|
Paging 30 Rock Season 4 with Jack McBrayer and Robert Carlock
by Troy Rogers
As the cast of 30 Rock kicks of the fourth season
of the popular NBC comedy on October 15, there's
no doubt that 30 Rock fans are glad NBC stuck
with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, and Jack
McBrayer back in 2006 to give 30 Rock a chance.
Since finding its network legs and a loyal audience,
30 Rock has gone on the become one of the most
popular comedies on all of television. With the
creative backing of Lorne Michaels of Saturday
Night Live, it's no wonder the cast of 30 Rock
clicked given the presence of former SNL stars
and new comedic faces like Jack McBrayer who plays
NBC page Kenneth Parcell inside the fictional
halls of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
With Jack McBrayer and the 30 Rock cast heading back to work on NBC Thursday, October 15, TheDeadbolt managed to snag a few minutes with McBrayer and 30 Rock executive producer/writer Robert Carlock to get the scoop on the upcoming storyline strike, the fear of dealing with page fiction in real life and whether we'll ever see Twilight Saga actor Robert Pattinson as a guest on 30 Rock as the many online Twilight rumors suggest.
THE DEADBOLT: Jack, in the upcoming episode, Kenneth leads a page strike. I just wanted to know, have you ever been involved in a strike yourself?
JACK MCBRAYER: Not on any sort of official level. Every now and then I get a little bee in my bonnet when I smell a perceived injustice and I will tell the powers that be until they stick a pacifier in my mouth and I go to sleep.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, is there any fear that in real life, if this ever happens, the pages over at Rockefeller would come to you?
 MCBRAYER:
Well, they'll be sorely disappointed. Try to
explain to them I am an actor and not a good
one at that.
THE DEADBOLT: Robert, during the Emmys a lot was written online about Robert Pattinson. Is there any talk of actually getting him on the show?
ROBERT CARLOCK: Boy, I don't think I've
even heard that rumor. I mean, that would certainly
drive teenage girl viewership, wouldn't it?
I don't think that one's even crossed my desk.
That'd be great. We'd love it. But we hear a
lot of rumors about people and I hadn't even
heard that one.
THE DEADBOLT: Speaking of guest stars, "Kidney Now" probably had the most.
CARLOCK: Yeah.
MCBRAYER: Yeah.
THE DEADBOLT: Are you guys looking to top that?
CARLOCK: Oh my, golly. I think after that we [approach] more cautionary tales. That was such a fun week. That was one of my favorite experiences in my time in television ...
 MCBRAYER:
That was nuts.
CARLOCK: ... it was so awesome. But I think topping that might be hard.
MCBRAYER: Yeah.
CARLOCK: We'll equal it someday.
THE DEADBOLT: A little bit of a logistical nightmare was it?
CARLOCK: Not even. Everyone was so great, it was just you're towards the end of the season and, "Are we really going to try to pull this off?" And the amazing thing was, so many people said yes and so many people just rolled in.
MCBRAYER: I didn't even have to work
that day and I showed up and put on my page
uniform just so I could get a [look]. I'm not
even lying ...
CARLOCK: So they'd recognize you.
MCBRAYER: So they'd recognize me.
Other 30 Rock Conference Call Highlights
Robert Carlock on his
chemistry with Tina Fey
 "Tina
and I have worked together for a long time,
we worked together for five years at Saturday
Night Live when she started doing - we were
writers together there when she started doing
Weekend Update. I was the producer of Update
for her first year there before leaving to go
try to get experience doing this kind of show.
And so it made a lot of sense for us to come
back together.
"Going into this project we knew that we shared a sensibility and we knew that we shared a work ethic which is a big part of getting this thing done every day week to week. And so we've been friends and kind of coconspirators and co-religionists in the temple of comedy at least for a long, long time. So stepping into doing this - that was one of the best things of it was knowing exactly what she can do ad having a shorthand already with her. So we've been doing it for, well, 12 years so."
Jack McBrayer on his
character's official web page and whether he'll
be active this season
"Well I don't know exactly what we're planning with our Internet content this year. I do know that I think they're trying to get maybe something with (grizzen).com. And maybe some little things with Jenna, Jane Krakowski's character, as well. But since we really and truly just started back with the shooting and stuff I don't even know if our, you know, producers have decided what they want to do yet."
McBrayer on Community
joining the Thursday night line-up
"I'm a big fan of it. I like it quite a bit. And also one of the actors on the show was one of our writers, Donald Glover, who plays Troy on Community. And so I'm just real happy. And honestly I'm just happy when NBC gets anything, you know, fun and enjoyable on there because, you know, TV is just a very tenuous area right now. So I'm like let's go with anything that might stick for a while."
Jack McBrayer on a character
he's relate to most and his favorite 30 Rock
episode
 "Well,
definitely 30 Rock I've enjoyed so many of the
episodes. I guess one - a couple that really
stick out in my mind is one - Kenneth has a
party at his apartment that everybody has to
get an invitation to. And we only saw three
seconds of the actual party. But it was just
so fun shooting that because it's so rare that
the entire cast gets together so that was fun.
And I think even in Season 1 I had to play a
poker game with Alec Baldwin's character and
that was fun but also very scary because I still
wasn't real familiar with Alec Baldwin as a
person so I was like very grateful that I had
to be nervous during that scene because I was.
"And then, yeah, I mean, I haven't even done too many other gigs but like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall I just loved being a newlywed at a Hawaiian resort so if you got anymore roles like that please feel free to pass those onto my people."
Robert Carlock on a 30
Rock character that's similar to his own personal
character
"I think the person I relate most to is Liz Lemon in a perverse way. But, you know, I think that's hard. These people are all such better people than I am. They're all so much happier."
|
