Bill Hader is at a Hollywood cafe, about to take his first bite of a molasses cookie, when he gets a text informing him that he was just a victim of a car accident. What the fuck? he says. I just got, like, five messages seeing if Im OK. Bzzz! Amy Schumer just asked about it! Bzzz! Paul Rudd! Turns out some joker went on Reddit and spread a bogus report about Hader and a freeway collision, and now everyone on Haders contact list wants to make sure the 36-year-old Saturday Night Live alumnus is all right. Let me just call my wife real quick, he says, and let her know Im alive.
Crazy things happen to Hader these days. Take the one-on-one basketball game he played a few weeks ago against LeBron James. He kicked the shit out of me, Hader says. That was part of shooting Trainwreck, the next Judd Apatow film, in which Hader stars opposite Schumer, and in which James plays Haders best friend. LeBron was so effortlessly funny, Hader says. Thats whats not fair. Hader, whose rsum is full of scene-stealing roles in comedy blockbusters like Superbad, Knocked Up and Pineapple Express, has distinguished himself as a character actor, delivering off-kilter impressions and unhinged, virtuoso runs most memorably as Stefon, SNLs debauched nightlife correspondent. In Trainwreck, though, Hader plays a romantic lead, which means the movie represented a test. Bill has moments where he gets to show off his riotous side, says Apatow, but the majority is him playing a grounded character whos charming and flawed. Its similar to Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids.
50 Greatest 'Saturday Night Live' Sketches of All TimeSee Bill Hader's 'Star Wars' ImpressionsJohn Frusciante: Eight Great Moments With Red Hot Chili PeppersWhy 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' Is the Ultimate Thanksgiving Movie
Hader had ample practice playing a charmingly flawed character in this months The Skeleton Twins, an indie film that he made with Wiig. The Skeleton Twins has laughs throughout, but its clear from the bleak opening sequence that were far from Stefon territory: Hader and Wiig play estranged twins who simultaneously try to kill themselves, and whose fumbling attempts at redemption structure the film. Keeping his wildly expressive eyebrows in check, Hader delivers a memorably wounded performance. Craig Johnson, The Skeleton Twins director, says that Hader brought something that wasnt on the page. In the script the character is snarkier, more of a brat. Bill has this vulnerability. Hader says, I wanted to stretch. I love comedy, but its dramas that stick with me.
It turns out that Hader never had dreams of being a comedian. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he felt certain that he would become a serious filmmaker. My heroes were Scorsese, the Coen brothers, Kurosawa, he says. Haders father owned an air-freight company, his mother was a dance teacher, and he describes Tulsa as a great place to grow up, despite a red-state culture he didnt identify with. One night, Hader watched the cult horror classic Evil Dead. I was knocked out, he says, and the next day I dug out my dads video camera to start shooting stuff, chasing my two younger sisters with the camera through the woods. He says he came to feel weird liking movies as much as I did. That was not normal. People were like, I cant talk to you all you wanna talk about is movies.'
In his early twenties, Hader moved to L.A. to work as a production assistant he planned to climb through the industry, but five years later, hed grown bitter. I was one of those guys whod go see a movie, then go to a coffee shop and bitch about it, he recalls. Around this time, he attended a friends performance at Second City, and decided to join the improv house. I was relaxed onstage, because I didnt give a shit that helped, he says. I still wanted to be directing. A few years later, in 2005, after several auditions, Hader was cast on SNL, which stressed him out. Theres this thing with funny people where you think that if youre not good at this, youre not good at anything, Hader says. So with SNL I was like, If this doesnt work, Im fucked, because Im bad at everything else.'
At SNL, Hader watched his contemporaries, like Wiig and Andy Samberg, blow past him. I never resented anybody for being successful, Hader says. But I do remember when Lazy Sunday happened. It was such a phenomenon. I was like, Man, I wish I had one of those. Its a race. I was in the same place as Andy, then I was still running and a car had come to pick him up. Afraid of getting fired, Hader availed himself to writers for tool-kit roles like cop number two, the announcer guy. I never stopped working, but my own specific sketches werent getting on. At one point, Hader met Bill Murray, who commiserated about his own experience on the show: He said, Thats OK, youre gonna be OK, I had those parts: Heres your order, maam.
Gradually, Haders more flamboyantly idiosyncratic characters made it to air, like Stefon, though Hader finds Stefons popularity unlikely. Hes low-energy, weird, druggy, skeevy. Theres a darkness and a sadness there all that does not equal kids running up to you quoting lines. But that happened.
After his eighth and final SNL season, Hader returned to California with his wife, director Maggie Carey, and their two young daughters. They live a low-glitz life. Hader drives a modest hybrid sedan and is most comfortable as hes dressed today: plaid shirt and sneakers, stuff loaded into a backpack. When Haders done with his cookie, we cross the street to Amoeba Music to thumb through CDs. I grew up in a total Pink Floyd house, he says in the P section. My dad loved Floyd, Zappa. He and my mom hated singer-songwriters. Fuck Dylan! Springsteen? He sounds like he always needs to take a shit, and every songs about a car! Later, it was like coming out: Dad...I like Bob Dylan. Thats OK, son.' After Amoeba, we get into my car so I can drive Hader to where hes parked. He buckles in and checks his phone, where the text messages are still arriving about his nonexistent wreck. Lets get in an accident, he says.
Posting Komentar
Posting Komentar