Knope Knows

From A.V. Club:

Andy Dwyer has become the show’s breakout character; it seems like the more of him we see, the better the episode. Did you have any inkling when you got the part that it might work out that way?
No, at first it was given to me as a guest-star role for six episodes. I had a pretty good idea that by the end of his run, Rashida’s character would break up with him, so I thought I could just have fun with it, and that would be that. There were no guarantees. But they told me if the show got picked up, and if they brought Andy back, it would be as a regular; I guess that was kind of the carrot that you dangle in front of the actor. “Hey, there’s a chance you can come back as a regular!” But they didn’t have to, so I was just assuming they wouldn’t bring him back. As the episodes went on, though, it was more and more apparent that they were writing really funny stuff for the character.

Do you think it was their plan all along to give Andy more screen time, or do you think it was because of how the character was received?
I think it’s a testament to Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who created the show, that a lot of what they planned gets thrown out the window when it becomes clear how things are developing. We’re obviously working from a plan, but they’re very willing to just throw everything out there, see what’s working, and see who has chemistry. With a cast like this, too, you see a lot of freestyling, a lot of improvisation, and they really swing with it when they go forward. So there just happened to be this ridiculous character, Andy, who kept getting laughs, and that’s been why he’s gotten more scenes. And I think that’s going to happen with more and more characters—I think everyone’s going to get their moments and find their groove, it’s just a matter of letting it work itself out. It’s not something that’s possible to plan, but it wasn’t planned with me, either.

Will we be seeing any more of (Mouse Rat)?
Man, I sure hope so. If it was up to me, Andy would team up with Ron, playing Duke Silver—he’d be blowing the saxophone and Andy would provide the guitar and piano, and they’d go on tour together. Of course, I always pitch stuff like that, and the writers just look at me and go, “Uh, yeah, I don’t think so.”

Andy might not work if he was super-thin and handsome. Part of what’s funny about him is that he’s this type of guy that everyone’s met, this sort of band schlub who mooches off his girlfriend, he’s not too good-looking…
I think if Andy were super-fit and buff, people would really hate his guts. That’s another reason that he stays likeable—he thinks he’s really handsome, but he’s just this dude with a double chin and a belly, who sits around and drinks beer and eats pizza and doesn’t really work toward anything. It was Nick Offerman who told me this first, and I really liked it: he said “Andy is living the American dream—the new American dream, which is do as little as possible and get as much in return as possible.”

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Link: Interview: Chris Pratt

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