30 Rock doesn’t start filming its sixth season for another five weeks, which has given Judah Friedlander, 30 Rock’s Frank, an excuse to grow one hell of a beard. We caught up with the actor, and his beard, at last night’s screening of My Idiot Brother, which stars Paul Rudd (whose character in the film, now that we think about it, looks a lot like Friedlander, give or take a trucker hat). While speaking to Friedlander about the film he shared with us two anecdotes, just a bit of flavor about what it’s like to live life like Judah Friedlander, that we will now share with you.
Here’s his first tale, prompted by the question, “Have you ever crashed on someone’s couch?”
Yeah, I’ve lived on people’s floors, people’s couches. One of my best friends, when I was in between apartments — this is going back to the early nineties — he had a studio, and I would stay at his place on the couch. And I thought it would take me a week or two to find an apartment, but it took seven weeks, and he refused to take money. So I had a Nintendo machine, he didn’t, and I used to have to pay him in Nintendo cartridges. He would beat a game, and he’d be, like, “Dude, you gotta buy a new one.” I’d be, like, “Will you take some money?” And he was, like, “No.” So I’d have to buy a new video game, and then he would play it all fucking day, and then he’d beat the thing, and he’d be, like, “I need a new fucking video game.” And then eventually he just started throwing trash at me. He’d just pick up his wastebasket and start throwing garbage at me and be, like, “Get the fuck out of here.” He was my best friend, so it was in a fun, joking way, but it was still, like, yeah. So eventually I found a place.
And another, in response to the question, “Have you ever done anything as monumentally stupid as selling weed to a uniformed cop?” which is what Paul Rudd does in My Idiot Brother.
Oh, one time I fell down the stairs at the Comedy Cellar. I wasn’t drunk or anything, I just slipped and I ended like this [sprawls]. I fell down like seven steps. And it’s steep. And my friends were all laughing. It took me about five minutes to get up. I was hurt, but I wasn’t injured, you know? And then literally, that same night, my friend, Ben Bailey, the host of Cash Cab, comes in and goes, “Dude, I heard you fell down the stairs and it was hilarious.” And then I went to show him where I fell down the stairs, and I fell down again. I fell down the whole fucking stairs again. So that was pretty stupid.
