In a lot of his work, Zach Galifianakis does not seem approachable, despite looking kind of like an adorable Teddy Graham. His Funny Or Die series, “Between Two Ferns,” has him staging fake interviews with A-list celebrities as a quietly enraged journalist. In his breakout role The Hangover, he goes the extra mile to be off-putting.
But in a conference call with The Diamondback to promote his upcoming film, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Galifianakis, joined by Keir Gilchrist and writer-director duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, was essentially a nicer version of his on-screen persona.
He has reasons to be friendly, as his sudden mainstream success has come with very little change to his approach to comedy.
Now in its second season, HBO’s excellent Bored to Death casts Galifianakis as Ray. And, most recently, Galifianakis has his first serious feature role with It’s Kind of a Funny Story.
Galifianakis plays Bobby, the R.P. McMurphy of the psych ward, though Galifianakis notes he intentionally avoided watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest before filming specifically to avoid comparisons to Jack Nicholson’s character.
Instead, Galifianakis headed to New Mexico to research mental facilities. What appears on the film is Galifianakis’ interest in “people who function on the outside but are very fragile [within],” he said.
For Boden and Fleck, the film’s story about a 16-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., coming to terms with his place in life fits right in with the rest of their filmography. As they did in 2008’s Sugar and 2006’s Half Nelson, the filmmakers explore the lives of characters in transition.
The duo reiterated that they are not a couple; instead, they just work well enough together to write and direct three feature-length films. With this newest movie, they are also proving adept at getting unexpected performances out of actors.
Gilchrist (The United States of Tara) comes across on screen as the polar opposite of Galifianakis. Reserved and professional, Gilchrist said his involvement with the film was the standard process of getting a script from an agent, liking the movie and filming it.
Still, Gilchrist said the role was not difficult to relate to because, like Craig, he deals with a lot of his own stress as an actor.
The commiseration continued — Galifianakis recalls the stress he had around Craig’s age and in college as “more pressure than any other time in my life.”
His advice to students is to chill out.
Then he whispered: “I’m chilling out too much.”
His reluctance to give school advice aside, Galifianakis said he hopes to do more dramatic roles in the future.
Anything specific?
“A movie where I have my shirt off the entire time,” he said.
waldo@umdbk.com
