OK, it’s taken this writer forever, but he’s finally caught up with this long, in-depth, amusing and candid Rolling Stone profile on “The Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis.
From all these outrageous quotes from the comedian and A-lister there’s about three things to be gleaned and/or three ways to take his quotes. 1) The “Bored to Death” star is genuinely uncomfortable with fame. It unnerves him, unsettles him, occasionally turns him into a big jerk. Sometimes inadvertently, sometimes purposely. “I’m terrible about people wanting to take pictures with me,” he told Rolling Stone. “I’m a giant baby about it. They treat you like a cartoon. There’s nothing you can do except make light of it. That’s if I’m in the mood. Sometimes I get superbummed.”
2) He’s sort of just a jerk. Many quotes herein will suggest this. 3) He likes to fuck around with people and or possibly interviewers. Who knows if any of these anecdotes are true?
Either way, it’s a fascinating piece and a must-read about one of our culture’s biggest comedians, who refuses to play the game, and seems to march by the beat of his very own odd drum. Here’s 10-odd things we learned from the article called, “Getting Baked With Zach Galifianakis.” Yes, he’s a big stoner which could contribute to why he says crazy shit to journalists. Either way, we’re with it and encourage Galifianakis to remain as frank as possible. Oh yeah, he uses dip for real, loves racist jokes (think sand and the n-bomb even though he knows they are indefensible) and calls all the shows he worked on “shitcoms.” Gotta love the candidness.
1. Galifianakis tried to get fired from the show “Tru Calling” by insulting its star Eliza Dushku.
According to the profile, Galifianakis hated “Tru Calling” and was desperate to get off the show, so he decided the best way to get out of his contract was to get fired. He would tell Dushku she was “eating her way to cancellation.” Other times, after a table read he would stand up and say to the writer, “Great script, Karen,” and then proceed to throw the script in the trash.
2. He failed miserably at selling Britney Spears on a joke he had pitched her during his super short-lived SNL writing stint.
He pitched her an idea where she was being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight and then suddenly for no rhyme or reason, she would start bleeding from the mouth. She didn’t get it. “I remember staring at the ground for, like, 20 seconds, just silent,” Galifianakis said. “45,000 open mics, and I’m trying to impress this 18-year-old pop star.” He lasted all of two weeks on the show as a writer.
3. He turned down an offer to be appear on the Oscar broadcast right after his first stint hosting “SNL.”
The first time he hosted SNL was the day before the Oscars. Friend and fellow comedienne Sarah Silverman says they wanted to fly him out the next morning to be on the show, but he shrugged it off. “Zach was like, ‘nah.’ ” she said with a smile. “What’s cooler than hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ and then jetting to L.A. to be on the Oscars? I guess saying, ‘Nah.’ ”
4.He’s very uncomfortable with his fame, which others will misinterpret as being dick-ish yet he’s super sensitive when it comes down to it.
Others believe this mistrust and hatred is genuine though. “I think the hating of Hollywood is a little bit of a defense mechanism,” Todd Phillips told RS. “There’s a truth to it – Zach has a very severe bullshit detector – but I think some of it has to come from dealing with rejection for so long. Living in a van. Having to go to auditions in Burbank. People not getting it.”
5. He turned down million dollar spokesperson/sponsorship deals from major companies.
Time Warner offered him $700,000 to be a spokesperson after “The Hangover” which he rejected. Nike approached him to be a pitchman and on a conference call that (obviously) didn’t go well he started off by saying, “Do do you guys still have seven-year olds making stuff?”
6. He made it hard for Sean Penn to hire him for “Into The Wild.”
Galifianakis has no publicist so when you try and contact him, you’ve got to call him personally. So for Sean Penn‘s third directorial effort, he hired the comedian for a small role in his wilderness drama “Into The Wild” starring Emile Hirsch. Penn calls and Zach says he has to go to Arby’s and to “send my Jews the script.” Somehow, Galifianakis still got the part.
7. He inadvertently insulted one of Robert Downey Jr.’s friends the first they he met him to discuss Todd Phillips’ “Due Date”
“The Hangover” star bikes over to Robert Downey Jr.’s house, showing up all sweaty and late (it’s a 15 mile ride). One of the first things he does is insult a woman who it turns out used to live with Downey Jr. He then drank four glasses of wine and got so drunk director Todd Phillips had to throw his bike in his trunk and drive him home.
8. He likes getting high.
“Do you want to come over to my house and eat pot chocolates?” he asked the Rolling Stone writer who proceeded to get high with him (gee, can we have that job?).
9. He blew off Ke$ha to her face.
“I saw that Ke$ha woman the other day,” he told the magazine. She had e-mailed him asking him to get together for a drink. A few days later he claims he ran into her and delivered this exchange. “She was sitting by herself, and I walked up to her and said, ‘Listen, I got your e-mail. Your music is really bad! I don’t know who listens to it, but I imagine it’s, like, six-year-olds – and it’s a bad message.’ ”
10. He inadvertently insulted some famous gay people.
At a White House Correspondents’ Dinner this year he wandered to the pool area and ran into Jane Lynch, her wife and “Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his boyfriend. “Nice to meet you!” he said to the group not really realizing who everyone was. “I didn’t realize it was Gay Night by the swimming pool. I walked away like, ‘Another good one!'” he said. “But my girlfriend said, ‘I gotta tell you, Zach – that did not go over well. You have to watch people’s reactions!'”
So, what do you think: uncomfortable, a jerk or just being totally hilarious? We’d like to think it’s probably all three and we’re sure there may be a bit of exaggeration to some extent here (at one point in the interview he claims he has no idea how much money he was paid for ‘The Hangover Part 2’ and that he tells his accountant to keep $10,000 accessible for him in a bank account). However, one gets an overall impression that Galifianakis isn’t eager to lose the core of who he is to the Hollywood machine and if that means not playing nice with flash-in-the-pan stars like Ke$ha then so be it. Never change Zach.
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