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The actor whose career has been on the fast-track since his role in 40-Year Old Virgin talks about his latest role in St. John of Las Vegas . Q: Why did you take this role?
They just came and found me. I was like why are you hiring me. I can give you a list of ten guys that I know that can play this character really well. And they were like “You are this dude”. And I was like “No, I'm not.” The director's explanation was this “the difference between a clown and a buffoon is that the clown's comedy is at his own expense, while the buffoon's comedy is at other people's expense.” And I basically took that as just because you make people laugh doesn't necessarily make you a nice guy. Q: This character was definitely more serious than we've seen you play yet it still came off funny.
If you really look at any of my characters, I'm not playing anything over the top funny it reads that way because that person is so committed to that belief system. What cracks me up is how committed people are to their absurdities. So what I do is go back and trace the childhood steps, the patterns, the psychology that led him to be the way he is. I play with it for a couple of weeks, and then I’m like “Ooh, I can't let myself believe this for too long.” Q: The film is about Vegas and gambling. Have you ever gotten lucky in Vegas?
I don't really gamble a lot… I quadrupled my money once when I met this girl and she and I did like this huge bike ride to the casino. We ate at the buffet and we had a good time. We decided to go gambling and I was showing off and I quadrupled my money. And then I felt bad that I quadrupled it in front of her and tried to give her some. Thank God she was like “Dude, this has nothing to do with me.” I was like “cool.” Q: You've built an impressive list of credits do you choose your roles or do roles choose you?
I'm so selective, there's a lot of projects and a lot of money that I do pass up. But there's just a certain artistic integrity that is more valuable to me than any of that stuff. I don't live above my means. I haven't gotten anybody pregnant. No child support. I don't have any legal fees. As a result of that, I live a pretty modest life and it affords me the luxury to be able to pick and choose my projects. Q: What do you have coming up next?
I have this character called Tijuana Jackson. It should be on HBO this year. FunnyorDie has a deal with HBO and I have these vignettes of Tijuana Jackson. He's an ex-convict turned motivational speaker. He's really, really insightful. It's basically my alter ego. So I get to share all these insights which are considered preachy in a much more entertaining way.
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