Jason Lee never wanted to be a TV star. In fact, a few years ago, he would never have considered auditioning for a TV show. In a 2000 interview, he even said he hates sitcoms. That stance made sense for a movie actor who cut his teeth playing smart-aleck sidekicks (Mallrats, Chasing Amy), and funny, troubled supporting characters (Almost Famous). But his latest project, NBC's successful My Name Is Earl, isn't the average TV sitcom. For one thing, it's funny, and the list-making, karma-believing Earl is one of the weirder, more complex characters Lee has ever played—even if he is on TV.
Recently, to commemorate Fox's release of My Name Is Earl's first season on DVD, The A.V. Club called Lee at work and filled his between-shots break by talking about his leading-man status, the current state of cinema, Burt Reynolds, and, of course, moustaches.
The A.V. Club: Can you talk now?
Jason Lee: Yeah, I'll be in the next shot, and I have so much dialogue it's ridiculous. It's a big scene. It's with Roseanne. She's awesome. She's our guest star this week. She's really funny. She has that great laugh that makes you laugh no matter what.
AVC: What's she playing?
JL: A cranky old lady who in flashbacks used to manage the trailer park. She's always really mean to us, and handing out citations for doing things like playing music too loud and stuff.
AVC: How did you get Roseanne?
JL: I guess she was a fan of the show, and her name came up, as many names do each week when they're trying to cast each episode. Sometimes the actors say 'No, not interested in doing TV.' Sometimes they say, 'Love the show, I'm a fan of it. I'd love to do it.' That's what Burt Reynolds said, and Roseanne. So I've worked with some interesting people so far.
AVC: You're a big fan of Burt Reynolds. What's his appeal for you?
JL: Smokey And The Bandit. I was a young kid growing up in the '70s. That was the era of like, you know, hot rods, and cool movies like Smokey And The Bandit. And it was car chases and trying to be cool and tough-guy, you know? We were all listening to heavy metal and rock. It was the '70s. Smokey And The Bandit was a staple of that whole period. I mean, he's an icon. So you meet someone like that, and it's very surreal.
AVC: What was your first meeting with him like?
JL: Well, you see him as being kind of a tough guy, a guy who's from the old school, who probably doesn't dick around much. And so the first day we were working together, one of the PAs came to my trailer and said, 'Mr. Reynolds would like to have a word with you.' And I was like, "Oh, shit, he probably thinks I'm some cocky smartass young actor kid, and he wants to show me the ropes, because maybe I did something that, you know, goes against the etiquette of the old school. This guy's been around, and he probably doesn't take any shit. And he wants to come and give me some pointers. I'm a little scared."
He comes to my trailer, and I literally think he's going to say, 'Now, Jason, I know this is your show and everything, but I gotta few pointers for ya.' And he proceeds to sit in my trailer for four or five minutes and tell me stories, which was really cool. He told me stories about Deliverance, Smokey And The Bandit, and that whole period. He was a really cool guy.
AVC: Did you compare mustaches?
JL: [Laughs.] Kinda. He's like the real deal. The moustache, the boots, the jacket. He was That Guy, you know. And we don't really have that any more. Tom Selleck's clean-cut now.
The 'tache isn't really around any more. But Burt's still holding on, and he's the same guy that he was back then. He's still kind of stuck there, which is great. I love it. So my hat's off to him.
AVC: Does your moustache require a lot of maintenance?
JL: Yeah. Well, every episode I trim it a little. But if you notice, mine's not well groomed. It's not the Magnum, P.I. moustache. It was just normal to have a 'tache back then. Not so normal now, though I'm thinking that if I'm going to have a moustache, I may as well have a real moustache, and not play around. So I let it go, and I make it real. But I can tell it needs some trimming and grooming every once in a while.
AVC: Is it true that the network didn't want you to have a moustache initially?
JL: Yeah, and I said we had to. It just doesn't work for Earl to be clean-cut. It's just going to become a thing that people are going to talk about. And it's going to make me look funnier, add to the look of the character. And then they saw me, and they said okay, finally. We didn't back down, and I'm glad we didn't.
AVC: Now that Earl is sort of a hit, do you get a lot of input?
JL: Yeah, it's more from the creative angle in terms of Greg [Garcia] and Marc [Buckland], the two executive producers, and myself. We're good friends, and we've worked well together since the beginning. So I let them do what they do. They run the show great, deal with all the writers. But in terms of suggestions of music, characters that I want on the show—I look at all the episodes ahead of time and give any notes that I may have. And they're always very open to that. It's a very collaborative process, which is cool. I really wanted Giovanni Ribisi on, and that happened, and that was very cool, because he was funny as hell on the show. My interest is mainly in how the shows turn out—the music, the actors. We have great editors. Most of the music that you hear in the episodes comes from our editors listening to great music while editing and all of us liking it and keeping it in. It's just been a total nice flow from the very beginning, since the pilot.
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