KFC Radio - Quickie: Tony Hale

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

Tony Hale let us join him at the Essex House to talk about two of the funniest TV characters of all time, Buster Bluth and Gary Walsh. Arrested Development is back for season 5. KFC and Feits discuss with Tony what it's been playing Buster over the last 15 years and how Trump has impacted both Veep and Arrested Development.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/kfcr

Hey, KFC Radio listeners, you can find every episode of KFC Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Yep, red. Red means record, right? Six years, you couldn't really tell, could you? Alright, we are here at the Essex House Hotel on the Upper West Side. Swing, swing. Right? We're sitting here with Tony Hale.

We have Voss water bottles, and you were just drinking a little cup of green juice. Green juice. We're at this kind of press thing, and they're providing very fancy food, which is nice. I've never seen no to free. So, I mean, I just had a delicious roast beef yeah before you got here that was kind of like that was saying okay we have arrived and we're tony tony knows we're here we're allowed to be here now but i was just roaming the hallways whenever i saw someone coming and then turning the other

way to eat my food like am i allowed to be here pretending i was kind of the help who was sneaking the quick sandwich yeah i didn't want. But I'm sadder than that. I went to another table that was for another conference, and I grabbed their dessert. And that's okay. Absolutely. Free is free. That's how we should all be. I mean, as people sip the green juice and eat the leaf of lettuce, I load it up with a pretzel and a knish and a sandwich and a brownie.

Right? Good. Soak it in. Get my money's worth here. This really is the way to do it, though. I feel like often when you guys have to do these press tours, you're either at Sirius for a whole day or you're on the go. You set up in a nice hotel and get a spread.

I know. Just a strong flex. Yeah. And everyone's going to come to you, so say it. Yeah. You don't wear that. Like, hey, you guys come to me. This is season five of a massive show.

You come to me now. But it's like joyful when somebody hands you free food. It never stops. Even if I go to someone's house and they've cooked me, it's just like, how nice. It's just such a gift. I wasn't even hungry. And I was loading up. I'm never hungry.

I am actually hungry. But even when I'm not hungry, I eat if it's in front of me. It was a cool moment, though. And what I like about doing it this way is that it feels, well, I'm speaking for you, but maybe you don't get as burned out doing these full days of press. I don't mind. It's fun to talk about the show because I'm a huge fan of it. It is.

The traffic's a little crazy in New York, so it's nice to kind of be social and you can do a lot of different stuff. But we saw you out in the hallway there for a quick moment. By the way, this is the last of the day. I feel like we're keeping Tony here. No, you're not. But there was a cool moment out in the hallway. It was Jason, Will, and yourself. We're just kind of all hanging

and talking about what's next, flying over to London. And I really got the vibe. You guys are all cool and friendly in person and like your life. We've been working together for 15 years, and we know each other. And when we get on set, it's like riding an old bike again. And so it's a real gift. It could go the other way, though.

There are some people who say, we've been working together for 15 years. Sure, sure, sure. Give me the hell out of here. We're hitting our 10-year anniversary soon. Are you really? Yeah, I'm willing to do it. We're getting sick of each other how did you guys meet?

through the website through the website through Barstool Sports let's tell him the truth he was my intern first I was Kevin's intern about 9 years ago and we had

we actually slash sidekick would you say? now? yeah now sidekick now sidekick but back in the day it was we had a very weird

it was kind of a modern day you've got mail where it was it was our entire really a very weird – it was kind of a modern day You've Got Mail. Yeah, it was. It was our entire really – we were such a small website back then that we didn't have an office and anything like that. So our whole relationship was built on G-chats. Just a little show as the messaging. Modern day romance.

Romance. Yeah, big time. The cast that you guys have, I mean, you all click together. I think that's what's so interesting and what I think makes the show so great, Arrested Development. I mean, it is an ensemble cast to the max, a lot of different personalities, and you guys all seem to click well on and off camera. It's also after working 15 years, you know, there's some, like, bumps in the road and just like a family. There's some, like, things like dysfunction, like, there'll be, you know, disagreements and stuff, but you get through it. So who do you hate? Oh, let's get into it.

But it's like that's what kind of, you know, we've really gelled and we've really worked together for so long and we all have huge respect for Mitch Hurwitz who created the show. His writing is just stupid good and it's full of so many surprises. I mean, I'll never forget when my, I remember going up to him and saying hey i had an idea that i thought was really funny and he says yeah that's pretty funny but i'm gonna have i think i'm gonna have a seal bite off your hand how about that i was like i can't top that yeah that's why you're the writer tell me what to do i'll be the puppet that's very funny um one of my favorite mitch moves was the one recently he pulled where

it was uh portia told him that she was quitting acting and he just didn't allow it he on the phone he agreed and he was like i get what you're doing i believe her and ellen are going over to africa um i forget of course doing something very yes something like two great people yeah um but uh and he said i totally get i understand and then when he wrote the script he's like hey by the way you're in five episodes it's like just anzo where he doesn't let the girl break up not turning the key yeah but it's just like you that's what i get excited about it's i just have because the thing is with a lot of shows you kind of have an idea of maybe where it's going you'll see a story and be like oh yeah i see what's going to happen yeah i just you have no idea which direction this is gonna be absolutely her character it's just like you never have an idea was there uh the the revival of it was

who who who did that who who made it come about like when you got the call like we're getting the band back together how did that all unfold we've ever since the show i mean you guys are so young but it's like when we started the show we were always on the bubble we never knew what was going to happen are we going to be canceled are we going to stick around so for 15 years we've always been on this are we coming back are we not do you like us do you not you know yeah always so we're always kind of ready to because we have such respect for him and we love each other that you know when are we going to get back to the game but you know you kind of hold on to it lightly because you never know. I get most of my news from the internet.

I find out, oh, I guess we're coming back. So it's always... When you said we were so young, I kind of almost gave like, oh, no. But Arrested was probably the first show that made me like television. Oh, wow. I was 12 or 13 and I... Oh, my God. How does that make you feel?

What? And I had my cool uncle. Interview closed. My cool uncle was like, you got to check out the show, Rest in Development. And I watched it. I was dying. I'm sure at that age, I wasn't even getting it.

Oh, it's going over your head. So much. My daughter's 12. My daughter's 12 now. And I wonder, like, what's the age that you introduce? I mean, especially to see your father in such an emasculated, defeated role. But it's like, you know, what's the age to kind of introduce her to the show? But you were 12. I forget exactly.

But yeah, in that like early teens years. Yeah, sure. But you said kind of brought up something there where you said that you don't know how to introduce her to that. You don't even like watching yourself, right? You don't like seeing awkwardness play out? I don't even like watching yourself right you don't like seeing awkwardness play out uh i i don't mind i mean when i've been a part of it and i can kind of detach myself and be like oh yeah i know what's going but if it's something that like the office for instance i mentioned it's just too awkward for me to watch like like like uh scott's tots i mean that one

i understand that one's impossible but the whole show because i i mentioned this on i think i was doing conan i was just like i'll watch it and just be like, just fire the guy. Just get rid of him. Why is he in this office? Like, why is he still working? That's unbelievable. But that happens in regular offices. Like, in our office, there are so many people.

We're like, just fire him. Just get rid of him. Just get rid of that person. Why are we doing this? I mean, for you to be uncomfortable with awkwardness is, I mean, you have mastered the art of awkward well that comes from a lot of pain no but like i like i like playing it something about watching it though like my wife likes all those shows it really is tough for me to watch if you could somehow like detach yourself

i mean you would have no no chance at watching buster bluth oh Oh, I mean, no shot. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it gets really, and also just how inappropriate they are. Yeah. And some of the stuff they say, you're just like, I can't believe they just said that.

You know, it would be. it's funny you say that because, uh, I think many people's favorite Buster Bluth moment and many of the characters within this show, the Bluth family. I think when Buster finally has his moment and lets loose on lucille uh it starts off just you know easy with the she gets off on withholding and then you let loose yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what did you say what did i

say i mean this is what just just say it just do it no no no because i've been asked this question a lot and the truth is at the time i'll never because it was with jason i think yep well it was they were all in the room oh yeah they were on the road porsche and will and i remember i had i knew about a good four or five solid cuss words that i always used it was like the s1 the f1 can we cuss on this oh yeah and i fully encourage you to do so but it's like i remember saying like shit and fucking all this kind of stuff but i didn't know that much of a cuss vocabulary so i think i would say those and then fill it in with the alphabet so i'd be like oh really just because i couldn't think of other ones to say you're so bad at cursing you just had to fill in the alphabet so i would just i would just

ramble the alphabet that's very funny uh was there a lot of uh screaming and cursing that first go-round when you found out uh you know i guess you weren't being renewed or you weren't being canceled i guess how would you how would you would you say you were canceled or just not renewed yeah i mean remember i will again you guys were so young but like after the first after the third season there was talk that we were going to go to showtime right or hbo or something like that yeah i mean the show was making jokes in yes he even included he called it like yeah we were going to do the home building organization or something like that and so that didn't work out but again we never it was very vague we never knew and then when they there was talk of coming back to netflix we were all like really excited

but you know it's so you never know which way it's going so until we're on set i really kind of will see yeah it's like a will see mental to me as a fan i was like mad at the world i was like livid i was grabbing i was that guy who's like you have to watch this and they'd be like okay and i was like no you have to watch this like you don't understand the fate of fate resting in your hands. Have you seen any of the new ones? No. Of season five. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You did see some of the new ones. No, no, no. I thought you meant season four. I was like, of course. Can we get our hands on that? I don't think it's out yet. Some people got some screeners or something like that. Because we haven't.

I haven't seen anything. Actually, I've seen the premiere. I saw the first few. But it's like, I mean, just one thing. I mean, it's, there's some stuff in there. You're like, well, here we go. It's just random stuff. Were you happy to see it go back to the original format?

I was. I mean, I, I, I have a huge appreciation for what Mitch did in the fourth episode where he took the Netflix model, knowing that they all were released at once. Cause this is when the, this is, we were some of the first shows to do it with like us. And I think it was orange is the new black and house of cards. And he took that format and said, okay, we have scheduled complications with the cast.

Each cast is going to get an episode, each character is going to an episode, but he knew that people would get the full, you know, really album kind of, and be able to use it like a puzzle and be like, okay, so I can watch this and this and I can see this.

So he really fit to that format. And some people liked it. Some people didn't like it, but in this time, it's not puzzle and be like, okay, so I can watch this and this and I can see this. So he really fit to that format. And some people liked it. Some people didn't like it. But in this time, it's not like he's saying, oh, that was bad. He says that was, that was one thing. And then now we're going to kind of return to a little more of like a continuous. Yeah. I feel like it was, um, because it was the return.

I think people wanted what they had seen. And I think, I bet you, if you go back now, if the people who maybe didn't like that i think i bet you if you go back now if the people who maybe didn't like that format i bet you could appreciate it more but in that moment it was like we want the ensemble cast all interacting together so i think a lot of people were happy cast is definitely bad bat back uh buster was taken by the cops at the end of the last season because something happened to a sweet girlfriend miss lisa manali and which was traumatic and so he's behind bars and so and buster behind bars is not during the clink buster's behind bars is not a pretty picture yeah um the what's i think very interesting is you also landed

uh in in my opinion i think rest is the my favorite show favorite comedy ever and the most well-written clever show ever but i think coming right behind it as number two for me would be veep and you've obviously gotten a chance to be a part of both in what are similar characters do you do you think you owe like your life to trump a little bit like like you're like the dysfunctional real estate family that's really all shitheads and then you're also like the weird what are you waiting for him to get kicked out of the presidency the weird thing is though there's been stuff that's happened on both shows that was kind of like foreshadowed a lot of stuff. In season four, before all this wall stuff, it was Lucille

that said, we're going to build a wall. And then that came out. Trump said that, and you're like, what's happening? And then on Veep, there was stuff that happened that came out of the news. And you're like, oh, we've got to stop writing. You're putting it on the universe, and it's all coming back. Even the hop-alongs with the stair car.

The whole idea of immigration and whatnot was heavily in there. It's wild. And now you have the nobel peace prize where trump's like many people are saying i should get it i mean selena has been demanding it was selena's greatest accomplishment that she freed the llamas there's something funny going on there but but it probably is i mean when you are writing something these shows are that clever yeah i feel like in a weird way you know it art image does imitate feel like in a weird way you know it art image does imitate like when it's that good you know hopefully nobody will join the blue man group thinking it's a support group for depressed men kevin and i've been knocking on

their door at that time or two that's not real shoot all right. Do you have a favorite of the family? Favorite family member? Favorite family. I mean, the people that kind of make me, I mean, Will Arnett makes me laugh really hard. David Cross makes, I mean, I think Jason Bateman is the straight man, but the way he bounces off the chaos around him, I just think is mastery. Oh, yeah. I mean, because he has to have

such great which he does comic timing in order to kind of be the neutralizer of all of the chaos and i've always held massive respect for that yeah you said you break a lot right i do break a lot how do you i guess like you can't you're the bad person to go to for advice because i do it all time too and like when we do it at work when we would kevin and i rarely participate in videos that are kind of acting or anything like that most of ours is kind of stuff like this yeah but when whenever we do i laugh i got no shot yeah and then like how do i stop because i hate myself for doing and those are videos that are you know they're funny but like you're on the set of one of the most hilarious shows ever i would have no shot but it was what's crazy is i like julia for instance on

veep she has her tat she has her ways of like she'll dig her nails into her hands to keep her from laughing i just point blank start laughing on camera yeah that's all and i've said this many times before but julia turned to me once and she says tony you know you're not watching the show you're in the show. You're acting here. You're an actor. I get it. I get it.

But it's a really funny show. Dig your hook into your back and stop laughing. It's funny, too, when she had her appearances on Arrested as well. Which is crazy because somebody asked us individually, they said, did you guys work together on Arrested Development? And we said, both of us, apart from each other, goes, no, we never worked with each other. And then someone sent us a screenshot of us having a scene across from each other on the show. Yes, we did.

We both blocked it out. That's quite the career to forget that you worked with Julie DeLue-Dreyfus at one point. That was maybe the most obnoxious thing I've ever heard, sir. It's like awful. It wasn't present at all. Can I ask you to pick between the two? Is that a Sophie's choice? Between Arrested and Veep?

It's really hard because they're so different, and it's like, it's just like Christmas. This sounds cheesy, but it really is like Christmas morning getting the scripts, where Veep, I have no idea what dysfunction is going to happen between gary and selena and every other bunch same here i have no idea what dysfunction is going to happen and it always goes the direction i was just not expecting so let me ask you this then who's who's more of a uh maybe pathetic is a harsh word but a sorry character gary or uh buster, I would definitely say Buster.

Because Buster is in such a state of paralysis. I mean, the mother boy alone is like, okay, you win. I mean, it's just like 24-7 panic attack. Whereas Gary can get his stuff together. He can defend. Still holds a job. Yeah, he holds a job. Buster is just a mess.

Yeah, yeah yeah yeah have you ever um like maybe maybe you just need to play like a like a psychotic murderer that's what i was wondering when you're talking about jason his comedic timing and i thought how ozark really was i think he directed it so like it seemed like he really wanted to say look i can do other stuff totally have you ever tried to want to be like you know be like the action hero like you play like i don't know you're dwayne john action hero? Like you play your Dwayne Johnson? Like you said, for your daughter. It's like, hey, daddy's been emasculated for the past 15 years, but now I'm going to be the hero.

I did do something. I did do the Joker in this animated Batman ninja recently, and that was fun to go really dark, really lascivious. But it's fun because, I mean, obviously these two gigs, I'm so grateful because of the longevity that they've given me. But in the breaks, I can do independent movies and other characters that are a little more kind of grounded. It's also nice to know that that's a character. Like Kevin and I have been the depressed idiots for 10 years.

And we're just depressed idiots. We should be ourselves on the show. It's method acting. It's a long, long, long method acting it's a long long long method acting people come up to you and when they find out what you do and expect you to be the way that you are on here and if you're having a bad day it's like i'm not on one time i was at a wedding and um this guy came up to me he's like we're and this was early on before we kind of had more success and he he brings his wife over to me and he's like hey babe you know that website that i love like this is one of the guys he's not that funny in person he's funny on the website but

this is him and i was like i can i can hear you i'm right here oh yeah it's like okay so but yeah we're very much you know being on for us is you know i don't know if we're ever on i think we're always trying but i don't know but there's no one you have off camera you're like you're you're a pretty big guy you know you kind of like sleep you have off-camera, you're a pretty big guy. You kind of like sleep down in all your roles. And you're a pretty big guy. You can feel confident out there. You're like, look, I'm this guy. Well, it's funny because on V with Selena, if Gary had his wish, he would cut like two feet off of his legs.

Right. So he could be down. Because he hates being above her. He would so much rather just be under her and just grovel. So he's always just hunching. He's just trying to get to her level he just wants so bad to cut off his leg i mean what a weird uh i mean for the past however many years now five six seven seasons whatever it is you've just been whispering into julia louis-dreyfus here i mean directly this is a weird and i got the small stuff that she does like she does all these little small

things like even a little noise that you may like or something and i'm like i'm expected to not laugh behind you like come on i'm getting all this stuff that nobody else is good right that's very funny well uh the first eight episodes of season five are out on may 29th uh the second half will be out at some point um do we think that there is much more to come? I guess you said you just wait for the script to show up. I wait for the script to show up. I mean, it's a troupe that I love to join again and kind of get back to the chaos and stuff.

So, I mean, if we do it until we're all in nursing homes. Has there ever been, did anybody go back to like, well, I guess it really wasn't Fox's fault. It was more the ratings, right? So I guess the I told you so is more to the fans. Not really because for Fox, I always think they didn't have to give us all those seasons because our ratings were never good.

It's so crazy. It's like, what? It was just ahead of its time. It was dense. People weren't used to dense comedy. They were used to kind of like simple stuff and they were used to dense drama. You can say it, but they were used to dense comedy. They were used to kind of like simple stuff. They were used to dense dramas. You can say it.

But they were used to dense dramas, like we had to think, but not with comedy. Right. And our ratings were never, ever good. So they didn't have to give us all those seasons. So I don't bash them maybe as some other people do. Well, like I said to me, it's the funniest show ever. It's fine. Get ready.

It's a pretty crazy season. Very cool stuff. So you can see it on May 29th. First eight episodesony hale thank you man thanks for having me that went by quick yeah it was it was well