Do people approach you expecting you to be funny all the time?
Not really. I’m a pretty low key person in real life, but most Office fans are really pretty great and friendly. I love to just say hi to folks. I really appreciate nice feedback. Occasionally, it’s funny, and I don’t find this annoying at all, I just find it funny. A lot of people will see me and go ‘hey Big Tuna’ and I’m obviously not Big Tuna. Jim is Big Tuna. People call me Big Tuna when they see me out in the streets. It’s funny because it’s not quite accurate.
This is my favorite story actually. I was at a bar in Brooklyn, NY. It was St. Patty’s Day. I was just hanging out with some friends. This little group of guys right behind me at the bar start chanting “Stamford, CT! Stamford, CT!” which was a cheer that I did in the Branch Closing episode. I turn around, I thought they were doing it because I was standing there. I turned around and said “Hey guys, that’s pretty cool” and they looked at me like I had grown a second head. They had no idea who I was. I turned back around and I was like “I don’t know if they know, I don’t know why they were chanting. They clearly didn’t recognize me.” My friend said, “Alright, I’m going to get to the bottom of this.” And he goes and asks them, “why are you chanting that?” And the one guy says, “Oh there’s this guy Ed Helms from The Office. During this one episode he started chanting it, and we’re from there so we just sort of started chanting it, co-opted it and we chant it now and then.” My friend said, “You know he’s sitting right behind you,” and they were like “Come on!” And they turned around and I was sitting right there. It was fun for me because it was a moment of Office fans expressing something, with no idea that I was there. I felt sort of privileged to happen to be sitting there for a moment.
(Source: forums.televisionwithoutpity.com)
HollywoodChicago.com: Sex is an underlying theme in Cedar Rapids, with the women actually directing that force more than the men. Do you think the approach of sexuality in a man like Tim Lippe is more prominent in American culture than a ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ stud?
Helms: I think a lot of men, myself included, fantasize about being the ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ stud. It’s an image we idealize, and it’s frustrating when we see women attracted to that. Because it’s like ‘what about me over here, I will…make you breakfast.’ [laughs] You’ve hit on something because it is all fantasy, there are very few people who pull that off for real. Reality is much more complicated than that, you really can’t engage in actions like that, our actions do have repercussions. If you are responsible person you can’t behave like that for very long without some sort of backlash, be it emotion or physical.
(via:crazycomplicated)
Did you ever get any worthless advice about women?
I did get an awful lot of terrible advice from the older kids on my street. This isn’t dating advice, but it will give you an idea of the kind of miseducation I had: I remember the older kids were talking about being hungover, and I said, “What’s a hangover?” This kid Josh turns to me and goes, “It’s when you wake up in the morning and you hang your dick over the back of a chair.”
Any other strange childhood misconceptions about sexuality?
I did for a time think that if you touched a woman’s boob, she’d become pregnant. That was terrifying.
Would it have to be skin on skin, or could pregnancy occur after brushing up against a breast in an elevator?
It had to be intentional- if you reached up and grabbed someone’s boob, she’d become pregnant. I think maybe it was just some really demented math equation in my head about the fact that boobs have something to do with sex and babies came from sex.
Musicians typically hate this question, but since you’re primarily an actor who isn’t normally interviewed about music, I’ll go ahead and ask it. Who are some of your favorite bands and musicians, bluegrass or otherwise?
It’s hard ot sum it all up, but I love some of the contemporary bluegrass bands like Crooked Still and this woman Sarah Jarosz. Going back, always Béla Fleck. He was formative for me. Bands like Zeppelin. I was just obsessed with Led Zeppelin forever. And Paul Simon. Simon & Garfunkel too. Cat Stevens was amazing. I’m sort of late to the table on bands like Arcade Fire, but I think they’re pretty fucking amazing. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen have such a dark romanticism going that I love. I saw Josh Ritter a few weeks ago and he was great. Back to the bluegrass area, Doc Watson and David Grisman. The Punch Brothers are epic. Those guys are some of the greatest musicians around in any genre. They also happen to have circled up as kind of an all-star band some of the greatest players around like Bryan Sutton, who’s an epic player in bluegrass, and Tony Rice, kind of a go to as one of the greatest guitar pickers around. Also this guy Danny Barnes, who was in a band called The Bad Livers, who were amazing. He has great solo work that’s fucking jaw dropping.
(Source: undertheradarmag.com)
“My grandmother was Frida Kahlo.”
“So you just have an upside down unibrow?”
(Source: foreverunclean)
Ed Helms interviewed by Ross Matthews on the red carpet for The Hangover Part II
Another interview with Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Zach Galifianakis
Funny interview with the Hangover guys.
The guys talking about The Hangover II.
PLAYBOY: You’re working on a screenplay for a film about Civil War reenactors, in which you hope to star. Have you ever taken part in a reenactment?
HELMS: I’ve attended a few but just as a spectator. The people involved are so passionate about the Civil War. Whenever somebody is truly passionate about something, no matter how silly or absurd it seems to everybody else, that’s admirable. Unless it’s a fascist dictator or something. In that case, passion is not as cool
PLAYBOY: You often invite your parents to visit you on the sets of your movies and TV shows. Have they ever seen something they shouldn’t?
HELMS: Oh sure. As I mentioned, pride and dignity are the enemies of comedy. And that’s not always something you want to share with your parents. Both my mom and dad have been phenomenally supportive over the years. Even when I think they’re embarrassed by something I’ve done, which is probably frequently, they’re respectful and gracious. They got upset with me only once. I did a segment on The Daily Show where I go to a brothel in Pahrump, Nevada . At one point I’m literally chasing a gaggle of prostitutes around a swimming pool while wearing a cowboy hat, a necktie and a Speedo. When my mom saw it she was like, “Maybe you went too far.” And she’s probably right, God bless her. I should listen to my mom more often.
PLAYBOY: You were in an a cappella group in college called the Oberlin Obertones. Were you contemplating a career in music?
HELMS: I never thought about singing professionally, but being in that group was very gratifying creatively. There’s a funny thing about a cappella: It’s so much fun to sing, but I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting to listen to. You do these shows and have a great time and think you’re killing it, but most of the people in the audience are probably there only because they know someone in the group. The entertainment value of a cappella is questionable.
PLAYBOY: Andy Bernard loves to brag about being a Cornell University alumnus. Last March his likeness and boisterous claim—“I went to Cornell…ever heard of it?”—were used to promote Cornell’s law school on its website. If you were a potential Cornell student, would Andy’s endorsement help or hurt?
HELMS: I think it’s great, because it shows that Cornell has a sense of humor about itself. It’s perfectly harmless. At the same time, there’s something a little ridiculous about an institution of higher learning celebrating a fictional character who is known for not living up to the standards of that university. For any thinking person, Andy’s endorsement should be absolutely meaningless.
PLAYBOY: On The Daily Show you played a correspondent named Ed Helms, who was kind of a douche bag. Did people always know the difference between the real Ed Helms and the satirical Ed Helms?
HELMS: I honestly don’t know. It’s such a weird medium, because you’re kind of defining yourself publicly as this person. But of course it’s a comedy and you hope the audience understands you’re being silly and ridiculous. I’m sure some people thought I was the incredibly smug prick I played on the show. Sometimes we rode the line, and there were some things I regret in hindsight
PLAYBOY: Can we assume the thing you regret is the Nutcam, the hidden scrotum camera you wore during a segment?
HELMS: Not at all. I’m very proud of the Nutcam. In fact, I’ll spoil the mystery. A good magician never shares his secrets, but nobody ever accused me of being a good magician. I wasn’t actually wearing that Speedo with the camera in it. We put two golf balls in the front of the swimsuit and hung it on the hood of the camera so the balls dangled in front of the lens, just at the top of the frame. And then we walked around with it at waist level. Sorry if I ruined it for you.
PLAYBOY: : What is Jon Stewart like as a boss?
HELMS: I think the best way to describe Jon is how I once described him in a segment on the show. He’s a mixture of Hitler and Willy Wonka. [laughs] I don’t even know what that means. In any environment in which everyone is putting out a lot of creativity, there will be tension at times, because not all of it works and you won’t always agree on what works. You have to throw a hundred darts at the board and maybe 10 of them will stick. Is that a good metaphor? I’m having second thoughts.
On being a stud with the ladies on film: “There was no sex on-screen—or off, for that matter—with Heather Graham. There was implied sex, and we did have a nice kiss, which I’m still dizzy from. But we didn’t actually have sex during the movie. Actually, I think Sigourney Weaver in Cedar Rapids was my first official sex scene. And if you don’t mind my saying so, I think it will go down as one of the great sex scenes in the history of cinema.”
On his fitness regime to prepare for nude scenes in Cedar Rapids: “I think it’s pretty clear there wasn’t much of a fitness regime at all. We shot it during November and December in Michigan, which is not a climate conducive to outdoor fitness activities. It’s conducive to holing up with hot chocolate and doughnuts in your hotel room.”
ED HELMS CEDAR RAPIDS INTERVIEW
