John Slattery Talks About Being A Third Wheel On ‘Arrested Development’

Bad-ass Mad Men silver fox, John Slattery — who could drink you under the table and take your wife home afterwards — sat down for an interview with The Huffington Post, ostensibly to talk about his new film with Matty Saracen, In Our Nature, but because no one cares about that film, talk quickly turned to Arrested Development, which allowed Slattery to discuss his guest appearance on the show while Saracen sat with one thumb up his butt and pondered what went wrong with his career.

I’ve shot [my episode] and it was really fun. I almost didn’t to it because it’s hard to go in and be a guest on someone else’s show. I don’t think people are aware of that when they see television shows and people on them. It’s like walking into someone else’s house where they all know what they’re doing. They’re all extremely funny. I mean, Jason Bateman … who’s better than that guy? Or Jeffrey Tambor, who I work with. All those people. Will [Arnett], David Cross and all the women. You go, “I know this is funny, but I’m not sure I can pull it off …” So it was nerve-wracking. I don’t know whether I succeeded. By the end, I think we nailed a couple scenes. One in particular I hope doesn’t get cut. You really see how good everyone is when you go into someone else’s situation and watch them work. It was really fun.

It’s like walking into someone else’s house where they all know what they’re doing. I wonder if Slattery’s experience on Arrested Development is similar to guest appearances on Happy Endings, where I understand the cast is cliquey and mean. It would be intimidating to walk onto a set where the cast has three seasons of inside jokes over a guest, AND it’s a reunion after several years away from each other. It’s gotta be like walking in on an orgy mid-coitus and just standing in the corner naked while all the cool people f***ed each other senseless.

For the record, Slattery also “wouldn’t bet against” the success of the fourth season on Netflix, he thinks Mandy Patinkin is “the sh*t,” and he’s a huge fan of Homeland, which occasionally features his wife Talia Balsam (who also plays his ex-wife on Mad Men).

I’m just catching up. In fact, I was up last night watching it … you can’t even watch two at a time. Man, it’s intense. I walked in and my wife [Talia Balsam] was in bed and I said, “Jesus, this show’s going to give me a heart attack.” You don’t want to watch yourself, and it’s so intense.

Clearly, Slattery hasn’t seen this week’s episode yet.

(Source: HuffPo)

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