The actor: Understandably, Kevin Nealon is permanently associated with Saturday Night Live: He wrote and performed on it for nine years. Since leaving the show in 1995, he's been underutilized in small TV and film roles, but that changed in 2005 with Showtime's Weeds, where he routinely scores some of the show's biggest laughs as a pot-smoking accountant.
Remarkable Power (2007)—"Jack West"
Kevin Nealon: That one, we just finished up. I'd been looking to do some film work, and I'd read quite a few scripts, and this one kind of fell into my hands, and it seemed a lot better than the ones I'd read before. It was just one of those hunches I had that it could be a good film. I didn't know the director, and we met and had lunch and talked for a while, and I thought to myself, "Why not?" I play a character called Jack West, and I'm a talk-show host, and I've lost a lot of ratings and I've been on for a while, and people just aren't watching my show anymore. So I fake my own death to get viewers to watch my show when I get back.
The A.V. Club: Did you base your role on any talk-show host in particular?
KN: Nope. It's probably a conglomeration of a lot of late-night talk-show hosts.
Scarecrow And Mrs. King (1985)—"Guard"
KN: [Laughs.] Oh yeah. I played a security guard, and I think it was in the State Department. Kate Jackson and… I forget his name. The other actor. [Bruce Boxleitner. —ed.] They had to get some information from me. This was my first acting role, really, and I remember rehearsing it on the couch with my girlfriend at the time. I had a real problem with saying the word "incendiary." Most of my rehearsal was spent on pronouncing the word "incendiary." But Kate Jackson and the other actor were very nice to me.
AVC: Were you looking for any work at all on television, or were you just biding your time until you could get into comedy?
KN: I was just looking for any kind of acting, really. I'd been doing some light-beer commercials for Budweiser and Coors, and I was doing stand-up comedy. I wanted to get into the acting world, and my agent sent me on that audition and they liked it.
AVC: Was that the last time you did anything dramatic?
KN: [Laughs.] You mean on the screen?
AVC: Well, yeah. I'm sure you've done dramatic things in real life.
KN: Yeah, well, you know, my life is full of drama. No, I did an Outer Limits.
The Outer Limits (1999)—"Dr. Mark Crest"
KN: That was my other dramatic role, yeah. And you know, the good thing about Weeds now is, I get to play some dramatic parts in that as well. So anyway, The Outer Limits was one of those shows I grew up watching—that and The Twilight Zone—and then they started remaking it… I can't remember how I got the part. I guess I auditioned for it? Anyway, it was shooting up in Vancouver, and it was a whole different scenario for me. It was really like a film: going on location, staying in trailers. It was all drama and action. It was fun. It was a nice change for me.
AVC: Having grown up on it, did you feel like the remake captured the spirit of the original?
KN: Aside from it being in color, I think it did. I think probably my favorite series was The Twilight Zone, though. That one never let you down. The Outer Limits was a little hokier. But The Twilight Zone was full of misdirection and totally creepy.
Roxanne (1987)—"Drunk #2"
KN: Roxanne came along in '86, when I was doing a lot of stand-up. I auditioned for the movie, and of course I was a huge Steve Martin fan, so I really hoped I would get this part. I don't think there was any part in particular that I auditioned for. I just went in and talked with them. There were so many parts in there, and so many comedians ended up getting in that movie, playing different firemen and townspeople. I got to be "Drunk #2." I think I was shooting for "Drunk #1." We went to a little town called Nelson in British Columbia—you fly into Vancouver and then take a small plane into the mountains. It was such a cute little storybook town. Ritch Shydner was "Drunk #1," and he was also a comic. I think he still does some stand-up, but mostly he's writing now. We hung out for like three weeks up there, and rented mountain bikes. They were waiting for the right type of day to shoot our scene, and I guess they mixed the schedule up a little bit, so instead of a five-day shoot, we ended up staying for three weeks.
AVC: Are you a Method actor? Did you have to get drunk to play "Drunk #2"?
KN: [Laughs.] No, I just kind of dipped into my memories of being a yahoo and just let it go.
AVC: How much time did you get to spend actually working with Steve Martin?
KN: I think we probably shot for two or three days on that one scene with the duel with the tennis rackets and the ski poles. They had a stand-in for him a lot, a stunt man. I remember one time swinging the ski pole, and Steve was supposed to jump over it on the stump, and he didn't quite jump in time, and so I ended up hitting him on the knee. I felt horrible, because I'm his biggest fan, and here I am almost crippling him.
Little Nicky (2000)—"Gatekeeper/Tit-Head"
KN: Well first of all, that was a great time. Any time you do an Adam Sandler film, it's kind of like a boys' club, because you're hanging out and there are guitars around, and basketballs and footballs and electric bikes and scooters and different people dropping by. I think Little Nicky was a divergence from the films he was used to doing, and he was taking a risk. I admire him for doing that. We had a great cast in there. I remember I had these breasts on my head, because I played "The Gatekeeper," a.k.a. "Tit-Head," and you know, I never knew the power of breasts before. Even with them on my head, the amount of attention they got on the set—everybody wanted to feel them, guys and girls. Breasts weigh a lot, too. They had a condom filled with water in each breast, and they must have weighed about 10 pounds. They jiggled and everything. And then at the end of the day when they removed them, once again I was nobody, and nobody cared about me. [Laughs.]
AVC: Did you come away with a new empathy for women?
KN: I did. And I came away with about eight pairs of breasts, too. I kept them and auctioned them off at different charities. [Laughs.]
Grandma's Boy (2006)—"Mr. Cheezle"
AVC: Was this originally supposed to star Adam Sandler, and then he thought he was too big for it?
KN: I don't really know the story behind that. I just know that Allen Covert wrote it, along with Nick Swardson, and I read the script and I thought it was kind of… Well, I wasn't sure it was the type of film that I wanted to do. There were scenes where they were, you know, masturbating on the grandmother and stuff. [Laughs.] I initially passed on it, and then Sandler called me and said [Adopts Adam Sandler voice.] "Nealon, you sure don't want to do this film? I just want to make sure that you really think hard about it, because if it's not a good film, no one's gonna see it, but if it is a good film, I'd hate for you to miss out." I figured he was right, so I did it. I don't think it did that well in the theaters, but since it went to video, I have more and more people coming up to me telling me how much they love Grandma's Boy.
AVC: It does have a sort of cult appeal. Even more now that Jonah Hill is taking off.
KN: Right. And masturbating is very popular too.
Daddy Day Care (2003)—"Bruce"
KN: Of course, that was an Eddie Murphy film, so there was a whole different vibe, working on that film, as opposed to working on a Sandler film, which I'd done a few of. First of all, there were tons of kids running around. I'm surprised I ever had a kid after doing that film. When you put that many kids together, it just becomes a madhouse. I enjoyed working with Jeff Garlin on that movie, and Eddie Murphy was very nice and cordial. I didn't see him that much. He just basically showed up on the set and chatted a little bit and did a scene and then he was gone.
AVC: Were you approached for the sequel?
KN: No, I didn't even know they were doing a sequel until they put up the billboards.
AVC: Have you seen it, or do you plan to?
KN: No. [Laughs] It's hard to see films now. We have a baby, so it's hard to get out of the house.
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