Interviews

Can you believe all these people agreed to talk to our little site?

Andrew McClain (Moe Slater)

Pages: 1 and comments. (January 15, 2007)

MI.net: You were high school valedictorian and an Ivy League grad in computer science. Yet you threw it all away to go to be an actor. Why?

Andrew: I'd been doing theatre throughout my undergrad and I wanted to give it a shot because I really loved the people. I really love actors. The computer science people are fun but they are...

MI.net: Nerdy.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, we're all a little bit nerdy. I got along with the actors very well, so I thought I'd give it a shot, and I auditioned for grad school, and then I spend three years at A.C.T. in San Francisco. And then I graduated in 2006 and moved to L.A. and booked the Veronica Mars gig within, like, a month. I was floored.

MI.net: Did your parents support your decision?

Andrew: Yeah. They've been very, very supportive throughout my acting career. It helps when you have a backup degree. I'm still doing the computer stuff as sort of a side job. My best friends in college started an Internet start-up which just launched actually. It's called fluther.com. That's been going really well. I feel like the two careers really feed each other. A lot of actors spend most of the time waiting for the phone call. When you have a rich life, each audition doesn't become life or death.

MI.net: What is fluther.com?

Andrew: Fluther is a real-time questions and answer site. Kinda like Yahoo! Answers, but we feel it works a little bit better. Basically if you have a question that you want answered, you type it in to the site, and then you are matched with people who might know the answer, and then you can chat in real time about the answer. As you use the site, it learns about things that you know, and then you get questions targeted towards you. So we are building this community of people who are interested in sharing knowledge. Already in the first month, we've seeing some really interesting questions being asked and answered. Hopefully, it will continue to go well, in case the acting doesn't turn out so well. I've been so fortunate in the last six months so I feel very good about both paths.

MI.net: You mentioned that you booked Veronica Mars one month after graduation. Wow, that's pretty impressive.

Andrew: It was such an amazing gig to get too. I really have to thank DeeDee Bradley and the casting director and Rob Thomas and all the other producers for taking a chance on me. To get a four-episode arc of a character as your first job, it was just such a blessing. I feel so lucky. Especially on a show that is actually written well so you have material to work with. It was fantastic. Like, I had no idea what I was doing the first few days. I was asking people like Percy, "Where do I go to eat? How does this work? What's going on?" But then you pick up things as you watch people.

MI.net: Had you done work in front the camera before or was it just plays?

Andrew: I'd done a lot of theatre. And I'd done a few...I have friends who are filmmakers and writers, and I'd acted in a couple of their films. And I'd done an independent film in San Francisco before I moved to L.A. I knew how things worked on set, but you can never be really prepared for your first real gig. Everyone on the set was so supportive and so positive. It was a real delight.

MI.net: Did you ever call your friends and say, "I've got a job. How's the watering job going?"

Andrew: No. The people in my class are very supportive of each other. Nearly everyone in my grad school class moved to New York, and they're doing more theatre stuff. It's definitely nice to be able to go to a party and say that you are a working actor rather than an actor who's not working. It's nice. I feel very, very fortunate.

MI.net: So did you buy anything cool with the money you earned from you first big gig?

Andrew: Did I buy anything? It wasn't a fortune that I made. I bought a couple months of rent. That was really great. That's about it.

MI.net: Rent's good.

Andrew: I have a nice flat-screen TV now. Which was nice when I threw a party for the premiere. But other than that I haven't really spent a lot. Basic expenses.

MI.net: So you invited all your friends over?

Andrew: Yeah, it was funny because the premiere and the anniversary of...October 3rd is my birthday so it's kinda a funny coincidence that I booked a job in this story where that date has such an significance.

MI.net: That's a cool birthday.

Andrew: Yeah, I threw a combination birthday, premiere, moving-to-L.A. party. It was fun.

MI.net: Did you ever visit any sites to see people's reaction?

Andrew: Absolutely. I have to say that I'm a little bit sad that my hair got such a dosing on the forums. I did happen to grow it out a little bit for the role. But I was a little bit sad that my hair got such a bad rap. A few days afterwards, people were calling me going, "Oh my God, I saw you on Veronica Mars. Oh, there's a thread about your character on such and such forum." Oh my God. And then of course, having to read it.

MI.net: So is your hair naturally that curly?

Andrew: Yes. It's not a perm. I know a lot of people think that. It's definitely that curly naturally. I got that whole, you know, Caucafro. As soon as episode nine was done, like, the day after, I cut three inches off the hair because it was way, way too long for me.

MI.net: Did they ask you to grow it out like that?

Andrew: No, they didn't. It was appropriate for the character. He's a kinda geeky guy. A geeky creepy guy.

MI.net: Your hair was kinda fluffy by the end.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, especially in those last two shots. As that episode progressed, the hair got bigger and bigger and bigger.

MI.net: So who has a better fro: you or Percy?

Andrew: He's got a real...well, he cut his hair pretty short recently, I think. But if we were to go toe to toe, in terms of hair growing, I have to say that he would probably have an edge on me, but I might give him a good run. He might beat me in round 20 or 21, but I'd give him a good run for his money.

MI.net: Your hair used to be straight and blonde, right?

Andrew: [chuckles] Yeah, yeah. That's true. Up until I was five, I had straight blonde hair. And then it just sprung up into luscious brown curls. What can I say. It's funny, I'd just had a conversation with a girl today about how everybody wants a certain type of hair that they don't have. I'm always envious of people with straight hair. We have what we're given.

MI.net: Did you audition for any other roles on the show, or did you audition just for Moe?

Andrew: I auditioned for Piz first. How different would that be? I auditioned for Piz first, and then I went back and auditioned for Moe, and ended up booking it. I was ecstatic just to get the part. Because I didn't know when I booked the part that he was going to be the rapist.

MI.net: Did they just say, "Oh, he's just an R.A."

Andrew: They said he's kinda odd. Initially, in the first couple of episodes, I picked up on a lot of the sorta oolong tea sort of aspects. I figured he was a guy who was a sophomore in college who just took his intro to Eastern religion class and was totally about it. Like kinda a far-out guy. But then Rob made it very clear that he was a lot more odd than that, but I didn't really understand what he was talking about until episode nine when it was like, "Oh."

MI.net: Oh, that's when you found out? When you got the script?

Andrew: Yup. I had no idea.

MI.net: Were you even guessing about it?

Andrew: Well, yeah. Everybody was thinking, "Oh, it would make a lot of sense for Moe to be...with the oolong tea he could roofie a girl and stuff." I had my mind open about it.

MI.net: Do you think you would have played the role differently if they told you right off the bat that Moe was the rapist?

Andrew: Umm...I think I would be less...[pause]...one thing that...probably yes. I think I would have been more awkward if that's possible.

MI.net: You would have been more awkward.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. A little bit more socially inept. But I think it's actually a good thing that I didn't know because there was enough subtext with Moe anyways, and enough people were suspecting him that I think it's for the best that I didn't know beforehand.

MI.net: Did any of your friends bug you for spoilers or anything?

Andrew: A lot of people actually didn't want to know. Because they would talk about it and they're like, "We're hooked on the show now. I don't want to know who does it. I don't want to know. It's so suspenseful." So I had a lot of requests not to say anything.

MI.net: That's cool of your friends. Where you a fan of the show before you got the role?

Andrew: I had seen the show, but I wasn't a regular watcher of the show before I was cast on the show. When I got it, I was very pleased because I knew the writing was so fantastic.

MI.net: Just to clear things up: What is Moe's last name? Is it Slater or Flater?

Andrew: In the script, it's Slater. There's an online article somewhere that misquoted the last name. Slater with an S. But actually, the character is just Moe because I don't think they ever said it in any of the episodes.

MI.net: Are you anything like Moe? He's a kinda nerdy kind of guy.

Andrew: I'm nothing like Moe. Nothing at all. A total departure. I'm a little bit like Moe. I have to be a little bit dorky to work on computers for as my other career. But I definitely don't wear sweater vests. I don't wear cantaloupe top sweaters. I'm more into rock and stuff like that. But I appreciate Moe's taste of Mozart or whatever. And I like tea a lot so that's good. I don't usually roofie girls. And usually I'm not brainwashed very easily so we're different in that respect. But it's funny because now people are either like, "Oh, it's the dorky guy" or "Oh, look, it's the creepy dorky guy."

MI.net: Have you had any fan reaction where people come up to you and go, "Moe"?

Andrew: I had a couple of people at a party come up to me who were fans of the show. Which was just bizarre. Such an out-of-body experience to have people recognize me for that. I was like, "What's going on? This is ridiculous." Yeah, yeah, it's happened, but not a whole lot. A lot of my friends, people whom I have not spoken with in a very long time have called me up. "Oh my God! You're on Veronica Mars! I didn't even know. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. It's amazing!" So, I'm pretty pleased.

MI.net: Were you able to incorporate any of your ideas into the character or was it all from the writing?

Andrew: Yeah. Well, it's funny because there's a lot of stuff they had to cut around because...I initially was thinking of Moe as sort of a more...less awkward because I did not know. There's a couple of little details like the knock on one of the episodes ["Of Vice and Men"] is the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. During the episode where I find the beer in the fridge, I actually took it out and shook it, and put it back in, but they had to cut around that because it was not something true to the character. But just little stuff like I felt Moe had a huge crush on Veronica Mars.

MI.net: We noticed that.

Andrew: Yeah. It was a big deal like when she gave him her number. It's probably the kind of thing where he is obsessed with her maybe a little bit. Maybe he had a couple of Barbie dolls with their hair cut off and stored somewhere. I don't know. They were very willing to let me play a little bit. Especially given the quick pace of TV shooting. And it was really great. Chris Lowell was great. He would take ideas and run with them. It was great to work with him.

MI.net: Did you watch Battlestar Galactica?

Andrew: I have not seen Battlestar Galactica. I hear it's a fantastic show though. I was excited to get the reference. It's funny because a friend of mine posted...there's a clip on YouTube because everyone went crazy over the "frak" reference so it was really trippy to see my small scene form the first episode up on YouTube. I was very flattered.

MI.net: Did you even know what "frak" meant?

Andrew: Before I read the script?

MI.net: Yeah.

Andrew: No, I hadn't heard "frak" before. No. I mean it makes sense. I think it's a brilliant idea to have a swear for the future. But I wasn't really into Battlestar Galactica.

MI.net: Of all the scenes you shot, which was the most fun? Which are you the most proud of?

Andrew: I think the most fun was pulling the unicorn horn out of Ryan's prosthetic leg because it was just disgusting. They had hand-laced in human hair into the thigh. It just looked so real and disgusting. It was tons of fun to shot. But also the scene, I think it was in the last episode...yeah. At the party we had a lot of fun with. We had to pretend we were screaming. It's always fun to make the others actors laugh. Any chance to do that, to play around to make other people laugh is good thing for me.

MI.net: What was that thing? Just a fake leg and fake blood.

Andrew: There's a hole in the mattress and they had a latex thigh and they sorta attached it. I was holding it at the knee because if I didn't hold it, the whole thing would sorta come apart at the knee. And it was really nerve-racking because I had to hold the pliers and slowly yank it out. It was very stressful, actually, but it was just so disgusting.

MI.net: It was very, very bloody.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. It was great.

MI.net: And Ryan screaming in your face.

Andrew: Yeah, it was good. That was a real fun time.

MI.net: It says you're a certified actor for hand-to-hand combat and all this other stuff.

Andrew: Oh. That was from my grad résumé?

MI.net: Yeah.

Andrew: In grad school, we all get certified in stage combat. So that's where that's from.

MI.net: So you can do your own stunts?

Andrew: Well, I'm not stunt-certified but I know how to snap my head when I'm getting bitchslapped by Ryan. It was useful.

MI.net: So in real life, who do you think would win in a fight: you or Ryan?

Andrew: Well, Ryan is smaller that me. I don't know. I mean I'm sure that he would say that he would win, but I think I would probably have dominated him. Don't quote me on that. But the thing is I bet Ryan would scratch. Like he's a fighter.

MI.net: He fights dirty.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't put it past him.

MI.net: And you said you were always trying to crack people up.

Andrew: Well, I try to, yeah. I give people a little longer look or, you know... Like I was saying before in the party scene we had to speak loudly because the band was supposedly playing. So I would just get right up next to Chris and scream as loud as I could into his ear to try to crack him up. So, yeah, I had a fun time. It's a good set because people are willing to have some fun which is a really refreshing situation.

MI.net: Any chance of your coming back to the show?

Andrew: If enough fans call for Moe's return I think that maybe...I would love it but I don't think there's a whole lot of room for Moe. I think a great twist would be, my friends joke, you'd see in episode four or five, you'd see that things happen to Veronica and it's revealed that Moe is the mastermind. He's been hardened from his years in prison or something.

MI.net: Moe strikes back.

Andrew: Exactly. That would be great.

MI.net: Well they did bring that other bad guy from last season back as a new character.

Andrew: Yeah, that would be great. They could shave my head and put a mustache on me, and I'd be a T.A.

MI.net: So you would be willing to do that — shave your head? Do a mustache?

Andrew: Shave my head. Well, I don't know about shave my head. I'd put a bald cap on like they do with the girls on the show. I'd be down with that.

MI.net: You listed M.C. Hammer as one of your favorite musicians.

Andrew: [sighs] Well, yeah. I was sorta being ironic on my profile. I mean "U Can't Touch This" is a classic. You've got to respect a man who can wear the gold lamé pants like that.

MI.net: True. Too bad he wasted all his money.

Andrew: It's too bad. Poor Hammer.

MI.net: How much taller are you than Kristen Bell, who's five-foot-one?

Andrew: Oh my God, she's so...she's very....Everybody on the show is very small.

MI.net: Yes they are.

Andrew: They are very, very small people. That was the biggest thing that I noticed. I felt like a gargantuan. I'm six feet tall so I'm eleven inches taller than her, I guess. She's five-one?

MI.net: Yup.

Andrew: She's fierce, though. Like in a fight between Kristen and me, I definitely know she would win. There's no contest.

MI.net: She'll beat you up.

Andrew: Oh, yeah. She would just pin me.

MI.net: You were also surprised at how small everyone was?

Andrew: I mean, yeah. They're very, I mean,...yeah. They're not large people. It was interesting to watch because they all have such a sense of ease in front of the camera. Which I was trying to pay attention to. But yeah, they are very small people.

MI.net: Can you describe some of the cast members in one word?

Andrew: I only really interacted with Kristen and Ryan and Percy for a little bit and Chris. Jason for a little bit. They're all really easy people. I think that's the biggest thing I would say is that they are willing to try new things, which is so refreshing. Because so many times you are dealing with actors who are so stuck on themselves and so focused on what they are doing that they aren't willing to try new things or do that. It was really nice to be able to work with a group of people like that. And they're fun. They're a fun group.

MI.net: So what is next for you? More auditions?

Andrew: I'm currently doing the grind. I have a couple of national commercials that are airing right now.

MI.net: Which ones?

Andrew: How is this for range in Hollywood? I did this Gerald's Jewelry ad, which is a division of Kay, where I play a groom. It's quite a departure from Moe. I'm sitting at the Ritz, and we flash a big three-carat ring and et cetera, et cetera. And focusing on the website. And trying to do that. And just enjoying my life in L.A. right now.

MI.net: What do you do for the website?

Andrew: I'm co-founder and I do some of the coding for it. Half the coding at least. And control the vision of the site. Everything basically.

MI.net: Wow, very techy.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, it's true. Going back to your early questions, it wasn't such a huge shift for me to do acting from computer stuff because of the type of things I was doing in college, I did a lot of theater-based art installations and things like that. I was always focused on the artistic side of computers. With this website we are trying to build a community and help people get knowledge.

MI.net: And hopefully get bought up and make millions.

Andrew: Well, that would be nice. That would be really nice. It beats waiting tables. So that's what I'm doing.

MI.net: How did you parents and friends react when they found out that you were guilty? That you were the bad guy.

Andrew: That I was the rapist?

MI.net: Yeah.

Andrew: I got a lot of funny messages. A lot of humorous things. I had sorta told a few of my close friends right before the thing aired. But when I booked the gig, people were really excited. Like my mom started crying. It felt really nice. I feel so fortunate to have gotten the gig so quickly. And we'll see how things go on from here.

MI.net: I think that was about it. Thank you for doing this.

Andrew: Well, you're welcome. Thank you very much. If it would be possible to throw a link to Fluther in the interview, we would really, really love that. We could really use the publicity. That'd be great.

MI.net: Is your name on that site anywhere?

Andrew: My name on the site? Yeah, I'm one of the users. I'm one of the biggest users.

MI.net: Can you give out your username?

Andrew: It's Andrew so it's pretty easy to find out. Hopefully things will go well. Thanks for doing the interview.

Pages: 1 and comments. (January 15, 2007)