Fans of HBO’s noir comedy Vice Principals can glean a lot ahead of Season 2 from an extended interview stars Walton Goggins and Danny McBride gave on last night’s Desus & Mero Viceland show.
During their appearance the pair talked about the return of their series, which pits high-school administrator Neal Gamby (McBride) and teacher Lee Russell (Goggins) against their school principal Dr. Belinda Brown (Kimberly Hebert Gregory).
Desus Nice also asked them if social media was their thing, and found out McBride completely avoids Twitter, but has a marginal interest in Instagram — a medium which Goggins was quick to praise.
McBride said: “I like to lurk but I don’t like to share.”
At one point Goggins talked about being grateful that his son got into a school in Los Angeles prior to the release of Vice Principals.
And he joked about the vibe teachers were giving him due to his appearance on the show, saying they would say: “Oh yeah, oh man, oh there’s that guy. I don’t know about that guy…don’t hang out with his son.”
McBride, who was a substitute teacher in the past, also talked about how he came to work with Goggins.
He said: “I wrote this (Vice Principals) and I had no idea who was going to be Lee Russell (Goggins’ character).
“We wrote the whole series at once before we shot anything, both seasons, and yeah we were so stuck in writing it that, like, when it was time to cast it they’re like, ‘well, who did you write Lee Russell for?’…I forgot we had to cast this.”
He added: “We kind of finished the scripts and I had met Walt in a few times and, yeah, I talked to him (Goggins) about it, and Walton read it and then called me up and started doing the Lee Russell voice on the phone I was like ‘this is it!'”
Both actors also recalled their beginnings in the industry and how Vice Principals has resonated with academia in general.
Describing how school life today was different from what they experienced, Goggins shared an anecdote about how he tried to take his son on a trip out of the country and his son’s kindergarten teacher nixed the idea, saying the work-load was too much for his child to miss. He said: “It’s a different world now, man.”
When asked about why he gravitated towards villainous roles, Goggins said: “I’ve had a career kind of predicated on…yes, villains…I find they’re the most interesting role.
“I mean, really, more often than not have the best lines and you have a greater kind of emotional arc.
“So for me, I mean thankfully, they’ve [his roles] been different. But they’re [villainous characters he has played] still kind of in a lot of pain and they go through a lot and…I don’t know what I would do with repetition, like an unserialized one-dimensional kind of experience.
“Apathy for me is death, man.”
During the rainbow section which always closes out interviews on Desus & Mero, Goggins one-upped McBride — whose chosen piece of advice was to “stay in school”.
Goggins said his was: “Stay in school…for as long as you f***ing can.”
Vice Principals returns for its second and final season on Sunday, September 17 at 10:30/9:30c on HBO. Desus & Mero airs nightly, Monday to Thursday, at 11pm ET on Viceland.