You have this really great moment at the end of Episode 1 where you’re like, “I am an a**hole,” and it’s this amazing, hilarious moment, maybe even a little unexpected. What was your reaction when you first read that and filmed it?
I was like, every ex-girlfriend’s going to watch this and be like, “I knew it.” That’s personal. First of all, it’s a fun line to get to say, to get to look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt and be like, “I’m an a**hole.” It also is, again, that moment of having a character get to make a choice of, I’m going to put my morals aside and become this thing and almost take pride in it. It wasn’t an apology for being it, it was pride.
What a weird thing. I get it, the pressure, like, “Yes, I’m in this fraternity now.”
It was this really great moment. I mean, have you seen that as applicable to the entertainment industry where you sort of have to be more like, I don’t know, cut tooth or, is that applicable?
I don’t think so. I feel like if you look at the numbers in terms of competition as an actor, a writer, director, producer, they’re crazy. Everything’s backed against us. Not intentionally, [but] everyone wants to do this awesome, crazy business. I always think, there’s not actually competition against anyone else. I can’t physically out-sing some guy. I can only be the most prepared I can be.
My type, handsome leading man, is either going to be what they want or not. I never really got that cutthroat competition feeling. A lot of that has to do with my training at NYU and them instilling that in us on day one, saying, “You were probably star of your high school, right?” Everyone’s like, “hmm,” and then, “Look around, look around. All the other stars are also sitting next to you, so get over it. We’re all going to start from scratch.”
I like that mentality of, you’re really competing against yourself. I feel like that applies to, really, everything in life. In “Super Pumped” specifically, you’re working side by side with Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a lot of the show. What was working with him really like?
He’s such a great guy … It was educational because, like I mentioned with Uma, [he’s] super focused, there to do his job. Unlike anyone else in the show, he’s got 9,000 lines per scene.
