How a sitcom also-ran became a comic legend

Fred Willard has done guest spots on pretty much every sitcom ever: Mama's Family? Check. Married with Children? Check. Golden Girls? Check. The list goes on. It's not exactly the type of resume that gets the attention of the New Yorker set. But somewhere between doing voice-overs for films like Chicken Little and guest starring on Everybody Loves Raymond, this 67-year-old Ohio-native has carved out a niche for himself on the same video shelf that houses Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Billy Bush walked into my dressing room and said, "Hey Fred, I understand you're doing me in 'For Your Consideration,'" and I felt kind of bad. I said, "No, no, I'm just doing kind of a generic thing" Thank Christopher Guest, whose oeuvre—which includes Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind and, in theaters now, For Your Consideration—has elevated the ensemble film to a new level. And at the center of that ensemble is Willard, who, invariably, steals every scene he appears in. As a Guest acolyte, he's perfected his parody of the self-satisfied, vaguely sexist, middle-aged American male—and is perhaps the king of the absurdist one-liner. In Guest's latest, a look at the frenzy surrounding award season in Hollywood, Willard brings his singular persona to the role of an interminably perky celebrity reporter.

On the eve of the film's theatrical release, Radar talked to Willard about his role as part of the first gay couple on network television, the anxiety of working without a script, and whether or not Billy Bush inspired his role of the insipid celebrity journalist.

RADAR: In For Your Consideration, you play an Access Hollywood-type reporter. Did you do any research for the role beyond watching
the shows?

FRED WILLARD: No, not really. I just watched these guys, and I realized they're all so positive about everything. There's no sarcasm, no cynicism, no irony. They just throw themselves 100 percent into the Hollywood scene. And I carry that through the movie. I just loved everything. I thought everything was great. And that's why I did that little run about the cell phone, how great they were, how you can talk in a restaurant, people can call you in a restaurant. To my character, the world is just glorious Technicolor.

You really walk all over your co-anchor in the film.
Chris Guest told me, "You're going to be with Jane Lynch. And I think you've been on the show longer than she has. I just think it would be funny if you would just walk all over her, and step on her lines, and interrupt her when she starts to talk." And I said, "Okay, Chris, will you do me a favor, will you tell Jane I'm going to be doing that?" And he said, "You know, I think it might be funnier if she doesn't know you're going to do that." It came off very well.

Improv is like walking a tightwire. You never know if a wind is going to come along or you're going to get distracted or the rope is going to breakI think watching those shows is on par with playing the slots in Las Vegas—all the bright lights flashing and the tease of something exciting happening at any minute.
Oh yeah—"Coming up next!" And the camera zooming in and out. Chris told me to watch one, but he said, "You're not going to last more than ten minutes into it." My only objection to them—and I kind of like them—is that it's the same people they talk about all the time. You know, there are about five, six people on them, and in People magazine, and after a while, that's about it.

Why don't they talk more about you, Fred?
Yeah, well that's your job now. I have to get in the Enquirer, or something. I'll try to get on that.

Is Billy Bush aware that you're mocking him?
Actually, it was an older guy—people always say Pat O'Brien, but it's not him either. He's just local in L.A. I'm just fascinated how a man who is pushing 40 can be so involved in what Britney, Kevin Federline, and Jessica Simpson are doing. But a couple of months ago Billy Bush walked into my dressing room at the Jay Leno show and said, "Hey Fred, I understand you're doing me in For Your Consideration," and I felt kind of bad. I said, "No, no, I'm just doing kind of a generic thing."

I actually sensed a direct nod to Billy Bush in your character's fauxhawk-styled hair.

Is that right?

I think in the early Bush years.
Maybe that's why he thinks I'm doing him.

Do you like working on Christopher Guest's movies more than other movies?
It's the most freedom, it's the most fun, and there's a big camaraderie with the cast. But it's getting scarier and scarier, because I watch what the other people do in these movies, and I say, "Boy they're good." If I had my choice, I'd choose a Christopher Guest movie, but somehow it's a relief when you do a studio movie and they give you a script and you sit down the night before and just memorize the lines and do the best job you can do.

So it's more work on a Christopher Guest movie.
The first movie, Waiting for Guffman he said, it's improvised, and I thought, "Boy this is great, no script to memorize." After, I was walking to my car and I thought, "Oh no, now I'm going to have to come up with all these wonderful lines." Improv is like walking a tightwire. You never know if a wind is going to come along or you're going to get distracted or the rope is going to break. Unless you're Robin Williams, or one or two others, you can never go into an improv situation and say, "I'm going to score." You go in and say, "I hope it turns out well." But in a Christopher Guest movie, you're in character, and you just play it. And you don't start giggling and say "Can we start over?" You do it in character, and that's what pulls you through.

I know a lot of people who walk around quoting your lines from all of these films, for years afterwards. How do people react to you?
I love it when people come up and say, "Hey, wha' happened?" I can never understand when you hear about movie stars and people try to get them to say their catch phrase, and they won't do it. It's like diamonds when people pick up on something you do. It's not something you throw away.

All of the other Christopher Guest films have been mockumentaries, but For Your Consideration is a straightforward narrative. Do you know why this one was made differently?
I think Chris got a little tired of it. He'd done it three times. In A Mighty Wind there was a scene where Eugene leaves the concert hall and is walking down the street and bought a rose and I read a review that said, "If this is a documentary, why would the camera be following him and how could he get lost?" And maybe Chris read that and said, that's a good point, I'd have a lot more freedom making a regular film. It's a good form, and I think Chris has a stranglehold on it. I've heard about other people making mockumentaries, and they'll always be compared to Christopher Guest.

I love it when people come up and say, "Hey, wha' happened?" It's like diamonds when people pick up on something you do. It's not something you throw awayThis movie suggests that a certain kind of madness overtakes the film community—and actors in particular—during award season. Is there a palpable tension in Hollywood during that time?
I've never gotten close enough, or been in a big movie. I imagine it's a very big deal to people who are in that circle to get an Academy nomination. If nothing else, I think history shows that winning an Academy Award doesn't particularly mean that the next year or two you're going to be more successful.

You had an Emmy nomination for Roseanne.
Did I?

Yes, as one half of one of the first same-sex couples on television.
Maybe, yeah, I might have forgotten about that. Yes, we were one of the first gay marriages on television.

Do you support same-sex marriages?
That's a complicated thing. I'd rather not get into that. Someone'll get mad if I say no, and someone'll get mad if I say yes. Let me say I'm not opposed to it.

Would Martin Mull be a reasonable life partner for you?
I remember telling him at the time, someone said in an interview, "You're marrying Martin Mull, how do you feel?" And I said, "Well I could do a lot worse." I'm trying to remember, though, the first lesbian couple, what was it on?

I think it was on Friends.
Was it Friends? I think we beat them by about a month or two.

Now that deserves an award.

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