I really love 'Fleabag.' I've been harassing my agents, like, 'Can you please get me a meeting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge?' I just want to talk to her.
— Zach Woods
I think a challenge with every sitcom is, how do you maintain things that people are attached to without becoming so reiterative that it just feels like you're sort of watching a reenactment of previous episodes?
It's always fun to improvise.
I remember seeing the first LEGO movie, almost skeptically. People were like, 'You should really see it!' And I was like, 'A LEGO movie?' And then, I was like, 'This is really good!'
If you don't allow your aggression or negative feelings to be expressed in your waking life, then it migrates into your subconscious.
You can't be a professional rejector of opportunities.
For the first actual comedy-comedy I did, I took a comedy class in New York, which was full of slightly unhinged people. It was a pretty depressing crowd, very angry and strange people. But then I took a class at the Upright Citizens Brigade, and I loved those people.
I think in movies, in television, and in advice columns, often there's this idea that what people are really attracted to is confidence. And I think people, especially young men, sometimes misinterpret that to mean being brash, or trying to be an alpha.
If you talk in a way that is too dissimilar to the character, when people are showing up to see you talk about the show, often it seems like it's jarring to them.
By the end of high school, I would do shows at the theater at night and then take the train home and go to school the next morning.
Sometimes you read pilots and, understandably, they're doing such a frantic tap dance for approval. I get why - it's such an incredibly competitive market.
If I'm doing comedy, I try to improvise a lot. Even if they don't use it, it helps me loosen up and figure out the character.
It's funny; I think I'm at a level of recognizability - is that even a word? - where it's just really nice. I think when people are really famous, it can be hard for them because they feel like it's an invasion. But for me, it's just a few times every day when someone will say something sweet and validating, and it's just the best.
Just the number of people - 'Silicon Valley''s a relatively small, core cast, whereas 'The Office' was enormous. Also, I feel more of a sense of ownership of 'Silicon Valley' because I've been there from the get-go.
I think I gravitate towards characters who are slight outsiders.
The parts of people that are the most lovable is usually the thing they're least willing to share: the tender, vulnerable side of people that's endearing and magnetic and lovable - that's the part they hide.
I kind of feel like the job of actors and writers and people who make television and movies is to keep people company. In whatever modest way I'm able to accomplish that, I want to.
I can be such a Little Lord Fauntleroy about what I even audition for.
When I was a kid, my father would read Neil Simon plays with me, when I was going to bed, as bedtime stories.
I would like to play romantic parts.
I'm a very anxious person, and it's hard for me to be in the moment. Improv demands that you be in the moment.
When I was a kid, I wanted desperately to be a jazz musician. I would practice the trumpet for hours, but when I got braces, that messed up my ability to play, so all of a sudden I had all this free time.
Sometimes you'll see people give performances in comedy with an ironic detachment where they'll sort of be remarking on the character from outside of it. They're sort of commenting as they're playing the character. I think it's hard not to do that. I've certainly done that.
Your body - or my body - is just kind of stupid. Like, your body doesn't know whether you're acting something because it's happening or whether you're acting it because it's in the script.
'The Office' was such a great first job.
Yeah, I played with LEGOs. We had LEGOs, Lincoln Logs, and Playmobil, and they all occupied the same space. I guess that's fairly common. I'm saying this as if it's a bizarre phenomenon that we had a toy chest.
I always think it's hilarious when the stand-ins come in for 'Silicon Valley,' because it's a complete inversion of the attractiveness quotient that is supposed to exist.
I don't like comedy that makes me feel worse about the world than I already felt before I turned it on.
This is going to sound pretentious, but I like comedy that addresses something I find either worrisome or interesting in my life.
I don't know anything about tech, but I do know something about slightly socially crippled and overly cerebral guys.
I don't think anyone is hiring me because I look like Chris Hemsworth.
When improv is bad, it's excruciating to watch, and to be involved with it is a unique type of torture.
I've played a lot of characters who are creeps or weirdos, with a deep darkness underneath the surface.
I think that if you're improvising on TV, it's a great way to help the dialogue between actors and writers.
