Will Arnett and John Gallagher Jr. Interview

Reporter: Tell us a little bit about your character

Will: I play a character named Lt. Grass and he has been sent by the government from Washington with 2nd Lt Evan to find Jonah Hex and get him to serve our needs, the government's needs, which is to put an end to Quentin Turnbull's antics. I guess he's kind of a,... we talked about the idea that he represents the future. He's almost like a corporatized version of a military man in those days. He's very orderly and he believes that the future of the world lies in information and intelligence and not in the old rules or the non-rules of the wild west.
So he represents that new, kind of an end of an era or the beginning of the new era.

Reporter: Obviously everyone knows you from (?)

Will: Obviously (laughter)


Reporter: and you've done so much comedic stuff in the past few years and I know that when you first started out you went looking for more dynamic roles and serious stuff like that and then shifted into comedy based on kinda what came to you. Are you trying to make the shift back? Or are you just trying to say 'Hey, it just a part, it doesn't matter anymore if it's comedy or not. I just want to do what I want to do.'?

Will: I said before a smarter man would have a plan. I have none. So there's nothing, there's nothing that has been well thought out. But this was, doing this movie and this part represented a really great opportunity for me to do something different that I hadn't done in a long time and I had a relationship with Jimmy Hayward. Obviously he comes out of animation and he directed Horton Hears a Who, that's how I got to know Jimmy, and he actually came to me and said "This is, I'm working on this movie. I think this would be a great part, something that you could do." So I really fought for it. I mean I wanted to be a part of it and do something different and I gotta tell you it's super exciting for me to be able to something like this because I don't get offered parts like this at all. So it's very exciting.

Reporter: You've got such an eclectic cast in the film with Malkovich, Josh Brolin and with you playing the role, it's not your standard comic book cast. Is that something that attracted you as well?

Will: Well, yeah, of course. I mean, those guys, Josh and Malkovich, or John Malkovich or Sir John Malkovich (laughter) That's how I think of him. They're such great actors and of course they're also Oscar nominated and Oscar winning actors it's pretty, that in and of itself is attractive enough. Plus the fact that they're actually really good and you have guys like Fassbender and John Gallagher, up and coming young actors from New York, it's just really cool to be part of something like this. And it is an interesting cast I think. I'm not gonna put myself in that, but everybody else is, so it's very cool to be a part of it, a cast like this.

Reporter: Were you a fan of the comic?

Will: You know I wasn't really that well versed in the comic, to be honest. Since I've become involved with the movie I've kind of looked at some of the stuff and it's      Obviously there is a huge fanbase there for it, but I didn't even know it existed. I don't know a lot of things. I mean, that could take up three bus rides. (laughter)


Reporter: You were describing sorta what your character represents, I mean, do you typically approach roles at all in that way, in that sort of metaphorical "this is what this character represents/thinks about" sort of a theme or it is some sort of practical process of constructing what they look like, what they do?

Will: You mean do I approach it from when I'm setting out to do something like this?

Reporter: Yeah

Will: Well, you know, it's really been a.. When I first read the script and I talked to Jimmy a few weeks later, cuz I'm a slow reader, he said "what do you think?" and I kind of immediately said that I think this is really cool, this part is really cool and here's how I think of this guy. He represents the future, he's kind of this thoughtful inevitability, he's kind of a soul-less.. you know, he's not a bad guy, but he's a little bit soul-less in a sort of corporate way. And I think that really resonated with Jimmy  and that was what he was looking for in terms of approach and that's how I've been thinking of that. Having said all that, I'm not going De Niro here.


Reporter: Are you able, or do you find that there are moments where you do want to inject some dry humor into the proceedings?

Will: No, not really, not in the making of the movie. I mean, I remember a couple of months ago doing a press conference with..I'm always doing press conferences..on buses or trains. But I was doing a press conference with Mitch Herwitz who created Rusty Bellman, we were doing and I answered a question seriously and I kind of stopped and he leaned forward and said "It's hard not to end on a joke, isn't it?" It really is, when you spend.. when it's your kind of bread and butter it becomes just a part of your thing. But I'm very sensitive to this material, this story and there’s no part of me that wants to jump it up, as it were.       


Reporter: Are you disappointed that you didn't get cool facial hair?

Will: A little bit. My beard grows in so scraggly so I actually do employ a mustache in this film but through techniques of makeup and wizardry.

Reporter: Did you do any prep work on how to ride horses or any period stuff?

Will: Yeah, John and I had to spend a few days. That was humbling, right John?

John: Yeah, it was great. The first time I had been on a horse since fourth grade horse camp in Delaware where I grew up. So that was really nice. It was great to get out there and like the team that they have.. I mean, almost any kind of action film or not, any film really that you see a large amount of horses, chances are that they have worked on. That's what they do, they go everywhere and they...they were talking that Will's horse played Flicka in the Flicka movie a few years ago. I think that some of the horses have done more films than I have. Actually I think they all have. Even the stand-in horse. But it was really fun to get out there, although, I don't know if you noticed this, once we got on the set, once I had the wardrobe on they had to help onto the horse. It was the boots.

Will: The boots. It was all the special saddle stuff and the swords and everything, it was... Luckily for us, there was no scene where we have to run up to a horse and jump on it.. cool style because we were not, it would look like "What is happening?"

Reporter: I am actually curious because we talked about this is a summer movie, there are going to be action set pieces and we talked a little bit about how you prepare for these action set pieces and what's the one that you haven't really filmed that much yet. What's the one you're really looking forward to doing?

Will: Well, we're shooting tomorrow night part of this battle that takes place on the river and this fort and where John and I come up the river on a cutter and then they.. John Malkovich's character starts launching grenades and stuff.. not grenades, but cannonballs and whatever , at us. That's gonna be pretty fun, standing on the front of the boat, yelling like an (???) through a big huge megaphone type thing. So that'll be cool to see how that goes down. I mean, a lot of other kinda fight stuff doesn't really take place with us. That's our big kind of action moment. And, of course, our characters are immediately in way over our heads. We kind of launch this attack and they just overwhelm us. That's going to be cool. There are really a lot of great set pieces in this. The first day when we got to ride into this western town that they built here in City Park. What was really cool was  just this.. coming in to town, John & I had to lead with all these horses behind us and chickens running around. I've never before and I can't imagine I'll never will again, I think I can speak for John, we'll never enter a movie as coolly as that, on horseback, looking to kick some ass.

Reporter: Are either of you Civil War buffs or Western buffs?

John: Not especially. When I was growing up I was definitely just as much, I think, as any young boy does at some point, was a huge fan of Westerns and adventure films of that era. So that makes it all the more exciting to be cast in one, let alone one that I actually think is going to jostle some people because it's, as I was telling you earlier, it does have all the makes of kind of your traditional kind of cowboy movie, but there's a lot of other elements, like the supernatural element and like, even just like the subtle, not overwhelming, just subtle kind of political undertones that go through the film. It's going to make it stand out in its genre.

Will: And really, and like also make it very, even though it's a period piece, it of course takes place right after the Civil War, it's going to really resonate. It's kind of a timeless feel to it because of all these issues.

Matching Dragoons: Early on when Josh Brolin signed on he had said that the script was kind of campy and tongue in cheek and on some web forums when you signed on, people were kind of, the fans of Jonah Hex were bemoaning that fact. Is it still going to be campy and tongue in cheek?

Will: I don't think so. There's been a lot of work that has been done on the script and, like I said before, I don't intend to personally bring any campiness to it. I think that it's important to the fans of Jonah Hex to kind of stay true to that vision, that idea of the original comic and I think that through the series of rewrites it's really done that. Josh is, I know that he is very adamant about making sure that this script is really in that right and true place. I think that they have done a lot of great work in that respect, so, yeah, I don't think that there's going to be any campiness, at this point anyway there's not.

Reporter: This is Jimmy’s first film and I’m curious, not his first film, his first live action film, sorry, and I’m curious if you could talk about his energy and what he’s like and what he’s looking for.

John: He's the perfect director for this kind of film because he just has boundless imagery and he's such a fan of film and it really shows from just day to day the way that he is on the set and he is always positive. This is just the one day that we had with him, but what really struck me was that he has this momentum, this energy about getting it done and making it exciting and making it look as fantastic as it should.

Will: Yeah, even when we're rehearsing before we start shooting, just understanding that he is really, that it is really important for a director to have a very clear vision of how he wants it to be and what... ya know, the tone is so important and I think that Jimmy has that ability to understand the big picture, understand the overall tone of it and yet at the same time, while maintaining that overall vision knowing what it takes, knowing what the details are, having an answer for every single question no matter how small (???) when we went into (???) a few months ago the makeup tests and camera tests and as they're running through the various stunts and the various gunshots and how those stunts were going to play out. They're working with guys in California and Jimmy had very specific vision for absolutely every gunshot, for how each person was going, in a scene where five people get shot they had the stunt guy like flipping over backwards and he's like "Well, that's no going to work for this guy but it might work for this guy." Having that ability to.. going into it, really knowing exactly what you want every single beat, that's so crucial, I think Jimmy's really got that. Like John says he's got boundless energy and that's going to be important. It's a huge undertaking, there's so many moving parts to any film, but especially something like this, it's action intensive and he's also go to stay true to this comic. He's done a great job balancing all this stuff out..


Reporter: I don't know if they've announced it yet, but is this PG-13 or is this R? I don't know.

Will: I don't really know either. I don't think they fucking know. Well, now it's R.

Reporter: Do you have a sense of the level of grittiness on the Western Grit scale with John Ford this way and Sam Peckinpah this way, is there any way to kinda gauge it?

Will: It's.. You know, I don't know. It's hard to say I think its actually going to have its own. It kinda lives in its own world. Same way that the comic kinda lived in its own world even though you have this kind of really troubled hero who is kind of, not necessarily 100% purely good. I don't think that you...it's going to be hard to hold it up against other Westerns and as John said, it has this supernatural aspect to it as well. So, yeah it kind of lives in its own world

Reporter: On that same note, was there, the director or anyone that was part of the project, did they mention any specific films? I know that a lot of people talked about “The Man With No Name” trilogy as far as the look?

Will: Well, no, not really. I mean, I think there's going to have a down and dirty look to it, of course. It's going to have a ...There's kind of a darkness to a lot of what's happening. The story is very heavy. Here you have a guy who's..Brolin, Brolin's character Jonah Hex, who is a very troubled guy with a very sordid past, very complicated. So I think that the overall esthetic is going to be very... I think it's going to pretty hard hitting and dark but not inaccessibly dark


Reporter: Obviously this is a film where they built the environment, you guys are on location and you guys get horseback riding training, but you've done animated work where you're working basically with pure imagination and now there's so many films that use extensive green screen and stuff. Do you prefer it when you have everything real, when you're in an environment or does it matter to you? Do you just bring different tools to each thing?

Will: I think that... Yeah, I think that you probably bring different tools. Each medium has it's own.. I mean, John has done a lot of theater, especially recently, and he can attest to it's kind of like each one has their own benefits.

John: Oh, definitely. This really is...films that I've worked on have been pretty moderately budgeted, pretty small independent films. This is really the first legitimate studio picture that I've  done and  I feel like I'm going to be a little spoiled by it because Jimmy and his team  is very committed to making it all happen right there before your eyes. Which is .. which I think with this kind of film is really important. I wouldn't really be able to speak about if there's something that prohibits you about green screen work or anything like that.

Will: It does.. There are things about when you do an animated film, you're living completely in your own head, especially when you're not working with other actors in the room at all. So now you're also kind of guessing how the other person's going to interpret  the other line and you work on stuff, kind of green screen stuff where you have to employ a little bit of that same thing, use your imagination. I did this kid's movie for Disney that's coming out this summer we kind of had to.. Zack Galifanakis and I had to react to nothing. Which is, again, a very strange thing and you've got to get your mind around that. Coming on something like this where everything is very practical... I think John's right, there is a kind of a luxurious feel living in the real world even though the story is kind of out there. To be actually physically deal with something. It feels like a luxury at this point.

Reporter: (???) (I lost this question, something about "black box" and "experimental")

Will: Yeah, absolutely you are and the hard part about it is you have no idea, it is very difficult to gauge where you are..it's like my wife always says it's almost like you come out of a party and you don't know how loud your voice is. Is that too much? There's very little context there.

Reporter: I'm curious. You guys have been to New Orleans for at least a few days, can you talk a little bit about the advantages of shooting in New Orleans and what do you get to do at night when you are not shooting?

(Laughter)

John: Eat... a lot.

Will: Yeah. The food's great.

John: It's amazing

Will: You know there's, of course, there's a tremendous amount of nightlife here in New Orleans and we've been able to see of this great music and stuff. We kind of missed JazzFest, probably for the best. It's just a little insane. New Orleans is an important town, I mean, very few other places where you can wake up and walk outside and people are walking around with a 64 ounce cocktail with a strap on it.

Reporter: Or the Big Ass Beer as they call it.

Will: Yeah, the Big Ass Beer. I mean it's a world unto itself I'm sure.

Reporter: Have you guys, before being actors or in your life have you partied here in New Orleans before?

John: I'd never even been.. when we came here a few weeks ago to get started on it. It's been a joy to just be working on the film and it's been a joy to be able to explore the city.

Will: I was never here. I don't really take part in the drinking anymore but I'm lucky that I never came here back then. I may have died here.

Reporter: You guys are a matching set onscreen to a certain extent and being a superior officer, how does that play off of each other if he is looking up to Hex and you're out to find Hex and you're straight-laced. What has the rapport been like building those two characters together?

Will: We spend a lot of time together on and off set while we've been here. I'll let John go on this but I will say that my character there's a little bit of envy there because he  does revere Hex so much clearly that there's a part of him that really admires him and it's difficult because I feel like my character really recognizes that and it's, there's like a mixture of jealousy and that kinda comes out with me feeling he's being insubordinate.

John: There is really a unique little triangle between our two characters and Jonah Hex that is actually kinda striking. I think that it is actually something that you don't necessarily expect when you're reading the script to kind of an action blockbuster film. There's this really deep rooted psychological thing that's happening where I'm having this hero worshiping of Jonah Hex and I kind of wish that Jonah Hex was my superior officer. I'd ride around on a horse all day and take orders from him and like you said there's Grass is caught in the middle with his own agenda and his own kind of loathing of Jonah Hex and his grief of the way that he kind of gets things done.

Will: There's some great scenes with Evan when he firsts... at one point he goes to bring Hex back to the Union camp and you really see his admiration for Hex, for his desire to kind of know a little bit more about him and learn from him and then at the end of the movie (?)

Reporter:  Is that another example of 'bro-mance”?

WA:  I suppose.  It feels like it's pretty “bro-mance” days though.

JG:  It's a practical “bro-mance”.

WA:  Yeah, that's right.

Reporter:  But “bro-mance” has been seeping into many films lately.  Or am I wrong about this?

JG:  No, I think you're dead on.

Reporter:...it's part of Western culture...depending on somebody else and what that means.  How far do you trust them...

WA:  Yeah.  It's based on the fact that you had all these characters, who spent a lot of time..it would take infinitely longer to travel anywhere on horseback or whatever, and you had men spending a lot of time with each other.  Counting on each other, relying on each other.  And those relationships are documented.  All sorts of movies that cover the genre.

Reporter:  Because Hex isn't one of the best known comic book characters, do you guys have any sense of whether you're granted more freedom or autonomy here then would have been bestowed upon, say, Spiderman, or Batman film makers?

WA:  Probably.  I mean, I think that there, I'm sure that there is a fan base, a core fan base that's very hardcore about it.  (At this point the other reporters look at me  I raise my hand) And I'm sure they're sitting two people away from me.  (Laughter)  And so, I guess there's probably the danger of not worrying about it, because it seems to be not as well known a character.  However, I think that, it does seem like the film makers are very intent on trying to stay true to the character.  Not because they don't want to alienate the fanboys, no offense, but because they want to really adhere to the story.  But yeah, there probably is more leeway.  If you look back, I mean, Jonah Hex was in a bunch of different incarnations, right?  There was the original that was part of a different series of comics.  Then he had his own comic as a spinoff, and then another series after that with different writers and different illustrators, so I think that he's kind of evolved as well.  He's also made appearances in the Batman cartoon as well at a certain point.  So even the actual comic itself kind of took liberties on the character itself.  You hope that if there are people out there who feel that there's liberties taken can kind of understand that it's artistic license and not a desire to say 'screw it' to the character.

Reporter:  For those of us a little unfamiliar with the script, can you talk a little bit about how it starts and the storyline and how much of an origin story it is?

WA:  (pause)  John?  (Laughter)

JG:  It begins on a cold, dusty night...

WA:  That's true.  It does.

JG:  It's, um, you know, like I said, so much of the script was a big surprise.  Because you start it and you think, you're going, OK, I know what this is going to be.  This kind of wild Western, like, you know, Sam Peckinpaw thing.  But you know, every page it takes some kind of unique turn.  And so, you know, it doesn't follow, I think, kind of like your typical kind of, you know, start to finish type of arc of this type of movie that's based on a comic book.  You know, action/adventure. I can't really (say) how it begins and ends

WA:  You want me to?

JG: Yeah.

WA:  It starts with this guy, who's kind of this renegade outlaw living in this kind of lawless West, and you decipher very early on that he's a bad ass.  And that there's some kind of pathos there.  There's something happening, and then you have, it's kind of like you have...as the story moves, you understand he has this complicated relationship with the character Quentin Turnbull, played by John Malkovich, who is ultimately the villain in the story.  But everybody's kind of a good guy and everybody is a villain.  But everybody makes a case for why they're doing what they're doing.  And I think the only person who is not that sympathetic is probably Turnbull.  He is kind of like pure evil.  And, you know, I think that there are...he represents a guy has nothing to lose because he's lost it all.  Which is a very difficult thing to combat against.  I think that Jonah understands that.  I think that there are probably, you could draw parallels to terrorism and terrorists.  People who are willing to do anything are very dangerous adversaries.  So Jonah is kind of fighting that and he's kind of fighting the system and what that represents, and he's fighting his past, so here you have a guy who reluctantly decides to confront his demons.  Something that he's clearly been running away from for a long time, and it culminates with this crazy, huge battle.  I don't want to give too much away.

Reporter:  This is kind of the staple things, but you guys are doing a movie based on comic books.  It might not be this summer but it would definitely be next summer, that you guys would go to Comic Con to promote this thing.  So have you guys ever been?  Are you prepared to be in front of the seven thousand fans talking about this?

JG:  I'm prepared to go.  I don't know how prepared I'd be to really take the stage, and discuss.  I'm sure the last person you'd want to hear from would be me.  But I've always wanted to go, honestly, and I would jump at the chance. 

WA:  I went to the one that they had in San Francisco...

Reporter:  WonderCon.

WA:  WonderCon...this past year.  I went there for Sit Down, Shut Up, which is the animated show that we've been doing with Mitch Hurwitz. It's an interesting environment, to say the least.  When you walk along, you see, like a Storm Trooper, Darth Vader, a couple aliens just walking by.  And you're like, alright.  Nobody seemed too phased by it. 

Reporter:  Did you see the guy dressed as Wonder Woman?

WA:  I did not. 

Reporter:  You missed out.

WA:  Really?


Reporter:  Oh yeah.  I have a picture on my phone. 

WA:  I saw a few real freaks.  We had a couple of serious freaks that came into an autograph session.  At one point I thought, well, I don't know if I should be fearing for my life, but where the hell is security?  (Laughter)  This guy is inches away and he seems like he might snap.  He might have already snapped but he might snap again.  The final snap.

Reporter:  I wanted to ask the obligatory Arrested Development question, as far as the movie goes.  What's the latest you've heard, and what's your interest at this point?

WA:  Um, my interest is still very strong.  As you know, we...it's something that we're actively working, I've said this before but we are actively working on.  Like I've said in a few interviews, there are a lot of moving parts to it.  We have nine main cast members, and then you have the schedule.  Yeah, it's pretty nuts.  But it is something that everybody...we are in negotiations on, actually, at this point.  We're trying to figure it out.  Figure out the time.  Figure out when we're going to start.  The script is slowly coming along.  I'm working with Mitch Hurwitz on something else right now, so I'm kind of getting updates as we go on that.  And hopefully have a script in the next couple of months, so the goal has been to be potentially shooting before the end of the year. 

Reporter:  So you would say it's definitely going to happen?

WA:  I would be very surprised at this point if it didn't.  Let me put it that way.  Everybody is now very committed to trying to make the deals happen and to make it work. 

Reporter:  Is it weird for you to be constantly be getting the Arrested Development question, or do you sort of enjoy it because there's so many fans out there of the show?

WA:  Well, it's kind of become the norm now.  It's not weird anymore.  And it is nice that there are a lot of fans out there who still want something like this.


Reporter: If they'd only all been Nielson families.  (Laughter)

WA:  I know. 

Reporter: It's got to be kind of gratifying after years of struggling with no one watching your show, and now they're begging for a movie.

WA:  It is.  To a certain extent it is nice to know that people really have appreciated the show.  That it kind of has this afterlife, because when we were making the show, it was such a struggle.  Week to week, we never knew if we were going to make it, if we were going to keeps shooting for the next week.  And that's very frustrating.  But yeah, it is nice to know that people out there still give a shit. 

Reporter:  Will Gob evolve in any way during the movie?  Learn any lessons or will he be Gob like we've always known him?

WA:  You know, I can't answer that.  I don't know.  I think that, it always seems with all the characters on that show, that every time they feel like they've achieved some growth or they've learned a lesson, they very quickly end up back at square one.  These are extraordinarily dysfunctional people.

Reporter:  Did you ever go on Hulu and look at all the comments from people just loving the show?

WA:  No.  Are they good?

Reporter:  They're good.

WA:  Any bad ones?  All I care about are the bad ones.


Reporter:  They've called your performance out a number of times.

WA:  No way.

Reporter:  They have.  But, besides you, they're very complimentary.  (Laughter)

WA:  Wait a second.

Reporter:  In a good way.

WA:  Wait a second.

Reporter:  Was I not supposed to talk about that?  I'm sorry.

WA:  But who?  Like what screen names?

Reporter:  Uh, mattsmith12.

WA:  Yeah.

Reporter:  Um, ilove...I forget the last few words.  There's a few people on there who are very vocal. 

WA:  Very vocal about their distain for me?

Reporter: Specifically you.

WA: OK.  (Laughter)

Reporter:  And the magic tricks...very angry.

WA:  Well, I've got some work cut out for me.  What constitutes murder?  (Laughter)  Did you guys check out Tina Fey's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes where she called out a couple of...?


Reporter:  Yeah, that was great.

WA:  That was awesome, wasn't it?  You know, with regards to comments on the internet, it's so funny because there are...it kind of cuts both ways.  You can kind of look at stuff and people say, like, 'hey, that was really great' and you think, 'wow, that feels really good', and then your read some dick saying, like, 'this person, he's the worst ever'.  And you realize that a lot of these people are like twelve-year-olds in their parents' basement and who gives a shit?


Reporter:  There's a great thing on Funny or Die right now with Casey Wilson from SNL.

WA:  Yeah.


Reporter:  And it's her reading her IMDB page, and at first laughing it off and then gradually getting so upset that she has to go for a long ? And think about what's been said.

WA:  You know, when we were on the set of Let's Go to Prison...you all remember that, right?  (Laughs)  This is a true story.  Someone had written something on IMDB about Dax and I sort of being dicks on set and that we had demanded...we had this running bit when we were shooting.  We were shooting at the Joliet prison, which is a lovely place.

Matching Dragoons:  I'm from Joliet originally.

WA:  So you know.  What a gorgeous town.  (Laughs)  So they had this really crap-tastic golf cart that was a production golf cart.  They had the one.  And it was so...our joke was, it was such a low budget.  It was a four million dollar movie.  And the joke was, 'that golf cart better be ready to take us back to our trailers' and we had these crappy two banger trailers that were so old that people had been shot (in them) I think.  And that was our joke.  So somebody had written on the internet, like, 'these guys are demanding that their golf carts are ready'.  It was just way out of context and not true.  Anyway, I guess there was, like, a dialogue back and forth.  Someone had posted, 'well, how the hell do you know this?' and they said, 'well, I know somebody who is working on the movie' and they said, 'well, how do we know if we can believe you?'  And then the person said, 'my brother is the locations intern'.  So within twenty minutes, we'd called somebody and figured out that there was only one locations intern and it was this kid who lived in the area.  The person who had been posting was his twelve-year-old sister.  (Laughter)  Thankfully she was grounded from the internet for two weeks.  Not a joke.  Totally true.  But that incident put the internet in perspective for me and all those comments.  It's like, god, who cares, you know?  For the most part.

Reporter:  So I want to ask you...we've been on a very long bus ride while talking to the two of you, and we heard before we got here, about those bugs, that there could be crocodiles. (Laughter)  The email invite we got was pretty interesting.  So how did they prepare you?  Did they say to you that there are a lot of bugs and poison ivy?  What did they say to you guys?

JG:  They don't care about us.  (Laughter)

WA:  This is the first I'm hearing of it. 

JG:  Yeah, I haven't heard a word. 

Reporter:  You guys get paid.  We don't.

WA:  I'm not getting off the bus.  (Laughter)  I'm actually allergic to alligators. 

Reporter:  I know you're the first person they would call about this, but have you heard anything about Grindhouse since you did the stuff for Don't?

WA:  First of all, you're absolutely right.  I'd be the first person they'd call.  (Laughter)  No, I didn't know anything about that. 

Reporter:  Since thus far, the movies on neither DVD and Blu-ray haven't been separate and those trailers are nowhere to be found. 

WA:  Oh, really?


Reporter:  Yeah, yeah. 

WA:  You know, I'm embarrassed to say I never saw it.  I never saw the final thing.  I would like to.  So if they bring it back I'd like to know. 

Reporter:  If it's on cable, they show it as Grindhouse, but not on DVD.

WA:  You'd think that Edgar Wright would have sent it to me, right?  You'd think he would have done me a solid.

Reporter:  We'll pass it along.

WA:  Help a bro out.  Are you guys going up there?  To Scotland?


Reporter:  They're trying to work it out.

WA:  Yeah.  Give him a message for me:  Thanks!  (Laughter)  And to Mike Cera, what's up?

Reporter:  So John, how's the big screen adaptation of your cult TV show coming along?

JG:  (Laughs)  Oh, it's going very well.  I have a meeting tonight, actually.  It's at 2 am.  I don't know why they wanted me to meet and why it's in the bathroom in the lobby of my hotel, but I have some really great meetings lined up to discuss it.

WA:  But that's the TV show about your cult, just to be clear.

JG:  (Laughs)  Yeah.  Yes, I've formed a cult. 

Matching Dragoons:  With you both playing Union soldiers, is there any conflict with Jonah Hex having fought for the Confederacy?

WA:  Um, not really.  Nothing that's kind of apparent in the script.

JG:  Yeah, you know, you kind of get the sense that, you know, he has his principles, obviously, Jonah Hex, while also kind of having this lack of morality.  You get the sense that, you know, there's no real, true side that he's on.  You kind of get the sense that, because he just kind of ended up fighting for the Confederacy...you kind of get the sense that he could have ended up fighting on any front, really. 

WA:  Yeah, it doesn't really seem like he's got any kind of allegiance to the Confederacy based on political views or anything.

Matching Dragoons:  In the book, originally, he actually surrendered to the Union troops.

WA:  Well, they do refer to that.  That he becomes disillusioned with the Confederacy.  I think that has more to do with what Turnbull was doing than the politics of the Confederacy.  I'm not really sure.  But there is reference to that, because that's how they find...that's kind of the kernel of the problem between Turnbull and Hex.  When Hex turns himself in, he refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the platoon or whatever.  And then they're able to gather, from the color of the mud on his boots, the red mud or clay.  It only exists in one valley, so the Union kind of deciphers from that that's where they must be.  So Turnbull holds Hex responsible for the death of his son, Jed Turnbull, who is also Hex's best friend.  So it's very complicated. 


Reporter:  It's the middle of May right now.  How long are you guys here in town shooting for?  How long is the production towards its end?

WA:  End of June, mid-July.  We're kind of in and out from now until then.


Reporter:  It's a really temperate time of year to be outside in New Orleans.

WA:  Well, look, if you're going to be outside in New Orleans, you might as well be wearing two layers of wool.  (Laughter)  Boots, a hat...and you might as well be on a horse.  It's going to get soupy.  Things get pretty mealy in your costume, that's for sure.

Reporter:  If you are shooting only in, well, not all the time...are you guys planning on leaving town and coming back?  How does that work?

WA: Yes.

JG:  I'm not even sure how long this stretch is for me.  I don't know when I'm going back...

Reporter:  One thing I've noticed is, we've been on a very dark road for ten, fifteen minutes...

WA:  We're not taking you anywhere to kill you.

Reporter:  You wanted to know about murder earlier.

WA:  (Laughter)  No, I just want to know statutes...look, let's relax.  Everybody be cool.  (In a spooky voice)  Are we close?

Reporter:  What's been the most difficult part of the movie?  Physically or otherwise.

WA:  Probably getting to know the horses and the humility involved in that.  John and I went up for a few days and we were riding horses and we, you know, we started slowly.  And one day we got there and Josh's stunt guy and a couple of other stunt guys were there and they were riding around a big open field, pretty expertly.  Full gallops and kind of laughing and circling around and stuff.  And we found out that they'd only been riding a couple hours.  And we had been riding for a couple of days and we were gingerly at a trot.  So they're going to look like they're on Harleys and we're going to look like we're on Vespas. 

Reporter:  The magic of movies.  I think they'll make it work. 

WA:  Yeah.

Reporter:  Was there any special weapons training?

WA:  No, we really don't draw any weapons.

JG:  We don't draw any weapons. 

WA:  We rely on the power of our gaze.  And our looks.

Reporter:  Harsh language?

WA:  Harsh language, yeah.  We rely on some fairly medium loud staccato...is also good.  Um, do you want me to tell you about some other people's movies?  (Laughter)

Reporter:  What other films are you looking forward to this summer?  Either of you.

WA:  John's seen Star Trek.  I haven't seen it yet.  You liked it.

JG:  I did.  I really enjoyed it.  I really liked it. 

WA:  I'm looking forward to all the Warner Bros. movies...this summer.  (Laughter) Like...

Reporter:  Terminator?

WA:  Yeah, Terminator.

Reporter:  Harry Potter?

WA:  Yeah, Harry Potter.  Very excited for that one. 

JG:  The Hangover.

WA:  Yeah, that just came out.  The Hangover, by the way, is supposed to be great.  All three of those guys are buddies of mine. 

Reporter:  I want to see the Quentin Tarantino movie...

WA:  Inglorious Bastards?  Yeah, that's going to be great.

Reporter:  I just saw the first photos of Michael (Fassbender) from the film.

WA:  Oh really?  He's an awesome actor.  He's great.

Reporter:  Are they going to let him off so he can go to France and do the premiere?

WA:  Uh, I think he's done.  I think he's wrapped.  I'm not sure.  I usually get his schedule sent to me.  Just OK it.  I don't want him to get overtired.  I'm very up to date on everyone in the film's schedule, their call times, making sure that John gets his turnarounds.  (Laughter)  I'm kind of like the den mother on set.  I feel like I could A.D. a movie. 

Reporter:  So would you be willing to do another comic book movie after this one?  I mean, you talked about Green Lantern coming out.

WA:  Yeah.

Reporter:  And if they keep scraping the bottom of the barrel, maybe Plastic Man, so...

WA:  Wow.  Yeah. 

Reporter:  You'd be a good Plastic Man.  That's what he was trying to say. 

WA:  You're trying to say that I'd be good at the bottom of a barrel.  (Laughter)  Is there a comic book character known as “Bottom Feeder”?

Reporter:  Probably.

WA:  Probably.  But that's probably X-rated.  He just feeds off bottoms. 

Reporter:  I think we just came up with a new porn comic book. 

WA:  Great.  Let's do it. 


Reporter:  Last question.  Are you guys signed for multiple Jonah Hex movies?

WA:  Uh, no.

JG:  No.

WA:  No, we're not. 

Reporter:  That's actually unusual in comic book deals.  They usually would, automatically.

WA:  Right.  If this were Marvel, we'd have, like, nine pictures.

Reporter:  Unless you're Terrence Howard.

WA:  Aw.

Reporter:  Too soon?