Eiza González has a lot to say about those Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo rumours
Eiza González is a true cinephile. 'I just read Moviemakers' Master Class,' she says as she leaps up from her linen clad bed to grab the book off her shelf and show me. 'Laurent Tirard interviewed 20 of the best filmmakers in the world. [In each interview] you can really see the identity of the filmmaker and why they are the style of filmmaker that they are.'
And one filmmaker she can't get enough of? Guy Ritchie. The 35-year-old is starring in her third collaboration with the director, Fountain of Youth which is out on Apple TV+ today. We're catching up about a month before the movie releases, it's a rare sunny day in England, and Eiza is calling from always warm Los Angeles, make-up free, chilling on her bed, and takeaway coffee in hand as she shares heart warm adoration for the man she considers both a 'brilliant dynamic filmmaker' and now, her friend.
'There is something to be said about a director who can create a style under their name, and he's one of the handful of people that has been able to do that, and cross genres and do so many different styles of films and be really good at it,' she explains. 'I've been an enormous Guy Ritchie fan since I can recall, and so it is pretty surreal now. Sometimes I go back to my 12 year old self, and I think, 'wow, if someone told me I was gonna be a Guy Ritchie girl, I would have never believed it'.'
But believe it she should. The actress, who was born and raised in Mexico City, kickstarted her career on Mexican television after being inspired by her Fountain of Youth co-star Natalie Portman. 'I'm not even saying this to be funny. I grew up watching Natalie and I was just always incredibly taken by her,' she laughs from behind the Zoom screen. A string of TV shows in Mexico in her teen years, led to a move to Hollywood, where she's since gone onto star in projects such as Baby Driver, Hobbs & Shaw, Netflix's Three Body Problem, Guy Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and In The Grey, which is due to be released later this year.
It was while filming on location for In The Grey that Eiza first heard about Ritchie's Fountain of Youth, but never imagined her luck she would be cast in a third project from the filmmaker. 'He was already prepping for Fountain of Youth, and we were in the winnebago. Henry [Cavill], Jake [Gyllenhaal] and I were all discussing the movie and he [Ritchie] asked us who to cast. Never in a million years, when I was doing In The Grey, would I have thought he would have offered me Fountain of Youth. And so when my agents called me, with 'you have an offer for Fountain of Youth. And I was like, 'Wait, are you sure?''
In Fountain of Youth, Eiza plays the character of Esme, a mysterious figure who is working against the estranged sibling duo of Luke and Charlotte Purdue played by John Krasinski ('he's so funny and charismatic' she notes) and Natalie Portman, on their mission to discover the titular fountain of youth. Esme is determined and doesn't let anything get in her way, something Eiza finds within herself. 'That definitely is a trait that I can relate to,' she ponders. 'I'm not as 'killer' as she is. She's a protector, and so she's willing to do anything she needs to. She has a lot of humour in it, which I really appreciate. She's lethal in a funny way. And I can relate, definitely to being driven the way that she is, but definitely not as a cutthroat as she is.'
Fountain of Youth is a fun family treasure hunting movie, but with a key meaning at the heart of it. The actual fountain itself is an eternal bliss filled life in liquid form. Does Eiza think it's possible for a life filled with bliss to exist I ask her? 'I think it's a mental state, and it's the deep message of the movie.' She answers. 'And so yeah I believe so. I think we have the power to enjoy this once in a lifetime ticket to this amazing thing called life, and it's in our hands to make it as blissful as possible. Mindset is everything. You could be living a very normal, mundane life and be incredibly blissful and happy, or have the most 'amazing exhilarating' lifestyle and not be happy still.'
For Eiza, moments of bliss come from spending time with animals and being with her family. Her father passed away when she was younger, and she has one older brother and her mum, both of whom she is very close to. 'Seeing my mother achieve something big, or my brother, or seeing my nephew's excitement about simple things that gives me so much joy,' she reflects.
Though not what the movie sets out to achieve, hearing the title Fountain of Youth, I can't help but be struck by thoughts of the current conversations swirling around Hollywood about women, age and beauty standards. Having previously worked with Demi Moore [on upcoming project I Love Boosters], the star of The Substance, the 2024 movie that perfectly encapsulated these questions, I ask Eiza if the pair ever spoke on these issues together.
'My introduction to Demi is very different. Her daughter Rumer [Willis] is one of my good friends, and so I bonded with me over Rumer. Demi is such a family woman, I think she's an incredible mother. She's a girl's mum. And when you're around a woman that has birthed three beautiful women, she has a deep, beautiful understanding, and I think she's stepped into this place in her life where she's just in the most beautiful state as a human being talking around age, women and the hardships that come with it and the public eye. It was so beautiful to see her talk about it so openly,' she responds.
As well as the two Guy Ritchie projects she has coming out later this year, Eiza is keeping herself very busy. She's currently filming seasons two and three of Netflix's Three Body Problem, and working on writing of her own. 'Being in a consistent job, like Three Body Problem, where I'm very clear on what I'm doing has allowed me to sit down and write. So I'm really excited.'
One thing fans of Eiza's are very keen to find out is if the actress will be playing the role of Evelyn Hugo in Netflix's adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. On that, Eiza remains very tight-lipped.
'I'm not in talks of being in anything because I don't even know what's going on with the project,' she says. Eiza is a self-described 'pen pal' of Reid, after the pair connected over social media, and has read Reid's other books including Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and The Six, and Carrie Soto is Back. While Eiza won't be committing to anything re the famed part just yet, she does have a lot of love for the book.
'I love Taylor. I think she's an incredible writer. I love that book. There's very few books that we have for Latin women like that. It really has such well rounded, relatable but sexy, interesting, dynamic characters like Evelyn Hugo, and I'd be honoured [to play the role].'
As we wind down our call and Eiza gets ready for more interviews, the conversation turns to art. It's a prominent theme in Fountain of Youth, as in Da Vinci Code style, the siblings hunt for clues to the location of the Fountain of Youth in famous art works and artefacts. It's something Eiza explores in her own life too, as she paints water colours and sometimes sketches while on set.
'Robert Rodriguez taught me when I did my first ever job in the US you should never have a phone with you on set, because it turns off your creative mind. You want to keep the side of your brain that is firing in the creative space on, and so in between takes he had an art room he would force his actors to paint in in-between takes,' she reflects. 'It just keeps you in this really blissful [moment].'
As we go to hang up, Eiza smiles warmly and encourages me to enjoy the rare English sunshine. I understand why Ritchie keeps booking her. Her energy is infectious, welcoming and above all, filled with bliss.
Fountain of Youth is available on Apple TV+ now
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How Queen Camilla Feels About King Charles and Prince Harry's Royal Rift (Exclusive)
Queen Camilla is keeping her distance from the rift dividing King Charles and Prince Harry Tensions remain high as Harry says his father has stopped speaking to him — and Prince William has shown no interest in reconciling Prince Harry, 40, described his stepmother as "dangerous" in his memoir, 'Spare'Queen Camilla stays out of the fray when it comes to the painful rift distancing King Charles and Prince William from Prince Harry. As the King and Prince Harry stand at a pivotal moment in their fractured relationship and William remains estranged from his brother, Queen Camilla is not getting involved in the turbulence between her husband and his younger son. The Queen "stays out of it," a source tells PEOPLE in this week's exclusive cover story. The family's fractures came to light when the Duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped back from their royal roles in 2020, and today, the deep divide between the King and Harry remains one of the most painful fissures in his reign. Harry and Meghan moved to the U.S. amid mounting family tensions and the relationship was further strained by the Sussexes' high-profile interviews, an explosive Netflix docuseries and Harry's memoir Spare, in which he described Camilla as "dangerous." In his groundbreaking 2023 memoir, the Duke of Sussex reflected on the complicated emotions he felt around his father's 2005 marriage to Camilla — and alleged that she leaked stories about him to the press in an effort to rehabilitate her image. "I had complex feelings about gaining a stepparent, who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar," Prince Harry said in his memoir. In an interview with Good Morning America in 2023, he further explained: "She had a reputation or an image to rehabilitate, and whatever conversations happened, whatever deals or trading was made right at the beginning, she was led to believe that that would be the best way to doing it." Asked about his relationship with her now, he said: "We haven't spoken for a long time. I love every member of my family, despite the differences. So when I see her, we're perfectly pleasant with each other. She's my stepmother. I don't look at her as an evil stepmother. I see someone who married into this institution, and done everything she can to improve her own reputation and her own image, for her own sake." King Charles' continued treatment for cancer adds further urgency to the possibility of reconciliation between father and son before it's too late. The father and son were briefly on the same continent in late May when the King and Queen Camilla traveled to Canada for the State Opening of Parliament in what was interpreted as a show of support for the Commonwealth realm amid tensions with the U.S., but Harry and Charles didn't cross paths. While Prince William, 42, remains distant from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, some royal observers believe King Charles should make the first move in repairing his relationship with Harry. But inside palace walls, hesitation reigns. There has been a desire to reconnect at times, but "the underlying issue is trust," royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE. "The King and William don't trust Harry and Meghan with any kind of confidential conversation," Bedell Smith says. Insiders add that King Charles isn't encouraged by his inner circle. The Prince of Wales has shown no interest in extending an olive branch, and senior aides like Clive Alderton, who was targeted in Spare, are unlikely to encourage outreach. "There is not a good angel in his ear to say, 'Be a good dad and make the first move,' " says Valentine Low, author of the upcoming book Power and the Palace. Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Despite Harry's plea for peace in a bombshell BBC interview after losing a legal appeal to restore his state-funded security on May 2, his comments were widely seen as another blow to the bond. The Duke of Sussex said there that the King "won't speak to me because of this security stuff" and alleged "I don't know how much longer my father has" in an allusion to cancer diagnosis announced last year. "It wasn't meant to be an attack, but it would be seen as one," says Low. "It makes Charles reaching out even harder." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘One of the best ever': Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill on why they fought to be in Mike Flanagan's ‘The Life of Chuck'
There wasn't a dry eye in the house after the screening of Mike Flanagan's latest project The Life of Chuck, starring Tom Hiddleston as the adult version of the titular character. Flanagan, who's best known for his work in the horror genre and for Netflix hits like The Haunting of Hill House, steps away from jump scares (but not necessarily away from ghosts) in the moving three-act film, which won the Audience Award at last year's Toronto Film Festival. The original Stephen King story that provided the source material (from the 2020 collection If It Bleeds) brought the director some much-needed comfort during the pandemic. More from GoldDerby Cannes unveils Directors' Fortnight lineup, Jesse Eisenberg sets 'A Real Pain' follow-up, 'Four Seasons' trailer drops, and more of today's top stories U.K. version of 'SNL' set, Netflix's 'Pride and Prejudice' casts Corrin and Colman, Mike Flanagan scares up 'Carrie' series, and more of today's top news stories 'Avengers: Doomsday' cast revealed - Robert Downey Jr., several original X-Men, and the return of Tom Hiddleston 'When I put the story down, it was April 2020, so a month into the lockdown,' Flanagan told Gold Derby on the red carpet at the premiere. 'If I started reading this story, I felt like I might not finish it because it hit so close to home and I felt like the world was ending outside my window. But when I got to the last page, I was crying tears of relief and happiness and optimism, and I was looking back at my life and kind of re-contexualizing the things that brought me there, and I realized I had to make the movie. This was the one I had to do, and I emailed Stephen King and begged for the story because it meant that much to me to do it.' Mark Hamill, who plays Chuck's surly grandfather in the film's final act, trusted Flanagan implicitly even before signing on. 'I was a huge fan of his before he contacted me for The Fall of the House of Usher [another Flanagan series Hamill appears in],' Hamill told us. 'As a family, my wife and my daughter and I watched The Haunting of Hill House, and it was amazing because I know the source material. … But he's great at taking something and expanding on it. Then we watched The Haunting of Bly Manor, we watched Midnight Mass. When he asked me to be in The Fall of the House of Usher, I went to his IMDb page and watched everything he's ever done. I couldn't find Oculus [online] so I ordered the disc and on the disc is his student film of Oculus, so I watched his progression. He's one of the best ever.' Flanagan's impressive eye extended to casting Benjamin Pajak, who handles the film's most emotional material as the child version of Chuck. 'When we were looking for younger Chuck we looked first for actors who we thought could dance, and we just couldn't find them,' Flanagan shared. 'So then we started to look at Broadway kids and that was when we found Benjamin. I knew five seconds into his audition that he was the right choice. He comes into the film almost an hour into the runtime and takes the entire movie on his shoulders to the end. That's a huge ask for an adult, much less a 12-year-old who's never done a movie before. I'm amazed by what he pulled off. It was an honor to work with Benjamin.' Pajak, for his part, is still reeling about acting in his first film with titans of the industry. 'I mean, even when I got the breakdown for the audition I was freaking out,' he told us. 'Seeing the two names, I think it said Tom and Mark, and my mom and I just lost our minds. Being able to film with Mark was such an honor and being able to be there with him all day, and see how he gets into the moment and acts, it was just an absolute pleasure every day.' As for Hiddleston, the Golden Globe winner grew emotional as he described why joining this Flanagan project was a must. 'I read the screenplay over Easter in 2023,' he said, 'and I was incredibly and profoundly moved by the film, by the energy and thoughtfulness and insight and wisdom in it, and I wanted to work with [Mike] immediately. "In this story there is an acknowledgement that life can be very difficult, that on the path of life we can encounter grief and loss and hardship and pain, and those experiences are real and we have to muster the courage to survive them. But alongside those experiences are other profound aspects that are part of the experience of being alive and being a human being, which are joy and love, and those things are deep and real and they sit alongside the other things in the experience of life. It was just so wise and touching and beautifully done, and I think that's why I find the film so resonant. It's seemingly about the life of an ordinary man, or a few ordinary people, but really it's about all of our lives and the beauty and the breadth inside the soul of every human being.' The audience who viewed the film later that evening seemed just as taken with Flanagan's adaptation. Loud sniffles and many a tissue were spotted as the last act reached its conclusion, signaling a promising future for the film (which is being distributed by Neon, the same company that released Best Picture winner Anora last year). The Life of Chuck hits theaters June 6. Best of GoldDerby Wes Anderson movies: All 12 films ranked worst to best Liam Neeson movies: 12 greatest films ranked worst to best Paul Giamatti movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From ‘Hot Rod' to ‘Eastbound' to ‘Gemstones,' Danny McBride breaks down his most righteous roles: ‘It's been an absolute blast'
The Gold Standard is a Gold Derby series where we speak to legendary figures in Hollywood who take us through their award-worthy greatest hits. Below, Danny McBride revisits his greatest hits, up to the recently concluded, Emmy-contending, always side-splitting The Righteous Gemstones. There's been no shortage of Hollywood producers and filmmakers who have enlisted Danny McBride to bring his inimitable brand of coarse, Southern-drawled comedy to their projects. But whether it's The Foot Fist Way or Eastbound & Down or Vice Principals or The Righteous Gemstones, the most enduring, most McBride-ian works don't merely feature the onscreen talents of the 48-year-old Georgia native. He has played a formidable role in creating them. More from GoldDerby 'Forever' star Lovie Simone on traveling back to a 'nostalgic' time for Netflix's teenage romance show Tramell Tillman could make Emmy history as the first Black Best Drama Supporting Actor winner Kristen Kish dishes on Season 22 of 'Top Chef,' Emmys, and the show's global impact: 'It's all driven by the fans' 'I would definitely not make it as an actor if I had to rely on other people hiring me to sustain my career,' McBride tells Gold Derby. 'I don't think I could pull it off.' Here's a long look at what McBride has pulled off both behind and in front of the camera over the past 25 years. After graduating from University of North Carolina School of the Arts, McBride worked as a second unit director on his college friend David Gordon Green's acclaimed debut feature George Washington (2000) before playing a supporting role (as 'Bust-Ass') in Green's equally acclaimed follow-up, All the Real Girls (2003). I went to film school with David Green, and he was actually my next-door neighbor my freshman year of college. David graduated a year before me. We went to film school in North Carolina. It's a long way from New York City or Los Angeles, where people would typically go to film school at that time period. And it was like incredibly inspiring to see him graduate from school and a year later, come back to Winston-Salem and make a movie [George Washington]. When he was able to launch his career from that, it just sort of gave all of us, [myself and] my classmates, that inspiration that it can be done, you just have to figure out a way. But it's possible. Those two things really just sort of kickstarted my personal ambitions to push myself to do this. And once I got in All the Real Girls, when Jody Hill wanted to make the Foot Fist Way and we wrote that together. I was the only person that we knew that had been in a movie before. So that made me just slightly more qualified than our other friends to act in that. But [at film school], I didn't have any ambitions of being an actor at all. I just I felt like I could do it, and I just would do it when people needed me to. Written by McBride, Jody Hill, and Ben Best Best, and directed by Hill, The Foot Fist Way starred McBride as a foul-mouthed taekwondo instructor in a small southern town. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay made it their first acquisition for their newly formed banner Gary Sanchez Productions. We made it for 70 grand. We shot it on Super 16 [mm] and we had one camera to shoot it on, which is interesting because everything that we do now, we shoot multiple cameras [so] we can make sure that we get all the improv or any of that stuff that comes off the cuff. But with that, we didn't have that ability. We had one camera and we had no video playback. There was no way to see if what we just shot was in focus. We were just kind of running and gunning. I think we shot that whole thing in about two weeks, and it was just all hands on deck, just trying to make that dream a reality. I think it was everything [having Ferrell and McKay support it and produce it]. I owe so much to those two guys and for them to have faith to give our show that chance, to shine a light on what we were doing. The movie got one of the midnight screenings at Sundance. And so we were thrilled that it even just got to Sundance. It was going to have an audience. But then we left Sundance and the movie hadn't sold or anything. So it was kind of this moment of like, 'Well, that was fun making it.' And we feel proud, but we're not sure if anyone else will ever see this movie again. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were just starting Gary Sanchez Productions at the time. And it came across their desk and they became champions of it. And then it started to kind of like float around the town, and next thing you know, living in Virginia, Jody's writing for reality TV shows, and then suddenly we're being invited to the set of Judd Apatow's Knocked Up and meeting Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg] and all of these guys. Everything just kind of exploded from that point on. McBride's first major studio role came as the green tea-fueled Rico Brown in the Lonely Island comedy Hot Rod starring Andy Samberg as an accident-prone wannabe stuntman. It was awesome meeting the Lonely Island guys, Andy, Akiva [Schaffer], Jorma [Taccone]. Those were like some of the first guys I met that were in this industry that were doing it, and I met them and quickly saw that they had a lot in common with what my friends and I were trying to do, that they had been childhood friends and they were trying to make their specific brand of comedy. And so I put myself on tape for that. And I remember being so excited about getting it, not just for the opportunity, but I just wanted to get to know those guys. I just felt like they were so talented and so funny, and I was just really kind of hoping that I would get a chance to work with them. And on the set of that, I met Bill Hader. Then I became good buds with him. It really kind of stuck that that summer. Foot Fist Way went to Sundance in 2006. And the next year, my life was absolutely insane. I basically went from Hot Rod, shot that in Vancouver, left there, came back to L.A. to shoot this movie called Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson, and then left the set of that to go shoot Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller. And then met Ben on there, and he gave me the script for Tropic Thunder. And so then went home for Christmas, came back to L.A., shot Pineapple Express, left the set of that. Shot the pilot of Eastbound and Down, then left the set of that and went to Hawaii to go shoot Tropic Thunder. It was f--king crazy. all my heroes. I mean … I didn't have any training as an actor, so I didn't even know what the hell I was doing. And it was sort of that imposter syndrome of just [thinking] every day, this is too good to be true. Surely there'll be a moment where someone realizes that I shouldn't be here and sends me packing, but luckily it didn't happen. McBride was a major scene stealer opposite James Franco and Seth Rogen in this stoner comedy as the eccentric drug dealer Red. It also reteamed him with Green, who directed Rogen and Goldberg's script, and included a notorious, extended close confines fight scene against the two lead stars. It was really special. Seth and those, they were on a pretty incredible run then … coming off of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. They were shooting Superbad. And then they had this script for Pineapple Express and I was over the moon when they offered that to me. To be able to play with those guys and see what they're going to do, and then when they were looking for directors, I think they just were starting to kind of pay attention to what our crew was doing. And our guys and I had told them that David Green made some of the funniest movies that were at our school. At that point he had only made sort of these serious Indies. But I knew he had a very wicked sense of humor that was very distinct and mischievous. So those guys sat down with David, and then he was booked on it, and we were off to the races. [The fight scene] I think was my first week of filming. With Seth and Franco coming in, and I'm explaining to them that it was my cat's birthday. I mean, we were just riffing. All that stuff was just riff. We were just pulling it all out of our ass. And it was so much fun to play with those guys. And I mean, that was a long fight. Shoot. I remember everyone got hurt at some point. I got concussed, I got hit in the back of the head with a bong and that kind of laid me out for a few moments. I think Seth broke his hand or fractured his hand or something. Everybody was getting banged up, but it felt like you weren't really participating in the fight scene if you didn't have some scars by the end of it. McBride stole even more scenes as the trigger-happy explosives expert on the set of a Hollywood war movie in this hit comedy directed by Stiller, who costarred with Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, and more. That was that was such an insane shoot. I mean, it was like movie star camp … I was the new kid on the block. And suddenly I'm at a table reading with Tom Cruise and Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. I mean, I was just trying not to shit my pants the entire time. But I can remember that it took a while to shoot that first sequence in Tropic Thunder, where it's the war scene at the beginning. I think it was almost like three weeks of shooting. And every day there's so much going on there. And so every day everyone was called in and you had no idea if you were going to be on camera or not. And I was so nervous. I hadn't said a word in this movie yet. And every day I would go in with my stomach in knots, up in that tower, waiting to blow the whole scene up. And every day I would get ready for it. And then the day would move on and they're not going to get to me. They're still shooting stuff with Steve Coogan, or they're still shooting helicopters flying in. And so for three weeks, I was just like at the edge of my seat every day, like, 'F--k, I got to do this. And in front of all these people.' And they finally got to me, like on the last day of [shooting there]. They just came up into the tower and just let me rip it. And I was just pulling all these lines out of my ass and just trying to make Ben laugh. It was all just sort of improv and I remember as soon as it was done, everyone on the crew started clapping and I was so relieved. Basically, I could breathe, finally. And Ben was like, 'You know, you did it. That's that.' And so I felt like I had passed the first test, but it was definitely three weeks of just sitting on the edge of my seat of like, 'Am I going to get canned when I open my mouth in this movie? Is that what everyone's going to realize I don't belong here?' McBride created Eastbound & Down with Foot Fist Way collaborators Hill and Best shortly after their indie film breakout scored a release from Paramount Vantage. It starred McBride as the very politically incorrect Kenny Powers, a disgraced ex-pro baseball player forced to return to his small hometown, and became a cultishly adored hit for HBO. After we got [Foot Fist Way] set up, Will and Adam were curious of what we wanted to do next. I just had a vision of just moving into television, and they were kind of surprised about that because most people were trying to get out of TV to make movies. This was in 2006, so TV wasn't quite what it is right now. But there was something about the format of storytelling, about breaking a comedy and having like three or four hours to tell a story as opposed to just an hour and a half. It just felt like we could be a little bit more outside the box and maybe take some more risks and chances and maybe create something a little bit more unexpected. I would just sort of make choices and decisions based on what I wanted to see. I don't think it was really until maybe a season or two into Eastbound, where I started to kind of feel confident in what we were doing. Jodi and I were very lucky on Eastbound because I think if we would have made that as a film, I think it would have probably done nothing. And at that time period, a lot of these comedies were really going through the test screening process, where you put the movie up in front of a test audience and people would give their opinions. Like Foot Fist Way, they put that to a test. I mean, it was fucking abysmal. I think [the score] was in the 30s or something, and it was because it was unexpected and it was strange and it wasn't like other stuff that was out there. And I just kind of knew that our tone and our style wouldn't survive that process. It takes a little bit for people to get their heads around what we were doing, especially with the kind of characters we were choosing to tell stories about. So I don't think at the beginning our stuff was made for a mass audience. But I think the more we created stuff, I think the audience caught up to what we were doing and started to understand our style more. Kenny is so, so special. They are all my children. I've had a good time inhabiting all of these sickos. But, yeah, Kenny was just something really special. Even just [with] the making of every season of that, we were going through so many different things in our lives. And it was with just all my friends from film school. And then suddenly… Adam McKay's there, and Will Ferrell was there. And the next season we're all down in Puerto Rico shooting another season, and every season someone else would get married or someone else would have kids. I don't go back and watch things again. But every now and then people will send me clips from the show and instantly be transported in time to what that felt like and how exciting that was and how much fun we were all having. I get that question a lot, [if we're surprised we got away with being so politically incorrect]. But it wasn't like people were asking for that even then. We definitely would get hounded by critics for some of the stuff that was in there. I think that Kenny's wrongheadedness always was an extension of his character. So for us, it felt like you could get away with that stuff as much as you could get away with a character murdering someone. None of it is admirable. I think ultimately, there's obviously risky, crazy shit in there, but I think all of it was an extension of that character. And I think when you're showing a character, there's latitude there to explore things that are uncomfortable or that sometimes hit those third rails if it's in service of a story and not necessarily in service of just insulting people or just trying to be provocative. For us, as provocative as some of that shit was, it always to us felt like it served a larger purpose. McBride's status as a major contemporary comedy force was even further solidified when he was cast as 'himself' alongside other self-satirizing stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Jay Baurchel in this apocalyptic comedy directed by Rogen and Goldberg. It was honestly so much fun. I mean, what Seth and Evan built over those several years for R-rated comedies, it was sort of like unprecedented for our generation at that time. I always would look back at groups of people who made things I loved. Like growing up, watching all the old John Hughes movies or knowing that George Lucas and [Steven] Spielberg and [Francis Ford] Coppola and those guys all knew each other, or even just like watching the old cast from SNL, and seeing this group of people having fun, being around each other, creating, there's something about it and that's always what I love the most about comedies. Things like Ghostbusters and just seeing all these different talents working on something together. And I think with what Seth and Evan and Judd created for those several years, it was fun to see those familiar faces. It was fun to see everyone in something together. And that one especially was just an absolute blast because everybody was friends on there. And the fact that Seth and Evan were directing and there was nobody else calling the shots. It was these guys who were in the trenches with us making it, and man, we would have these 45-minute long takes. We would have takes that we would have to stop because the cameras overheated. They were running for so long and you would just go into a time warp. [They] would yell 'Action!' and then it was almost like the Holy Spirit was speaking through you. You just start speaking in tongues, just saying the most awful shit and just going at one another. And it was a complete joy. Vice Principals, created by McBride and Hill and starring McBride and Walton Goggins as two co-administrators vying for their high school's top post, only lasted two seasons on HBO. But it begot a fruitful relationship for McBride and his future Righteous Gemstones costar Goggins. The first time I met Walton, he actually had come in to audition for the third season of Eastbound. He was auditioning the role that ultimately went to Jason Sudeikis. And we were already kind of down the road with Sudeikis when Walton read, and so I was already going with [Sudeikis], but I was just so struck by Walton. I instantly felt pulled towards him and liked him and was just like, 'Oh man, I want to know more about this dude.' He's such a live wire. And so he was on my radar ever since then. And actually when we were shooting This Is the End down in New Orleans, he was down there for Django [Unchained]. So sometimes at the bars down in New Orleans, our two crews would end up at the same place every now and then, and I ran into Walton a few times down there. Though longtime creators Jody Hill and David Gordon Green are executive producers, McBride created HBO's The Righteous Gemstones — which follows a family of wealthy televangelists – by himself. Like Eastbound, McBride (who lives in Charleston, S.C.) filmed Gemstones in and around Wilmington, N.C. [Creating these stories and characters] is kind of what drives me more than anything. I just love telling stories, and I like creating stories, and it's honestly part of why I'm closing the chapter on Gemstones, as much fun as I've had making the show. As much as I love the entire cast and I've loved making it, I just want to tell more stories. And I see how quick time's moving on and I've been on Gemstones since I wrote the pilot in 2017. And it's been an absolute blast, but my brain is just firing and wanting to tell other stories as well. For me, that's kind of my driving force. What inspires me the most is just trying to find a new world and new characters to explore. I've never had a negative reaction to [the religious aspects]. I mean, it's not to say that maybe people haven't had a negative response, but it's been surprisingly positive. I think if you're a religious person, you might be turned off by, like, the profanity. And Walton Goggins's d--k hanging out. But ultimately, you also kind of despise these false prophets as well. This is a type of ministry that I don't think anyone who's religious really is trying to defend. And being from this region and even growing up in a religious house, I don't think the M.O. of the show was ever to be like a takedown of religion by any means. I really wanted us to walk a fine line that the butt of the joke was never someone's faith or was never belief. The butt of the joke was hypocrisy. And that's where we would find our humor. We wouldn't find it in mocking what people believe ultimately at the end of the day. And so I feel good about how we rode that line. And I think when you do that, I think you invite more people to come and enjoy the show. The [guest stars] have all been so awesome. I mean, any time we can convince anyone to come down here and play with us, we've never been disappointed, which is great. Everybody from Bradley Cooper to Sturgill Simpson to Joe Jonas and Steve Zahn and Lukas Haas and Eric Roberts, it's been absolutely nuts. The people that we've been able to talk into coming out here this season, Seann [William Scott] and Megan [Mullally] and last season, Kristen [Johnston], it's been a lot of fun. That's the thing I kind of enjoyed the most about my career in general. Just growing up watching movies, watching TV, being addicted to that stuff, with my career I've been able to use it as a way to service my fandom for all these different actors and different filmmakers. Whether it's showing up on Ridley Scott set for [Alien: Covenant] and getting to meet him and see what he's all about to casting people [like] Lukas Haas in the third season. Growing up, Witness and Lady in White were two of my favorite movies. And I wasn't bashful about telling him that. So sometimes when we cast these people, it's just an excuse for me to get to meet people I've always admired. I will miss [Gemstones], and I miss all of them. I have good, fond memories of Eastbound and VPs. And I have so many great memories about Gemstones. But I'll keep working on something new, and if I wouldn't have stopped those shows, then I wouldn't have had Gemstones. So I just think about what's next? And what's the next world? And who are the next people I'll be able to talk into coming down here and f--king around with me. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Best of GoldDerby Stephen King movies: 14 greatest films ranked worst to best The Making of 'The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day': PBS variety special 'comes from the heart' 'The Life of Chuck' cast reveal their favorite Stephen King works, including Mark Hamill's love of the 'terrifying' 'Pet Sematary' Click here to read the full article.
