‘Chaps frame the buttocks in a beautiful way': John C Reilly on Magnolia, moving into music – and his nice bum

The Guardian

12-06-2025

Your roles fluctuate wildly between the serious and silly. Does one necessitate the other? vammypI've always thought it's all the same. You just try to be as honest as you can, and if you're being honest in absurd circumstances then you're in a comedy. It's not like I try to be funny or serious – just honest. If you're watching someone play a bad guy and there's nothing about the performance that makes you feel for the person or understand them in a deeper way, that's a fail to me. Because the truth of life is that at a funeral someone always cracks a joke. There's something so rich about being able to laugh at a funeral. That is what life is to me: all those grey areas, these contradictory things.
I'm impressed and baffled by this left turn with Mister Romantic [Reilly's vaudevillian crooner alter ego]. How did you come up with the character? Why did you pick out the songs that you did? steve__bayley
I made the musical Chicago years ago and played this character Mister Cellophane, and it reawakened my love of musical theatre. In particular, my love of the vaudeville performance style: very presentational, trying to connect with the audience and not aloof in any way. I love performing like that. I wanted to sing all those songs, but I was also looking at the world and I thought: man, things are getting pretty unkind and divisive out there. So I created Mister Romantic. He has no memory of the past and so that puts the show live, in the moment. The whole mission is to create empathy and connection and to explore ideas of love.
Who were your main inspirations for this album? EddieHaskellRespect must be paid to the real musical inspirations, such as Harry Nilsson, Irving Berlin, Tom Waits and Nat King Cole. I'm not saying I'm as good as them by any means, but what those people did was they fell in love with a song and said: this is a beautiful thing, I'm going to share it with the world. I feel part of that lineage. If you really love a song, it can't be set in amber by one performer; it has to be given life. It's a little nervy of me, I admit, to try to reinterpret these songs after they've been done so beautifully by other people. But life is for living and we have to keep renewing these things if they have meaning for us.
Big fan here. Also a big fan of Tom Waits. Do you think Mister Romantic could be persuaded to record an album of Waits covers, à la Scarlett Johansson? TheManWithoutFearI love that Scarlett Johansson did that. I guess Mister Romantic could do an entire album of Tom Waits songs, but I think it's more likely that I would. I literally refer to Tom as Saint Tom. He's a big influence in my life. Not only musically, but also as a performer – his ethos, the way he treats performance and the way he carries himself. I came upon him when I was 18 and he changed my life. I love the way he interprets characters.
I've had the luck to meet him a couple of times. Once, he was getting ready to do a movie and he said: 'Can you hook me up with an acting teacher?' I was like: Tom, with all due respect, you're one of the greatest living storytellers, what could anyone tell you about acting? But I set him up with Patrick Murphy, my first acting teacher and closest friend, and they met in Sacramento and went to the zoo and talked about character and looked at animals.
I thought you really captured the frailty and humanity of Oliver Hardy perfectly in Stan & Ollie. What kind of research did you do to prepare for the role? Which Hardy performance is your favourite and why? brucevayne1000
I have trouble picking favourites, but I love Brats. It really inspired my absurd sense of comedy. In a weird way, I'd been preparing to play that role my whole life since watching the films on repeat as a child. Oliver Hardy has been a lifelong inspiration and is one of the greatest clowns who ever lived. But one of the great tragedies about him is that he was a beautiful singer, a really incredible tenor, and yet when you look for recordings of him singing there's only about three or four and they're all tied to movies. That's a real shame and I don't want that to happen to me. If people like my singing, I want them to be able to hear me express myself.
What compliment still makes you smile? ashtyndsSomeone told me I had a nice butt. I was wearing chaps at the time, which have a way of framing the buttocks in a beautiful way. I have a hard time receiving compliments, actually. I don't live in a place of narcissistic wonder. I live in a place of wishing I was better most of the time or seeing my shortcomings. It's good for an artist to keep their ego in check as much as they can.
What is it like to be in a film that just doesn't work or doesn't find an audience? covskyEvery film is like a prayer and it's a miracle when they work. Even if you make the perfect piece of art, it can still trip over itself at the box office if it's not the moment in the zeitgeist when people want that story. I try not to get too caught up in the immediate success or failure of things. If you've made something you're proud of, that is success. I've not always felt that way – there were box office disappointments that were devastating – but I've learned things can be unexpectedly successful or unsuccessful. In the end, what you carry with you is your personal experience. Yesterday's reviews are recycling.
I'm convinced that Dr Steve Brule [the parodic public TV host played by Reilly between 2007 and 2016] is one of the most extraordinary characters ever. Nobody could bring that character to life like you. My question – did you really drink the water from the marina? Was that your idea? papalzalewdSteve definitely drank water from the marina. I was executive producer on that show, so I can't speak to Steve's experience. You'd have to check with him, but I'm not sure I would take his advice on everything as a doctor. I'm not even sure what kind of doctor he is. Someone told me once that his mother actually named him 'Dr Steve Brule' – that his middle name is Steve and he is not a medical doctor. I'm so proud to be involved with that show and I'm delighted that people love it. I love it as much as they do.
Did Magnolia [Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 ensemble drama] simply belong to a special time? Can a film in a similar style happen again? Why are most films so formulaic, without any of that movie's surprises or spontaneity? julian6
I don't agree with the underlying sentiment. You could have said the same thing about Badlands: no one makes movies like that any more. But that's the job of the artist – to push on no matter what it seems like you're allowed to make. That's certainly what Paul Thomas Anderson did with Magnolia. I won't go into it, because he's a private person, but almost everything in that movie has some personal connection to him. Things come in waves: capitalism and the marketplace get the upper hand, but then humanity has this need for stories and honesty in art and it comes back around. Don't let yourself get too depressed about the way things are.
There have definitely been moments in the last few years, especially with the current state of the movie business, when I've felt just like this reader. I went to Cannes film festival a couple years ago, really feeling dejected, like: that's it, the streamers have taken over, the movie business is dead. But then you watch these movies from all over the world, Mongolia or Sudan, and you realise: oh no, it's alive and well. This art form is never going to die, because it still works. You just have to seek it out. If you're worried that there aren't more things you like out there, then you have to make sure you show up for the things you do. Because that's what's gonna keep them alive.
What's Not to Love? by Mister Romantic is released on 13 June on Reilly's label Eternal Magic Recordings