Danny McBride Interview - Land Of The Lost

DANNY MCBRIDE PLAYS WILL STANTON IN BRAD SILBERLING’S
LAND OF THE LOST

Q: What is your own memory of the old TV show, “Land of the Lost”?

DANNY MCBRIDE: I was a big fan of the show as a kid, as I was of all Sid and Mary Krofft’s shows back then. They all had wacky, creepy vibes to them and I loved them as a kid. “Land of the Lost” was great, but I was freaked out by the Sleestaks and a little by Chaka and his unibrow. When I heard that Will Ferrell was going to be in it and they offered the part of Will to me, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I jumped at the chance to have the Marshall, Will and Holly song be reflective of me.

Q: In the original show, you were Marshall’s son.

DM: So, you want me to play a high school kid, huh? That could be a problem.

Q: As they transitioned your character older and made the concept edgier, where do you think that took your character?

DM: They really focused keeping the mythology intact. They kept the Sleestaks intact and how the audience would respond to Chaka. As for the characters, they just opened them all up. When I think of the old show, I recall how Will and Holly would bicker back and forth. I thought that was a funny dynamic. So now we changed that to make it more of a sexual charge where I am always trying to come on to her and throwing things out. The characters are totally reinterpreted, but the mythology stays the same.

Q: Will is the every man in the story that if this really would happen to one of us, he represents how we might react.

DM: That is the interesting take on him. In the real world, he owns this shitty souvenir shop in the middle of nowhere, and he’s on the fringe of society. He doesn’t fit in to our world. In LAND OF THE LOST, he is the one who the audience responds to. Marshall and Holly are excited by the dinosaurs and responding to them. He is scared shitless by them which is what most people would be. In a weird way, he is the voice of reason in this weird world.

Q: Actors always talk about how they need realism in their work so even though you were in this land of make believe, the sets that were built were very impressive. How did that lend itself to you working in this imaginative world?

DM: The first set that I walked onto was the forest set, the one where the astronaut gets taken and Will plays the banjo around the campfire. It was massive. It was a huge forest that had nooks and crannies and went on forever. I couldn’t believe the scope of it and that just continued through the whole shoot. You would see these elaborate sets built and we would work on them for two or three days and then they would take it down and the next day it was a humongous ruin plaza with Sleestaks everywhere. For me, that was one of the most exciting prospects of the film .I have always been a huge fan of Bo Welch, he was the production designer. I like his trees oddly enough. He does great trees in films and here we had a forest full of them. You would come to work one day and be in a volcano and the next day in some weird ruin. One of my favorite sets was the mystery cave ride at the beginning of the film. They actually built it and while it seemed like the worst amusement park ride, they had it rigged up with fast moving rapids so we were really whipping around the ride. It was awesome. I got to take this great amusement park ride for two days with Will Ferrell and Anna Friel and make each other laugh.

Q: Didn’t they have the set literally fall down on you?

DM: The first day we went to shoot on that set, they had the water system all hooked up. We sat on the rafts and the world is falling apart, but the water was barely moving. We had to pretend to be screaming through all this and the water was moving at such a slow pace that Brad knew it wasn’t working. We couldn’t fake it. We went on to other stuff and came back a few days later and these guys had nailed it. We had these fast moving white water rapids and we were flying through the things. Then they had stuff falling from the ceiling towards us. It was great.

Q: What about the practical sets outside? You were in the California desert and the White Sands. How was that for you?

DM: When I first signed on for the film, they told us that we might shoot in Cabo or Hawaii, all of these tropical locations, and then in reality we shot in Palmdale and Lancaster. It was hot as hell. When we were shooting in the sand dunes, there were days when the temperature hit 110 degrees. I felt badly for the crews having to lug all of that heavy equipment. It took its toll on us. I felt that our improvising wasn’t as fast when we were in the desert. We were dragging our ass a bit, but all of those elements really add to the comedy.

Q: You did look convincing in those scenes.

DM: I focused on my action hero pose. A lot of the times when I was standing in the background, I was very conscious of how I should look. If you saw Wesley from the original TV show, he is standing around a lot with his hands to the side like he is ready to have his picture taken, so I was working on that. I am not a big athlete so anytime I had to run was a big challenge for me.

Q: You did have to be quite physical so not being the athlete how was it?

DM: It was tough. When we got yanked up by those vines in the harness, and they are not comfortable at all, they just flew us up in the air and then we free fall down and the whole harness snaps. All your insides are bouncing around. The harness work was definitely the most difficult work. You were just hanging in those odd positions where your head is half down and you still have to act. We were extremely uncomfortable.

Q: Athletes talk about how their game gets elevated when they match off against a better opponent. When you go up on screen against Will Ferrell, how does that affect your game?

DM: I always take cues from the people around me. I really respect Anna, Jorma and Will and it encouraged me to bring my A game. Not that I would ever bring anything less, especially when you are being captured forever on celluloid, but when you are with someone like Will, you do have to raise the bar. He is so good at what he does that if I stand any chance of being memorable on screen with him, I have to come with it.

Q: Were you guys having improvisational challenges on set?

DM: To me, that was my favorite part of filming. I have a writing background so that is where I feel most comfortable. When we had the chance to improvise, I really felt at home then. You just try to hold on when those moments happen because you are never sure where the scene will go and you don’t want to ruin the take. A lot of the stuff at the hotel in the middle of the desert when we drink the magical juice was improvised. When you see us eating the crab legs, the sun was going down. We had one chance to get the scene so they just let the cameras roll and we spent the next few minutes just bullshitting and talking. That was one of the more rewarding scenes. It was like catching lightning in a bottle.

Q: As a writer, you must appreciate the fact that this movie could have gone comic or camp. Does this movie actually lend itself to stepping on both sides?

DM: I definitely think it does. For us, it was important that as fantastic as the world gets, it was important that our characters stayed grounded. We had to have some form of reality. If everybody was nuts then there wouldn’t be a character to latch onto and follow. To us, as long as these characters stayed real, we knew we could play as much as we wanted. As long as we let our characters be people that you could identify with. Outside of that you had free reign to do whatever you wanted to.

Q: From movies like PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, one of your strongest attributes is your unpredictability. Audiences don’t have a clue as to what you might do. Does the mystery around you help your comedy?

DM: I definitely think it helps in comedy because the audience hasn’t seen all your moves yet. They don’t know what my next moves are. I never had any designs to be an actor. I always wanted to write and direct, which is what I went to film school for, so I always saw myself going in that direction.

Q: So how did it happen?

DM: I made this movie called THE FOOT FIST WAY with some of my buddies from film school. We had been out in LA for a few years and trying to make something happen. We went back to North Carolina where we came from and made this movie ourselves. We paid for it using charge cards. We had no connections to the industry but the movie got into Sundance. From there, we got some attention and then next thing I know, I get a phone call saying that Will Ferrell has seen our movie and he wants to champion it. He gets us a distribution deal at Paramount. We only used ourselves as actors in the film because we couldn’t get anyone else and it all just sort of worked out. That is how my acting career took of. I pinch myself constantly that it even happened to begin with.

Q: So it must have been redeeming to have him want to then work with you?

DM: Yeah. He didn’t just like that movie. He actually wanted to bet on me and have me in one of his films. It was an awesome feeling.

Q: We not only get to see your comedic prowess, but your singing skills as well.

DM: Yeah, I get to belt out a few tunes.

Q: Are you a big Cher fan?

DM: Will is the big Cher fan. On his iPod, it is all Cher and show tunes, and he had all the musical choices for the film.

Q: How did that song choice come about?

DM: I don’t know. It was always in the script. I think it was that affected voice that she had in the song. That tickled the writers. I actually think that “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull was the original song choice, but then they changed it to something that people would recognize.

Q: What was very unusual about the film was the bromance that formed between you and Chaka. I don’t think that was in the original.

DM: I have known Jorma for a few years now. We did HOT ROD together and we became good friends. I was thrilled when they cast him and, with our friendship, I felt that would be a fun thing to play. He took the Pakuni language so seriously that it really helped with the comedy. I wouldn’t know when Jorma had finished saying his line and would step on his lines at times and repeat what he was saying as if I understood. I don’t think Will Stanton understands what Chaka is saying, but he feels like he does. At least that was the way I chose to act it. I just took his lines as they were.

Q: How was it to wear the exact same costume throughout the entire film? Every day you came on set, you wore the same thing.

DM: In the beginning I have a vest, but then it gets lost. I also have gloves and a hat that get lost. I basically had the same jeans and denim shirt for the whole shoot. When I first got the role, Brad asked me what I thought I would be wearing, and I showed him a poster of Chuck Norris in INVASION U.S.A. and told him that is the way I thought Will should look. It was Chuck Norris with a cut-off denim shirt with two Uzi’s. I think we achieved that look.

Q: At least you didn’t have to wear what Jorma did.

DM: He had to sit every day for a few hours and get that applied, but I found pleasure in that. It was torture for him having all that crazy make-up on. He would have all that stuff on and it was so uncomfortable and we were out there in the middle of the desert. It was uncomfortable for us so I could only imagine what he had to go through. In some of our improvising scenes, we would let the cameras roll for about ten minutes in the desert and he would be sitting there crouched down on his haunches.

Q: There have been many shows that have aired on TV, but very few that make the transition to film. Why does this concept work?

DM: I think it all comes down to imagination. That is what was so successful about the TV show. When I was a kid, it frightened me and excited me and inspired me. Now as an adult when I look back I realize how little they had to work with from a production and a design standpoint. They worked with so little special effects but they were still able to reach past all of that and capture my imagination. It is amazing how they did this updated version and Grumpy looks like a real T Rex. I think that it will capture the audience’s imagination.

Q: This is an edgier version. This is not just a kid’s movie.

DM: We live in an edgier time. There is a lot going on out there so making a family film that just goes over a kid’s head is a really good move. When I think back on the films I saw as a kid. They might not have been made for me and might have been a little beyond me. Films like THE GOONIES or THE BAD NEWS BEARS had kids in it, but they were cussing and drinking beer. I liked that and thought it was funny. I liked the fact that it was risky and I feel we ride that same line. It is fun for the whole family, but an adult can watch the subversion and not be bored out of their mind.