Sneak Attacks with Gustav: A Conversation with Keegan-Michael Key for the Home Entertainment Release of WHY HIM?
Keegan-Michael Key is an Award-winning actor best known for his role as co-creator and star of Comedy Central sketch series “Key and Peele.” The critically-acclaimed show came to a close in September 2015 after five hit seasons, and won the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Sketch Series.
Born in Southfield, Michigan and raised in Detroit, Key joined the cast of “MadTV” in 2004, auditioning alongside his future comic partner Jordan Peele. Key began a tenure that ran more than 100 episodes, and displayed the true range of his comic ability.
Since breaking through with “MadTV,” Key has appeared on the big screen in films such as Role Models, Due Date, Just Go With It, Wanderlust, and Horrible Bosses 2. He voiced Frank the Foreman in The Lego® Movie, and was also seen in Vacation and Tomorrowland: A World Beyond.
Earlier this year, Key played a lead role in Keanu alongside Peele, a film he also produced. He lent his vocal talents to The Angry Birds Movie and Storks. He was most recently seen in Mike Birbiglia’s improv dramedy Don’t Think Twice as Jack, a departure into more dramatic work that earned him rave reviews.
In Why Him? from director John Hamburg, Key plays Gustav, the eccentric estate manager of the luxury home owned by James Franco’s Laird. From the film’s set in Los Angeles, Key explains more.
Who is Gustav?
Gustav is what I think one would consider a Renaissance Man. He's German by birth, or so we think. He certainly has a German accent, but there are a couple of changes in there that you're like, "What is he, from South Africa? Where is this guy from?" Laird's character would say that Gustav is a king of all trades. It's like, how can you know about how to chiffonade food as well as conduct a choir as well as know two different types of Kung Fu, as well as hold your breath, free dive and build a hang glider out of garbage bags? It's like he just can do anything.
And he’s an expert in facial hair, too.
Oh, yeah, he's got this great, this brand-new hipster look. I have to, of course, give all the credit to my makeup artist who is really an amazing, artisan, and puts this hair on every single day, and you would never know. I mean, I can't tell you how many times people have asked me, "Is that real? Is that real?" I'm like, "Well, it's real hair. I just didn't grow it."
Are you inspired to try?
Oh, no. [laughs] I know quite a few people in my life who'd be a little perturbed if I was walking around with this look, but it gives me inspiration to dream about it, you know? But I can't even actually physically grow hair in this configuration. I’m not the most hirsute of men.
Gustav gets to be lots of different things, as you say. Is it fun to explore all his different sides?
That was a big part of why I wanted to do the piece, and we are having a great time getting to explore many different emotional facets of Gustav in the same day. There are even moments that we haven't shot yet, that we are going to explore very soon, where there's a softer side to Gustav. There's a more sensitive side to Gustav because he’s also Laird's spiritual guide and spiritual leader and his self-improvement person as well.
I think Gustav sees the entire estate - the entire compound - as an extension of Laird, so if we take care of the lawn, and take care of the animals, and take care of the house and the plaster and the concrete and the fireplace, that's also taking care of Laird. He's just decided he's at a place in his life now where it's time for him to dive into this other person and do everything he can. He sees the light in Laird and he just wants to take all the layers off so the light can really, really shine.
#WhyHim
Why Him? Film Page | Why Him? Review | Why Him? Bowling Experience
Why Him? is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday May 1, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
No Comment