Perhaps the hardest I've laughed at anything this year was this past spring, when T.J. Miller, as SILICON VALLEY's startup guru Erlich Bachman, slapped an Adderall-slinging child while announcing he'd just "brought piss to a shit fight." It ain't exactly Noel Coward, but the shock of the violence combined with the insanely scatological twist on Sean Connery's "knife-to-a-gunfight" pronouncement from THE UNTOUCHABLES positively floored me.
It takes an unusual talent to pull off a scene like that while maintaining the audience's rooting interest, and T.J. Miller is about as unique a performer as exists in comedy today. He can exude a wake-and-bake calm one moment, and become an abrasive, invective-sputtering madman the next. It seems effortless for Miller. Though tall and somewhat gangly, he's completely comfortable in his own skin; as a stand-up comedian, he's loose, inventive and unafraid to change up his act on a whim. You could go see Miller two nights in a row, and not get the same set. Very few comedians have that kind of confidence in their material to be able to go off script for a potentially bigger laugh and, hopefully, find their way back.
Miller's also blessed with a rambunctious, instantly identifiable voice, which means he works in voiceover and animation about as much as he desires. Kids know him as Tuffnut, one-half of the quarrelsome Thorston twins from the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON series, and he's currently developing a new version of THE GORBURGER SHOW for HBO. He's so busy with voice work that he nearly turned down the opportunity to join the cast of DIsney's BIG HERO 6, which appears poised to become his second major animated franchise. Miller plays Fred, who hangs out with the big-brained geeks of the film's prestigious technical college; he's not actually a student, but he does serve as the school's mascot, and manages to keep everyone's spirits up without driving them too crazy.
I chatted with Miller at the film's Los Angeles press day, and we discussed how he got involved with the film, why he gets so much voiceover work and, briefly, why it's not exactly a good idea to bring piss to a shit fight.
Jeremy: How are you holding up?
T.J. Miller: It's a lot. It's a lot on my voice because I don't speak correctly. I speak a certain way that gets me work obviously, but it's mostly in my throat. And, you know, I've been known to smoke - herbal cigarettes only. But it's been great. It's so easy to talk about a movie you believe in. I've been lucky that I've been in a lot of great things, but sometimes you have to talk about these films and make them seem like they have more grandiose intentions or meaning or they're going to have more of an effect on the pubic than they are. So it's been easy in that respect. And I respect so much about Disney, and I respect so much about this movie. It's so different and innovative.
Jeremy: You get to come in at the cross-section of Disney and Marvel.
Miller: It's unbelievable.
Jeremy: So when did you become a part of this project, and how much did you know ahead of time?
Miller: You don't know a ton. You only know what's in your scenes. They give you a synopsis verbally; you see the scenes that you're in. I came into the process after a year of them doing it. it takes three years for them to make these things, so I think it was a third of the way into it. (Looks over to publicist) Right?
Publicist: Um… I don't know.
Miller: Right. But they'd been doing it for a while. My voiceover agent called me and said, "Disney's doing this thing called BIG HERO 6, and they want you to audition for it. Would you want to go on tape and go to a recording studio?" I was like, "No, I'm trying to do less stuff, so just tell them I can't do it." And they said, "You really should consider doing this. It's going to be a big deal." And I was like, "I'm on GRAVITY FALLS, the Disney television show. I'm doing plenty of voiceover." I think I thought it was TV show or a straight-to-DVD thing. And then he called back like, "This is going to be like a tentpole. It's their big movie after FROZEN." And I said, "Oh, alright. Send me the sides and I'll record them on my iPhone." And that's what I did, and I got the part. (Laughs)
Jeremy: It's nice to be in a position where you can say, "Tell Disney to leave me alone."
Miller: Right. "I've had to deal with DreamWorks for two movies!" But the other thing I couldn't know is… I can do a little bit for anybody in terms of the comedy. In FROZEN, I would be Olaf the snowman or the moose. In my mind, that's what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a classic Disney fairy tale. They'd been reinventing previous fairy tale properties, so I didn't get that they were going to let me come in and be myself with this character, which is crazy.
Jeremy: Did they let you see early footage or sketches of Baymax?
Miller: Yeah, they showed me some of that, but they had no animation done. They didn't have anything until we were almost done recording. But they described everything, and then I saw artwork and mock-ups. In one case, they said, "This is Fred, and the animation isn't done." It was just him in 3-D, but he didn't move. He was just floating; his legs didn't move, and he didn't have any movement in his mouth or his arms. I was kind of like, "Just hold up the paper and tell me when to talk." But you can get a real sense of what he's like just from how he looks. I think they might've been pursuing me… and, again, I would've pursued a Disney movie, but I didn't know anything about it. I'm not a very good actor, but--
Jeremy: I don't know about that.
Miller: Well, you have very low standards. But I can do comedy and find my way into some sentimentality. (Miller pulls a banana out of his jacket pocket.) A lot of that is just acting naturally and figuring out the way the character would feel about things. (Miller pulls another banana out of his pocket.) I've been very lucky to work with guys like Mike Judge, Shawn Levy… a lot of people who have taught me lessons that you can trust yourself with the comedy and not be maudlin. (And another banana. I start to laugh.) What, is it weird that I'm pulling bananas out of my pocket.
Jeremy: I'm just like, "Is this a clown car thing with bananas in your jacket?"
Miller: "Is it going to be a bit?" Yeah. It's a very tough thing when you're a comedian to take it down all the way to a sad place, and you have to do that in Disney. They have that heart and sentimentality, that emotional component. I've gotten to a point where I can do a version of that within the comedy, because even when he's being sentimental he's still ridiculous. But there's a sweetness to him.
Jeremy: And this was before SILICON VALLEY?
Miller: Yeah, I think it was. I might've been cast, but it was before SILICON VALLEY had even shot. Because I remember the girl I was with, who was awful and was like, "You can't audition for this. You're doing too many things." She just didn't understand what I was doing, which is trying to do comedy because it's an ephemeral escapism from the tragedy that permeates our everyday life. So that's why she's out of here and my awesome wife is here to stay. That was another cool thing about it: John Lasseter said he was a big fan of SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE. They also knew me from GRAVITY FALLS, and I seemed to have a good presence there. They also knew HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, and even CLOVERFIELD, which gives you a little bit of a sense of how I am if I'm just talking. It was really great of them. It's such a bizarre journey to be a part of, but it's so flattering that they wanted me involved in this film. This is the film that I could bring a lot to the table on.
Jeremy: Do they give you more leeway in terms of playing with the dialogue?
Miller: Absolutely. They're great in terms of collaboration. They're like, "Go anywhere you want to go with this. You can record as much as you want. It's digital." I think now if you hire me in town you know that I'm going to improvise. It's just part of the package. I don't read scripts. I'll veer completely off the rails or off-topic. That's how we got "Fred's Angels", and some of the other lines where you're like, "This is in a Disney movie?" So there is a lot of riffing, but it's easy to riff and make it funny if the foundation is strong. Then it can become a springboard for any new ideas. But you've got to have that foundation, which is character, the comedy already being there in the dialogue, and an aesthetic in the animation where you have a character that can look and act funny - because I don't get to do any of that. They tape us, and they'll use some of our mannerisms, but if that stuff is there, it's easy to go off and do some of your best work. Everything you do is a culmination of everything you've done, but this is something I'm really, really proud of - and proud to be a part of. It's really pioneering. Don't spend too much time on this, but with you guys I feel like I can say that a lot of the stand-up that I'm doing deals with talking about death and releasing the death anxiety; we never talk about it, so we're never prepared to deal with it, and we're scared of it. And It's such a huge deal to see Disney have characters talking about loss and grief and death. The component of "This is what it's like to be a human. Now try and tell a robot that." It's a strange, incredible thing.
Jeremy: Well, you've got so much else going on with your podcast and stand-up.
Miller: (Laughs) I'm multi-platformed.
Jeremy: But you talk about wanting to do a project where you can be you. Do you have anything in the works that might allow you to do that?
Miller: I would love to make a movie with Disney. I've talked with them about that. It takes a lot because it takes so long to do, and they don't need anybody else. But my wife and I… she has this thing called "The Fairy Tale Foundation", which seeks to teach a new secular morality to coming generations through fairy tales and folklore both domestic and international. So we want to do a movie that is about that and uses that. That's what I think I could bring to the table for Disney. And I just sold a pilot to HBO for [THE GORBURGER SHOW]. Have you ever seen that?
Jeremy: You know, I actually haven't.
Miller: Oh, dude, you've got to check that out. Just google it. It's very esoteric. We did it only online. But now we're going to do the HBO pilot. It's a giant blue alien monster who takes over a Japanese morning show to interview pop culture icons and indie rock bands. It's my voice, but it's an animatronic puppet. That's me not plug-and-playing on a Disney film. I'm the executive producer and helped create it.
Jeremy: One last thing I have to ask: "Bringing piss to a shit fight." Was that you or was that scripted?
Miller: I wish I could take credit for that. Isn't that great? Hitting the kid.
Jeremy: Getting to hit a kid for laughs must be nice.
Miller: It's not television. It's HBO.
BIG HERO 6 is in theaters now. Go!
Faithfully submitted,
Jeremy Smith
