I have friends who will say, "Oh you gotta come and see our show." And the first thing I say is, "Is it sketch or improv?" I'll go in a minute to see a sketch show. I love sketch; it's my favorite form. But if it's all improv, they're either very good and it's annoying how good they are and it makes you feel bad, or they're not too good then you're sweating for them. And you don't want to sweat for them, see actors repeating each other's lines.

Fred Willard

Categorized in : My Favorite Annoying Very Good

It's such a pleasure to work in these movies, it's almost like it's not really happening.

Fred Willard

happenings movie pleasure

It's more fun in a way to do ensemble scenes, where you know your background, you know the scene, but you can't prepare because someone else is going to say something that is going to lead you off

Fred Willard

ensemble fun way

I think my wife saw a picture of the rock group Journey, and they're kind of aging, and the one guy had dyed blonde hair with black roots, and... my idea was to get a little earring, I wanted to have a dangling earring.

Fred Willard

journey ideas thinking

I'll look through a script, and if there's a lot of night shooting I tend not to want to do it. If there's huge party scenes and I'll go through a few pages and say "Well, at least I'm not in this," then the last page my character walks in and says something, I say, "Uh oh, that's going to be three days on the set sitting around drinking coffee at the craft-service table." Unless it's a great part. All in all if it's a great part you'll do it and I'll say, "Well, I'm gonna be on the set for three days."

Fred Willard

coffee party drinking

I did Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman. It was a sequence where the president got captured and they made a doppelgänger of the president who was kind of goofy. They were Second City people who were the producers and writers, and they told my agent, "Well, we know Fred can do the kind of goofy, but we're not sure he can do be the straight president, kind of the Clinton-esque." So I really got my back up and I called my agent and I said, "Goddammit, I insist that I go in and read." And I did a great job and I got the part.

Fred Willard

president adventure people

I like to know who I'm going to be working with, so that I can think about them.

Fred Willard

thinking

Cleveland is my hometown, and the Indians have a narrow but rich history.

Fred Willard

cleveland hometown rich

Suddenly you're like a pirate, you're 65 years old and you've got an earring.

Fred Willard

earrings pirate years

I don't know why my lines that were cut from the film didn't make it onto the DVD. I have offered to go into the editing room with Christopher and work shoulder to shoulder with him to fit all my lines in. I think he thinks I'm kidding. I'm only trying to help.

Fred Willard

cutting work thinking

Someone I've always admired is Catherine O'Hara... I think she's one of the best actresses in the country, not only comedy. I just think she's just a step aside from everybody, she's just wonderful.

Fred Willard

actresses country thinking

I just admire everybody and sit in awe and watch them.

Fred Willard

admire fear watches

My stepfather was a military man: he was in the Air Force. Reserve. You thought he'd seen front-line action, but he was stationed in Cleveland.

Fred Willard

thought you man action

The witch in 'Snow White' is a very scary image.

Fred Willard

image scary white snow

When we need a policeman, God bless 'em, they're there. But, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, everything seems suspicious.

Fred Willard

place you god time

I never think I'm old enough to play someone's dad, even though I have a daughter of my own and a grandson.

Fred Willard

think my-own dad daughter

I still think 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' was what they call one of those watershed movies. That and 'The Exorcist' and 'Psycho' were just landmarks for those horror films.

Fred Willard

movies think psycho horror

Some of the Christopher Guest movies, when I'm not really like myself, when I have my hair dyed blonde or had a faux-hawk haircut. Those I like to watch because it takes you away from your real self.

Fred Willard

myself you self hair

It scared me to death to think about improv, but I got hired for a year at Second City in Chicago, which made me nervous, but I found I could improvise. Then I was in a group called the Ace Trucking Company, which we'd do, like, a half hour set of material, then open up for improvisation.

Fred Willard

city think me death

Looking back, I was a very good kid, very studious and all. But I would always come out with a quip - and I was sent to the principal's office several times.

Fred Willard

looking good looking-back principal

I saw the 'Wizard of Oz' recently and realized that, all my life, I thought they were real monkeys with wings. That's how scary that movie was for me.

Fred Willard

my-life me wings life