Chris O'Dowd on Slumberland, Bridesmaids, and that Cloverfield Paradox line

The Irish actor joins us to reflect on his wide range of roles, from The IT Crowd to Bridesmaids to the new Netflix film Slumberland

By Jack Smart | November 17, 2022 | 3:00pm

Image: Graphic: Rebecca Fassola

Film Features Bridesmaids

Chris O'Dowd on Slumberland, Bridesmaids, and that Cloverfield Paradox line

The actor: Actors have types, and Chris O’Dowd is no exception. And given his Irish sense of humor and the self-awareness required of regular A.V. Club interviewees, he has no issue poking fun at his own roles, from “big, slow guy” to “sitcom dad.”

But like the most exciting actors working today, O’Dowd still has several tricks up his sleeve. His ability to surprise and delight is on full display in Slumberland (streaming on Netflix starting November 18), director Francis Lawrence’s family friendly adventure through dreams and nightmares, adapted by David Guion and Michael Handelman from Winsor McCay’s classic Little Nemo comics. O’Dowd grounds the film’s waking-world sequences as the well-meaning but out-of-his-depth uncle Phillip to young Nemo (Marlow Barkley), entrusted to his care after the passing of her father and his brother (Kyle Chandler). Doorknob salesman Phillip’s social awkwardness is, as O’Dowd might put it, “right up [his] fucking street,” but an unexpectedly poignant monologue repositions his character as the film’s heart.

Slumberland (2022) — Phillip

Slumberland | Official Trailer | Netflix

The A.V. Club: How are you today?

Chris O’Dowd: I’m very well. You know what? I nearly wore my A.V. Club retro t-shirt today.

AVC: You have a vintage A.V. Club t-shirt?!

CO: Somebody got me one. And I’ll tell you, I love The A.V. Club. But I think it was more about the letters. I have two little boys called Art and Valentine. So my buddy got me [a shirt that reads], The A.V. Club, 1987.

AVC: That’s wonderful. Well, a “Random Roles” feature might be your most comprehensive A.V. Club interview yet. You’ve spoken with us before, so you know the drill.

CO: I have. I’m always delighted to.

AVC: Slumberland is so fun, and one of the reasons it works so well is your performance feels like a spot-on alignment of actor and role. Was this part written with you in mind?

CO: I don’t believe so. That’s very kind of you. I think the film turned out so beautifully, I really do. I know we always say that. But when we watched it, visually I was just blown away by the CG. And the part itself, I appreciate that you enjoyed it because it spoke to me as well. There is stuff in my other work where there is almost a Roy in The IT Crowd quality. [Phillip is] one of those people who has decided you are what you like. He has decided, I suppose, that he’s not fit for the social world. He doesn’t have the confidence to put himself out there to be played with. I just don’t think he’s got any confidence, possibly because of the way that he fell out with Kyle’s character and he feels rejected and he just never got through it. So there is a lot in that, that even if I couldn’t necessarily relate to it, they were all things that I found interesting to play.

AVC: Those career through-lines are always the most revealing to dig into. How often does that happen, that you’re preparing a character and realize you’ve actually already gone down the path of some of its emotional or psychological material?

CO: It happens a bit. Where it happens more often is initially, because it’s usually the reason I’ll turn down a role. You’ll get scripts and you’re like, Ah, fuck, I’ve done it. Like, I can imagine myself doing it and I know I can do it, but it would be just too lazy. Honestly, every now and again, I’ll do it for whatever reason—because it’s shooting from where I want to be or whatever, close to home. But if you’re not really testing yourself, you kind of slap yourself on the wrist. But there are obviously strands in certain characters that I do keep drifting back towards that I’m trying to explore to some degree, I presume subconsciously even.

AVC: And of course, the life of an actor means especially early in your career, you don’t always have the luxury of turning stuff down.

CO: That’s right. I have to say, I’m sure there are things that I don’t love that I’ve done. But for the most part, I managed to avoid the really bad ones. Because I fucking auditioned for them and I just didn’t get them. The amount of pieces of shit that I have watched where I’m like, “I auditioned for that! I dodged a bullet.” And I do think, hopefully, that a succession of directors who have the sensibilities to know that I’m not right for them is actually quite comforting.

Moone Boy (2012–2015) — Seán Caution Murphy

Moone Boy – A Hulu Original – Trailer

AVC: In terms of echoing past roles, Slumberland did remind me of the show you created, Moone Boy, because of the imaginary friend element. Did you think about that at all?

CO: It went through my head a few times. I suppose this speaks to what we were talking about, that I do return to a specific time, which is the time just before pre-pubescence. Just before the end of innocence, I suppose, where you start thinking about boys or girls or whatever it is, and how you’re interpreted by them. Rather than what was before, which is how you’re interpreting the world and what adventures you can go on. I do find something striking about that particular time, [age] 11, 12, 13. And Nemo is going through that. And it feels like those movies where a parent dies at the end or some conversation about that, it’s the end of innocence. It’s not necessarily as literal as [a parent dying] but we are grieving something.

AVC: So in terms of writing Moone Boy by drawing inspiration from your own life, is there an instinct to reclaim or get back to a childlike playfulness to be creative?

CO: Yeah, you’re exactly right. Because all of the stuff that we make [these days] isn’t that useful to us—the digital life and all of the things that we create are like an airbag, really, to keep us from having to deal with reality or talking to people. So I wonder if there is some yearning for that. And when we talk about those [Steven Spielberg-directed] Amblin movies that do it so beautifully, they’re doing it while talking about something else. Like E.T. is really a film about divorce, isn’t it? And I think Jaws is about the fear of growing old. So what I always found with those Spielberg movies is, he’s obviously so smart, but he manages to do domesticity in a way that’s cerebral. We’re going to use the space man to talk about divorce. That’s so smart. And I think subconsciousness is the way that Slumberland deals with that, where it’s like your dreams are—“What are you actually thinking?” I suppose that’s the question it’s asking. I might be fucking making that up, but I have to say, Francis is a really smart filmmaker and you can see all of those elements in the film … He’s just done a really great job with all of those elements, some of which I hadn’t even recognized in the script. It’s very mature for a family movie, I think.

Red Cap (2003) — Bernie Maddox
The Clinic (2003–2005) — Brendan Davenport
Conspiracy Of Silence (2003) — James Matthews
Vera Drake (2004) — Sid’s Customer

AVC: Going back to your beginnings, circa your first credited roles in The Clinic and Vera Drake, was there a “type” established right away? Is that the time in one’s career when you start to get boxed in, or is there unlimited potential?

CO: My agent and I have kind of a running joke, because when I was 20 or 21 finishing drama school, I was a good 25 pounds heavier than I am right now. None of it muscle! Coming out of college and having all that extra weight, it meant that all of the initial roles that I went for had the same description, which was “a big, slow guy.” And I’ve somehow managed to make a career out of that. I remember being on the front of GQ and my agent going, “Is that the fucking big slow guy?” But I’m slowly growing into my own face.

The typecasting thing, though, is interesting because it does come up from time to time. And I’ll do it when I’m writing something. Like, “I’ve seen that person do that. I need them to do the same kind of job for me.” I hope that’s okay. I get asked to do a lot of sitcom dads and that kind of thing. And there would be a time where I wanted to do things like that, but it’s kind of fun to explore other bits. I’ve always been very lucky with being offered random stuff that leads you somewhere else.

The IT Crowd (2006–2010, 2013) — Roy Trenneman

The IT crowd – Truest moment about tech support

AVC: You mentioned Roy from IT Crowd, which for many is your best-known role. Is it safe to call that the breakout?

CO: Oh, yeah. I mean, that was the one where I got to give up working in a bar. All the other jobs, I was still working the second job. And that was the one where it’s like, Oh, I can give up my job, that became my job.

Bridesmaids (2011) — Officer Rhodes
Friends With Kids (2011) — Alex

AVC: And did that then create the trajectory across the pond? It seems you had a run of American films around 2010, especially with Bridesmaids and Friends With Kids.

CO: I feel like I shot Bridesmaids and then we shot Friends With Kids before Bridesmaids came out … and [Friends With Kids] was for sure all about Kristen [Wiig] and Jon [Hamm] and that crowd saying, “Oh, you should get the guy that we just worked with.” But what was interesting was I had started going over to America—I don’t know if many people know this, but I shot a pilot for CBS right after The IT Crowd. The premise was it was just three guys hanging out on the weekend. And it was called The Weekend. But the guys were myself and Ollie Hudson—Kate Hudson’s brother—and Kevin Hart! And that was my first time going over. It was kind of a funny story: I had auditioned for it in London thinking it was for the BBC, had gone on tape, and then got a callback to test for it and was told that it was in America—on a Saturday night, and I had to fly out Sunday. And the guy that called me, he called me as I was putting away boxes in a new apartment I had just moved into. And I said, “How did you even get my number?” And he says, “Well, weirdly, my friend is your estate agent.” [Laughs] So there was just this mad coincidence that I ended up in America because somebody got my number from somebody I had just rented a flat off.

AVC: What happened with The Weekend? IMDb lists it as a TV movie.

CO: We shot the pilot. And it was my first time working in America. I came to L.A. and had a lot of fun and then started coming back a bit more. And I met a lot of casting directors from that trip, Allison Jones and that crowd who ended up doing Bridesmaids.

AVC: Allison Jones is, for a lot of actors, the reason they have a career.

CO: She’s just top notch. Yeah, there’s a few of them. Jeanne McCarthy was fantastic for me. In the early days, I would go casting for a lot of things and everybody was having a great time. But I don’t think that people were okay with casting an Irish guy yet or casting a weird accent in a show, particularly on network television: “People are just going to be like, ‘What’s he saying?’” It wasn’t until Bridesmaids, where I think they were looking for something a little… odd.

AVC: You’re a trailblazer.

CO: [spit take] Yeah!

Bridesmaids (3/10) Movie CLIP – Pulled Over (2011) HD

Dinner For Schmucks (2010) — Marco
This Is 40 (2012) — Ronnie

AVC: The natural question with that crowd you’re talking about is: Do you ever get intimidated by the prowess or the pedigree of improv genius co-stars like Kristen Wiig or Maya Rudolph?

CO: Initially you do. But then I realized our sensibilities aren’t that different. So I always felt like I can also just sit here and watch and enjoy it. And if I feel like I’ve got something, join in. And it was always I liked working with Judd [Apatow] because he’s always so full of ideas. But those improvisers, Kristen and them, they’re so fast on their feet. The one that really jumped out at me was a different movie: there was a string of improv between Steve Carell and Zach Galifianakis in this movie called Dinner For Schmucks, this insane, 20-minute dinner sequence that turned into like a four-day improv. That was the only time where I’m like, What they’re doing right now, I can’t do that. I don’t know if any of it made [it into] the movie, but watching them improv for days on end was really a highlight.

The Starling (2021) — Jack Maynard

AVC: So let’s talk Melissa McCarthy. I think of you two as similar, where the career has been a bit random yet you’re known for this comedic track. What is working with her like, from Bridesmaids to The Starling?

CO: We didn’t really hang out during the Bridesmaids time because we didn’t have any scenes together. I think I met her around the premiere time. But I remember watching that movie for the first time, I was with my wife and we were in a screening room in London. And it was so funny. I hadn’t seen anybody do what Melissa was doing. That scene where Melissa started kicking the shit out of Kristen on the couch? Those early scenes with Kristen and Maya in the coffee shop where she’s using, like, a chip as a dick and stuff? I’m like, this is so funny and they’re being so natural. Just women being funny and natural, which there wasn’t a lot of at the time. So I remember my wife, we were on the top of the bus on the way home from watching this thing, and she was really quiet. And then she just turned to me and she said, “That’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen. And I just can’t believe you’re in it. That’s wild.”

Melissa’s really smart. I love the idea of being thought of in the same breath as her. I think she’s so talented, and she’s got a lot of shit that she can do. We talk about actors a lot, and I suppose way too much, for what we really do for a living. But I do think that I love seeing an actor who can do all the four quadrants, which for me is comedy, drama, high status, low status. And it’s very few actors who can do all of those things. Melissa is one. I think Olivia Colman is maybe the queen of it. But there are very few. Playing high status and low status is tricky, and very few people can do comedy and drama … John C. Reilly might be the best. He’s my favorite.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) — Mundy
The Twilight Zone (2019) — Jeff Storck

AVC: What about horror as a genre? Is acting horror a different quadrant?

CO: If you’re in a horror movie, you’re usually going to be low-status. Because you’re running away from something else. But I guess it depends whether the horror is taking itself very seriously, like most horrors, in which case you play it like a drama or melodrama. I don’t know if it’s an exact science, either. But there is this funny thing with comedy and drama where, in a comedy, you never see anybody laughing.

AVC: Yeah. Maybe Twilight Zone has an element of comedy and The Cloverfield Paradox does not?

CO: Cloverfield Paradox is a strange one because, I swear to fuck, I thought it was a comedy. And I felt like I got that from the writer [Oren Uziel]. I won’t go into the depths of making that movie, but it was a tricky little one. And sometimes it was hard to know what genre it was. [Laughs] So I remember asking the writer and he says, “I think that there should be more levity in it.” So I leaned into that no fucking problem. Any opportunity where you get to say the line, “What are you talking about, arm?”

Arm Scene (aka “What are you talking about, arm?”) | The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

It’s also worth pointing out that it’s never so smooth that, in a situation of crisis, everybody is in the same fucking genre. If you’ve ever been at any moment where there’s been a car crash or somebody has fainted? People react in very different ways. I’ve helped somebody up after they’ve had a heart attack, and there’s been somebody there that has the giggles. Like, for whatever reason, can’t deal with the monstrosity of the situation. So I think it’s okay for it to be a little bit uneven.

Get Shorty (2017–2019) — Miles Daly

AVC: I also wanted to ask about source material because Get Shorty is an interesting example of adaptation, and then there’s Gulliver’s Travels. Does looking at original source material help, maybe with the ingredients of comedy and drama or constructing a character?

CO: I’m trying to think, did I read Gulliver’s Travels? I remember with Get Shorty, I had watched the movie back in the day and had enjoyed it. And then they said, “There’s a new script for potentially a TV show.” So I decided to read the book before reading the script to see if I felt like the world was something that I’d be useful in. And I thought that [Davey Holmes] did a brilliant job adapting that. I love the almost dusty way that he did it, kind of gritty or something. So I like to read the source material before I read the script if I can. Because then I feel like I know where the writer is coming from.

AVC: It also seems between Get Shorty and The Sapphires, you have a penchant for stories about showbiz or Hollywood.

CO: I do love Hollywood stories. I’m determined to find a good script about William Mulholland, which is a different kind of a Hollywood story. But that’s a character I feel like I haven’t seen enough of on screen yet. Because it’s such a sad tale, really, that he brought the water to L.A. that made it live. And with his second dam, he killed hundreds of people! So it’s kind of the ultimate Hollywood story.

Molly’s Game (2017) — Douglas Downey

AVC: You’ve mentioned John Cassavetes as a cinematic inspiration. What’s the closest you’ve come to working with that level of talent or someone along those lines?

CO: I like doing [Aaron] Sorkin’s words. That was fun on Molly’s Game. Because he has a very specific way of writing, and I was a huge fan of Sorkin as a writer anyway, so that was quite nice. He nods along with his eyes closed to the rhythm of the sounds of the words, which is right up my fucking street. He writes it like comedy, like music. And he can tell whether it’s right or wrong—sometimes he’d close his eyes because he doesn’t necessarily need to see the shot. Because he knows if the thing is working based on the rhythm of the dialogue.

AVC: That is so cool.

CO: I know, isn’t it?