MacGruber Hits the Big Screen

[Video Clip MacGrubber]

Ben Lyons: We will take you back to the birth of MacGruber, where did this character came from?

Will Forte: He was the birther.

Jorma Taccone: It was a really silly pitch at SNL. I think he envisioned the pitch was for a character who was MacGyver’s step brother and MacGruber who diffuses bombs only using pieces of dog feces and pubic hair. So, every time he asks one of his assistant to hand him an item, they won't be able to touch anything that he is requesting. And here we are.

Ben Lyons: That's a huge summer blockbuster.

[Video Clip MacGruber]

It is an amazing work schedule for you because you guys work so hard on the show and then you have a little bit of downtime in the summer and most people want to relax and take time off and here you are cranking out this movies. So, is it tough for you to keep up that business?

Ryan Phillippe: I like—

Kritin Wiig: I know cranking out.

Ryan Phillippe: She sounds like she doesn’t care too much or something.

Kristin Wiig: Yeah, I'm just like I'll do whatever—yeah, I'm free, book me. No, I'm very particular. Yeah, I mean well, SNL was like you know, six days a week when we’re on and then we’re doff from mid May to September so, we rest all of that time. But I love making movies.

[Video Clip MacGruber]

Ben Lyons: You play the heavy, so you got to bring a note of seriousness to this.

Val Kilmer: Yeah, I know. One of the rewrites that is really—there is some pretty clever writing but there is a brilliant twist which is we decided to go all the way with MacGruber and make them completely hideous. I'm actually innocent. He stole my girlfriend and ruined my life, so it turns out I'm not actually the bad guy, it's juts a legitimate grievance because everything this guys touches turn into a big mess.

[Video Clip MacGruber]

Ben Lyons: Well, you said that throughout the years on SNL when you do the MacGruber skit, you have certain jokes and put them on the side from the MacGruber movie, but what are the challenges that face in taking this character to the big screen?

Will Forte: I think that very early on, we were wary of the fact that if we just did the sketch over and over again for 90 minutes long, people would get sick of it, we’d get sick of it. It's so different. We just start from scratch. We took the character and throw him into an action movie setting and really just went nuts.

Ben Lyons: Is it a crazy day when you have huge explosions on set? What's it like?

Ryan Phillippe: It's always exciting.

Ben Lyons: Fun huh?

Ryan Phillippe: Yeah, I mean that never—I've done like 25 odd movies and there ahs been a ton of explosions. We never get of it and I was like a little boy who is always into seeing big balls of fire and flame.

[Video Clip MacGruber]