Will Forte interview: ‘MacGruber’
“We don’t have a problem with grossing people out,” proclaims Will Forte about “MacGruber” in our recent webchat. He also surprisingly admits the writers do discuss whether things go too far “all the time, then we usually do it anyway.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“MacGruber” is an action-comedy series streaming on Peacock. It is based on the “Saturday Night Live” sketches which were turned into a feature film in 2010. In all incarnations Forte plays MacGruber, the supremely confident and often incompetent special operations agent. Leading a comedy series is not new for the actor who previously received two Emmy nominations in the Best Comedy Actor category for the network comedy “The Last Man on Earth” (2015, 2016).
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Forte also co-created and writes for the series. He explains, “We do not compromise on stuff. We are basically doing what we want to do. We were so thankful to get to do this again. We were just writing what tickled us and didn’t try to write something that we thought would appeal to people. If we like it, that’s what we were making. Some people don’t like it because we have very specific senses of humor. That’s why some people like it and some people do not. We’re not trying to make it for everybody, we’re trying to make something that we would want to watch.”
In the series MacGruber’s love interest is Vicki St. Elmo, who is played by Forte’s former “SNL” co-star Kristen Wiig. Forte says, “We try to plan it so that we get as many takes as possible when we’re doing scenes with the two of us together. It always seems like there’s stuff that we find as we keep going. Most of the time we’re racing the clock. Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomach production wise.”
Earlier this season Forte returned to “SNL” to host. The performer describes, “We had to do a ‘MacGruber’ while we were there. The ‘SNL’ sketch version of MacGruber is so different than what was in the movie and the TV series. It’s also tough, you get used to your swear words. When I went to do ‘The Last Man on Earth,’ you couldn’t swear in that. I got so used to saying ‘friggin,’ I would use the word ‘friggin’ all the time. That’s a little more family friendly. I’ve got a baby now, so I gotta watch what I say. She’s just starting to repeat everything.”
