Yeah! I was just telling her! I hadn’t even met her yet in Dazed. I’m leaning against the wall outside the pool hall, right? The scene where I had the great line written: ‘That’s what I love about high school girls, they stay the same age.’
Right before that, Parker and a couple girlfriends walk out and they’re playing the drums and stuff, and she walks past me, leaning against the wall, then comes back with her right hand and gives me a reverse reacharound on my right ass cheek and pinches it, and I scoot in and she goes ‘Woo-OO!’ [Laughing] That was my hello to Parker. I reminded her of that today.
I’ve seen the approach when you reach out, but never the reverse reacharound, grab the old ass. She’s great.
Isn’t it cool? She’s been a one-of-one for a long time, and then boom. She gets in something that hits: White Lotus.
She was like, ‘You know what? And it feels right on time.’ I was like, ‘Badass.’
Your Uber Eats character was developed last year for the 2025 Super Bowl. What appeals to you about him?
They created the character of the conspiracy theorist guy who’s got it all figured out, and came to me for that.
I like playing characters that have an idiosyncrasy, or a specific detail that they latch onto, and think the world revolves around that. Someone who is consistent while the world’s changing, and the world’s going, ‘Don’t you see? It’s not making sense!’
That’s a delusional optimist.
Do these ads scratch a different itch for you than filmmaking?
I’ve been doing a lot of dramas. I hadn’t found any comedies to do. So I look at something like Uber Eats or some of the Salesforce ads I’m doing. I’m going, ‘Oh, great time for comedy.’ I can scratch that itch. And maybe somebody watches it and goes, ‘Oh, I forgot McConaughey’s funny!’
I look at them as little vacations.
Are there any other creative itches you scratched with this Uber Eats ad?
This is a big commercial, we’re doing a three-day shoot.
With Uber Eats, I’ve already got a shorthand with them. And for these scenes to work, especially in the comedy, [snapping his fingers] it’s rhythm, and it’s timing, and it’s punch.
You hear on set: ‘Can we do this faster?’ Because they’re already timing out the 60 seconds.
It does need a clip, because each scene’s gotta be beginning, middle, end. It’s gotta bop-bop-PUNCH. And it’s gotta HA. And so there’s a rhythm to the timing.
How’s that different from filmmaking?
In a two-hour film, you’ve got 35, 40 minutes of a first act, just let me introduce you to who I am.
And the scene doesn’t have to be about ‘What’s the conflict?’ We don’t have to be interrupted, which happens in act two of every story, right? We caught ‘em in their everyday life, before the conflict happens.
In this Uber ad we’re shooting, my act one’s already set up, Bradley’s act one’s already set up, and now we’re gonna collide.
