Andy Samberg's rise seems to prove both negative and positive preconceptions of show business in the 21st century. In less than two years, he's has gone from a complete unknown to the leading man in Hot Rod, largely due to the Internet. When Samberg debuted on Saturday Night Live as a featured player in September 2005, he was known only to a web-savvy minority as one-third of The Lonely Island, a web-video troupe he formed with friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Buzz around the trio landed them a gig writing for the MTV Movie Awards, which eventually led to SNL. (Schaffer and Taccone joined as writers.) There, they brought their video sensibilities to SNL Digital Shorts, creating a silly musical short called "Lazy Sunday" in December of 2005.
It was an instant Internet sensation, which caught SNL and NBC off-guard. Cease-and-desist orders followed, but the genie was out of the bottle. Filming for Hot Rod—an old, inactive script under the control of SNL Svengali Lorne Michaels—began seven months later, with Schaffer directing and Taccone co-starring. When SNL opened its 32nd season last fall, Samberg was promoted to repertory status, and lightning struck again with his digital short "Dick In A Box," a faux R&B song featuring Justin Timberlake. (This time, NBC made the video freely available.) "Dick In A Box" helped sustain the buzz around Samberg, which Paramount is undoubtedly counting on when Hot Rod opens Aug. 3. The question lingers, though: Does the film represent a heartwarming, come-from-nowhere success, or is Samberg a glorified Internet sensation whose new fame is being exploited via a poor man's Talladega Nights? Does it even matter? Samberg talked about it with The A.V. Club.
The A.V. Club: How did Hot Rod come together?
Andy Samberg: Well, basically, when you get SNL, everyone wants to take a meeting, just in case you end up being good. So I had meetings with studios, and Paramount was one of them. They mentioned that they had this script, and they sent it to me. I read it and thought it was super funny. It was in Lorne's stable, so it was his choice. Then "Lazy Sunday" happened, and they were like, "Oh, we should definitely do it." Which was great, because it opened the door for Akiva and Jorma to also do it, which was, for me, the perfect situation for my first movie, because I've done everything with them so far.
AVC: Did this feel like a bigger, more expensive Lonely Island short?
AS: It definitely has that feeling to me, anyway. It certainly has a lot of the story and the comedy of Pam Brady's original script, but it's tough to put something through the three-of-us strainer and not have it come out a little Lonely. I think it's equal parts Paramount and Pam Brady—those are two separate things. As it is, we definitely have our stamp on it.
AVC: Akiva directed some of the SNL Digital Shorts, but never a film, and neither you nor Jorma had starred in one. How freaked out were you by the process of doing a big studio movie?
AS: Yeah, we were freaked out. It was definitely a huge step up. Obviously, SNL has a lot of viewers, but the potential for a movie is through the roof. If it tanks in any way… like I said, the potential is big. There's a lot of money involved, and the stakes are very high. There's going to be all this marketing and stuff like that. It's definitely a different sort of pressure. But I will say, the fact that we got to do it together really eased a lot of that. Walking on the set that first day and being like, "And here are my two best friends that I've been working with for the last 10 years," it wasn't that different from what we had actually been doing before. Because we were always shooting similar camera-style stuff, even when we were living off canned chili in L.A. It was always getting the camera and being like "Let's get coverage on this shot, and now let's do the reverse." We were familiar with the process and the way we worked with each other in that process, so we came in with a sure hand. I think that was really helpful. It was also nice, because I think for other people, seeing us have that ease with each other put them at ease, instead of being like, "Who are these first-timers that look really young?"
AVC: How did you get Sissy Spacek and Ian McShane for the film? Getting Deadwood's Al Swearengen to play your step-dad is pretty huge.
AS: Yeah, it was awesome. They lend a real legitimate weight to the movie, and the movie is ridiculous. [Laughs.]
AVC: Were they tough to get?
AS: No. We were shocked how easy it was, which I think is a testament to the script. It was just a hilarious script. They were both our first choice by far. McShane was the first one we actually thought of, because the Frank role is such a big role. We just thought, "Oh my God, what if we got Swearengen? That dude's terrifying!" [Laughs.] We thought we'd probably have to talk him into it, but they sent him the script, and he was just like, "Yeah, sounds good." We were like, "Are you kidding me? Oh my God!" [Laughs.] Sissy, we never even thought of, because we thought there'd be no way she would do it. One of our producers thought she'd be great, and we were like, "Yeah, ask her. It can't hurt." She was into it; she was in the mood for something fun. They were both so nice and so laid-back. You'd be like, "Wow, these guys are normal just like us." Then it'd be like "action" and start acting, and you'd be like, "Oh, they're not normal like us. They're amazing actors."
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