The National Lampoon Interview: Christopher McDonald

Welcome to the National Lampoon Interview, today I’m talking to actor Christopher McDonald, his new movie ‘Splinterheads’ is on DVD now. Thanks for talking to National Lampoon today

Christopher McDonald: Well thanks; it’s nice to be here.

NL: The new movie, ‘Splinterheads’; Tell us a little bit how you got involved with this small, quirky, hilarious film.

CM: I read the script and I thought, terrific, what we need is a great lead actor, so they sent me some links to this great guy, Thomas Middleditch, and this guy was perfect, very funny, very fresh, very new…you haven’t seen this kind of acing before.  So Lea Thompson came on board, Frankie Faison, and the new big discovery was Rachael Taylor, and what a worldly beauty she is. She played a tough little cache chasing carnival girl, and that’s where the name ‘Splinterheads ‘ comes from, the Splinterheads are the carnies who separate you from your money, doing the outside things, ‘Throw the ring on the bottle!’ they are the ones who yell out  ‘Hey! Duck The Punk!’  played by Dean Winters, they raz you.

NL: Your character, Sgt Bruce Mancuso. It’s like a classic, Christopher McDonald character, you play this kind of a nut, odd, not villainous, you don’t know what happened to make him so irate, he’s got issues and definitely abuses his power as the law. It’s like they wrote the part for you, is that what happened?

Sgt. Bruce Mancuso has a lot of awards in his tiny office.

CM: In a lot of ways, they tailored it for me in rewrite. Once I showed interest. The thing that is so terrific with this part is, this character, this guy, he’s gonna pull the kid ( Justin Frost, played by Middleditch) over for anything, broken taillight, whatever, and you realize it’s because there are some issues there with how his relationship ended with the kids Mother (Lea Thompson). And he doesn’t know why it ended, but he thinks it has something to do with her son Justin (Middleditch) So Mancuso’s, he’s a not a bad guy, but he takes care of the town with white gloves, he knows everything that happens in his town, so when he doesn’t know the reason why she dumped him, it makes him a crazy man.

NL: It’s funny, in this town in the film, you are the only police officer in the entire place, and it’s you and the dispatcher on the radio who is always talking to you.

CM: Exactly, I went around with a really great Sgt in this tiny tiny town, I asked for a ride-a-long and the Sgt asked if I was a sissy Hollywood type, so he was like that, but a great guy, we became drinking buddies. These guys are great, they are really highly paid and they have literally nothing to do, there is no crime in the area.

Rachael Taylor is hot. Shes in the movie too, so you should see the movie.

NL: You are in so many films and TV shows, you play this you character, I’m not saying you are really like this character, but you play it, maybe since you were in “Grease 2″ they are wound up characters, and they also have things they always do, for example, they chew gum quickly.

CM: Yeah they are wound up; I think out of the hundreds of characters I’ve played I’ve chewed gum maybe 5 times, but yes. They are highly wound up guys. And you see this guy in real life all the time; you see them in lines and in airports.

NL: I like these characters. Some of them have mustaches; some of them do not have mustaches. I think the mustache adds to the comic villain type of character.

CM: Yeah, George Clooney has been copying me now. He’s got to be doing his comedies with the mustaches.

NL: You just wrapped up a few episodes on Stargate: Universe on SYFY.

CM: I was really impressed with the production quality on that, it was a really good show, great effects.

NL: Are you going to forever have a seat of the table at those Sci-Fi conventions? People who are super nerds are going to come and dress as you and know your lines on those episodes?

CM: I’ve been asked, I think one day I’ll go. Only the real nerds would know me. I was hoping that would happen more on a movie I did called Super Hero Movie, I play a crazy scientist and a larger than life villain.

HOURGLASS!

NL: You played a guy named Hourglass.

CM: HOURGLASS! Yes, but that movie didn’t perform as well as we wanted. You never know.

NL: I have one Christopher McDonald character that represents you to me, from a movie you did that formed my brain when I was younger. I was hoping you could match the characters name to the movie. The guys name was Frank Kelbo.

CM: WOW.

NL: Do you know the movie?

CM: Ahh, hmm…Frank Kelbo was a cop, wait no, he was the mechanic! In a Carl Reiner movie I did called ‘Fatal Instinct’!

NL: YES!

CM: That was a lot of fun that was my first taste into spoof-dom.

NL: It was great to talk to you today,

CM: My pleasure, it was a lot of fun.

NL: The film is ‘Splinterheads’ it’s on DVD now, one of the funniest films I’ve seen this year. Thanks for being here, Christopher McDonald.

CM: Thanks.

-fin-

You can listen to the extended audio of this interview here. Enjoy!

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