Off Camera

As a third grader, Sarah Silverman had already narrowed her future career to three options: Comedian, actress or masseuse. She landed pretty quickly on comedian and never looked back, dropping out of college with the support of a father who financed her NYC apartment and three-year curriculum of comedy club work. Success came rapidly and almost unbelievably when she was hired as a Saturday Night Live writer at just 22 – sans audition.  She was fired almost as rapidly, without any of her work ever appearing on the show. Former SNL writer Bob Odenkirk said, "I could see how it wouldn't work… because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn't disappear into the character – she makes the character her." Despite some noted guest TV and film appearances, Silverman never looked at standup as a stepping-stone to an acting career. She is a stand up comedian “the way some people are gay”. Compulsively revealing the painful (she dealt with depression and bed wetting into her teens) and the uncomfortable, the more she becomes herself, the funnier (if more shocking) we find her, whether we admit it or not. Her combination of honesty and true comedic skill results not in a series of jokes, but a series of insights that connect – all the more stealthily for being cloaked in humor. Sarah Silverman talks to Off Camera about her breakout special Jesus is Magic, the decision to film the more recent We Are Miracles in front of a vast audience of 39, and living the low-overhead dream.  

What, me worry?Editor, musician, actor, comedian – Ed Helms makes it all look easy. And for him, it kind of is. The secret? A supportive, if showbiz-ignorant family helps, as does a seemingly bottomless supply of self-confidence.Helms left a happy, successful career as a commercial editor to take his chances in comedy with none of the attendant anxiety you’d expect with such a move. Why? He was just pretty sure he could do it. And he was right, landing at The Daily Show as one of its best writers and correspondents. As far as Helms was concerned, he was pretty much in his dream job when he was offered a role on The Office, but with no guarantees Andy Bernard would live beyond a couple of episodes. Risk an established career for what could easily be a rapid sitcom death? He figured he could do that, too. And we all know how that worked out.Helms talks to Off Camera about the arc of his career, his band (Andy Bernard’s mad banjo skills are real, kids), how The Hangover impacted his life and his rampant curiosity about, well, almost everything.Don’t mistake Ed’s confidence for arrogance – chalk it up to his hard work and equal parts respect and disregard for fear. But mostly, this most happy fella simply loves every moment of what he does, whatever that happens to be at the moment. Which is probably why we do, too.

Drug dealer, football player, alcoholic, shooting victim. In his first decade of acting, Michael B. Jordan has found ways to humanize characters that, on the page, may seem stereotypically what he dubs “the black guy.” In The Wire, a young and very sheltered Jordan asked fellow actors to help him understand how to simulate a cocaine high onscreen, and through that surreal experience discovered his unfettered love of acting. In Friday Night Lights, Jordan started journaling as an acting exercise, and amassed a detailed back story for quarterback Vince Howard that made the character seem shockingly real. With Fruitvale Station, Jordan dug even deeper. Playing a real person for the first time, he inserted himself deep into the family of the slain Oscar Grant, who was killed by a police officer on a train platform in Oakland in 2009. Jordan spent time with Oscar’s former girlfriend, mother, daughter, and all of his friends. The result was an intensely real portrayal of an innocent young man in a film that exposes our ongoing race problem in this country, and Jordan’s performance was nuanced, understated, and masterful. Perhaps his ability to play characters with the odds stacked against him comes from his own desire not to fall into that lifestyle. Jordan started working very young, doing modeling and acting in commercials, and saw an acting career as a way out of the tough urban environment of Newark, New Jersey. In his words, he saw “plenty of Wallaces, Bodies, and Avon Barksdales,” and was determined to make a better life for himself. Not only does Jordan not want to just “play the black guy,” he also doesn’t want to compare himself too closely to actors that came before. He says he doesn’t want to be the next Will Smith, or the next Tom Cruise--he just wants to be himself. When you are around Jordan, his optimism and ambition are infectious and endearing. He doesn’t just want to star in films – he wants to produce them. He doesn’t want to just be on television, he wants his own channel. And he doesn’t just want to be the face of a studio, he wants to run a studio. At Off Camera, we wouldn’t bet against him doing anything he sets his mind to.

Anyone reading Wikipedia’s entry on Will Forte couldn’t be blamed for suspecting it’s the prank of a fellow jokester. High school class president and football player? College history major? Promising financial broker? Seriously? Entries for his more recent past (That ‘70s Show writer, The Groundlings, Saturday Night Live) seem more like the real Will Forte – until you watch his subtly astounding turn in Nebraska.Director Alexander Payne considered over 100 actors for role of David, all of who wanted it – badly. It’s understandable, given the Oscar buzz and critical acclaim the film and cast have generated since the movie’s release. So how does MacGruber wind up as the kind voice of reason in a bleak cinematic landscape populated by bitter, deluded characters?Forte says maybe Alexander Payne had the best answer when he said that directors often choose actors “because they think 80% of the character is already you.” Indeed, Forte’s performance is so genuine, honest and stripped down it makes us wonder if the whole wacky funny guy thing is just an act. Any comedy we see in his character is of the absurdly sad sort that Payne has a genius for capturing.It’s hard not to draw parallels between the physical journey David takes in the film and Forte’s journey as an actor. Forte is grateful for every moment of it and excited about what comes next. At Off Camera, we will be watching to see exactly what that will be.

Martin Short grew up in a family full of funny people. He staged make-believe talk shows in his attic and absorbed a steady TV diet of comedy masters like Carson, Rickles and Paar, and yet inexplicably dreamed of becoming a doctor. Or a dentist. Always serious about success, Short gave himself a one-year contract to make it in comedy before returning to school for a master’s degree in a respectable medical field. Though we all know how things worked out, it’s rare to find a budding comic with a backup plan. But Short is a rare comedian – one you’d both want to go out and drink with and who you would allow to watch your kids.Maybe due to his upbringing as the adored baby of a family who never discouraged his comedic pursuits, Short developed a self assurance uncommon to the standard performer’s psyche. But it’s as hard-earned as it is innate: Short prepares. He practices in mirrors. He plots sketches with index cards. He does his homework. He knows his audience, and when it comes to talk shows, he knows his hosts. He’s an encyclopedia of the style nuances of everyone from Kimmel to Letterman.Short will tell you that confidence is the most important factor in any good performance, and it’s likely what kept him on a steady rise through the ranks of improv and sketch comedy, and helped him avoid imploding from the pressures of being the new guy in the room with some of the genres’ most intimidating names. Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal and Lorne Michaels were just a few of his early colleagues.It’s not hard to imagine that Short’s self possession is also at the root of some of his most precocious and obnoxious inventions. We find Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick hysterical in direct proportion to their complete lack of self consciousness. Short’s most beloved characters are his finely observed, albeit magnified versions of people we all know.Off Camera attempts to reconcile the frenetic showman, consummate comedy student and urbane purveyor of talk show banter as we ask, “Is this guy serious?”

Stacy Peralta recalls his earliest and most visceral memories of skateboarding as the rumbling of the sidewalk coming up through his feet. Metaphorically, what he might have been feeling was the oncoming explosion of skateboarding, which would carry him to places he couldn’t imagine as a grade schooler on his inaugural ride down an especially smooth stretch of Venice Boulevard in Southern California. By age 17 he was inventing iconic tricks and earning more money than his parents as a skater, and by 19 he was the sport’s highest ranked pro. His skate team, Powell Peralta, launched the careers of legends like Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero and Tony Hawk. His Bones Brigade Video Show virtually invented the skateboard video, creating the sport’s first marketing vehicle and enabling kids worldwide to see the sport’s best athletes up close and personal. And for his next trick? Peralta walked away from it all.Peralta abandoned what had been his whole identity to attempt a writing and directing career in film and television. This leap of faith is even braver (or perhaps more foolish) in light of his own complete lack of confidence in his chances of succeeding. And his fear seemed justified by an initial run of projects that Peralta says "just got worse and worse". But because doing anything else seemed even more impossible, he did succeed: His documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys premiered at Sundance, winning the documentary Directing and Audience Awards and selling over a million DVD copies. His Crips and Bloods: Made in America won acclaim as a hard hitting, and thoughtful look at the circumstances that led to the creation of two of the most violent gangs in U.S. history.Peralta talks about weathering the highs and lows of a truly remarkable career and tells Off Camera that for the first time in 15 years he doesn't know what he's going to do next. Whatever it is, have faith it'll be rad.

Any 7 year-old who inhales 19 ice cream cones in a row for her first movie appearance, arranges a clandestine meeting with an agent at 11 and inflates her age by an improbable 8 years to audition for the role of a 19 year old really wants to be an actress.Maybe Laura Dern never really had a choice anyway. The daughter of acclaimed actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd was assured of her destiny by Martin Scorsese, who saw her future in the fact that she didn’t throw up the aforementioned ice cream cones.He was right. Dern gives us complicated personalities whose often baffling behavior we somehow understand due to the firm and uncompromising grip she keeps on their humanity. It’s a rare ability to find in any actor. It’s a crucial ability for an actor whose carefully-selected projects started and largely remain with directors like David Lynch, Alexander Payne and Martha Coolidge, whose films aren’t widely populated by America’s sweetheart-type characters.In this interview, she discusses what she’s endeavored to bring to some of her early roles in films like Foxes, Smooth Talk, Wild at Heart and Blue Velvet, and those films’ effect on her as a young actress growing into womanhood on camera. To understand her approach is to understand how the best in their craft can suck us into their characters’ psyche without our ever realizing we’re there. Dern also touches on some of her enviable mentors, age and sexuality in the movies, and getting closure on the wrap of her brilliant HBO series Enlightened.Obviously and deeply in love with every aspect of film making, Dern is as fascinating to talk to as she is to watch; she’s the friend you’d want to stay up with all night for the most fun and interesting conversation. Off Camera apologizes in advance – this interview will leave you wanting more.

What kid tells himself, “I know being a high school loner who reads comic books all the time will pay off for me”? One who winds up being a loner who reads comic books all the time. Or, one who winds up creating iconic comedies like Knocked Up, Superbad, and most recently, This Is 40. Enamored with comedy and comedians as a grade schooler, Judd Apatow set about interviewing his idols for WKWZ. The first thing he learned is that they’re kind – no one kicked him out when they realized WKWZ was a high school radio station.While his comedies and the actors in them are household names, most fans are unaware they’re the beneficiaries of a filmmaking approach Apatow is largely credited with developing. Fueled by self-doubt or maybe just any comedian’s compulsive search for the ultimate killer line, Apatow shoots and tests multiple versions of almost every scene he films. His true genius may be his knack for identifying new and often unlikely talent, and letting it inform his scripts. This approach has elevated the not only the films themselves, but the careers of James Franco, Lena Dunham, Seth Rogen, Melissa McCarthy and Steve Carell, to name only a few.Perhaps due in part to his own painfully geekish childhood, he continues to remake Freaks and Geeks in work that lays bare our foibles, anger, lunacy and occasional transcendence. At once eviscerating and empathetic, he holds a mirror up to us and we laugh in recognition. Apatow has seen us naked, and we don’t mind. Off Camera sits down with the crazy voice in all of our heads for an in-depth interview.

Being a bona fide badass is the price of entry for a career in rock and roll; and if you ask Dave Grohl, it’s the key ingredient for just about anything worth doing. His approach to life has fueled the Foo Fighters’ 20 year,11 album career and garnered him a following of very stoked rock fans, many of who gathered at this year’s SXSW music conference to hear Grohl’s keynote address.The hipsters, rockers, start-uppers and next-big-thing developers packing the room were no doubt curious to hear how one goes about dropping out of high school, rising to fame as the drummer in Nirvana (a small Northwest act you may have heard of), and then go on to lead one today’s few remaining true rock bands? For Grohl, the answer’s pretty simple: figure out who you are and what inspires you and don’t look back – develop that individuality by working as hard as you can at what you love.That clarity of approach drove not only his Nirvana/Foo Fighters trajectory, but numerous musical side projects like Queens of the Stone Age, and Them Crooked Vultures. And most recently, a new artistic title: documentarian. He didn’t know anything about the film making process except what he needed to know most: Passion for your subject is sine qua non; and not one to do anything without it, Grohl didn’t question himself. Nor apparently did Rick Springfield, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Paul McCartney, and Tom Petty, all subjects of Sound City, his fascinating documentary about the people behind the studio that launched an amazing roster of legendary music acts.For a guy who admits to still feeling like a 13 year old and dressing like a 17 year old, Grohl has something to teach all of us…and shares it with Off Camera in one of our most inspiring interviews to date.

If pro skateboarders have resumes, Tony Hawk’s is undoubtedly among the longest and most envied. Though he’s the most decorated skater ever with the highest contest win percentage of any sport and a $1 billion video game series, Hawk has arguably given more to the sport than he’s received.Watching Hawk skate is testament to creativity and artistry as much as athleticism, as is his autobiography, which required a glossary to catalog the tricks that are his legacy to the skateboarding lexicon. His Tony Hawk Foundation has contributed over $4 million to develop 500 skate parks around the world. He’s also been skating’s foremost advocate, promoting it through some of its darkest days (though smashing his pelvis while attempting a full loop dressed in a gorilla suit probably doesn’t count).Hawk joins Off Camera to talk about the evolution of the sport from its scrappy underground beginnings to X Games behemoth. He shares his thoughts on the vital role of creativity and artistry in athletics and his continued love and commitment to the sport. Now a father of 4 that can still stick the most difficult tricks ever invented, we learn why at 44, he still makes his primary living on four wheels.

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’” -H.L. MenckenHenry Louis Mencken and Robert Downey Jr. did not cross paths in life (though it’s fun to imagine that conversation), but the essayist’s quote is an apt description of the actor’s approach to life. Downey’s restless intelligence is reflected in his ability to express several contradictory points of view simultaneously, making sense all the while. He can be direct one moment and elusive the next, often spinning off on seemingly unrelated tangents. But like watching a juggler on a wire, being in Downey’s presence is a riveting experience.For someone who almost from the outset was deemed “the greatest actor of his generation”, the majority of Robert Downey, Jr.’s career has been filled with big commercial flops, “critically acclaimed” flops, very public struggles with drugs and more than a little jail time – all of which have landed him squarely in some of the biggest blockbuster films in recent history. It’s an unlikely hero story, but then Robert Downey Jr. is an unlikely hero.With the release of the final film in the Iron Man trilogy, it’s ironic to contemplate that the studios also didn’t see him as a hero, least of all an action hero. Downey disagreed. At once supremely convinced of his own talent and extremely humble, he fought hard for the role of Tony Stark when the studio flatly refused to even let him audition. He prepped intensely, though for other roles he admits he’s just as likely to wing it.Downey is an enviably comfortable resident of the gray area we all inhabit. He is (somewhat) remorseful about his jail time but without resentment towards the upbringing that arguably introduced him to the lifestyle that led him there (“I choose to see it in a positive light.”) His years in the industry have left him clear-eyed and cynical about the business; yet he remains full of enthusiasm and curiosity about his art, and he’s deadly serious about bringing the best of himself to the set every day. He’s an obsessive analytic who’s inclined to let his gut make most of his decisions. On any multiple-choice personality test, Robert Downey Jr. is ‘all of the above.’ Maybe that’s what keeps us watching.

Aimee Mann, the Boston born singer/songwriter, Grammy winner and self-described Oscar loser, was recently named to NPR’s list of the ten finest living songwriters. It was a well-deserved honor, and put her in the company of artists like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Tom Waits.While Aimee Mann is widely acknowledged for her songwriting talent, her lesser-known role as an industry trailblazer is as laudable as it is fascinating. Starting with the sudden and disconcerting fame of her band ‘Til Tuesday and spanning eight solo albums, the arc of her career has largely reflected, and in some ways shaped, the music business itself.Much of that career was defined by her struggle and just plain bad luck with record labels that couldn’t see past Mann’s model looks and the dollar signs in their eyes that she was not the artist they were molding her to be. In her struggle to stay true to herself as an artist, Mann chafed under contracts and finally started her own label in order to put out her finely-observed songs the way she wanted to put them out – a ground-breaking move at the time and one that paved the way for musicians just starting to navigate the chaos of the music business today. The irony? With no more Goliath labels to fight and at the absolute peak of her talent as a songwriter, the channels for distributing and making a living from music are disappearing.With surprising humor and optimism, Mann lets us in on her bumpy journey, a few surprising hobbies and why, after a career-long struggle to make a living with her art, she believes there’s always a next step.

After releasing two records with his former band Simon Dawes (now Dawes), guitarist/producer/songwriter Blake Mills went on to become a go-to touring guitarist and session musician for acts including Jenny Lewis, Band ofHorses, Julian Casablancas, Lucinda Williams, Fiona Apple, Conor Oberst, Kid Rock, Norah Jones, Lana Del Rey and Danger Mouse. A lifetime of career experience for most musicians, it constitutes Mills’ resume at just 26 years of age. Impressive, even given that he played his first gigs at 13 (in bars…but that’s another story).Mills encompasses several rare dichotomies: A true intellectual and a pop/rock musician; a supremely accomplished guitarist and also a songwriter to be reckoned with; and a virtuoso who doesn’t let his virtuosity get in the way of making great music.Mills talks to Off Camera about how his autodidact approach informed his musical development, how today’s musicians and fans are both helped and hurt by vast access to music online, escaping a career in football and what he and some talented collaborators are doing hosting public jam sessions in a surf shop. If Mills’ name isn’t more well known, perhaps it’s because he works pretty hard to remain low key. That may just change with the growing popularity of his first solo album, Break Mirrors.

As Jim Halpert, John Krasinski embodies The Office’s most beloved Everyguy, but his middle-achiever alter ego belies the actor’s impressive and accomplished resume. At just 33, he has written, directed and produced both television and feature films with some of the industry’s most talented heavy-hitters.Krasinski shares his own version of the waiter-to A-list story and talks about staying true to his artistic path despite periods of self-doubt. An avid and humble student of experience, he discusses what he’s learned from his work with industry veterans such as Sam Mendes, Gus Van Sant and George Clooney. Krasinski talks to Off Camera about wrapping the final season of The Office, the value of supportive parents, and about his newest film, Promised Land, which he co-wrote, and co-stars with Matt Damon.At one of the most interesting junctions in his career, an actor who’s arguably done it all looks ahead to what he hopes will be next.

Whether or not you’ve heard of Val McCallum, you’ve undoubtedly heard his work. Val is a supremely talented guitarist, singer, songwriter and studio musician who got his start recording for the legendary songwriter Harry Nilsson at age 18. After 30 years of working with such artists as Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, The Wallflowers, Bonnie Raitt, Loretta Lynn and countless others, Val McCallum has just released his first solo record, At the End of the Day, a collection of spare, acoustic and grippingly intimate songs.I talked to Val between stops on his current tour with Jackson Browne and gigs with his own slyly humorous country band Jackshit, where he performs as alter ego Beau Shit along with Davey Faragher and Pete Thomas, who make their living as Elvis Costello’s rhythm section.Val grew up in Los Angeles and is the son of David McCallum and actress Jill Ireland, but Ireland raised Val and his brothers Jason and Paul with Charles Bronson, who she married when Val was a young boy.Val discovered the guitar at age eight, and arguably hung on to it for dear life through some tough twists and turns, including the tragic death of his brother Jason and the loss of his mother, Ireland to cancer.In “At The End of the Day,” Val opens these wounds and sings with touching candor about themes that are at once deeply personal and universally human. It’s a record about loss, grief and loneliness that somehow manages to create a mood of catharsis, promise and understanding. Reminiscent of early Neil Young, Nick Drake and Crosby Stills and Nash, “At the End of the Day” is an achievement of understated beauty.In this interview, I talk to Val McCallum about his experiences making records with so many iconic artists, and about the process of making his own.