I recently attended a FX network press conference with the charming and talented Elijah Wood and wickedly humorous and talented Jason Gann for their hilariously fun, dark comedy, Wilfred.
Wilfred is a half-hour, live-action comedy about Ryan, a young man struggling unsuccessfully to make his way in the world until he forms a unique friendship with Wilfred, his neighbor’s canine pet. Everyone else sees Wilfred as just a dog, but Ryan sees a crude and somewhat surly, yet irrepressibly brave and honest, Australian bloke in a cheap dog suit. While leading him through a series of comedic and existential adventures, Wilfred the dog shows Ryan the man how to overcome his fears and joyfully embrace the unpredictability and insanity of the world around him.
We wanted to know if you could talk a little bit about the recent episode that Mary Steenburgen was on. It was such a great episode and we really got to know a lot about your character, so if you could just tell us a little bit about filming that it would be great.
Elijah Wood: Yes. That was – actually that was one of the more enjoyable experiences working on that particular episode, made, I think all the more special because of Mary. She was truly extraordinary and brought such a beautiful energy to the set. We only worked with her for four days, but we felt this great loss when she left us – it was kind of amazing.
It was four days, but she’d made such an impression on everyone. It’s a – you know it was an important episode in the sense that it gave a lot of background information for the Ryan character and a really interesting relationship develops also between Wilfred and Ryan’s mom, as well. Jason?
Jason Gann: Yes, and I got to make out with Mary and –
Wood: You did, by the way I just recently saw that episode – damn, I forgot how much you actually made out with her.
Gann: Yes, I was really looking forward – I was like – I was like so excited about making out with Ted Danson’s missus, it was like – it kind of overshadowed the rest of the episode for me. We shot a number of takes of that kissing scene and we thought we had it and I said, “Yes, I think we’ve got it” and I went into the room where the show runner and the director were, Randall [Einhorn] and David [Zuckerman], and I said, “Did you see my tongue go in?” They were like, “Yes, we know it went in.” “But, did you see it go in?” They were like, “You can tell it’s in.” I’m like, “But did you see it?” They said they didn’t see it go in. I said, “Give me one more.”
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