Dax Shepard Interview for Employee of the Month

October 4, 2006
by Alex Billington

Dax Shepard, of "Punk'd" and Zathura fame, shared a few minutes with us here at FirstShowing.net to talk about his upcoming movie Employee of the Month. In addition to talking about working on Employee of the Month, Dax also talked about Idiocracy as well as his other upcoming projects.

Employee of the Month is a comedy opening this Friday, October 6th, about two employees at Super Club, a bulk-discount retailer, who battle against each other for the coveted title of "employee of the month" to win the heart of a recent hire. Employee of the Month is directed by Greg Coolidge.

Listen to the Interview:

Read on for the complete interview!

First Showing: Can you tell us a little bit about who you play in Employee of the Month?

Dax Shepard: I play Vince Downey, who is the 17-time employee of the month champion and the fastest cashier ringer in the southwest. I am the only one that has taken it upon myself to make my own vests out of silk, I wax my forearms, I bleach my hair, I'm very metro.

FS: What is that makes Employee of the Month one of the funniest damn comedies to ever come out?

DS: The cast is, pound for pound, one of the funniest groups of people ever in a movie. Andy Dick is hysterical, Harland Williams is hysterical, Tim Bagley is unbelievable, Efren, my sidekick, Pedro from Napoleon's great, Dane's great. And a free for all of improv that all came together perfectly.

FS: How was it working with Greg Coolidge as a fairly new director?

DS: He did the impossible, which was wrangle all 7 comedians working into one direction, keeping us from spiraling out of control each take. He did the impossible, I can't believe he did it on the first time out. It was a very impressive feat.

FS: What's it like going from being in a successful television series ("Punk'd") to acting on the big screen?

DS: You get paid a lot more, to do arguably less work. I consider it the luckiest event of my life that I was able to go from "Punk'd" into features. My favorite thing to do is to be on a movie set acting, and it's a lot of fun and they pay you well, it's all around a perfect job.

FS: Is it disappointing to work on a project like Idiocracy and not see it get as wide of a release as planned?

DS: It initially was very heartbreaking, because I think the movie was worthy of a wide release. But I'll tell you there's this weird phenomenon happening with the movie, which I'm told is the same thing that happened with Office Space, which is, all the people that I respect, the kind of people's opinions I value, are seeing the movie despite it trying to get killed. I couldn't beg my good friends, fellow comedians, to go see Without a Paddle, but all these people who I love are going to see Idiocracy without me even telling them that it's out. It's kind of a neat phenomenon.

I try to approach making movies in a way that it's about the making of them and not the result of them, if that makes sense. Regardless of what happens with Idiocracy, I still have 3 months in Austin Texas with Mike Judge, which were 3 of the best months of my life. So for me, on a life level, the result's still he same. I had a wonderful time and it was really a unique experience and I got to work with someone I idolize, so that remains intact.

FS: Have you ever considered going in the direction of maybe doing stand-up, like some of the other comedians you've worked with in Employee of the Month?

DS: No, it seems to me that they're all doing stand up so that they can act in movies, and I'm already acting in movies, so I'm quite happy where I'm at.

FS: Last question, do you have any other future projects you're working on, whether comedic or any other types of movies?

DS: Yea, I have a movie coming out on November 22nd called Let's Go To Prison, which is a very dark, Bad Santa-esque comedy, the anti-Holiday movie. And than I start filming in January called Smother with Diane Keaton and Liv Tyler and myself. And then I'm hoping to start production on a script I wrote called Get 'Em Wet with Will Arnett and I starring that Paramount's making.

Thanks to Dax Shepard and Lionsgate for the interview! Catch Employee of the Month in theaters this Friday!

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