I had a Skype conversation with [director] Matt Reeves for, like, an hour and 15 minutes. I just hung out with Sam Rockwell, hes a great friend of mine and one of the greatest actors alive. The rest, as they say, is history. The whole show is in a silly, goofy mood. It's sad to me to see him try to connect with his son. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. I wanted his honesty to come off as a good thing, even though it's really his Achilles heel. And I remember telling them, "Hey, don't get all crazy here. At one point, I was the dumb stoner guy. And then when it happened, it was like, "Oh right. View this farm for sale with 7.5 acres by Columbia in Adair County, Kentucky 42728. I mean, Ive played a lot of dramatic roles. Resides in Dayton, OH. And while Zahn has certainly kept a low profile of late, he hasn't been quite as invisible as you might think. You know what's crazy? Luckily, he also spent that time opposite cinema's greatest motion capture performer in the great Andy Serkis, who Zahn praised as "one of the greatest actors" he's ever worked with. Filming in Hawaii wasnt a bad deal either, and at least the cast seemed to appreciate it more than their fictional counterparts. If you were late, you were sprinting.. When Zahn and I talk ahead of the shows finale, the beloved character actor (lately I've been seeing the word Zahnaissance floating around) is at the Kentucky farm his family moved to in the early aughts. Yu Tsai These days, Zahn, who is starring in the new HBO Max film 8-Bit Christmas, is back to working out on the Kentucky farm he calls home and running about 25 miles every. Steve Zahn was running a few minutes late because he was tending to a horse who had had surgery and needed bandages redressed. Zahn plays the young man's lovably affable father, bringing a welcome sincerity and quick wit to the to the kid-friendly films. Then I realized, you know, if youre the stoner, guess what, youre the stoner for a while. Its like, Hey, remember this? And youre like, Yeah, I havent even seen it! How did you become a part of Apes?I got a call from my manager saying that they were interested in me in a movie, and I was shooting a show down in Puerto Rico at the time 14-hour-days kind of thing and was like, Yeah, okay, what is it? And he was like Planet of the Apes. And I was like, Really? (Laughs.) Any glimmer of hope is beautiful in this show. It was just so raw and weird. Whats doing well in you perennial bed right now?Well, everythings doing great right now. The first college I went to, I remember taking a trip to London with a dance group and it was January, between the semesters, and I got credit for going to see London theater. With The Crossing officially in his past, Steve Zahn looks to have more free time on his hands. "Now I'm just all those guys, but they have kids . The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series was far from Zahn's first foray into family-friendly fare. He went on to deliver equally memorable supporting turns in '90s staples like Crimson Tide, That Thing You Do!, Suburbia, Out of Sight, Safe Men, Stuart Little, and You've Got Mail, not to mention a scene-stealing turn on Friends as Phoebe's ice dancing "husband of convenience" Duncan. I remember having to ask Mike, Just total raw, primitive? I don't think I was doing it correctly at first. Every Christmas was insane, getting J. Peterman stuff. People come up to me all the time about it. Steve Zahn on Leaving His Rural Kentucky Life for HBO's 'White Lotus' 18 July 2021 The Hollywood Reporter Steve Zahn was running a few minutes late because he was tending to a horse who had had surgery and needed bandages redressed. Steve Zahn is a smart guy. But make it great. Obviously Bad Ape is a very tragic character. "I wanted to be part of the circus. Its Planet of the Apes! It was limited, like the car ride from the airport to the hotel. Contact Steve Purvis of Woods & Waters with KDL LLC to learn more about this farm. And then you view the others as apes. For years, theres no money. Zahn shot the series smack-dab in the middle of COVID-19, when productions were being shut down daily, if not hourly. Sam Richardson Is Happy That the Kids Are Finding. Forgive me if this is crude, but your character has a revealing moment in the first episode. I'm growing into the J. Peterman stuff, but I have everything. Steve Zahn. [10], After his breakout film role in 1994's Reality Bites, Zahn quickly gained a reputation for playing amiable stoners, slackers, and sidekicks in films such as That Thing You Do! Because I really felt that it was the only thing I could really do. I have kids this age [of Marks], a little older. Or do you just blend in?Well, we live outside a little town called Midway, and its a block long, the downtown. They're far and few between, but they stick out. This is great! Still, few actors from that era were quite as prolific or as consistently entertaining as this brashly energetic performer. You dont appreciate it at the time, cause youre just learning stuff, and then you assume that theyre all gonna be like that. It's not just in Hollywood. Of course, appearances are often deceiving, especially in the context of the entertainment business. I live on a farm' The classically trained actor on his new film Cowboys, working with Werner Herzog and being branded a Gen X funny guy Expand Steve. And that's what I love about the show. I've played bad guys, I've played good guys, dumb guys, smart guys, he says. Im huge on spring and summer gardening. When thinking of actors who came of age in the 1990s, Steve Zahn's name isn't one that tends to jump to the forefront of people's minds. I wanted his honesty to come off as a good thing, even though it's really his Achilles heel. No, no, I just think they come. I assume people started to think you were a big stoner, right? I'm the activities director here I mean, I'm not like Mark. [2][4] He graduated from Robbinsdale Cooper High School in 1986, planning eventually to join the United States Marine Corps. Don't worry, we've got you and his recent activities covered. Steve Zahn: 'I've never been a slacker. His film roles include Reality Bites (1994), Stuart Little (1999), Shattered Glass (2003), Sahara (2005), Chicken Little (2005), the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (2010-2012), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). It's sad to me to see him try to connect with his son. I have a wide variety. Pasture, Creek, Shade, Utilities. Usually, youre acting for time; theres always this emphasis, whether or not you have people pointing at their watches, you know this big machine has to keep moving. How is it not acting?Well, youre not interacting with anyone. The famous actor, now a resident of Scott County, came on to talk about his passion for UK football and his life as a Kentuckian. Is that pretty much all you wear now? Theres a flavor of what you might do. He just doesn't know how to do that. What about when you were canvassing as a Revolutionary War soldier? While in paradise, Mark surfs through an existential crisis (first obsessing that he could have cancer, then learning that his late father was closeted and died of AIDS), while struggling to connect with his Lean In power wife Nicole (Connie Britton), his sweetly dopey, device-addled son Quinn (Fred Hechinger), and his terrifying daughter Olivia (Sydney Sweeney). And I always get these stoner, urban types. But That Thing You Do, Saving Silverman, Sahara. Fox and Nathan Lane in 1999's M. Night Shyamalan-scripted animated/live-action confection Stuart Little. To play what? To play a new ape. I got really excited, of course. It's like, "Bam!" What else defines your life?I like to fish. If you know him as the wacky guy from That Thing You Do, Saving Silverman, or the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, meeting him is confusing at first. is at the Kentucky farm his family moved to in the early aughts. And then you go, Oh my God, that was an incredible experience. And sometimes were so disconnected from people that the stories we tell are movies about movies. [21], Zahn is a lifelong military history buff and has said that one of his biggest regrets was having turned down a role in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. We just drove around Normandy doing this World War II tour. For the past 15 years or so, Zahn has been living the working man's life with his family in rural Kentucky. We're kind of fucked up, aren't we? [Laughs] Oh, yeah! Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Critically-acclaimed and award-winning actor Steve Zahn has enjoyed quite a year with numerous projects released during the pandemic. It always goes back to the water. We've got a script called Hot Fruit that's being auctioned right now and were writing another one right now called She Dances, about a father and daughter going to a national dance competition. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. "I've played bad guys, I've played good guys, dumb guys, smart guys," he says. Like most actors, Zahn got his start in theater by performing in high school productions. Saving Silverman, interesting. Includes Address (10) Phone (2) Email (1) See Results. I'm like, "Yeah, it's fine. [Laughs] Yeah, theyre gonna remake Das Boot. All the [musical] performances. Did Cirie go too far by bringing family matters into the game? We're kind of oppositesshe writes well into the night. He's got some voice work lined up (opposite Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Ron Perlman) in the animated flick Robodog, and an appearance in the Silicon Valley drama Valley of the Boom(from House of Lies creator Matthew Carnahan) on the books, but other than that, the future appears to be all but unwritten for Zahn. People go, Ive seen everything youve done. And I go, I havent. You've worked in Hollywood for a long timeis that attitude something that you've encountered a lot and taken as a cautionary tale? 26 August 2021. Some people were like, "What are you doing here?" His film roles include Reality Bites (1994), Stuart Little (1999), Shattered Glass (2003), Sahara (2005), Chicken Little (2005), the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (20102012), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). I'm not going to be doing streaking scenes down the street and stuff.. It might not be the job that you wanna do, artistically. I would've done anything . Well, I will say, it's not something you see on TV a lot. Other topics of discussion: -- Zahn riding his bike to the Final Four It's not even your kids anymore, it's these people who live in your house. It was green lights all the way. But really anything of value, anything thats good, you need to fight for. The funny thing is, Mike actually stopped by here. It was my first gig. We were in the barn and I was taking care of my horsehe just had surgery, so I'm a vet. There are closets in this house they're filled with coats that have never been worn and still have the paper over the buttons. If you're wondering why Steve Zahn hasn't been appearing in many Hollywood projects of late, it's likely due to the fact that he lives about as far away from the Hollywood scene as you can get. Steve Zahn is widely known for appearing in more adult fare and the occasional dalliance in absurdist comedy (see Saving Silverman, Knights of Badassdom, and The Ridiculous 6), but he jumped into the realm of "family film" in 2010 when he took the role of Frank Heffley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yeah, totally. But good to have you back!. [8], In 1991, Zahn formed the Malaparte theater company with a group of actor friends, including Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard. But he has good intentions. Now I'm just all those guys, but they have kids.. At that point, I was about to have some big old yard sales, he jokes. I did 30 percent what I thought a chimpanzee would do. And I remember telling them, "Hey, don't get all crazy here. It's kind of a fun chapter of my life being on this side. All rights reserved. Show up early, know your shit, have an opinion, dont be a dick. There, they raise horses and goats and all manner of produce. What do you get recognized for the most these days? My kids don't even sit on social media, which is really kind of insane. [2] His fellow actors suggested that Zahn study acting, inspiring him to enroll in American Repertory Theater's two-year training program. So when he got a call to star with Connie Britton, Natasha Rothwell and Murray Bartlett in HBOs The White Lotus, a darkly comic miniseries (from Enlighteneds Mike White) about haves and have-nots colliding at a Hawaiian resort, he needed little convincing. As he's in this kind of crazy Disney Land for rich people, where everything is fake, everything is false, they're going to have a new group of people the next week and they're going to treat them exactly the same way. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. So HBO, isn't it? It was closed, so we were truly in a bubble. We were at the Maui Four Seasons. Though theres plenty of humor in Bad Apes part, hes also a figure of pathos and tragedy. And were like, "Wow, we can't play Hamlet anymore. And it's so abrupt. That was something we shot at the end of the day, and Tom [Hanks] kept having ideas like, Youre playing crazy eights! Id be like, Oh, thatd be great! I remember all this stuff we did, like just eating the candy on the plane and how Tom would just encourage all this kind of great, funny, stupid shit. So out of 15 months, it was 14 months off. If you've been tracking Steve Zahn's career, you probably noticed that many of his more famous roles were of a supporting nature. 7.6 Acres of Beautiful Farm Land. But yeah, I think we lose touch, especially nowadays. Great.". As it happens, his old That Thing You Do! The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Now I'm just all those guys, but they have kids.. 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