On KCRW's "The Business":
http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/the-business/how-will-forte-became-the-last-man-on-earth (about 21 min.)
He covers a lot of familiar territory (how the show was developed, casting Carol and Melissa, etc.), but I was particularly interested in his observations about language restrictions and broadcast-network standards during the first half.
"I know I'm not normal -- but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding
Oh, and I thought this was a good article (to coincide with the show's premiere on UKTV's Dave):
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/aug/01/last-man-on-earth-will-forte
Former Saturday Night Live colleague Seth Meyers recalls Forte as being such a perfectionist that he’d “spend an hour talking about where a comma is. I loved working with him. I did not like writing with him.” Last Man On Earth marks Forte’s graduation to the all-powerful position of showrunner.
How does someone so fastidious balance the demands of churning out a series? “I had no idea how much work it was,” he admits. “For a year, I did nothing but this show. It was seven days a week, all day. I took a half-day off at Christmas. New Year was working till 11:50, going to my next-door neighbour’s house, coming back at 12:10 and writing a whole lot more. At a certain point, you can’t keep that same strict watch over everything. You have to let some stuff go. But I’m for sure an over-thinker.”
It's a very merry and manic post-apocalypse during a first Christmas for Fox's 'Last Man on Earth'
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-85234587/
Not really an interview, but has comments from Will and others.
"I know I'm not normal -- but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/14/last-man-earth-will-forte-midseason-finale-jason-sudeikis-boris-kodjoe
On killing Phil 2:
How long have you known that this was going to happen? And did you guys discuss all sorts of different ways for him to die?
Our original plans were that this character was only going to live for a couple of episodes, and we loved Boris so much and the dynamic between the two Phil Millers that we extended that. We’d had this plan for a long time because we wanted to put them in a very real situation that could happen and you’d go, “What the hell would you do in that situation?” It’s as real as it gets, and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t shy away from those situations...
We do a lot of fun, whimsical things on the show that are a little extraordinary and fantasy world-type stuff, but this was something that we felt like we had to play it real. There was essentially no turning back because we had been working toward this for a long time and setting up all the stories to head to this. I had it in my head for a long time that this would have been the perfect way to end the first half of the season.
Erica (Cleopatra Coleman) pushed Phil away, but then they were starting to reconcile. How will she handle this?
The best way to say it is that she’s devastated, and she’s the one who seems to be handling it the best. Everyone else is kind of just — weird stuff starts happening as a result.
How will this affect Gail? She reluctantly did that surgery, and I’m imagining she’ll be pretty traumatized. And she’ll be be needed to deliver a baby soon, right?
Well, obviously something this devastating affects everyone. Every single person is dealing with it in their own way, and it really shifts the group dynamic in different ways. Secret ways.
Secret ways?
There might be some secrets.
The last man in space, Phil’s brother, Mike, is in jeopardy. You’ve talked before about a potential reunion between the brothers. What remote chance is there that he’s going to land on Earth anywhere near Tandy?
[deadpan] Yeah, it’s just too bad — two deaths in one episode is a real bummer. Who knows? I don’t know. I don’t know how this show goes. I’m watching this at the same time. They haven’t let me know what’s going on… No, I know what happens. We’ll see what happens. They make spacecraft pretty strong these days...
If he did somehow miraculously survive this, would his journey likely back to Tucson give him — and us — the chance to encounter a few other survivors?
It’s a one-in-a-million chance that he’s even going to make it to Earth. In the event that he does, it probably would take him a while to find us, and who knows what he might encounter?
When we return in the spring, do we pick up immediately where we left off, or will there be a time jump?
We are picking up… [long pause] where we left off. And we are picking up in a way… [another long pause] that is going to be a little different.
Different how?
Sorry. As we get closer, we have to show clips of the show, so it’ll make more sense as time goes. But I think for the time being, I would just like to say: We have a very fun show that is completely different for the first one back in the spring...
The first episode back is unlike anything the viewers have seen, but it’s like the viewers have seen at the same time…. It’s not in the first episode back, [but] in the same way that we knew about this Phil situation, there is one other thing that I have been so excited about, and it is going to be the dumbest-looking thing you have ever seen.
So does that pretty much put to bed the "Phil2 will survive" theory??
To me it seems like Boris the actor is done with the show and that he stayed on much longer than the initial 3 or so episodes he was going to do.
So does that pretty much put to bed the "Phil2 will survive" theory??
To me it seems like Boris the actor is done with the show and that he stayed on much longer than the initial 3 or so episodes he was going to do.
Wow, that interview was extremely informative! I loved that bit where Will Forte shut up when the interviewer started suggesting that maybe Mike could land outside of the USA and pick up fellow survivors from other countries. It'd really add to the 'Comedy Version of Lost' aspect of the show.
On a related note, RIP Phil Miller 2. You had a good arc.
I loved that bit where Will Forte shut up when the interviewer started suggesting that maybe Mike could land outside of the USA and pick up fellow survivors from other countries.
On a related note, RIP Phil Miller 2. You had a good arc.
I'm glad it worked out the way it did -- he didn't turn out to be the psycho/dictator that many assumed he would be when he exiled Phil 1 from Tucson at the end of season 1, but this season he got to show some real, recognizably human flaws ... and then redeem himself a bit ....
1) Phil 2 gets fatally injured during one of his projects (from a shock, a fall, a truck crash, etc.)
2) Phil 1 and Todd had plotted to kill him, but Todd backs out upon hearing Phil 1's plan (leave him in the desert, just as he'd done to Todd earlier)
3) After Todd leaves, Phil 1 sees Phil 2 has had a bad accident
4) Phil 1 has a change of heart about killing Phil 2 and tries to save him, to no avail
5) Todd and the ladies see Phil 1 with Phil 2's body
6) Phil 1 tries to explain what happened, but nobody believes him because of all the lying he'd done before
7) ???
8) Profit!
Will Forte, Karaoke God
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/fashion/mens-style/will-forte-karaoke-last-man-on-earth.html?_r=0
“I’ve been here before,” said Will Forte, 45, the star and co-creator of “The Last Man on Earth,” a postapocalyptic half-hour comedy on Fox. “My karaoke partner is always Jason Sudeikis, and we come here, to this very room. I can still smell him.”
The two friends, former “Saturday Night Live” cast members, play brothers on Mr. Forte’s show, which is now in its second season and returns Sunday, after a 12-week break. “Basically, the last year of my life has been waking up, going straight into work and then going home to bed,” Mr. Forte said.
Also present was David Noel, a writer on “The Last Man on Earth.” Mr. Noel’s fiancée, the model, actress and singer Alanna Vicente, stopped by with 10 cold cans of Asahi beer.
The reporter asked him if he felt 45.
“Mentally, I don’t,” Mr. Forte said. “Physically, I definitely feel more aches and pains than I used to. My bedroom is on the second story of the house, and it’s harder and harder to walk down those stairs. A lot of times I’ll walk down backward.”
Mr. Forte has spoken publicly of his obsessive-compulsive-like tendencies.
“It depends on how tired I am,” he said. “I still check the showers and stuff like that. For me, it used to be mainly about checking the sinks, in weird patterns, and the stove. I’ve gotten better about that.”
Ms. Vicente said she has known Mr. Forte for eight years. She described him as a sweetheart, but complicated.
“I’m this weird mixture of confident and superfragile,” Mr. Forte said.
During Mr. Forte’s freshman year of high school, he was class president. In senior year, his class voted him Best Personality. The only time he got in any real trouble came when he served as the unwitting getaway driver for friends of friends who had squirted ketchup all over a Jack in the Box.
“I am not into that,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Somebody’s going to have to clean this up.’ It bummed me out.”
Someone noted his license plate number as he drove off. When he got home, the police were waiting. They took him to the station for questioning.
“I said I didn’t know who was in my car,” Mr. Forte said. “And it was kind of the truth. I didn’t know those people’s names, so it was very easy to say, ‘I don’t know them.’ And he’s like, ‘They were in the back of your car!’ They spent all night trying. My mom was there, saying, ‘Just tell them the names of these people.’ And I never said anything.”
Last Man on Earth: Will Forte Dissects the Winter Premiere's Big Surprises
http://tvline.com/2016/03/06/the-last-man-on-earth-recap-season-2-episode-11-winter-premiere/
A couple highlights:
TVLINE | The episode also gave us some insight into the apocalypse itself.
WF: There are a couple questions that we always wanted to deal with like, where are all the bodies? That was something we really wanted to get to in the very first [episode] of Season 1. But as we were doing the writing of the episode, I think Fox was not too excited about showing a dead body in a comedy. I understood that, because, like, you’re making this first impression.
TVLINE | How did you keep Mark [Boone Junior]’s casting under wraps?
WF: I don’t know. We’ve gotten pretty good at keeping secrets. Fox and 20th Century have been very patient with us, because a lot of times there will be things that could probably help us on the promotional side, but we love keeping secrets. I think that’s one of the things people like about the show. Like when Will Ferrell came in, we were able to keep that under wraps. [But] I’m sure if [it leaked] that Will Ferrell was going to be on the show, a lot more people would’ve watched.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/07/last-man-earth-postmortem-will-forte-pitch-black-sudeikis
Lots of good stuff here...
How did you settle on Jacob [Tremblay]? Had he seen the show?
We knew that there was going to be a young Tandy character in this episode. We didn’t know how we were going to cast it, and then I saw the movie Room. When they had gotten this list of potential people and he was on the list, I was like, “Oh my God! He would do it???” And we lucked out because his parents watched the show, so they were okay with him being involved and using the word “fartface” and “turd.” I did feel a little guilty because he is the nicest kid. But then again, I didn’t feel that guilty because when I was a kid that age, that would have been the biggest treat in the world, like, “Mom, I have to say this word. It is my job to say this word.” So we gave him a hall pass for some foul language. I don’t think it’s anything that’s going to scar him for life.
Mark Boone Junior guest-stars as Pat, who thought he was the last man on Earth. In terms of that casting, did you start at the facial hair and go from there?
It was not a facial hair decision. I had gotten to work with Boone on this movie called Life of Crime, which was an Elmore Leonard book, and he just seemed like the ideal person to play that character. I just enjoy him as a person and an actor, so it was a no-brainer.
Did you set out to echo the pilot with this episode by focusing on Mike’s solitary-at-first journey?
The reason we did this show in the first place was because we found it so fascinating — the idea of a person thinking they’re alone in the world... Once there are a bunch of characters introduced, there’s no going back. We really loved that emptiness of the pilot and we’re always thinking that there’s a way to get a crack at doing some of the emptier stuff... So this seemed like a good opportunity to go back and experience somebody else’s initiation into the world. And Mike has a totally different set of experiences than any of the characters, and we thought it would be a great way to get to know the Mike character in case he were to ever to find the group in Malibu. But the chances of that are super slim. It’d be crazy… But there’s always a chance. He’s a smart dude. He’s an astronaut...
Ultimately it’s just a totally different version of the show, but at the same time it’s very much the tone of the show because the setting of isolation, the same brand of humor, but just coming from a different person. It was very easy to give over the reins to Jason because this is a guy who’s one of the funniest people on the planet. And I think over the coming years, people will really, really get to see that he is what I’ve known all along, but he’s just a really gifted dramatic actor. It’s fun because he has to do a little bit of all that stuff in this episode… And it was so fun to get to address some of the things that we always wanted to address. In the pilot [script], there was a dead person that I stumble upon in the house that I move into. And in talking with Fox about it, it was decided that maybe we don’t show a dead person in the pilot... [W]e were never planning on hitting it very hard. But we got a chance to explore that here, which we were always intending to do, but were just waiting for the right time.
What challenges lie ahead for Tandy?
Whether Phil [2] makes it or not, he’s a vital part of this group, and he is the one person who really gets stuff done. So to have him incapacitated — or [if it is] just the ultimate incapacitation — that would just really put a major stress on the entire group to fill that void, both from a survival standpoint and an emotional standpoint.... Obviously all of our survivors have seen every person in the world die, but this ... is the first time we’ll see them deal with it — if that were to happen.
Finally, can you give us a hint about why you have that crazy half-shaved hairdo and beard?
There is a very organic set of circumstances that leads to this hairdo... I don’t want to give any part of it away. In fact, I wanted to not go to the awards show and the TCAs, [but when] I had to go to those, we just said, “Aw, screw it, I might as well just suck it up and do it.” But for awhile, it was like, “Oh, do I cover half my face in a sheet?” After that, it was like, “Okay, whatever. I’ve already went out. The cat’s out of the bag.” So I’ve just lived as normal a human existence as you can have while only having half the hair on your body.
http://www.tvinsider.com/article/76996/will-forte-last-man-on-earth-midseason-premiere/
Why did you decide to come back with a story solely devoted to Mike Miller?
...Back in the early days, we didn't know what the public's appetite would be for just seeing some dude fumfer around, so we took our best guess and introduced more characters... So by the time we came back to the first episode of Season 2—that was when we figured out a way to get Carol (Kristen Schaal) and Tandy out on their own—we could explore that world a little bit more. Obviously, this was another chance for us to do that with Mike's character. It's a similar backdrop, but it's his own different set of experiences. So we just thought it would be interesting to see how Mike would deal with it. And we threw a little wrench in there with the Pat character.
Could Pat make a return appearance in the future?
You never know!
One of Mike's first questions to Pat—and a question that some fans of the show had after the pilot episode—was about where all the dead bodies were in the world. Why did you decide to finally address that issue?
...[W]e would hear that from people and we always wanted to deal with that, so this was a time when we finally felt would be appropriate to do it. I think it would be weird if the rest of our characters stumbled upon somebody. There were different places where we thought we could address that, but this felt like the best way and it's such an eerie moment when you see all the body bags. It all seems like it makes total sense now.
Mike is now on his way from Miami to Tucson. What will his journey be like?
We are building to something we're really excited about. Hopefully people stay along for the ride because there is some really fun stuff in our future and we could not be more excited about the last couple of episodes that we've been putting together.
Next week we catch up with Tandy and the rest of the group in Malibu. What can we expect from Tandy and the others?
Tandy is always trying to be a better person, but he's a dipstick. He's always got a well-meaning approach, but his execution is a little lacking. What I can say is there are going to be a lot of major issues dealt with in this next batch of episodes. There are some big, big life moments—some positive, some negative—that are addressed... [B]ut just having Jason Sudeikis a part of this thing has been very exciting and I as an audience member would love for him to find the people in Malibu. Whether he does, that's not something I can comment on. I wish I knew, but I don't know. OK, I do know. [Laughs]
Forte talks eyebrows, earthquakes, and tonight's episode ("Valhalla"):
http://zap2it.com/2016/03/last-man-on-earth-will-forte-pretty-terrified-earthquakes/
Some people who shave their eyebrows have found themselves without eyebrows for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, I was warned going into it by the people who know. The hair and makeup department said, “Don’t do the eyebrow. Keep the eyebrow.” But I sent a picture to my family and my dad said, “You gotta do the eyebrow!” And I was like … dad’s right! Dad’s friggin’ right!
Turning our attention to Sunday’s episode, since we previously saw Jason Sudeikis’ storyline and the current one playing out with Tandy’s grief over Phil’s death, is it safe to say there are some brother issues that both Tandy and Mike need to work out?
Well [Tandy] had such a weird relationship with Phil. There are a lot of shortcomings with Tandy and he seems like he reaches out and grasps at solutions to his problems before fully thinking everything out. Certainly there are some unresolved issues there. He thinks his brother is dead.
I guess it would be hard for anybody in this scenario who’s seen the whole world die around them but, you’d say that most likely, a lot of people have complete clarity on their family’s death status. For Tandy, he had to basically assume. That must be hard for anybody to deal with. Hopefully, they have a chance to get together and work out some issues.
Creator and star Will Forte discusses the Fox comedy’s latest surprise move:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/did-last-man-earth-kill-874341
Turns out you can blame Mary Steenburgen’s acting chops for Phil 2’s death. “Mary Steenburgen is one of the greatest actresses on the planet and we had hideously underused her,” says Forte, “so we came up with this fun plan to have Gail start doing little medical procedures a bit at a time to where she’s the person with no medical experience but somehow the most medical experience so that she has to deal with [the appendicitis]. We went into this season know[ing] this was all going to happen.”
But decisions like this one don’t come easily. “Every step of the way is hard,” acknowledges Forte. “Very rarely does something just lay itself out because there are so many characters who you want to deal with. You want to service every character you have in every episode and it’s just not realistic. Some castmembers have to have a lighter show every once in a while.” And in Kodjoe's case, no more shows at all. Adds Forte of his departure: “It was very hard because he was part of the family.”
Will & Jason talk about Tandy's new 'do:
https://youtu.be/vk34FcJLnPs?list=PLXd9aCB0yKuhYdyUN30l3MTH2DxYJnngw (1:15)
"I know I'm not normal -- but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding
Boom!
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.
Will comments on Mike and Phil/Tandy's rivalry and what to expect:
http://www.tvguide.com/news/the-last-man-on-earth-phil-mike-will-forte/
"We'll get to the bottom of that in the coming [episodes]," creator Will Forte tells TVGuide.com of Phil (Forte) and Mike's (Jason Sudeikis) rivalry.
According to Forte, the brothers' bad blood is (mostly) one-sided, despite Mike shaving half of Phil's facial and body hair. "I think obviously Phil has a tendency to hold on to things and get a little too aggressive with things. So I think that Mike in his lifetime has had to deal with some overreactions on Phil's part, so he's probably used to it. He's a very patient person."
But not everything will be cruel pranks and groin-punch hellos between the pair. "He is my brother, and there are a lot of fun things to do if we are angry at each other, and there are also a lot of fun things to do if we are not angry at each other," Forte teases.
(Personally, I'm still just hoping they sing something together at some point -- one of the upcoming episodes is called "Falling Slowly," so I wonder if they'll get to do that song from Once...)