What 6 Comedians Said About Working With Terrence Malick on 'Knight of Cups'

From left to right: Thomas Lennon, Christian Bale, Joe Lo Truglio (Broad Green Pictures)

If you thought Zoolander 2 was the 2016 film with the most celebrity cameos, just wait until you get a look at Knight of Cups. The latest years-in-the-making experiment from Terrence Malick — who, according to Ben Stiller, happens to be the world’s biggest Zoolander fan — follows disaffected screenwriter Rick (Christian Bale) as he glides through an empty Hollywood existence, romancing a sextet of gorgeous women, among them Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Poots, Freida Pinto and Isabel Lucas.

Related: ‘Knight of Cups’ Star Christian Bale Never Got a Script for the Movie

Rick’s ruminative tour of L.A. also brings him into contact with a host of other celebrities, some of whom are playing characters while others appear to be acting as themselves. Given Malick’s reputation, it’s not surprising that some of these supporting players include such noted dramatic actors as Brian Dennehy as Rick’s gruff father, Wes Bentley as his rageful brother and Armin Mueller-Stahl as a priest. You might do a double take, though, when comedians like Nick Offerman, Thomas Lennon and Dan Harmon enter the frame. The story of how those funnymen were cast in the otherwise deadly serious Knight of Cups —not to mention how they survived Malick’s infamously lengthy editing process that often sees entire characters excised from the final cut—could probably be its own film. And, fortunately for us, some of them have already gone on record talking about their brush with Malick, and his entirely improvisatory shooting style. Here’s a round-up of their memories about working with the elusive director.

Nick Offerman (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

Nick Offerman
Who He Is In the Movie: A voice in Rick’s head offering advice; we hear his dialogue, but he’s only onscreen briefly and filmed from behind.
Estimated Screentime: 30 seconds
In His Own Words: Former Parks and Recreation star Offerman told Collider in 2013, that he only spent “one glorious day” on the Knight of Cups set, but Malick packed in a lot. “In the space of one day, I was [Rick’s] agent, and then he said, ‘Okay, maybe now you’re a ghost.’ We sort of continued to improvise and play off the same material we had been doing. Then I went into a sound van, and recorded all of my material, because he said, ‘Maybe I’ll just have him hear your voice as he’s in this lobby.’ Then he came up with a whole other scenario where we had a writers’ room, and Christian Bale is playing one of the writers, and we just did a huge improvised scene.’” (More on that scene below.)

The self-confessed Malick fan went on to add that he took the job knowing that he could easily end up on the cutting room floor. “He directs like a painter: He looks around at all of the ingredients and colors that he has and just starts painting, and I think that continued into the editing room, where he just keeps working on the painting. Being one small color in his brush stroke was quite a treat.“

Erin McGathy (Photo by Araya Diaz/WireImage)

Erin McGathy
Who She Is in the Movie: In the aforementioned writers’ room sequence, she’s a female writer in a yellow dress who talks to Rick while he’s schmoozing with scribes like Community creator Dan Harmon (her boyfriend at the time of shooting, who later became her husband and then ex-husband) and Empire co-creator Danny Strong.
Estimated Screentime: 10 seconds
In Her Own Words: On an October 2015 episode of her podcast, Human Conversation, comedian McGathy revealed that Harmon was originally invited to be part of Knight of Cups by their mutual friend (and the film’s location manager), David Lyons, as part of a group of real writers mingling with Bale’s fictional one. A fan of Bale going back to his Little Women days (“He was the first person I ever masturbated to,” she overshared), McGathy tagged along with Harmon to the set, deliberately dressing up in yellow. That wardrobe choice had its intended effect. “I’m sitting on the sidelines and this assistant director comes up to me and said, ‘Terrence wants you in the shot.’ I heard later that he referred to me as the pretty girl in the yellow dress. That’s where the yellow dress comes in, ladies!”

Once she was part of the scene, she was also part of Malick’s unique working methods. “He was like, ‘Just walk in there: You’re a rookie woman who just started working here. At a certain point, he started rolling up pieces of paper and throwing them at me within the scene. We shot for, like, an hour with no cuts. I wanted to scream out of delight because it was such a weird thing.” She also made a point of grabbing facetime with her crush object as the shoot was winding down. “I walked up to Christian and put out my hand like a real-estate agent.”

Antonio Banderas and Freida Pinto (Broad Green Pictures)

Antonio Banderas
Who He Is in the Movie: Tonio, a wealthy friend of Rick’s who throws a lavish house party at his lushly appointed mansion. It’s a sequence that’s straight out of Entourage, with stars like Joe Manganiello, Ryan O’Neal, and Joe Lo Truglio mingling freely with Bale.
Estimated Screentime: 5 minutes
In His Own Words: Okay, so Banderas isn’t technically a comedian (although his early Spanish films with Pedro Almodovar have their hysterical moments). But the making-of story he shared with Collider two years ago is too good not to share. “I remember when I got to the set in the morning, [Malick] called me and said, ‘Antonio, I’m sorry I didn’t send you the script. You know why I didn’t send you the script?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, there is no script. I am creating the movie as I go. So, I’m shooting a lot of things…and I invite you to play.” The only guidance that Banderas received was a nine-page monologue, but even that was optional. “He told me, ‘You can start the monologue in the middle, if you want. I’m going to be sending you what I call torpedoes. People will interrupt you while you are talking, and they may just do actions to you. There may be a very young girl, it may be an old lady, it may be a group of people. You may know them or not know them. Just improvise with them.’ It was 12-14 hours of absolute madness and, at the same time, of incredible findings.”

From left to right: Lennon, Lo Truglio, and Ryan O’Neal (Broad Green Pictures)

Thomas Lennon
Who He Is in the Movie: Lennon and Lo Truglio are a double act, following Rick around Tonio’s party.
Estimated Screentime: 2 minutes
In His Own Words: The Reno 911 creator recently confessed to Business Insider that, unlike many of his co-stars, he hadn’t seen a Terrence Malick movie before agreeing to be part of Knight of Cups. When he turned up on set, Malick’s first piece of direction was to hand him a slip of paper. “[It] said, ‘There’s no such thing as a fireproof wall.’ And I ask, 'Is this something I’m supposed to say in the scene?’ and he said, 'I don’t know.’ Then Malick goes, 'Would you like some more? Because I have a whole stack of these.’ And I was like, ‘I think I’m good.’” The party sequence wound up being a marathon 11-hour shoot, with Malick constantly introducing new elements. “Sometimes Malick would stop and introduce a new cinematographer: ‘Guys, this is Marta, she’s an up-and-coming DP from Mexico City and she’s going to film the scene for a while.’ And sometimes Christian would take a GoPro and shoot something.” During a moment of downtime, Lennon remembers calling his wife and getting into an argument, when Malick approached him with a camera and recorded the real-life drama. “At first I felt it was kind of an invasion of privacy and then I was like, ‘F— it, this is the realest thing that has happened all day.’”

Nick Kroll (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for Stella Artois)

Nick Kroll
Who He Is in the Movie: A partygoer at Tonio’s shindig.
Estimated Screentime: 2 minutes
In His Own Words: Speaking with Dork Shelf in 2015, the UCB-trained star of Kroll Show talked about drawing on his background in improv comedy to shoot his scenes in Knight of Cups. “My goal was just to say ‘Okay’ to everything….[because] one of the tenets of improv is ‘Yes and…’ or specifically in UBC theater, ‘Don’t think.’ I took that very much in stride that day. My job was basically to f— with Christian Bale all day.”

Kevin Corrigan (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)

Kevin Corrigan
Who He Is in the Movie: A business associate — and possibly pimp? — of Rick’s stripper crush, Karen (Teresa Palmer).
Estimated Screentime: 3 minutes
In His Own Words: A character actor who has used his sly comic streak to steal scenes in such movies as Living in Oblivion and Pineapple Express, Corrigan modestly boasted in a 2015 Reddit AMA that he made Malick crack up on set. “I had scenes with Frieda Pinto and Teresa. We improvised. Malick, watching the video monitor, had to stifle his laughter. I wasn’t mugging or anything. I’m not sure what was so funny, but it was kind of gratifying that I made him laugh so much. Maybe it was the sight of me struggling to make stuff up.”

Watch the ‘Knight of Cups’ trailer: