30 Rock Interview Double-Team: Tracy Morgan and Judah Friedlander

The Onion AV Club has not one, but two interviews with 30 Rock cast members today. First up, Amelie Gillette talks to Tracy Morgan about mental illness, Martin Lawrence and Jimmy Fallon's habit of breaking character on SNL:

AVC: [Y]ou said it was annoying when Jimmy Fallon would crack up during sketches.

TM: Yes, I remember what I said in the interview. It wasn't
meant to be malicious or anything, just an observation. It was annoying
to everybody, I guess. I just said it. I don't know if he knew he was
doing it. I don't have anything against Jimmy Fallon. I love Jimmy
Fallon. He's my dude.

AVC: And there were other people who would crack up in sketches, too, sometimes, right?

TM: Yeah, but not all the time. I wasn't saying that it was
premeditated, but he did it. I just thought it took the attention off
the sketch, you know? I'm not afraid to say what happened.

Then, Nathan Rabin gives the Random Roles treatment to Judah Friedlander. Projects covered include Zoolander, that Dave Matthews video and American Splendor:

American Splendor (2003)—"Toby Radloff"

JF: Very tough work. Very intense work. I think it was the
first time a movie had that, with the real people and the actors
playing them in the same shot. There's that one scene in the movie
where I'm playing Toby Radloff, talking to Paul Giamatti playing Harvey
Pekar, and then the camera pulls to a wide shot, and the real Harvey
Pekar and Toby Radloff are there, and all four of us are interacting
together. Before filming that, it was pretty nerve-wracking, because we
were like… We're doing something new and something different, which is
what I like to do, but we were also nervous about it, because it's
either gonna work great, or it's gonna be a disaster. You either pull
it off or you don't. It's one thing to be playing somebody in a biopic,
a real person, but it's another thing to have the real person right
next to you in the movie. But that movie was a lot of fun to do, and
hanging out and working with Paul Giamatti was great. We shared a
trailer on it and had a lot of fun.

AVC: Did you spend a lot of time with the real Toby Radloff to prepare for the role?

JF: Yeah, I keep in touch with Toby. He's actually in my Top
Friends group on my MySpace page. Me and Toby, about once a year—you
know, I do a lot of stand-up comedy, that's been my main thing for
years, and I usually go to Cleveland about once a year. I always invite
Toby, and he comes out to the shows and we hang out. So yeah, keeping
in touch with Toby is a lot of fun, he's a great guy. Doing that movie
was a lot of preparation. That's probably the most research and
preparation I ever had to do for a part.

Previously: Judah Friedlander's Hats on 30 Rock