Alan Tudyk
Tags: serenity, abc, Alan Tudyk, Suburgatory, Tucker and Dale V Evil, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, browncoats
One more of the Serenity crew returns to television. We've got Nathan Fillion on Castle, Adam Baldwin on Chuck, Morena Baccarin on V and Homeland, Gina Torres on Suits, and Alan Tudyk as a series regular on ABC’s new comedy Suburgatory. He’ll play Noah Lerner, an old friend of George (Jeremy Sisto) who moves his daughter to the suburbs to take her away from bad influences. Hilarity ensues.
But there is much more to Alan Tudyk than one new show. He has a movie coming out this fall. Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil hits VOD on August 26 and theaters September 30, after years of playing the festival circuit. Tudyk plays Tucker, one of two innocent woodsmen mistaken for a chainsaw killer. He’ll also be seen in the upcoming movie adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and has voiced several characters in MTV’s animated show Good Vibes.
ABC held their party for the Television Critics Association at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In a ballroom filled with desperate housewives and modern families, Tudyk found a quiet table where he could converse with a friend. All I had to do was politely introduce myself and ask for an interview. He graciously finished his conversation and invited me to sit with him. Some major Serenity spoilers follow, but what kind of browncoat are you if you don't know already?
SuicideGirls: Were you looking for a TV show?
Alan Tudyk: Yes. I do a pilot every year usually. There’ve been some really good ones and some that weren’t as good in the execution as they were on the page. This one I liked the script, I thought it was really funny and the execution of it was better than it was on the page. When it all came together, just the style and the look of the show is what sells it almost. It just all came together.
SG:
Does this coordinate with the MTV show?
AT:
It’s great. I love voiceover. I’m only going to play one character on this show whereas on MTV I get to play I don’t even know, 12. I’m doing two movies now that are voiceover, three.
SG:
Which movies are those?
AT:
Ice Age 4, Chip Wrecked, the new Chipmunk movie. I do a voice on that. I’m one of the Chipmunks. I don’t know what I can say about it. And then a new Pixar movie with John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer.
SG:
Is it Brave?
AT:
No, it’s something later than that. We’ve been working for maybe a year now. It’s a very slow process. I worked on it yesterday.
SG:
Have they announced it?
AT:
Maybe on some level. I don’t think I get to say the title so probably not.
SG:
Do you look for the characters that will be standout supporting characters, or is that what you make of it?
AT:
That’s a good question. It’s a little bit of both I guess. There are opportunities there. I have to say, I don’t take a character and go, “You know, this character would be better with a German accent and if he’s ambiguously sexual” or something. I don’t know what to call what I did in Transformers. He isn’t admitted gay. He says he has a girlfriend but he’s obviously a very flamboyant character. Anyway, I don’t come in and say, “I want to change this very run of the mill character into something wild and crazy.” The character’s written as a gay German character.
SG:
So they told you to go gay when you got the part?
AT:
Yeah, I’d actually already played that role another time in 28 Days with Sandra Bullock. In that one they said he’s gay and he’s German and I played that role. His name was Gerhardt. Then this came 10 years later, they’re like, “We need a gay German character.”
SG:
Is that just a job or do you have fun with it?
AT:
Oh, that was a blast. I got to work with John Turturro, man. I love his work. Barton Fink was one of my favorite movies. I got to work with Frances McDormand again. I did Wonder Boys a long time ago and her and I had just done a play, so I knew her. I got to work with some great actors and I got to see Michael Bay doing his thing and see what all the hype was about.
SG:
I’ve been on two of his sets. When he's shouting, it seems like he’s just having fun. Do people take that too seriously?
AT:
Before I worked with him he was always painted as this person who was mean to people. I thought whether he was
painted that way or I was just putting him together in my head as somebody who was, what did Megan Fox say, a dictator type person. One of the things he does, he’ll go, “We need to move this couch.” And then he’s moving it. You’re like, “What are you doing?”
painted that way or I was just putting him together in my head as somebody who was, what did Megan Fox say, a dictator type person. One of the things he does, he’ll go, “We need to move this couch.” And then he’s moving it. You’re like, “What are you doing?”
SG:
I got the impression when he shouts to the crew, he’s joking. They do get to work, so it’s effective, but it didn’t seem mean.
AT:
Yeah, it’s just his thing. They have a word for it. Bayhem.
SG:
On Suburgatory, is your character the troublemaker?
AT:
Jeremy Sisto comes to the suburbs and trying to live like the other half lives, his idea of what the suburbs are and what the suburbs actually are are two different things. I am the suburbs. I am someone who went to school with him, came to the suburbs and embraces everything the suburbs has to offer. All the comforts, I’m a cosmetic dentist so I play the part of a phony. I‘m somebody who puts caps on teeth.
SG:
Is suburbia a lot more fun than we imagine?
AT:
It’s fun to expose it for its ridiculousness. I’m from the suburbs. I grew up in the suburbs. I was just in the suburbs visiting my parents and it is a different world. When you live in a bigger city, especially I lived in New York for eight years, it’s such a different world. When the mall is a destination not just to go shopping but it’s place where we’re going to go to the mall as an event. Ick.
SG:
My memory of it is you live out there but you drive to do something. It’s not like Desperate Housewives where you stand on the street talking to each other.
AT:
Mine is that. We talked to each other but I don’t know that it’s that way now. I’m a little older so when I grew up, we knew all the neighbors. We all had neighborhood barbecues. Now we’re a little bit more isolated from one another.
SG:
Was Tucker and Dale Versus Evil a tour de force performance for you?
AT:
It was really fun getting to play one of the two leads in that movie for sure.
SG:
The chainsaw scene must have been intense physical acting.
AT:
Yeah, that’s the thing about it that made it so much fun because it was a comedy but there was a physical aspect to the comedy. You don’t get to do that much that often. There aren’t too many opportunities for that. To have a role that is in the movie throughout, that isn’t like you were saying just getting to play a role that comes in and does a little dance and then leaves, getting to be one of the main performances, getting to dance the whole movie, that was fun. Getting to influence a lot, I enjoyed it. I hope to do something like that again.
SG:
How do you make it look like someone could think you’re trying to kill them, but we know it’s totally innocent?
AT:
It’s great. We got to actually act the scenes, because Eli Craig wanted it this way, as if these things were actually happening. The audience is on our side when you watch it. There’s the scene that’s in the trailer where the guy jumps into the wood chipper. My reaction to it in explaining it to Tyler Labine’s character is you will not believe what just happened. Trying to come to terms with somebody dying in front of your eyes in the most horrible way out of the blue!
It wouldn’t be a comedy like the Scary Movies where they’re like oh, somebody just died and it’s all a laugh. The humor comes from these characters actually going through and trying to comprehend it. That’s where the humor is.
It wouldn’t be a comedy like the Scary Movies where they’re like oh, somebody just died and it’s all a laugh. The humor comes from these characters actually going through and trying to comprehend it. That’s where the humor is.
SG:
Is your role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter more of a leading supporting role?
AT:
It’s a supporting role.
SG:
Like coming in and doing the dance like you were saying?
AT:
[Nods]
SG:
Is it a good dance at least?
AT:
Yeah, I’m Stephen Douglas who is Abraham Lincoln’s political rival, who was his political rival in real life.
SG:
I didn’t read this one. I stopped at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
AT:
The character Stephen Douglas in the book is even less than he is in the movie. In the movie I surface, I was his political rival, I was with Mary Todd who becomes his wife, we’re engaged to be married in the beginning and he steals her from me, which is historical. Then I sort of appear when there’s a political element happening. I become his rival for the senate and for the presidency. There’s the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate and we have that in the movie.
SG:
Did you recite historical dialogue?
AT:
No. The way the movie was set up, it had to be condensed.
SG:
No vampires for you?
AT:
I’m not a vampire but I work with the vampires. I’m in cahoots with the vampires so I do deal with them.
SG:
What do you think of this phenomenon of zombifying or vampirizing classic literature or history?
AT:
It’s great. It’s great. It reminds me, I had the same reaction to just the title, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire
Hunter caught my attention the same way that when I first read A Knight’s Tale. The first page of the script said: 1426, the sound of “We Will Rock You” comes up. I’m very interested now. It’s exciting to play. It’s fun.
Hunter caught my attention the same way that when I first read A Knight’s Tale. The first page of the script said: 1426, the sound of “We Will Rock You” comes up. I’m very interested now. It’s exciting to play. It’s fun.
SG:
Now that so many fans know who you are, is it harder to show up in a surprising role than when you were just "isn't he that guy we've seen before?"
AT:
Do they? I still kind of feel like I’m "that guy." I’m surprised people know my name. I’ve aspired to be that guy.
SG:
The Browncoats recognize you obviously.
AT:
Absolutely.
SG:
So that’s a significant contingent.
AT:
That is. The browncoats, people who love Firefly and Serenity are.
SG:
Did Joss Whedon have anything for you in The Avengers?
AT:
No, no, no. I’m looking forward to it though. I finally saw Captain America last night, sat around forever for that little teaser. It’s short. It’s brief. You just kind of get the look of it. It looks good. I wanted to see what it looked like, what Joss was doing and it’s great.
SG:
When’s the last time you’ve watched Serenity?
AT:
About a month ago. I didn’t watch all of Serenity. I was at Tim Minear’s house. He was showing me his movie theater that he has at his house. It’s badass. Really cool old school movie theater at his house. It’s really nice to have one of those I’m sure. He was telling me how great the sound was. I said, “You know what is really great to test the sound? Serenity, the chapter where I die.” He put it in, we dialed it up and that chapter on the DVD starts with us leaving the planet Miranda and leaving Reaver space. It starts with us pissing off the Reavers and then running from them.
It starts with that and then it’s the whole Wash flying because all those explosions, that amazing take, then he lands and it ends with me dying. It was thrilling. It’s an experience that as sad as it was for the character to go, it’s a wild experience to watch yourself get shot through the heart with a harpoon. It’s entertaining.
It starts with that and then it’s the whole Wash flying because all those explosions, that amazing take, then he lands and it ends with me dying. It was thrilling. It’s an experience that as sad as it was for the character to go, it’s a wild experience to watch yourself get shot through the heart with a harpoon. It’s entertaining.
SG:
Did it surprise you when you first read the script?
AT:
Yeah. I mean, I kinda knew it was coming. Joss asked me to call him after I read it so I knew that something was going to be going on that I was going to need to ask questions about.
SG:
And someone had to to make it significant.
AT:
I agree. Thank you. After that, so many people are being injured, it might be that kind of nobody’s going to die movie. After I died, anybody could die. I love, love, love, love, it’s just such a sad moment when I die and they all have to get off the ship really quickly and they’re all getting ready, Kaylee goes, “Wait a minute, where’s Wash?” It still can make me cry. It really gets to me. It’s so sweet that she’s the one that says it too because she’s such an innocent character.
SG:
Do any of your other roles have a surprising contingent of fans?
AT:
Tucker and Dale because it took a year to get distribution but it went to a lot of festivals, the fans of that have had to go watch it at midnight showings at festivals. They’ve stood in line for tickets so when people are fans of that, they’re fans. I love meeting people who love that movie because it has been a tough road to get it into theaters, to get distribution. But nothing like Firefly, nothing like that.
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