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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
As told to Daniel Dylan Wray

‘Chaps frame the buttocks in a beautiful way’: John C Reilly on Magnolia, moving into music – and his nice bum

John C Reilly as Mister Romantic.
Exploring ideas of love … John C Reilly as Mister Romantic. Photograph: Bobbi Rich

Your roles fluctuate wildly between the serious and silly. Does one necessitate the other? vammyp
I’ve always thought it’s all the same. You just try to be as honest as you can, and if you’re being honest in absurd circumstances then you’re in a comedy. It’s not like I try to be funny or serious – just honest. If you’re watching someone play a bad guy and there’s nothing about the performance that makes you feel for the person or understand them in a deeper way, that’s a fail to me. Because the truth of life is that at a funeral someone always cracks a joke. There’s something so rich about being able to laugh at a funeral. That is what life is to me: all those grey areas, these contradictory things.

I’m impressed and baffled by this left turn with Mister Romantic [Reilly’s vaudevillian crooner alter ego]. How did you come up with the character? Why did you pick out the songs that you did? steve__bayley

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