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Will Forte, Phil Lord, & Chris Miller on Being "The Last Man on Earth"

Will Forte, Phil Lord, & Chris Miller on Being "The Last Man on Earth"

7:43·By Gemma G
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YH sits down with "The Last Man on Earth" himself, Will Forte, along with the producers of the hit Fox series, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, at SXSW in Austin to find out what THEY would do in the event of a real-life apocalypse! They also reveal what sorts of things they do when no one else is around, and Will treats us to a tearjerking rendition of the National Anthem!

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Young Hollywood

You put boogers in your pocket?

Will Forte

I put boogers in my pocket because I don't want to leave them on the seat.

Young Hollywood

Do you when you Okay, when you're washing your pants

Will Forte

I don't want to leave them on my finger.

Young Hollywood

Do you pull your your pockets out so that you can

Will Forte

It all comes out in the wash.

Young Hollywood

Welcome to the Shakeweight show. I'm Nikki Novak and I'm here with the last man on Earth. You might be the last man on Earth.

Will Forte

If we keep this up, yeah.

Young Hollywood

Congrats on the show coming out. People the buzz is huge, enormous about this. I read that I'm not sure which one of you said that a lot of your films and that come out of bad ideas and they turn into something fantastic. Are you suggesting that this is a bad idea for our TV show? The last man on Earth, a hilarious virus that wipes out all of world's population. Does that sound hilarious?

Will Forte

That sounds like a comedy to me. Yeah.

Young Hollywood

You have the weight of the world on your shoulders because acting and keeping things compelling and you don't have anyone to act off of. I would imagine that that's a difficult thing to do.

Will Forte

It was it's obviously challenging to come up with scenarios to keep people interested as they're watching but there were so many very smart people involved in the making of the show. These two uh you know, are are you know, we we

Chris Miller

Oh my God, absolutely.

Will Forte

The three of us were in it from the get-go and just having fun all day thinking about different things they would want to do if uh it was the end of the world. Hey, what's up? Just had to get out of the house. Been a rough day. Hey, you want a whiskey? You want a whiskey, Gary? Whiskey? You sure? How about you, Jimmy? No? Okay, well, does anyone want a whiskey? Huh? Greg? Kevin? Anton? No, really? Nobody? Trevor? Terrence? Tran? Darby? Bryce? Marshall? Peter? Thomas?

Phil Lord

I also think that because the premise of the show is so risky that it just makes everybody more creative.

Young Hollywood

I read something about this is a cable show that's going to be on a network. How do you get away with things you want to get away with?

Chris Miller

For the most part, what's crazy is that Fox has left us alone and allowed us to make the show that that we all wanted to make. They've been really supportive and let us do everything. I mean the only thing so far

Will Forte

No F-words.

Chris Miller

No F-words.

Will Forte

Yeah, I mean there was a there was a

Chris Miller

That's the one thing.

Will Forte

You can't even say F.

Chris Miller

You can't even say F.

Will Forte

You can't say F. It's a letter in the alphabet.

Chris Miller

No words that start with the letter F. That is ridiculous.

Will Forte

You could be meaning food when you say the letter F.

Chris Miller

Food, but I'm eating OOD. You're meaning OOD instead.

Phil Lord

Literally no letter F is not possible.

Chris Miller

We're on the Ox Network.

Phil Lord

Yeah.

Chris Miller

Yes. No, you have to say Ox.

Phil Lord

No, we can say F.

Chris Miller

Yes, Fox. They just left after they put that Fox bug on there.

Young Hollywood

Have you guys ever in your life personally outside of work, had a bad idea? Thought this is a really bad idea and it turned out to be fantastic, like skydiving or something crazy?

Will Forte

Yeah, I go way more the other way thinking things are going to be a good idea and then they're really bad. Yeah.

Phil Lord

One time I ate sushi at an airport.

Young Hollywood

Oh. Always a great idea.

Phil Lord

Oh, it was very delicious and was a great idea. So that was yes, yeah.

Chris Miller

Yeah. A funny twist. A lot of great stories start they take that trajectory. You think it seems like it's going to be a bad idea and then it turns out great.

Phil Lord

Best sushi you ever had.

Chris Miller

Yeah.

Young Hollywood

I'm surprising quiz anybody could have come up with. If you were the last man on Earth, what's the first thing you're doing?

Will Forte

I'm stealing the Mona Lisa.

Young Hollywood

I don't know how I'm getting to Paris. You're going to get to Paris. How would you get to Paris? That's the interesting thing. It's like we

Chris Miller

We're going to talk about it. That's the whole idea of the show. It's kind of fun thing that happens in the writers' room going like how would you? You don't want to like, you don't want to risk it with like learning how to fly a plane. You're not a navigator.

Phil Lord

Use the stars.

Chris Miller

Yeah. There's no internet. You'd have to go to a library and read a bunch of crap.

Young Hollywood

So what would you do? What would be the first thing you would do? Cuz I'm sure you've had time to ponder this.

Will Forte

I actually have an answer. I mean, a lot of the things that I would do wish fulfillment-wise are are in the show. Like that's been the most fun part of the show is thinking about these dumb things that get to do bowling, using a flamethrower on a bunch of wigs, stuff like that. That's just fun stuff that I would want to do.

Young Hollywood

A steamroller was like the passion of yours.

Will Forte

Yeah, a steamroller. What happens if I've been trying to use a steamroller in things forever. Casey's B and a steamroller, what happens?

Young Hollywood

Where did the wigs come from?

Will Forte

Yeah. That's something we've never actually talked about. They're all inflammable. So he sets up about 10 to 12 different wigs on headstands and then uses a flamethrower and came from logic. You know? It was just a logical thing to do.

Young Hollywood

I love the national anthem in the ballpark. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Was that your voice?

Will Forte

Oh, yeah.

Chris Miller

He's an excellent singer.

Will Forte

Well, I don't know. You know, sometimes people want to have

Young Hollywood

Did you have auto-tune for that? Cuz that was great. She

Will Forte

No, I didn't have auto-tune. I had Forte tune on that.

Young Hollywood

Auto-tune. Without some auto-tune.

Phil Lord

Jumping back into the answer, the first one of the first things I would do would be to go and just uh unearth all the conspiracy theories, JFK assassination, um Area 51, you know, stuff like that.

Young Hollywood

Have you been to Area 54? It's like a club.

Phil Lord

Yeah, it's like a club. Andy Warhol.

Young Hollywood

It's a secret government club where everybody kind of hangs out. Is it really? Is it in Disneyland?

Phil Lord

It's studio

Chris Miller

It's club

Phil Lord

No, that's Club 33.

Young Hollywood

Oh, okay. Anyway, fun facts to know and share. You see how I yes, and did Everything turns into a fun fact.

Will Forte

Fun fact.

Young Hollywood

Such a good. This is chaos.

Will Forte

I could back it up.

Young Hollywood

Oh, yeah. You can do the backup singer. There we go. Sometimes just by itself is really good. It's delightful. That was really good. Okay, last but not least. You're the last man on Earth. You're there alone. But I'm telling you, you could have one companion come with you.

Will Forte

Mhm.

Young Hollywood

You can choose anybody alive or dead. It can't be friends or family. Who are you picking? Oh, and it can't be a friend or family. No. No one you've ever met before.

Will Forte

Jimmy Page.

Young Hollywood

Jimmy Page. Interesting.

Will Forte

Oh, yeah.

Young Hollywood

Phil.

Phil Lord

Uh David Byrne.

Young Hollywood

Oh, that's a cool answer.

Chris Miller

I'm a musician. What are you going to

Phil Lord

I'm Yeah, but you gave me the musician idea. Maybe I should get a non

Chris Miller

No, I'm just going to go with like Albert Einstein or something so I can feel smart.

Young Hollywood

He's dead, dude. He said living or dead.

Chris Miller

I'm just going to go with this course.

Young Hollywood

Oh, living or dead? Yeah. You missed the whole, yeah, you got.

Will Forte

Yeah. Jimmy Page. Still Jimmy Page.

Young Hollywood

When people are alone, as you are in the show, what is one thing you can reveal that you do when you are alone? When no one

Will Forte

I get that nose.

Young Hollywood

What are your favorite things to do?

Will Forte

I get that nose picked. Thank God I cleared it out. So much better to breathe. I got to say that that's something I do in public kind of all the time. If you sit behind me in a movie theater, get ready to watch somebody pick their nose. Man, I tell you what.

Young Hollywood

Do you leave it on the seat?

Will Forte

No, I I this is crazy. Sometimes I put them in my pocket so I don't

Young Hollywood

In your pocket?

Will Forte

Put them in my pocket. But I like to generally is, uh, wait a second.

Young Hollywood

Clean out Phil's pockets when I get there. You put boogers in your pocket?

Will Forte

I put boogers in my pocket because I don't want to leave them on the seat.

Young Hollywood

Okay, when you're washing your pants.

Will Forte

I don't want to leave them on my finger.

Young Hollywood

Breaking news, guys. Do you pull your your pockets out so that you can

Will Forte

It all comes out in the wash.

Young Hollywood

Have you heard that phrase? It all comes out in the wash. It's giving it a new meaning. Wow. I can't even answer this question on television. You know what? I was joking. I don't pick my nose.

Will Forte

Oh, was it a

Young Hollywood

You failed. You failed. Do you really put them in your pockets? You really put them in your pockets?

Will Forte

Yes. You know that you're at this interview, dude. Man, what? That's what that's for. The key pocket. I'm not talking. We should not have had dark and stormy's right before our interview. Oh my God.

Young Hollywood

Would you like to take us out with the end of the National Anthem?

Will Forte

Yeah. For the land of the free And the oh, the police are coming. Home of the brave.

Timestamps are approximate — click one to jump the player.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

  • Will Forte

    Actor and star of "The Last Man on Earth"

  • Phil Lord

    Producer of "The Last Man on Earth"

  • Chris Miller

    Producer of "The Last Man on Earth"

  • Nikki Novak

    Interviewer from Young Hollywood

  • Andy Warhol

    Mentioned in discussion about Area 54

  • JFK

    Referenced in discussion of conspiracy theories

  • Jimmy Page

    Chosen as ideal apocalypse companion

  • David Byrne

    Chosen as ideal apocalypse companion

  • Albert Einstein

    Chosen as ideal apocalypse companion

FAQ

Who stars in "The Last Man on Earth"?+
Will Forte stars as the titular character in the Fox series "The Last Man on Earth."
Who are the producers of "The Last Man on Earth"?+
Phil Lord and Chris Miller are producers of the hit Fox series "The Last Man on Earth."
What is one thing Will Forte would do as the last man on Earth?+
Will Forte mentions that many of his wish fulfillments, like bowling with a flamethrower on wigs or using a steamroller, are incorporated into the show.
What network airs "The Last Man on Earth"?+
"The Last Man on Earth" is a Fox series, which surprisingly gave its creators a lot of creative freedom.
Where was this interview conducted?+
This interview with Will Forte, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller was conducted at SXSW in Austin.

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