Interview: Martin Starr On His Amazing New Show Party Down, A Freaks And Geeks Reunion, And Having An “Iconic C**k”
By Hunter Stephenson/May 1, 2009 11:24 am EST
It was under the guidance of Paul Feig and Judd Apatow—as the lanky, bespectacled and beloved teenager Bill Haverchuck on Freaks and Geeks—that Starr set this precocious M.O. in motion. And it’s a personal belief that had Freaks not been brutally axed in ‘00 during its lone season, Haverchuck would have gone on to land a bevy of moist females. Of course, Freaks is now forever renown for launching a bevy of careers, including those of Starr, Seth Rogen and James Franco. And for being one of the best f***ing things ever. Starr has notably followed up with memorable roles in Knocked Up—beard fail—and in the recent, terrific Adventureland, an ’80s time-capsule that stays with you like the killer kiss on a Ferris Wheel that didn’t happen and will not.
Which brings us to Party Down, Starr’s new original comedy series on Starz (mhmm, same galaxy). The series debuted in March with a surprising cast of familiar and funny peoples like Adam Scott (Step Brothers), Jane Lynch (Best in Show, Talladega Nights), and Lizzy Caplan (Cloverfield hottie, True Blood). Its premise revolves around an L.A. catering business stocked with young struggling actors, writers and dreamers. It’s like the anti-Entourage but with an equal, funnier abundance of showbiz cameos. Given carte blanche on profanity, nudity, and adult humor by the pay-cable network and co-producer Paul Rudd, Party Down is categorically awesome, though its current profile is low and insidery, like a fave dive bar.
On Party Down, Starr is at his darkest and most biting as Roman DeBeers; an aspiring screenwriter and novelist, DeBeers has been reduced to parading trays of food around at diverse parties filled with “ordinary f***ing people” who don’t get his Repo Man references. In the proceeding big rocket of a chat below, Martin discussed Roman, the creative freedom allotted by Party Down, loathing Hollywood shallowness, Freaks and Geeks past and future, and a full-frontal role that likely would have strapped his career to a hard trajectory of sex and death.
