Actor Clark Duke made his big breakthrough with his own web series “Clark and Michael” in which he played a fictional version of himself opposite Michael Cera. Since then he has gone on to give a number of hilarious performances in movies like “Sex Drive,” “Kick Ass” and “Hot Tub Time Machine.” This past summer, he stole some scenes in the eagerly awaited sequel “Kick Ass 2″ in which he reprised his role of Marty who has now taken on the superhero identity of Battle Guy.” Clearly, he has become the guy to go to for memorable supporting roles.
In his latest movie, “A.C.O.D.” (Adult Children of Divorce), Clark plays Trey who lives in the basement of his older brother Carter’s (Adam Scott) house. Both Trey and Carter managed to survive their parents’ bitter divorce as kids, but it looks to have forever soured Carter on the thought of marriage. Trey, however, ends up getting engaged to his girlfriend and begs Carter to get their estranged parents to come to the wedding. Knowing how their parents can’t stand to be in the same with one another, Carter knows that this will be a challenge to say the least, but he goes through with the improbable reunion because that’s what his little brother wants. But as things get underway, Trey has yet to learn the real truth of what is going on behind his back.
We got to catch up with Duke during a roundtable interview which was held at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, California as part of the “A.C.O.D.” press conference, and he proved to be as funny off screen as he is on it.
When you’re playing a character like Trey, how do you keep him grounded in reality as an actor?
Clark Duke: Well this script was pretty grounded. We didn’t have to improv a lot. A good script makes our job a lot easier.
You and Adam Scott play brothers in this movie. How did you go about establishing that chemistry and working together?
Clark Duke: Well it probably helped that we knew each other beforehand and we were friends before the movie so there wasn’t much of an acclimation period I guess. I have one sibling, a younger brother, so I kind of tapped into that. As to how to play it, I related more to Adam’s character while reading the script. When you have a cast that’s good, nothing’s too hard.
How did this project come to you and what made you want to do it?
Clark Duke: I just read the script. You get sent scripts all the time but 99% of them are just unreadable and terrible. So when you get a really good one that really stands out… That’s just the truth; most of them are just god-awful. I went to the table read in just actively wanted to do the movie, so I did (laughs).
Ken Howard, the current President of the Screen Actors Guild, co-stars in this movie as well. What was it like working with the union boss?
Clark Duke: No riffraff on the set. No grace periods for lunch, just ended right on time every day (laughs). He’s a licensed deputy as the SAG-AFTRA head.
Adam Scott joked that Ken Howard deputized the both of you and gave you both firearms…
Clark Duke: We immediately abused it (laughs). I would waive mine at cars. We were in Atlanta so I would go to a lot of strip clubs with the gun, and then I’d float my SAG card and they are like OK. They just had to put up with it (laughs).
Next up for Duke is “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” in which he will reprise his role of Jacob Yates, and joining him for it will be his “A.C.O.D.” co-star Adam Scott.
See also:
Interview with Adam Scott on ‘A.C.O.D.’
Ron Livingston on ‘Drinking Buddies’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire’
David Twohy Returns to the ‘Pitch Black’ Universe with ‘Riddick’