Harry Shearer and Michael McKean

Harry Shearer…

On Guest’s directing style:
“Most people—including myself—who direct do so because they love to control things, and Chris is really remarkable for his ability to cede a lot of control. He tries to get the actors to make choices that are appropriate and funny and, you know, hopefully wonderful. He’ll also apply a gentle foot on the brake if things get too out of control, but they almost never do, and so his ability to stand the onslaught of surprises is part of the charm of the project.”

On constructing his character in For Your Consideration, Victor Allan Miller (a serious actor whose career slides to the point that he’s forced to do an infomercial):
“The experience that Victor’s had in terms of rejection and struggle are ones that I identify with intensely, so I just stripped away what I thought were my better coping mechanisms and what was left was this mass of strivings that was Victor.”

On his own “Victor” Experiences:
“There was a movie where I was cast as the hero’s best friend, which I thought was a pretty good break, and I go to the premiere of it and find out there is not a frame of my performance in the movie, that the entire part has just been cut out and they didn’t, you know, let me know upfront—yeah, that was a pretty good one.

And, as a kid, I was in a comedy group that had one just stunningly frustrating experience after another to the point where, none of us being either religious or superstitious, we all started thinking there’s some kind of curse. So I had a belly-full.”

On improvisational acting:
“It’s relaxed because Chris is trusting you and you’re with great people in whatever scene you’re in, so you don’t have to constantly think to yourself, ‘Oh boy—I gotta score, I gotta score.’ That’s not a concern, but on the other hand, you are in uncharted waters to a certain extent. There’s a story to the scene you have to play, so you’re not totally left to your own devices. But you don’t have the luxury, in my experience, of kind of floating outside and looking at it from the observer’s point of view.”

On the first day of shooting:
“We all gather in the makeup room and the scramble begins. You know, ‘I want like a funny moustache,’ ‘No! Michael’s already got that.’ ‘Well, what about the weird eyebrows?’ ‘Uh-uh, that’s taken.’ And it’s like everyone’s racing to get something before it’s all gone. It’s like sale day at Macy’s. It’s huge fun because you’re seeing everybody there for the first time since the last film, so it’s a bit of a reunion—it’s part reunion, part competition.”

On Christopher Guest, the man:
“He has a laconic side, and frankly, it took me years to suss out that it stems, I think, from a fairly profound shyness. There is a place beyond that, but there’s a sizeable moat protecting that place.”

Michael McKean…

On his first impression of Christopher Guest:
“Chris and I met outside a lecture hall at NYU in September of 1967. He was carrying a guitar case and I asked to see his ‘instrument’—he showed me his and, days later, I showed him mine. They were both Gibson electrics and we compared notes on a few notables, such as Michael Bloomfield and B.B. King. I thought Chris was brilliant and funny and a great guitar player.”

On whether his Grammy nomination for “A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow” (co-written with wife Annette O’Toole and featured in Guest’s A Mighty Wind), threatened to give him any of the neuroses afflicting the trophy-hungry characters in For Your Consideration:
“We were too surprised by the nomination to do anything but glow for a month. We did a few appearances to promote the song, but we knew the chances were slim. We did have a lot of stressful fun that night. Excellent dessert! No bitter aftertaste!”

On the point of red-colored carpet:
“I don’t know. It’s the part of the award shows I never watch. People seem to like the frills and shit, but I like actual movies instead.”

On his preparation to play one half of a screenwriting duo with Bob Balaban in For Your Consideration:
“We chatted as usual with Chris about the characters. My first thought was, ‘Well, they’re the screenwriters, so we won’t be seeing them on the set much.’ Balaban and I had just collaborated on a show he created called Hopeless Pictures, so the segue into make-believe workmates wasn’t difficult. And he is the cutest little bastard, isn’t he?”

On whether Guest has ever considered using him as a co-writer in real life:
“I was originally going to work on Waiting For Guffman, but I got busy in New York. Gene [Eugene Levy] is an awfully good fit for Chris—and vice versa—so everything worked out beautifully. Chris, Harry and I will always be collaborators, but not in the French Nazi sense.”