Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes to Showcase on Thursday, September 23 at 10pm ET/PT (and again on Saturday, September 25 at 10pm ET/PT).
Since you had to play rock star Aldous Snow vacationing on a Hawaiian island in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, did you have to do any research or training for the role? Would you call yourself more of a Method actor?
Very method -- methodical. What I did was I heard that Daniel-Day Lewis went and lived as a cobbler for three months in Italy so I got a job as a plumber in Havana. It went well for a while. I infiltrated Fidel Castro's secret network of spies. I'm still working for him now so unless you lot start being a bit more communist, there's gonna be some gunfire. Let me tell you.
Did you hang out with any rock stars to get some inspiration in playing Aldous?
I do hang out with some rock stars just because they're my friends. Noel Gallagher (Oasis), he's one. I've hung out with Pete Doherty (The Libertines) a bit. Amy Winehouse, she's my mate. She's more blues, I suppose. Carl Barat, he's a mate of mine, and contributes to the soundtrack. So, I count some rock stars among my friends. Noel Gallagher, especially, is a mate of mine. And from him I learned this kind of inherent nonchalance that rock stars have. Like, I go to him -- I was so troubled by this nonchalance I took to inquiring as to why it was going on. 'Why are you so nonchalant?' Then followed a brief time where I explained the word nonchalant. No, really, Noel Gallagher's a brilliant man and poet, but I did have to explain that word. And then he said, 'It's 'cause I know that anywhere I go, no matter what happens to me, no matter what people say, as long as I've got the guitar and the ability to play, people will pay ten quids to come and see me.' So I thought, 'Oh, that's good.' So, all this person knows is that people will pay money -- that he's got his gift. Whereas a comedian, or whatever, you tend to be more neurotic about stuff like that.
What group or singer do you wish would do a comeback tour?
The Smiths.
With Morrissey back in the lead?
Morrissey, yeah, and Johnny Marr. Everybody. But mostly Morrissey and Marr.
Do you have a favorite concert that you saw as a fan that you will always remember?
Morrissey! Without a doubt, Morrissey. I remember that I drank a lot of alcohol at the show, and I took too much heroin, and it made me feel a bit ill. But Morrissey was still brilliant.
Did you have a lot of childhood rock star fantasies? And when you were onstage filming Get Him To The Greek, your follow-up to Sarah, did it feel like you were fulfilling a lot of them?
It did. You know, it did. Say sometimes you gotta do a kissing scene with a good-looking woman. What I do is I go, 'I'll just go kiss her and like not even act. And there's free kissing with a woman.' So with the rock star I thought, just be a rock star now and it's not like anyone can go, 'Cut! Who the hell do you think you are? That was embarrassing.' I've got to go with it, 'cause it's the film. So, I just completely released a lot of childhood fantasies and a good many of my other childhood fantasies have been rightly repressed, as they are dangerous. They involved a utopia in which there is no money and everyone is topless.
Is there going to be a sequel to your autobiography My Booky Wooky?
I've written it. 85,000 words. Finished it. It took ages. Rightly so. I mean, it's boring, really, and hard, and you have to do it on your own and all the typing... But I've written it. It's good.
And, what are you calling it?
My Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal.
Are you a little more responsible these days, as far as getting to places when you are supposed to be there?
No. I've outsourced responsibility to others. There's other people who are in charge of that. Danny makes sure no one can beat me up. Nick, my manager, makes sure I get places on time. Tom, my assistant, makes sure I do stuff. There's all sorts of people that do stuff. That's one of the best things about having some money is a lot of things I didn't like doing, I don't have to do them anymore.
What do you think about marital fidelity? Are you ready for that?
Yes. You have to be. That's one of the things about this institution of marriage. I've recently had this explained to me by my wife. You must be faithful. And I don't have a problem with that. I'm really, really in love.
It’s not hard, then?
Well, I mean... You know, it's sort of odd isn't it, because there is certainly a compromise. You just can't maraud through life fucking whomever you'd like. Which is a shame 'cause I wish I actually could do that. That's the compromise.
What do you think about being named Maxim’s hottest man alive?
Well, on one level, it's superficial and meaningless. But, in another way, it makes me feel -- it flatters my male ego 'cause I think, 'Oh, I've attained this, so I must have value, as a person.' On another level, I recognize it's meaningless. So, it depends on the mood I'm in. At the moment I feel real puffed up.
It must be quite an honor to be doing the remake of Dudley Moore's Arthur.
It's fantastic. I've really am looking forward to playing Arthur. I'm excited about it because I love Dudley Moore. My dad's from the same place as him, Dagenham. I'm from about ten miles away from there, Grays... We're all from the same place. And Helen Mirren is playing the John Gielgud role -- Oscar-winning actress, Helen Mirren, is playing the John Gielgud role as a nanny 'cause remember, I'm much more a person that tends towards feminine things. I like women and that. So, I'm easier around women. Not that I dislike men. They’re a wonderful bunch. But women, I prefer. I think it's these reasons: boobs and vaginas. So, Helen Mirren and the love interest -- that role will be reprised by Liza Minnelli. She will be revisiting the role and I am going to have an onset romance with that woman. I'm gonna turn her spine to chalk. Actually, the role is being taken by the brilliant actress, Greta Gerwig, from the film Greenberg with Ben Stiller. She's a very, very wonderful actor and I'm thrilled to be working with her. She's excellent. She's an amazing actress.
Do you think the character of Aldous Snow will resurface again?
This character keeps resurfacing like a corpse abandoned in the Thames. We will never be free of it. Never. Unless we tie concrete to his ankles and abandon him in some deeper body of water. I think that perhaps he will return again and again. Perhaps it will be like the new James Bond or the new Sherlock Holmes, being constantly played.
50 or 60 movies with Aldous Snow in them?
Sixty movies.. That's a nice round number.. He'll be the new part to play in the 2000s.