Sitting Down With The Cast of FXX’s ‘The League’ – Part One

So when you’re shooting, Jeff and Jackie just told us that they give you a detailed outline. How long does it take to film a scene?

Mark Duplass: Good Question. So you got a two person scene at a bar, that is going to be shot somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes. That’s gonna fly, you got three cameras on it and you just have to nail it once and that is your only coverage for that scene. A five person scene at the bar where you are looking at one table from across the room, that’s more like a 3 to 4 hour thing and harder to sort of explore the two person scene. The two person scene you just fucking rip and rip and rip and put it together and post. On the other scenes, we have to be a little bit more put together and organized and keep the clamp down on the crazy improv.

You are an extremely busy guy, how do you schedule your own movies around this show?

MD: Yeah its getting increasingly more complicated, but we have a few hiatus weeks on the show, which is why we are here right now, because they have to finish editing episodes while we’re airing. But yeah, the balance between producing things and acting and writing and directing things, it sounds like a megalomaniac. But I’ve always come up in the indie world where you just do everything yourself, that is kind of how I was trained and so I still have that mentality. So it calls for a packed schedule but I like it that way.

Loose a lot of sleep?

MD: No, actually you know what’s funny? I loose a lot of friends. I got a good marriage and I’m really close with my kids and I work hard and I sleep 8 hours a night so I can be functional, but my social life is completely gone. Hopefully it will come back one day.

How is your actual fantasy team doing, The Leagues’ league?

MD: Really fucking good man, I’m 4-1 and tied with Jon Lajoie for first place of all people. Which is amazing.

Are we going to see Pete’s cop car at all?

MD: I love that car so much. The truth is that I don’t know. They don’t tell us anything. We get the episodes a few days before we shoot, because I think they don’t trust us. They think we will talk about it too much and I think they are right not to trust us. I would like too though.

How is the improv different from your movies to the show?

MD: The improv that I do in my movies is completely different then what we do on the show. The League is like joke hunting, you know its trying to quickly as possible to get to a joke. Where in my movies its slower, 5 to 6 minute scenes.

Almost avoiding the joke.

MD: Yeah, that being said, I have learned a lot from Jeff, just about efficiency and watching what he does. The pace on The League is just like so frenetic. So I have learned a lot about when and how to pace things up from him.

Who is the improv king on the show?

MD: Paul Scheer in my opinion has the most limitless and the most endless possibilities where he goes, and he is so fucking dialed into his character and how to do it, and the key is that when people are throwing the verbal assaults at him, he knows how to take them and he knows how to juggle them around and throw it back up so it invites more. It’s a very particular skill set, and he is just incredible.

How often does a scene get messed up?

MD: A lot, Nick has a real problem of breaking.

He is the person I would least expect to break.

MD: Nick breaks. Nick breaks more than anybody. Paul doesn’t break, I don’t break very much. Jon breaks a lot, but um Nick is the real boner killer to breaking.

So working with your wife, that just like a bonus to an already awesome job?

MD: Yeah, its a great thing for me. I like it because we get to spend more time together, so it just means that we get to see each other more. Well, I gotta get out of here, thank you.

No, thank you, it was nice meeting you.

Steve Rannazzisi was next.

Pages: 1 2 3