Q&A With "Hangover" Star Zach Galifianakis

Stop me if you've heard this one: a guy walks up to a poster for The Hangover, takes one look and says, "Who the hell is that guy?"

The answer is Zach Galifianakis, an absurdist, piano-playing stand-up comedian (and one of the "Comedians of Comedy") who looks kinda like the Brawny paper-towel guy. With five pending 2009 releases, Galifianakis is about to have a breakout year in film, and he starts by playing third fiddle in The Hangover to two better-known stars, Ed Helms of The Office and Bradley Cooper, of Wedding Crashers fame. But for a comparative newbie, he steals the show as a zany, socially inept groomsman who's utterly unaware of his third-wheel status. So successful is his shtik—and, by the same token, the movie's laugh factor—that Warner Brothers has already greenlighted a sequel. Ahead of The Hangover's June 5 release, NEWSWEEK talked to Galifianakis about roasted beets, his affinity for jockstraps and why men don't wear white jeans anymore. Excerpts:

Ball: I'm afraid to interview you after watching Between Two Ferns, afraid you're going to start snoring or sneezing on me.
Galifianakis: Oh, no. I'm very reserved in real life.
 
What's your own backstory for your character Alan's craziness?
It started with the wardrobe. The day I went in and did wardrobe, I asked for white jeans. You don't see a lot of guys wearing white jeans these days. It's not very cool, I guess. I just had imagined that, years ago, he went to a lot of raves, that he wasn't born weird, but that all the drugs he'd taken over the years had really affected him, and had made him kind of weird and antisocial, even though he's a very social being. But people are against him being social. He lives with his family, doesn't have a driver's license, he's not allowed to get near a school.
 
Yeah, what's the story there? Former child predator?
The whole school and Chuck E. Cheese thing came from a place where he just wanted to hang out with a 12-year-old and play with his remote-control cars. It wasn't a sexual thing. He was just thinking, "Here's somebody that might be my friend." And society interpreted it as a whole different thing. I thought it was funny, knowing that history, that he'd end up with an infant. You wanted the audience to think, "Uh, this is the last person in the world who should be carrying around a child."
 
You were naked a lot in this movie.  And yet you never seem uncomfortable.
In the beginning, [director] Todd Phillips said it was going to [shoot the scene in] tighty-whiteys. And I'd seen that in movies before, for comedic effect, but I told the director, "Um, I've never seen a guy wear a jockstrap underneath a tuxedo." As soon as I said it, I regretted it. The wardrobe people are getting jockstraps off a truck. I kind of forgot about it for a while. Then you see the movie and are like, "Oh, yeah. I'm in a jockstrap." But you don't regret it, because it turns out to be good for the movie. I also love how there's no explanation later when I wake up with no pants on.
 
I love that almost nothing in the movie is explained.
That's what's good about it. Because there are so many non sequiturs in life that you see, and that make you laugh.
 
Have you had a Hangover-esque night before? Ever stolen jungle animals?
The movie kind of raises the bar for a hangover. I haven't had an experience quite like that, though I've had mornings that were regrettable. If I went into detail, they would probably just be too embarrassing.
 
What about a foolproof hangover cure?
Roasted beets. If you eat them before you go out, you wake up fine. I discovered it by accident. I wanted to learn how to make roasted beets, and when I did, I was so overcome with giddiness that I wanted to celebrate. So I drank way too much, but I had no hangover whatsoever the next morning.
 
Really? I thought you'd say sweet tea and chicken from chain restaurant Bojangles, since you're a North Carolinian.
Oh, God. Bojangles. Bojangles in itself will cause a hangover. I used to do this joke in my stand-up—people found it offensive—where I would say, "I wish they had a morning-after pill for Denny's Moons Over My Hammy."
 
Congrats on getting the sequel already greenlighted. Any updates?
Well, it's just so jinx-worthy right now that we're all kind of cautious about saying anything. But I think you'll see us go somewhere foreign, maybe Thailand.
 
Are hangover movies the new road-trip movies?
"The Hangover: The USO Tour."
 
That song that Ed Helms sings in the movie while accompanying himself on piano—is that your creation? It sounds like your piano-based stand-up.
No, actually, Ed is a really good, accomplished pianist and musician in general. And he was just playing around with the piano and came up with it. I think the filmmakers needed a bridge while we were waiting for the roofies to kick in with the tiger.
 
You have a boatload of movies coming out this year.
You get jobs and then you never know what's going to happen. Sometimes they don't go anywhere and then you start seeing movie posters around that things are coming out. I got very lucky; the stars aligned nicely. I think I'd be a little more excited if I were a little younger. Now [fame] has just become a major inconvenience. 
 
This is your second Vegas movie.
It is my second Vegas movie. It's anybody's dream to be in a Vegas movie. [Long pause] Please don't quote me on that. Please, please, please. That doesn't even make sense.
 
But roasted beets do?
[Sighs] The problem with these interviews is that there's no sarcastic font.