To say that Randy Hickey is a little on the slow side is like saying that Joy Turner is sexy white trash — which is to say that both statements are completely and totally true of these two characters from the NBC sitcom, ‘My Name Is Earl.” The show’s second season is coming to a close, and in preparation for the event, both Ethan Suplee (Randy) and Jaime Pressly (Joy) sat down for a teleconference to discuss their characters, the evolution of the show, their favorite episodes of the previous season and several of the guest stars who’ve crossed their path. We played our usual game of getting on the line as many times as possible, to ask as many questions as possible. And here’s what we got.
Bullz-Eye: Hi, guys. Not to give anything away about the plot, but Giovanni Ribisi shows up during the season finale. When you get a new script and see that Ralph Mariano (Ribisi) is in it, are ya’ll psyched?
Ethan Suplee: (with mock awe) Yeah! How’d you know that?
Jaime Pressly: (giggles)
BE: Do you think Ralph would ever work as a regular, or do you think that having him pop up occasionally is how his character works best?
ES: Um, I think that the charm and beauty of his character is that kind of craziness. I don’t know if you could take it as a regular.
JP: Definitely not.
ES: Because his character is so far into left field. But, also, I don’t know that (Giovanni) would want to do it, just because he’s always off doing movies and stuff.
JP: Yeah, I think we’re very lucky to have had him as much as we have, because he’s definitely more into movies than he is television. Y’know, he was on “Friends” for that short stint, which he was amazing on, but nobody thought he would come back to do television again, and we lucked out because he’s good friends with Ethan and Jason. We actually didn’t think he was going to come back at all, because of his films and stuff, and he didn’t want to get pigeonholed on a show, but thanks to Ethan and Jason, he’s come back for the finale, which is such a great addition to the ending of the season.
ES: Yeah, it’s a nice little treat, there.
JP: It is.
BE: This one’s for both of you: what was your favorite episode of the season?
JP: “Our ‘Cops’ Is On,” for me. I loved “Cops,” because every single person that you’ve ever met in Camden County is a part of it. And it moves really fast, and every storyline that was intertwined with another was brilliant.
ES: Yeah, “Cops” was a pretty great episode.
JP: When they shot Ethan, erm, Randy out of the tree with a tranquilizer, and he was crying, I peed myself a little. It was that funny.
ES: It was a good one.
BE: Was the idea for the Scratch-and-Sniff episode this season conceived before John Waters guest-starred (he brought the concept to the silver screen with his film, “Polyester”)? And, if so, did he at least give his blessing?
ES: Well, Greg (Garcia, creator of “My Name is Earl”), I think, had always wanted to do it and thought about it, but he just thought it was impossible.
JP: But once John Waters came and did the show, Greg asked him if he could do it.
ES: Yeah, and John Waters was, like, “Yeah, sure,” and said it’s super easy. I think the only thing they had to work out was how to get the viewers the Scratch-and-Sniff cards. And once they figured that out, to put them in TV Guide, it was a no-brainer.
BE: Was it fun working on “Two Balls and Two Strikes” with Norm MacDonald, and on “Jump for Joy” with Burt Reynolds?
JP: Oh, I mean, it was amazing to be able work on one of our first shows of the (second) season with Burt Reynolds, and then on one of our last shows with Norm MacDonald. I mean, we’ve had such amazing people come and join our show for an episode that we’re amazed every week at who we’re getting ready to meet, and who’s coming to join the show. We’ve been very blessed with our talent.
BE: Do you know if there’s anyone that they’ve tried to get but that they still haven’t managed to score yet?
JP: Not that I know of. Ethan, do you know?
ES: That we’ve tried to get someone, and then they haven’t wanted to come on the show?
BE: Or they haven’t been able to arrange it yet.
ES: You know what happens a lot? We’ll have actor friends…like, I’m friends with Michael Pena, who was just recently in “Shooter,” and he was the second lead in ” World Trade Center,” and he was in “Crash.” He’s just this amazing character actor, right? And he’ll say, “I really want to be on your show!” So I’ll go to the producers and say, “Hey, Mike Pena really wants to be on the show.” So, then, they’re looking for something to put him in. But then I have Mike coming to me and saying, “Yeah, I really want to play a drug-addict stripper…”
JP: (laughs)
ES: “…with a twitch, and he’s a compulsive thief.” But in his defense, he doesn’t realize that, in TV, they’re writing five or six episodes ahead. So maybe when he has a week that he can do it. They can’t just quickly throw together an episode where one of the characters is a compulsive thief/drug-addict stripper with a twitch. So, y’know, I think that happens sometimes, where we’ll talk to somebody and they’ll really want to do the show, and then it’s just a matter of finding a good enough fit for them. Because you don’t want to take some great talent like that and just throw them a line or two, y’know? You want to give them something that can be really fun seeing them doing.
JP: Where they can get more involved in the actual show.
ES: Yeah. So I think that’s the only thing where we want to have somebody on the show and it hasn’t worked out perfectly, and there’s lots of that. I know Ben Foster (“X3: The Last Stand,” “Alpha Dog”), who’s another young, up-and-coming actor, really wants to be on our show, but it’s, like, he’s such a talented actor that we don’t want to waste a nothing part on him. And, then, you don’t want to have to tell the writers what to do. The only time they ever sat down and tried to write an episode, I think, was with Juliette Lewis, where we said, “Hey, she’s got this time period in this month, and we want her on the show.” So they went off for a week and just tried to come up with an answer to, “How do we get Juliette Lewis onto the show?”
JP: And what an amazing show they came up with. That was one of the best shows of the first season.
ES: Yeah! But they can’t do that all the time. It wouldn’t really work out too well.
JP: Yeah, this isn’t a regular sitcom.
ES: Especially not this season, because we’ve started serializing the show, so there are storylines that we have to stick to. So, yeah, I think that’s the only thing: there have been people we wanted to have on that want to be on, but it just hasn’t worked out.
JP: It’s a timing thing. Television’s all about timing.
ES: Yeah.
BE: Jaime, despite Joy’s less-than-spotless track record, have you always tried to play her as if she had a heart of gold under there somewhere?
JP: I think every character on our show has a heart of gold under there somewhere, which is what makes the show so great. That’s basically why we’ve had our viewers get emotionally invested in each character in the show. At the end of the day, no matter how many faults a character has or how politically incorrect the show might be, by the end of the show, we’re like Earl: we right our wrongs and learn from our mistakes.
BE: And, Ethan, have you ever been handed a script and seen a line that made you go, “Now, wait a minute, Randy’s not that dumb”?
ES: Um…no.
JP: (laughs)
ES: I think…I’m sure I’ve had that thought, but then, as an actor, I always think it’s my job to figure out that, if Randy’s not that dumb, how can I say that line smartly? It’s my job to figure out how to do it.
JP: Yeah, it’s a lazy actor who says, “I can’t do this.”
ES: Or, “My character wouldn’t do this.” Well, figure it out!
JP: Yeah, well, try, right? Because the writers have been writing your character for the last two years, so I think they know what they’re doing!
BE: Ethan, you made a comment a minute ago about how the show’s gotten more serialized this season. Do you think that’s changed the dynamic of the series, to have more storylines continuing from episode to episode besides just Earl’s List?
ES: Yeah, absolutely! I think it’s a really important change, too, because I think that, while The List is great and that storyline can keep you going, if you branch out, I think it actually will add a bigger dynamic to The List. The List can actually grow as an entity; more things can happen on The List due to these other stories, which I think is important to see.
BE: And, lastly, have ya’ll started working on the Season Two DVD set yet, and do you enjoy doing those?
JP: Ethan?
ES: We started doing commentary for some of the episodes.
JP: Toward the end of the season, during the last few weeks of filming, in February and March, we did some of the stuff for the DVD, like the behind-the-scenes footage.
BE: Do you enjoy doing it, or do you just see it as a necessary evil?
JP: No, I enjoy doing it, because, well, you think it’s a necessary evil, but then you get to see the DVDs, and you go, “Wow, that was actually great. I’m glad we did that.” And since this was our second time doing it, it came as second nature. It wasn’t a necessary evil; it was just necessary.
ES: Also, it’s one of those things that we all enjoy so much when we buy DVDs, so you know that it’s kind of an important thing to do.
JP: Yeah, I’ve felt, like, when I watched the first season of our DVD and the behind-the-scenes stuff, there was just as much heart in that, in hearing
