Zach Galifianakis Video Interview On 'It's Kind Of A Funny Story'

He was on that epic Hangover road trip. Now, Zach Galifianakis is taking a more serious turn in the mental-ward dramedy It’s Kind Of A Funny Story.

Q: I was noticing that this role is a bit of a departure for you from some of your previous comedies and I was curious, what attracted you to the role?

A: I had known about the directors when I found out that those guys were the ones that were gonna direct this movie – we met and we chatted about the tone of the movie and you know, it was the directors more than anything. And then they had shown me a poster already and how beautiful my face would look and they were like, ‘This is the poster!’ And I was like, This is an odd thing, the poster is first? ‘That’s how we work.’ So I mean, with that mug, you really wanna do a movie like this. And that’s how I got attracted to the movie.

Q: Thanks, my follow up question is, did you do any research to prepare for this role?

A: Yes, I went to a couple of mental hospitals, facilities in New Mexico and chatted with some patients and people who work there and just kinda wrote down some notes and discussed it with the directors and I kinda did prepare for it and I never prepare for anything so I feel kinda proud. I only did it because I knew people would ask me this question and I wanted to actually have a real answer. I mean I guess I could have made it up but yeah I did, I did some preparation.

Q: I was just wondering what it was like working with Keir Gilchrist. I read that you thought he was more mature than you are.

A: Yeah I think he is. I mean I think he is; I wasn’t even joking. He’s a good actor; he’s experienced. It’s amazing the amount of confidence such a young person has to stand there and have the wherewithal to draw emotion out and be in touch with the coordination of emotions, and I feel like when I was that age, I could never do that. I was too busy with back acne.

Q: Did you get any time to bond with the teens before the film started to shoot, and do you think there’s a certain message in the film?

A: It’s a little creepy for a 40-year-old guy to hang out with the teenagers. No, they were already filming and I just sort of showed up and started acting and yeah, I didn’t have any time to hang out. I was doing something else I think. No time to get the chemistry but I think we just kinda got lucky with the chemistry between Keir and myself. I think the movie has a message for maybe if you’;re a young person and you’re trying to figure things out and you have a lot of pressure on you and I think today’s teenagers do have a lot of pressure. We live in a Keeping Up with the Joneses society which a lot of times falls on the shoulders of children. The message is, don’t listen to your parents [laughs]. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re just trying to keep up with whatever the magazines tell them to keep up with.