Seth Green

You know you’re a geek when you’re asked to speak on ’’Weird Al’’ Yankovic’s upcoming A&E Biography profile. But, then again, you know you’re a cool-ass geek when you’ve scored an Emmy nomination, as Seth Green has done for Robot Chicken, the stop-motion sketch show he co-created for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The 33-year-old funny guy phoned us last week to tease the show’s third season (airing Sundays at 11:30 p.m.), defend Robin Williams’ movie career, and explain why he’s so out of breath.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Thanks for taking the time to call, busy man.

SETH GREEN: [Laughs] You know what, things are crazy right now.

I heard you taped an interview earlier this morning about ’’Weird Al’’?

Yes, I got invited to speak on Al’s A&E Biography profile.

Wow.

I know, right?

What did you say?

Al’s awesome. He’s an icon. I love him. He gave weirdos like me a place in this world and acceptably amongst all my too-normal-for-school friends. [Green appeared in Yankovic’s ’’White & Nerdy’’ video.]

It’s interesting that you say that, because one of my editors was just saying that she considers you the prototype for the sexy geek. Would you like to take the title or does it below to Al?

Um, you know, I’ll take any title that they throw my way, if it’s a valuable title or if there’s comedic value in it. But Al’s somebody that I’ve admired my entire life. I think I’ve always just been kinda geeky and got to play some mildly appealing roles. How people interpret my degrees of sexiness is out of my hands.

What are you recognized for most at this point?

It totally depends. I have the more subversive kids who know Party Monster. I’ve noticed that girls between like 20 and 30 seem to know Can’t Hardly Wait. I got the goth kids who know Buffy. I got this wide spectrum of people who range from like 8 to 13 who seem to know Scooby-Doo. Then I get the international people who seem to know Austin Powers and The Italian Job. But more than anything in the last year, when people approach me, they’re talking about Robot Chicken, which is great, just ’cause we work so hard on this show. It’s a such a small thing, the fact that anybody knows it is always kind of a surprise for me. I’m getting everything from like 9-year-old kids to the 40-year-old TSA agent talking to me about the show, so that’s really cool.

Is there a role that you should have gotten but didn’t get? Do you have a worst audition story?

I auditioned for David O. Russell, and it was one of the most miserable experiences I’ve ever had. That said, I’ve talked with a lot of people who’ve worked with him and had a blast, and I love his movies.

What was the movie?

It was for Three Kings, and he wanted to cast Spike Jonze, who was a buddy of his, and the studio had told him that he had to audition known actors in the role and we had a miserable time. I’m very pliable, and I’ll go with it. I try to catch where people are and meet them there. But he wasn’t very interested in that, and he made it very clear. I don’t want to get into it. It was really just a s----y experience. [Laughs] That said, if he ever wanted me to do a movie with him, I bet we’d have a blast.

Let’s talk about happier times: Congratulations on the Emmy nomination for Robot Chicken. You were in New York while the rest of the RC staff was in L.A.? How did you celebrate?

I was on speakerphone from New York. They gathered everybody around and people could speak into the phone and talk to me. It was very Charlie’s Angels. There was a whole lot of woo-hooin’. It’s really thrilling to be validated in this capacity. I mean, we make a 15-minute show that’s incredibly silly, even though all of our scenic designers, puppet builders. animators, everybody that works on the show take their work very seriously. So somebody saying that we’d even be in contention for a very respectable award is really nice.

What can we expect to see on Robot Chicken this season?

I’m right in the throes of it, so it’s such a blur right now. We’ve had a great bunch of cool celebrities coming on the show this season. We had Nathan Fillion on, and Adrianne Palicki, and Eden Espinosa, who’s in the L.A. version of Wicked. And then I had Mario Lopez in yesterday. I love our show so much cause we just get to bring in all these cool people ranging in skill set, notoriety, and respectability. And everybody comes in and just has fun. I really dig it.

Who’s been the best so far this season?

Man, it really is kinda blurry. [Asks his RC co-creator Matthew Senreich, who goes to get a list] I’m telling ya, this show is such a marathon. I warn everybody in the beginning of the season, like, ’’Alright, it’s January. We’re gonna go till December, so brace yourselves. That’s how it’s gonna go down.’’ [Matt returns with a list] Oh, that’s right — Billy Dee Williams came in and played Lando for us, which was mindblowing. Joel McHale came in and really kicked ass. Hayden Panettiere came in. Donald Faison always crushes it. Breckin Meyer came in, who wrote on this season as well.

Any soon-to-be classic sketches you can tease now?

We’ve got George Bush as a superhero this season. [Laughs] Two words: Captain Texas. That’s about all you need.

Are you gonna be hitting Britney, Paris, and Lindsay some more?

I’m actually really excited about this, but it will be one of the last episodes to air: We’re doing a dissection of rehab in general. It seemed like so many people from Michael Richards to Mel Gibson were in rehab this year in one form or another, and rehab itself has taken on kind of a mythical air. All those kids are in it. Lindsay, Paris, Britney, Mel Gibson.

So what’s the biggest fight you guys have had in the Robot Chicken offices?

[To Matt] Can you think of the biggest blowup that we had? Like we fight every once in awhile. No, you and I never really fight. [Matt laughs] We just had an argument downstairs about Scrappy-Doo. [Laughs] Comedy, especially in this format, is really all about timing. We’re doing a movie trailer parody that uses Scrappy-Doo, and it was just the way that the joke was storyboarded, the way that it was timed, there’s an action beat that happens within in a line, and it just wasn’t working for me. And I argued about it. Which is always dumb to do. I’m glad that nobody sees these conversations that we have. [To Matt] Have we gotten into s--- in the writers’ room? [To EW.com] It really does get ugly. You start criticizing each other’s upbringing and things like that. If somebody doesn’t like a joke, they’ll start trying to dissect and explain it, and we’ve gotten to a point, after three seasons, where we’re like, ’’You just don’t think it’s funny.’’ ’’I don’t think it’s funny. You’re right.’’ ’’You don’t need to give me some kind of intellectual dissection of humor, just say you don’t like it.’’

Anything you can tell us about Family Guy this season?

I think I work at a convenience store at one point. The best thing about Family Guy is because of the way we record it, I don’t have to read the entire script, I’m able to watch the show as a fan. But unfortunately, it leaves me with very little knowledge of what’s happening to me.

[Hearing heavy breathing] Have you been walking around the whole time we’ve been talking?

I was signing checks and formatting a document, and then I had to prepare something for pickup, and now Matt and I are in the car on our way to a meeting with financiers about an animated movie we’re developing. [Laughs]

What’s your secret to multitasking?

I don’t have a secret. I just react as best I can. I think I’ve gotten really good at compartmentalizing things and handling multiple things at the same time. But Matt is way better at it than I am. He’s aware of everything that I’m doing, plus what he’s doing, and keeps me on track.

Anything else you wanna tell me about? Otherwise, I can let you get back to your day.

Um, I’m in a really great mood. I’ve been makin’ a cool movie in New York [2008’s Old Dogs] with a hero of mine, Robin Williams. So I’m in my favorite city in the world and getting to play around with somebody who I’ve been fascinated by since I was a kid. Robin Williams has been successful and famous for 30 years. He’s constantly had highs and lows, and he’s remained relevant throughout. And he’s just brilliantly talented as both a comedian and dramatic actor. And I’m very excited to just get to hang out with him on set.

Will he be guesting on Robot Chicken this season?

[Man-squeal] I don’t know! The first words out of his mouth when I got on set were, ’’Robot Chicken is awesome.’’ And I had to take a minute to digest that. And then I just loaded him up with swag. [Laughs] I was like, ’’Here, wear our stuff.’’

Did you ask him for any advice?

One of the best things that I’ve learned about working with people who I admire or super-successful celebrities is that my role is not to crack the code so much as it is to participate. If in the course of conversation I’m able to broach the subject, I will, but usually I just want to play. I just wanna give them my best and get their best in return.

There is a Robin Williams backlash going on to some degree. What’s your position on that?

There’s always the guys at the American Idiot Green Day stadium show that bitch about how they were awesome when they were playing at Berkeley. The truth is that you are the only person who can manage your career, and there’s always gonna be somebody who says you’re making the wrong choice, but you make the best decisions that you can in the moment and you’re the one who has to live with them. Robin’s like Christopher Walken or Harvey Keitel: They can do a good movie and a bad movie, and they’re still allowed to do a good movie even if they do a bad movie because they’re that good. You get a guy like Robert Downey Jr. who can make a movie that nobody likes and then make a movie that everybody likes, and he’ll be great in both of them.

Do you worry about that at all in your career? A possible backlash?

I tend to fly really below the radar, even though people seem to know me. I don’t think I have a target on my back. [Laughs] Listen, someday people are gonna hate me. I’m sure I’ll get tomatoes thrown at me in some public event, but until that happens, I’m not gonna be anticipating it.