Opening this Friday is the new Judd Apatow produced comedy “Walk Hard.” The film is a spoof of the biopic genre, with “Walk the Line” being its primary target. For the 2 people that haven’t seen the clips or heard about the movie, "Walk Hard" follows the up and down career of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) as he battles drug addiction, marriage, sleeping with too many women, and causing many family problems. But despite all his hardship, he manages to eventually earn the love of a good woman – longtime backup singer Darlene (Jenna Fischer).

Anyway, a few weeks ago I got to participate in a small roundtable interview with Kristen Wiig. In “Walk Hard” Kristen play’s Dewey’s first wife, but most of you are going to know her from "Saturday Night Live" or from her funny role in “Knocked Up.”

I’ve been a fan of Kristen since she joined SNL and it was very cool to ask her a number of questions on not only SNL, but all the other movies she has coming up. The reason is that in 2008 she has 4 movies coming out. While most of America might not know her yet, she’ll have a lot more fans soon. If you’re a fan of Kristen I know you’ll like this interview.

Kristen Wiig: Hey guys.

Question: How are you doing?

Kristen Wiig: Good. 

Q: My wife says you’re the funniest woman on “Saturday Night Live”.

Kristen Wiig: Well, tell her that’s very nice and thank you.

Q: Is this a great year for women on “SNL”?

Kristen: I think so. I think Amy and Maya are unbelievable.  I think we have a good group.

I was going to say does it feel like your career is all of a sudden hitting the stratosphere because it seems like you’re involved with a lot of projects--a lot of stuff upcoming?

Kristen: It doesn’t feel that way to me maybe just because—I’m defiantly grateful for everything and I’m surprised that I’m even like doing this.  I don’t know.  It’s all very surreal to me.  It hasn’t quite hit me yet I don’t think.

What’s the secret of playing a character like this in a movie like this?  Is it keeping it real and not be aware of the absurdity?

Kristen: Yeah, we tried—I think that’s one of the reasons why it worked—this movie…especially John.  He’s so committed to being this guy.  It’s almost like does “Dewey Cox” really exist?  Is he a real person because he’s playing him so well? Because there’s so many absurd things in the movie I think we had to somewhat be kind of based in reality and have the music be really good just to make it make sense.

You have a particular challenge I think of juggling babies while you were…

Kristen: Yeah, there were a lot of babies. A lot of babies and animals around.  I’d never worked with 1 baby let alone 50 that were filling around the set.  Like coming out of cupboards and stuff.  No, I was more nervous than I needed to be I think because I thought it was going to be like crying babies like crawling up my body. Like attack of the babies—because they made it seem like you’re going to have a million kids in this movie and you’re going to look terrible and you’re going to always be pregnant.  Those were like the 3 things they told me.  And I was like yeah, of course I’ll do it.  They were sweet.  The moms were right there and you know it was fine.

How were the moms?  We they very like hands on?

Kristen: In a good way though.  They would hold them until like the last minute and kind of like we’d get familiar with each other and hand them off, then I’d give them back.

What about the fun part about this movie is one of your 1^st scenes when you play a 12 year old? 

Kristen: Yes.

Did you harp back to your own childhood?

Kristen: I looked at a lot of old pictures.  No.  Yeah, just some extra makeup and a ponytail and we can all look 12.

No, I wouldn’t say exactly that.

Kristen: Well, you’d put your baseball hat on like crooked.

The movie is about 90 minutes or so, and there was a lot of stuff that was cut.  Was there any sequence that you were in that you were sad to see go?

Kristen: Only because there was a little injury.  I was thinking that maybe that would make it in.  We did a scene where it was just going to be part of a montage of Dewey and I fighting and beating each other up and then looking at each other with passion and then coming in and kissing each other.  But we both went in really, really hard on the 1^st take and like busted each other’s lips open.  Like my lip was bleeding and we had an ice packs on and we just had to fake it after that and it didn’t make it in the movie after all that.

And regarding this season at “SNL”, has there been a specific sketch or episode or moment this season that’s really, before the strike, that stood out for you?  Something you really enjoyed?

Kristen: Oh my gosh.  Like of anyone’s in the show?

Like maybe a sketch you were in or just a host?

Kristen: Brian Williams was a highlight for me.  He was really, really funny.  I knew him briefly before we did the show but I also knew that so many people wanted to see how he was going to be as a host because he’s such a serious news guy.  He was up for anything and he’s really, really funny.  I was excited to see him do so well.

And you’re in a few upcoming projects like “Ghost Town” with Ricky Gervais.  You’re doing “Adventureland”.  You have a lot of stuff.  Could you talk a little bit about these upcoming roles?

Kristen: Sure. Well, “Ghost Town” is a small role, I play a surgeon that didn’t do very good surgery on Ricky Gervais and have a couple awkward conversations with him about that.  And then “Adventureland” was written by Greg Matolla who did “Superbad” and directed “Superbad”.  Bill Hader and I play a husband and wife who run an amusement park but not very well.  It’s a trend. I’m doing these jobs but not very well.  Then another movie I really very proud of is called “Pretty Bird” that I just got into… it’s a competition film at Sundance.  So I’m very excited about that.

I wanted to know, could you talk a little bit about working with Paul in that film and also are you going to Sundance?

Kristen: Paul Giamatti or Snyder?  I only worked with him 1 day and it was a scene where we’re all sitting there. He had to come in and yell at us.  I was legitimately scared because he’s such an amazing actor and performer.  He was like turning red and he was so angry.  I was like in awe—like the crew.  Everyone was watching that day.  It was unbelievable.  I’m such a huge fan of his.

Are you going?

Kristen: I don’t know yet.  It depends if we’re back at work at “SNL” or not if the strike ends.

I was going to of course say were you a fan of Ricky Gervais?

Kristen: Oh, I’m like a nerd about him.  Yeah, I’m a huge “Office,” “Extras,” I love him.  Yeah.

There’s an “Extras” Christmas finale coming up very soon.

Kristen: Oh, good.

Which is a finale of the whole show.

Kristen: Oh good. I’m sad it’s ending but…

What’s been the experience been like of the non-aired “SNL’s” that have been happening during the strike.  People getting together and …

Kristen: We just did one show at UCV in New York and it was really, really fun.  Michael Cera was the host and yeah, it was like a real show.  We had a musical guest and we had our cue cards and our stage manager was there.  It was all sketches that had been written before that had never made it on the air and the writers could kind of submit the sketch that they wanted to do.  It was really fun.

Will you do it again?

Kristen: I don’t know.  I think it depends with the strike…I don’t know how long…and yeah I don’t know.  Everything’s kind of up in the air right now.

What else are you doing during this downtime?

Kristen: Well, I shot the “Ghost Town” movie and came out here and organizing my bureau at home.  Trying to go picket and yeah, just hoping it all comes together soon and we find a resolution.

Do you think that the studios will come to their senses?

Kristen: Yes, I am.  I am.  I’m optimistic.  I’m putting it out there.  Yes.

continued on page 2 ---------->

Page 2 >>>