg declares, “is my favorite thing in the world.”

Still, what dork do you know who texts with Justin Timberlake? For that matter, who else can both identify Queen Amidala’s home planet and hook up with her? (When Blender asks about Samberg’s tabloid-reported flings with Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst, he denies the former and demurs on the subject of Dunst: “I’m not saying that happened,” he protests, before adding with mock sleaze, “but that’s not saying it didn’t happen.”) After beers at the bar, we head to a secret White Stripes concert, and while we’re waiting at the box office, a cute, flirty blonde asks if he can get her into the show. He hesitates. She offers him a blow job. “I’m just scraping by,” he says apologetically. “And, for the record, I would not accept a blow job.”

Most comedians aren’t offered oral sex outside rock concerts. But Samberg is a lot better-looking than most comedians. When Scarlett Johansson last hosted SNL, guess who she made out with in a sketch? (It wasn’t Horatio Sanz.) “She was dressed up like a grody alien,” Samberg says of the kiss. “But I’ll still take it.”



Let the sight of Will Ferrell’s flubber stand as pale, jiggly proof: Ugly gets laughs. For this reason, Samberg is ambivalent about his looks. He often contorts his face until it resembles a crumpled whoopee cushion, and one of his funniest mannerisms is a self-satirizing, faux-cocky smirk. “Funny and sexy are enemies,” he says. “Twice a month, I do 20 push-ups and collapse. I’m headed toward gutsville, but I think it’ll help my career.”

Samberg’s biggest influence after Billy Madison was Stella, the comedy trio of Michael Ian Black, David Wain and Michael Showalter, who, in the late ’90s, posted dozens of shorts to CollegeHumor.com. In a characteristic Stella short, the trio swings unpredictably from hand-holding to beat-downs while traveling to meet Santa. When they arrive, Mrs. Claus exposes her massive penis and invites them to suck on it. Fin. Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer discovered Stella when they were living in Los Angeles after college and began posting their own shorts — usually filmed while drunk at 4 a.m. — to their site, TheLonelyIsland.com. “I’m not even kidding,” Samberg says. “The wildest hope was that I would someday be on SNL and then the three of us would make a movie.” The site caught the attention of power-moving talent agency UTA, which signed them in 2002. An SNL audition soon followed, with Samberg hired as a featured player and the other two brought on as writers.

But Stella’s comedy was often mean, almost nihilistic — they kinda came off like dicks. Onscreen and off, Samberg seems essentially sweet. Historically, comedians fall somewhere between mental patients and telemarketers on the mangled-souls scale. Not him. “Andy’s likability comes through,” says Chris Parnell. “And I think that makes it easier to laugh at someone’s comedy.” He’s anarchically silly enough for boys but not too threatening for girls to get the joke — or to write “me + you = FOREVER!!!” on his MySpace.

Samberg’s a poster boy, says Hader, for a new generation of well-­adjusted comics. “Whether it’s Andy, Ferrell, Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill, none of them have ever told me, ‘I have to kick a heroin habit.’ We had cool families. We get along. I guess what it boils down to is, we’re all really nerdy.”

Recently, Rogen had a party at his house in L.A., and Samberg spent much of it chatting up Hill, who played Rogen’s even burlier roommate in Knocked Up. At the end, they exchanged numbers.

“I texted Jonah the other day while I was taking a [poop],” Samberg says. “I wrote, ‘I’m taking a [poop] and wanted to let you know I’m thinking of you’. He wrote back, ‘That’s weird, I was thinking of you too, but I was watching another dude take a [poop].’ So, our friendship is going good so far.”

Hill costars with Michael Cera in this summer’s other major dude-comedy, the sharply written coming-of-age flick Superbad. “I think it’s great,” Samberg says. “If it was coming out the same day as Hot Rod, I’d be really nervous.”

Samberg’s already looking beyond the summer, though. He has five years left on his SNL contract, there’s a Lonely Island comedy CD planned for the distant future and he’s already booked his next movie role, the lead voice-over in an animated comedy due out next year.

“It’s called Space Chimps,” Samberg says. “I don’t really know much about it. But it’s got space, and it’s got chimps. What part of that equation isn’t awesome?”

From:
http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2781

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - Thinks Transformers are better than Go-Bots

In the below article, Lee Grant summarizes the movie, Hot Rod, gives some opinions, and does a little bit of an interview with Andy. Andy's quotes are bolded. Info about Andy is italicized.

Enjoy!




Jorma Taccone (left), Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg have been pals since junior high and work together on "Saturday Night Live." They fashioned the show's imaginative digital shorts, including "(Gift) in a Box," and made the movie "Hot Rod."



'Hot Rod” is a cinematic shot of silliness, a simplistic speck at barely more than 80 minutes. You could do worse – “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry” or “License to Wed,” for instance – than spend a spell with winsome Andy Samberg.

He's the breakout “Saturday Night Live” star who, along with buddies Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, grew up in Berkeley, formed the comedic contingent The Lonely Island and ended up together on “SNL.”

Their rich rap satires “Lazy Sunday” (inspired by “The Chronicles of Narnia”) and “(Gift) in a Box” (in which Samberg and Justin Timberlake perform with a box attached to their, uh, waists) are downloaded staples of the Internet, garnering scores of imitators.

Of all things, “(Gift) in a Box” was nominated this year for an Emmy Award, words from which will not be published here. The category: “Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.”

Last week, the three were in their T-shirts and jeans garb at the Gaslamp Quarter's posh Ivy Hotel. Up the block at the San Diego Convention Center was the fan frenzy that is Comic-Con, at which they appeared on a panel promoting “Hot Rod.”

Poolside at the Ivy, Samberg, 28, acknowledged being “a huge fan of comic books and that stuff. I grew up with Spider-Man and Batman and was into Transformers. They were way better than GoBots.”

From a literate family (his dad a photographer, his mom an elementary school teacher), Samberg began reading “The Lord of the Rings” at age 5 and watching films like the futuristic “Blade Runner.”

At Willard Junior High, he, Schaffer and Taccone hung out together, making up off-the-wall sketches. Later, at Berkeley High, said Taccone, whose father is artistic director of the prestigious Berkeley Rep, “There was some value in being funny. It's good for not getting beat up.”



Isla Fisher, with a crush on stuntman wannabe Samberg, is a refreshing "Hot Rod" presence.



The friends headed off to college (Samberg and Schaffer to University of California Santa Cruz – Samberg later transferring to New York University – Taccone to UCLA). Afterward, they regrouped in Berkeley and moved to L.A. together, show business success on their minds.

From a low-end apartment on traffic-engorged Olympic Boulevard, the men established The Lonely Island (named for the complex in which they lived) and began producing Internet videos (check out “The 'Bu,” a satire of TV's “The O.C.”, and “Awesometown,” used as a pitch for a Fox sitcom).

On “SNL,” Samberg, sketch director Schaffer, 30, and staff writer Taccone, 29, are the force behind the show's popular digital movies. Recommended download: “Andy Popping Into Frame.”

Meanwhile, shooting “Hot Rod” in Vancouver, B.C., on a skimpy budget, the men asked for a perk – a high-definition TV to watch international soccer games. Samberg is a fanatic.

The rudimentary plot of “Hot Rod” focuses on an immature, small-town guy named Rod, with a moped and ambitions to be a stuntman. He seeks to follow the path of his dad, who died apparently while toiling as a test rider for Evel Knievel.

He's also dealing with a nasty stepfather (Ian McShane of TV's “Deadwood”) and a doting mom (Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek, a long way from “Coal Miner's Daughter”).

McShane needs a heart transplant and Samberg wants to get him one by winning $50,000 for a huge jump over 15 school buses. That way, when his stepdad is better, he can whip him in a fight and gain the respect for which he yearns.

There is slapstick galore as jumps over a public pool, milk trucks and a trailer are bungled. Funny highlight: After one stunt failure, Samberg heads to his “quiet place,” chugs booze, smokes, and dances like Kevin Bacon in “Footloose,” complete with cartwheels. Then comes a fall down a mountain that lasts, seemingly, forever.

Isla Fisher (from "Wedding Crashers") is an island of sanity in a farcical storm, cute and coolheaded. At one point, Samberg receives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from her and, awakening, wonders to his nerdy stepbrother (Taccone), "Did it look a little like we were making out?"

Not everything works, particularly an extended "cool beans" routine with Taccone that reeks of an inside joke. They brought it outside, unfortunately.

Samberg does naiveté well. Like his screen persona, he's gregarious and likable, recalling that as a kid, "I was always trying to make people (including two older sisters) laugh. My family's silly. My dad's sarcastic. My mom is carefree, easy-going. There was a playful vibe in the house, weird and annoying on purpose."



Andy Samberg, as "Hot" Rod Kimble, devises his most ambitious Evel Knievel-like jump yet.




At the Ivy, Samberg was chatting about "the crew" of pals in the movie. "They all care about each other," he said. "They all truly believe in Rod. They have nothing better to do than be dedicated to each other."

Then there's the link that binds Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone. "Working together, we have great shorthand," said Samberg. "We can say, `No, it's all wrong!' No ego attached."

Added Taccone, "The three of us are best buds, best friends." When Samberg joined the "SNL" cast, Taccone and Schaffer followed as writers and directors. "We couldn't let just one of the guys go," said Schaffer. "This relationship was sacred."

From:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20070803-9999-lz1c03hotrod.html

Andy Samberg - Thinks Isla Fisher ripped off kangeroo heads

"Isla Fisher plays Samberg's onscreen love interest Denise, but he says her real-life fiancé Sacha Baron Cohen has nothing to worry about. "He's actually a pretty confidently hairy guy – I've seen him in the flesh," he says of Cohen. As for Fisher, well, she was "a total nut bird," Samberg reveals. "She's Australian, so she's real tough. She probably grew up ripping off kangaroos' heads with her teeth.""

From:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20048671_3,00.html

Andy Samberg - Did the hammer stunt himself

"In Hot Rod, Andy Samberg plays Rod Kimble, an Evel Knievel-esque daredevil preparing for a major motorcycle stunt. "I can tell you, 100 percent, no one but me did the 'bang on the engine block' [stunt]," the funnyman boasts to PEOPLE. And not only did he come out unscathed, he showed his stunt prop who was boss. "Well, the hammer took a beating," Samberg jokes. "I mean, I was really, really putting my all into it.""

From:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20048671,00.html

Andy Samberg - Thinks there were too many crashes

"In [July's] issue of New York, Adam Sternbergh profiles Andy Samberg, viral video genius turned SNL cast member turned — maybe! — movie star. In part of the conversation that didn't make it into the magazine, Samberg discussed his annoyance with Hot Rod's initial trailer and is set straight on one important point by co-star Jorma Taccone.

"For studios, the ideal trailer is one that reminds you of other movies you've seen and already laughed at. This was driven home to Samberg and Taccone, when they saw the initial trailer that Paramount cut together for Hot Rod, their upcoming comedy about a hapless wannabe stunt man. "It just showed all the crashes," Samberg said. "Now, don't get me wrong. I do love the crashes. But there's also funny bits! But they were just laying it on: crash, crash, crash."

"Paramount's since released different versions of the trailer, incorporating a wider range of gags from the film. (One example is above.) As for Samberg, he knows it could have been worse. Watching the initial trailer, he says, "I'm thinking, I'm glad there's no one getting kicked in the nuts in our movie. Because that would definitely be in there too."

""Actually," adds Taccone, "I think there was someone getting kicked in the nuts at one point.""

From:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/07/dont_get_andy_samberg_wrong_he.html

Andy Samberg - Thinks Jorma is funny

"In the movie, Samberg's real-life pal Jorma Taccone plays Kevin Powell, Rod's "manager-slash-videographer." Offscreen, the two – along with Hot Rod director Akiva Schaffer – formed the digital video collective the Lonely Island and work together on Saturday Night Live. "He's definitely one of the funniest dudes I've ever met," Samberg raves."

From:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20048671_4,00.html

Andy Samberg - Thinks Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds are sexy

"While Samberg's character Rod can't grow a mustache ("due to a hormone disorder"), he says, "Every time there's a big stunt or a big fight, Rod puts on a mustache because he believes that all great men have mustaches." Rod's hirsute inspiration? Hunks like Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds, whose appeal Samberg sums up in two words: "Pure sex!""

From:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20048671_2,00.html

Andy Samberg - Doesn't think you should mess with McBride

"Why is Danny McBride (who plays Rico) blasting Bill Hader (Dave) in the face with a hose? Simple. "You know, you don't want to say the wrong thing to McBride," Samberg cautions. "He's a rough-and-tumble mother*." As for working with fellow SNL cast member Hader, Samberg says, "There's a lot of family going on set.""

From:
http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20048671_5,00.html

Andy Samberg - Reveals how Iran So Far came together

In this 3rd person perspective interview with Andy Samberg, the NY Times shows how the process of Iran So Far came together. I bolded the info that opens up how this short was made.



From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/arts/television/04snl.html?_r=1&em&ex=1191643200&en=ff67beb78711fd02&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

"The latest hit for “Saturday Night Live” on the Internet began taking shape on Sept. 24, when Andy Samberg and a group of his colleagues on the show were sitting around their offices, scrounging for a celebrity or politician “who could really use a love song right now.” Around the same time, Seth Meyers, the show’s head writer, was imagining a skit in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, would be depicted on a wild night out on the town.

Before long the ideas fused, and by last Saturday, opening night for the 33rd season of “Saturday Night Live,” the group had produced a three-minute music video titled “I Ran So Far Away.” In it, a crooning, piano-playing Mr. Samberg and a doppelgänger for the Iranian president (his castmate Fred Armisen, bearded and in a gray suit and open-neck dress shirt) dance and appear to fall in love — giving apparent lie to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s contention at Columbia University that there were no homosexuals in Iran.

By yesterday afternoon, just four days after its network premiere, the various versions of the video posted on YouTube had been viewed nearly 300,000 times, according to tallies posted on the site. For Mr. Samberg and his main collaborators — Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — “I Ran” is something of a sequel. Last year, NBC posted an uncensored version of a boy-band video the group made — the cleaned-up title was “Special Treat in a Box” — in which Justin Timberlake and Mr. Samberg each appeared to be making a gift of their male anatomy. Thus far, that film has been seen more than 29 million times on YouTube, and last month it won an Emmy.

However popular, such films — including “Lazy Sunday,” a rapping homage to “The Chronicles of Narnia” — have not appeared to raise the ratings of the show itself. Last season, “Saturday Night Live” drew an average of about 6.4 million viewers a week, which was down from the year before. But the digital shorts have given the show, and Mr. Samberg in particular, a Web presence and cachet.

Considering that Mr. Samberg and his crew typically create their digital films in little more than 48 hours, the six days they spent on “I Ran” made it feel like a feature film. First, Mr. Samberg said, they developed the song’s R&B beat, which had elements of LL Cool J, the Wu-Tang Clan and an outright sample from Aphex Twin, an electronic performer.

The chorus, “I Ran,” is a knock-off of the 1980s Flock of Seagulls hit of the same name. But otherwise, the words were original. Among the more memorable lines Mr. Samberg sings to the Iranian president are:

You can deny the Holocaust all you want

But you can’t deny that there’s something between us

At another point, Mr. Samberg invokes “The Passion of the Christ” and its star, singing :

They call you weasel

They say your methods are medieval

You can play the Jews

I can be your Jim Caviezel

The film also features two cameos, personally arranged by Mr. Samberg. Adam Levine, the lead singer of the band Maroon 5, sings the “I Ran” chorus. Mr. Samberg, 29, said in an interview yesterday that he had sent a text message to a mutual friend, saying he had a perfect part for Mr. Levine to sing. The problem was that Mr. Levine was in Detroit. Mr. Samberg persuaded the singer to fly to New York early Friday morning. He then went straight to the makeshift recording studio in Mr. Samberg’s office and, on only a few hours sleep, traveled to Brooklyn to film his scenes. He was back on a plane to Detroit by early afternoon.

Another cameo, several seconds of Jake Gyllenhaal stroking his beard, was filmed in Los Angeles on Friday.

While the cast’s main goal was to have fun, Mr. Samberg said, the film has a political undertone. “No one around here,” he said, “is super fired-up about a guy who is denying the Holocaust and saying there are no homosexuals in his country.”"

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - Is twins with Isla Fisher (or so he says)

It's pretty rad that Jorma and Kiv's favorite movie is Rad. Have you seen it?

My favorite lines from this interview:

TONY: If someone is reading our interview, why should they buy Hot Rod on DVD?

Andy Samberg: Because they want to own it?

TONY: What's it been like promoting this film all over the world? What's it been like dealing with the press?

Andy Samberg: It's been weird. It's like constantly going on dates with no chance of boning at the end. But more fun than that. A little.

From:
http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/64499/411-Movies-Interview:--Andy-Samberg-of-Hot-Rod.htm

TONY: Since this was your first time acting in a feature film, how did you handle the pressure? Did you prepare differently?

Andy Samberg: Not really, getting to work with Kiv and Jorm made things a lot more comfortable and we're so used to shooting single-camera that it wasn't too severe of a change. We had to get up much too early though. And I ate tons of watermelon. I'd had watermelon before, but not nearly that much watermelon.

TONY: What was the transition like going from doing comedy sketches to a full length film? Did you have to slow down the process at all? What challenges did you face?

Andy Samberg: Again, since the three of us have done so much single-camera stuff both before SNL and at it that the actual creative process day-to-day wasn't so different. The main thing that was new to us was not knowing until you get to editing if this big long story is going to add up, and I think that's probably true for most people who shoot a film. It's so much stuff and often shot out of order that you kind of just have to go for it and have faith in the script and that you'll find ways to make it all work in the end. And also dealing with Kiv's fart jokes on set. That became a challenge. You'd be all involved in a scene and then there's Kiv on the megaphone like, "Hey, what do you call two rhinos farting in a swamp?!" and we're just like, "No one cares, Kiv!" and he'd be like, "Aw, c'mon, fellas! I'm Kiv!" So that was also a challenge.

TONY: What was it like having two legendary actors such as Ian McShane and Sissy Spacek as your parents in this film?

Andy Samberg: It was super effing rad. They were both amazing and they made us all feel at ease and elevated the whole movie just by showing up, and obviously by being awesome actors as well. I had pretty big crushes on both of them. But not in a weird way, I just mean sexually.

TONY: What was the actual shooting of Hot Rod like? You guys shot the film in two months. Did you have time to do a lot of takes, or was it just go, go, go?

Andy Samberg: It would really just depend on the day. Sometimes we'd have a shorter list of stuff to get and could mess around with it more, but in general we had to keep things moving.

TONY: I really enjoyed all of the music in Hot Rod. How much of a say did you have in the music? Why did you pick certain songs?

Andy Samberg: We (Kiv, Jorm and I) had all the say in picking the music. We got suggestions from our music department as well, some of which we used, like the Nutley Brass cover of "Skulls" which I love, but ultimately it was all our calls. We picked stuff in a bunch of different ways, I mean there's a lot of Europe in there and that was very much a conscious choice A) because they rule and B) because we felt like the spirit of their music, particularly on that album (final countdown) really mirrored Rod's personality and worked to show how big he thinks the things he's doing are and stuff like that. And then some stuff we just love, like Stacey Q. Oh, and John Farnham came into play via "RAD" which is Kiv and Jorm's favorite movie ever.

TONY: I really got a kick out of the Kevin Bacon/Footloose scene with you dancing. How much fun was it shooting that scene?

Andy Samberg: It was fun, but it was also the first time I've ever taken a drag off of a cigarette and I almost barfed after the 2nd take. I also realized I'm in terrible shape. It really made me realize how much coasting you do when you dance at a party. It's like 15% actual dancing, but this was like 110%. And it turns out that's way too much for me. But it was fun.

TONY: Now that you look back on Hot Rod and shooting a feature film, was it what you expected?

Andy Samberg: For the most part, yes.



TONY: How pretty is Isla Fisher in person?

Andy Samberg: That's a weird question for me to answer because during the course of shooting I found out that she's my twin sister, separated at birth. Sooo, really pretty?

TONY: I know it's hard to pick one story or one memory, but what's your most vivid memory from shooting this film?

Andy Samberg: When we wrapped Jorm came running out in a thong and popped champagne. That's gotta be up there in terms of vividness, not "goodness" necessarily, but certainly vivid. Like, burned into my eyes forever. I think it's on the DVD somewhere actually. You're welcome, Jorm!

TONY: When Hot Rod came out, the film received a lot of mixed reviews. Is that what you expect from comedy? It seems like either people get it or they don't, and you can't please everybody.

Andy Samberg: I definitely expected it. All our favorite comedies got mixed reviews. And I especially expected it because it was out first movie and people don't really know our style yet. That's something you have to earn with persistence and hard work, and we hope to do that someday. But, yeah, we didn't sweat it too much since there's such a long history of people's first movies being received weird and us loving them (The Jerk, Billy Madison, etc.).

TONY: I want to ask you a little bit about Saturday Night Live. When you're going to impersonate somebody, how do you prepare for that? What kind of research do you do?

Andy Samberg: Well, get ready to be impressed. First off, this has happened maybe twice. And it pretty much consists of looking up a few clips on youtube and watching how they act and talk. To be honest, in general if I'm doing an impression on the show it's either because I already figured out I had a funny take on it or because no one else in the cast looks more like them.

TONY: Have you heard from anyone that you have impersonated? Are they usually offended or honored?

Andy Samberg: I've never talked directly to anyone, but I heard Jack Johnson liked his. I'm still waiting to be at a party where Ken Mehlman bumrushes me from the one time I did him. That would make it all worthwhile, right? Just Mehlman in my face, like, "Whattup? I heard you were talking shit!" all Jr. High style? That would be a high point.



TONY: What's it been like promoting this film all over the world? What's it been like dealing with the press?

Andy Samberg: It's been weird. It's like constantly going on dates with no chance of boning at the end. But more fun than that. A little.

TONY: If someone is reading our interview, why should they buy Hot Rod on DVD?

Andy Samberg: Because they want to own it?

TONY: Finally, what are your plans for the future?

Andy Samberg: I'm gonna go back to it.


Enjoy!

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Update: Vote in the poll on the right! We're listening to you!

We're adding a category called "Text_Interviews_07" so that you can find all his written interviews he's done.

- TAE

Andy Samberg - Has everything he wants

From:
http://www.thechimp.net/2007/12/dear-santa-davey-havok-andy-samberg.html

"On the exact night that Andy should have been creating the next generation of classic Saturday Night Live Holiday memories, he was instead drinking with 2 dude-bros at Hollywood hot spot Teddy's."



TheCHIMP.net "Andy, anything you didnt get for Hanukkah that you still want?"

Andy: "Uhhh....not really. I kind of have everything I want already.

TheCHIMP.net: Hey, can I grab a quick photo?

Andy: I think....you...just...did.


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There you have it, folks. Andy's got everything he wants. He wasn't all that funny here, but it's cool to know that he's not rushing out to buy the next big thing.

- TAE

Andy Samberg - Is making confections

From:
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/12/there-will-be-blood-premiere-andy-samberg.php

"Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, and several others all made it out to the Ziegfeld Theater Monday night in support of the upcoming release of Paul Thomas Anderson's hotly anticipated There Will Be Blood. When toothy-yet-scrumptious Andy Samberg and rubber-faced Bill Hader, sauntered by, Radar hoped for a follow up to Samberg's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad serenade or else his famously wrapped package routine. So, Andy, are you enjoying your time off from the show? "I like it if it allows me to see this movie." Boring. Well, what are you doing with all of your free time? "We're putting together a dessert shop. Bill and I are making confections."

As we pondered whether he might get Chris Parnell to join and make it a cupcake-baking, Chronicles of Narnia-watching threesome, Samberg wistfully added, "The secret ingredient is tears.""

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Who wants a cupcake from Andy?


Enjoy!


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Update: New embedded video of the Natalie Portman rap (the last one got taken down)...

http://andysamberg.blogspot.com/2006/08/natalie-portman-saturday-night-live.html

Andy Samberg - Thinks Martin Scorsese should have done the Hot Rod DVD commentary

This is an interview with Andy Samberg, Jorma, and Akiva. It looks like the interview was in early August, but MSN must have re-posted it because Hot Rod came out on DVD. Andy's parts are italicized.



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From:
http://movies.msn.com/new-on-dvd/feature-article/?news=270423

For the past two seasons, actor/writers Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone and director/writer Akiva Schaffer -- known collectively as "The Lonely Island" -- have been responsible for some of the funniest moments on the venerable late night comedy show "Saturday Night Live." Yet it's the Internet that has given them their greatest exposure, thanks to the phenomenon of viral video. Their "SNL" video shorts "D**k in a Box" and "Lazy Sunday" and their self-produced "The 'Bu" (a parody of "The O.C." featured on their Web site) are among to most watched comedy shorts on the Internet. In anticipation of the release of "Hot Rod," their first big screen bid for success, they sat down to talk about their shorts, "Saturday Night Live," and, of course, what's in their DVD player.

What's in your DVD player?

Akiva Schaffer: I'd never seen Stallone's movie "Cobra," so I went and bought it. It's so rare for me to actually go to a store and purchase a DVD, but I just had a feeling that it was one that I'd want to own so I went to Union Square in New York and I bought the "Cobra" DVD. I was real excited that they had it. And it was pretty awesome.

It's an essential keeper?

Akiva: It delivered. Right at the beginning he gets home from work after killing a guy and takes out a pizza and he cuts it with scissors before eating it.

Jorma Taccone: Because he's just that badass.

Akiva: Yeah, he just flops the box down, flops it open, grabs a piece and *snip*.

It's that attention to detail that separates the classics from the rest.

Jorma: My answer is awesome, these guys are going to like it. I recently got married and our first dance at the wedding was based on "The Lendler," which is an Austrian folk dance. I'd never seen "The Sound of Music" so I bought a DVD to "The Sound of Music" and we used that to practice.

Andy Samberg: So that's in your DVD player?

Jorma: Yes. "The Sound of Music." Put it down. I'd never seen it. It was pretty good.

Andy: I also have "The Sound of Music" because I caught wind of Jorm's plan I decided to study it so I could properly make fun of him for the rest of his life.

Do you have any plans for a DVD release of the video shorts that have made your fame on "SNL" and the internet?

Akiva: It's not really up to us. I know that there is, and you might want to fact check this because I know this is happening but I don't know the details, but I think there is a "Best of 2006/2007" SNL DVD that's going to be sold in Starbucks that has three shorts on it. [ed. note: it's "Saturday Night Live: The Best of '06-'07," due exclusively in Starbucks August 28]

Which shorts will be on it?

Jorma: "D**k in a Box" ...

Akiva: ... "Peyton Manning for United Way," and ...

Andy: ... "The Shooting?" [an "O.C." parody]

Akiva: Yeah, the one we do with Shia LaBeouf. Some people call it "Dear Sister." We did commentary for it, didn't we?

Jorma: Yeah, we did, you're right.

Akiva: So that's a way to get some of them. In terms of a collection, I look forward to the day, but it has not been planned.

Andy: I think there's something like 40 shorts now. Maybe less.

Akiva: To make a "Best of" you want to give it enough years that people can be nostalgic for the old ones.

Andy: You have to have a body of work for there to be a "best of."

What would be your dream supplements for the DVD release of "Hot Rod"?

Akiva: I don't know but we'd better think of it. We haven't made the DVD yet so we can still rethink what's going on there.

Andy: Maybe commentary from Martin Scorsese?

Jorma: Right, commentary from someone who never involved in the film.

Akiva: We did want to have our friend Chester do a fart pass on the movie, where we have him just add fart sounds throughout the movie.

Andy: So you can choose "Director Commentary" or "Fart."

I hate to tell you this, but that's been done.

Andy: That's been done?

Jorma: Has it?

Andy: That's fantastic!

"Wet Hot American Summer" in 2002.

Jorma: It's going to be my new favorite movie. What if it was "The Sound of Music"?

Andy: Right, the Criterion version of "Sound of Music."

Jorma: [With farts] by Julie Andrews.

Andy: Which sounds weird but actually is really quite beautiful.

How does the creative process work when you, for instance, begin developing a short film for "SNL"?

Andy: All kinds of ways. Sometimes one of us will have an idea in the shower and come in and write it out and we'll help punch it up, sometimes we'll sit in a room and say, "What shall we do?" and pitch ideas, sometimes we know we want to go in a certain direction with a certain thing. Like "D**k in a Box," we knew we wanted to do an early nineties R&B song and we pitched ideas until Jorma came up with, "How about d**k in a box," and we're like, "Oh, yes, we love that." And then we all started writing it up together.

Akiva: And it just completely fluctuates.

Jorma: And it's helpful if someone is just excited about something and comes in with an idea and then we'll manipulate it to be the three of our idea.

Akiva: And sometimes, for the shorts, we don't even have an idea, we're too busy with other parts of the show, and another writer or actor on the show we'll say, "Hey, I have a thing where I do this," and then we'll go do that.

Jorma: Those are good weeks, actually.

Andy Samberg - Is allowed to steal things

From:
http://www.observer.com/2007/when-day-lewis-met-samberg-master-thespian-and-snl-stooge-collide-fancy-brasserie


"“The writers’ strike has had no visible effect on my Hanukkah,” said comedian Andy Samberg at Brasserie 8 1/2 on Monday, Dec. 10, during a party before the premiere of There Will Be Blood. He and Saturday Night Live colleagues Bill Hader, Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler were all there in support of fellow cast member Maya Rudolph’s boyfriend, Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed the film. “My Hanukkah is par for the course. I mean, you know, lighting the candles and stealing things.”...

“That’s the rule, right? You go out and steal something every night,” Mr. Samberg continued. “If you actually get arrested for stealing something on Hanukkah, if you can prove that you’re Jewish, you are not charged for it because it’s a religious thing.”"

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Enjoy!