Thomas Middleditch Explains Why His Own Bachelor Party Was Surprisingly Similar to ‘Joshy’

One of this year’s most unique movies is coming to Hulu this week. Joshy, starring Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Adam Pally, and Jenny Slate will be available this Friday, November 25 to watch from your own favorite cabin. The film follows a group of dudes on what is deemed a “guys weekend” after the bachelor party the weekend was intended to be is no longer happening. Yes, it’s got all your favorite comedic actors, but the film is not always what it appears to be.

We spoke with Middleditch, who gives a performance that is different than what you’ve come to expect from him as Richard Hendricks on HBO’s Silicon Valley. He explains the challenges of shooting this movie, why his bachelor party was quite similar to what we see on-screen, what we can expect from the new season of Silicon Valley, and the new nighttime routine he’s developed that sounds like the best idea ever.

Certainly the last third of this movie has some pretty complex scenes, but what was the most challenging part about this shoot for you?

That was definitely a challenge. The whole script is improvised. We had an outline, but in terms of what everybody specifically did and said, it was improvised. When you improvise for stage, it’s totally different than film and TV. On stage at a comedy show, you walk on like, “Hello, I’m Professor Ding Dong,” and that’s all acceptable, but for film and TV, especially when something is supposed to be played understated and real, you’re kind of looking for these comedic moments that come out of a character in situations. And the “dramatic stuff” that happens at the end is no different, but what’s weird is that comedy is so visceral, you get that reaction, you know it’s going well when people laugh and they go, “Ha ha, that was great.” But when it’s all sad and quiet, the reactions are sad and quiet, so you don’t know if things are going well or not. It was challenging in that sense because you have to turn off your comedy analytics brain, but I enjoyed the challenge. It was fun to shoot.

How do you describe this movie since it doesn’t fit into a specific genre?

A lot of the marketing is like, “Whoa this bachelor party gets weird,” but that’s so not what it is. And that’s what I love. It’s a comedy that’s not – I think it’s hilarious, but it’s not Zac Efron with a Solo cup and some crazy thing happens to someone and the people in the trailer are like hand to their mouth “Ohhhh” because someone hit a trampoline weird. Not to take anything away from that, but this one is much more understated. It’s this slice of life, and everyone is coming into this already botched bachelor party with preconceived notions about what a bachelor party should be, as well as each dude has their own mountain of baggage that they’re dealing with. But there’s been a tragedy that everyone is dealing with and how are they going to breach it if they are or aren’t? What I love about it is it’s pretty much just the weekend. There’s a little bit of preamble but all you see is men and how they deal with that kind of stuff and their own issues, as well.

Have you had a shitty bachelor party experience?

No. I’ve never been to one where crazy stuff happened. I’m trying to think if I’ve been to any, other than my own and off the top of my head I don’t think I have. And my own was actually really similar to the one in Joshy minus a lot of the debauchery and tears. We went out to the woods in some really scenic house that we rented and it was only about 5 or 6 guys and a girl showed up, my friend who lived in that town, and we played board games and did a little mushrooms and that’s kind of what we did. I have a pretty low tolerance for total debauchery because usually I get uncomfortable or by that time I’m so worn out I have to go to bed. I try to have fun!

We’ve seen your Silicon Valley character go to some interesting places lately. Did you draw from him at all with your character in Joshy?

No, if anything I wanted to make sure that he was a totally different guy. This has been explained to me because, contrary to popular belief, I’m not Jewish. Everyone else on Joshy was super Jewish, so “Joshy” is a term that’s like a good Jewish kid, a nice boy. And there was a lot of scenes where I wanted to be crazy but I was like “okay, let’s remind ourselves that he’s a good guy and he’s not the weird one.” In this cast of characters, he’s not the weird one. Joshy is this titular character and the elephant in the room, and for a good chunk of the movie he’s in the background. He’s there and everyone interacts with him, he’s not a ghost or anything, but it comes to a pivotal point where everything comes to life and I like that. It’s a neat thing. Usually it’s the other way around. I was happy with it.

Obviously a lot of people in this cast you either knew already, you’d performed with, or were friends with to some degree. Did anyone do something or have a scene that blew you away and you saw a side of them that you’d never seen before?

No one totally shocked me. No one changed my life, but what I had a really hard time getting through because I was laughing so much, is where Brett Gelman is yelling at me, saying, “It’s not okay to be sad!” Because he’s so intense, he’s pretty much that in real life and it was just so absurd, someone screaming at someone that they’re not allowed to act sad. But that’s what I like about the tone of that movie. That’s absurd but we’re all playing it as real as we can. So, it’s not a bunch of actors waiting around to throw out the most absurd line, it actually by that time feels like the natural and logical progression of that scene. So, that one was hard for me because I couldn’t stop laughing.

Let’s talk a little bit about Silicon Valley. Do you know where we’re at with season 4, when it’s coming back? Have you started?

We just started and we get scripts as they come along, so I couldn’t tell you what’s in store big picture, but I’m assuming we’re still airing in the spring, along with Veep. Although, Game of Thrones has changed to the summer, from what I hear. We left season 3 with pivoting into this video chat thing, so I guess the question is, is that big enough of an idea for Richard? I could tell you that’s the thing he struggles with in the first couple episodes of the fourth season. As much as he resisted it where he doesn’t want to be like Hooli, his major sin is pride, so he kind of does have that ego that wants to be Hooli secretly.

After Joshy, have you seen a lot more interest from people trying to lock you into some drama roles?

Yeah, it’s come up here and there. Over the summer I shot – I was very much the supporting cast – but I shot a sci-fi thriller thing with Keanu Reeves which was pretty cool. But, it’s not a huge Matrix sort of movie. I always get enticed, I definitely want to try that. Dramas tend to be the movies that I actually watch. I’m kind of disheartened by comedies lately, in the film world. TV seems to get it, but as soon as you put it in an hour and a half it just seems to fall into formula and get really gross. Without fail, halfway through shooting a dramatic thing I’m always like, “God I wanna do some jokes. Why is everybody so serious?” I’ll never give up on comedy, but I’m just open to good work and cool stories.

For Joshy, this guy’s friends know how to cheer him up at any time, so what is something that you know will cheer you up at any time? Perhaps something you’ve turned to recently, even? I’ve turned to pizza, to be honest.

I’ve turned to poutine. There’s a good poutine spot nearby here in Hollywood and it brings back the Canadian clogged artery nostalgia. Video games and Dungeons and Dragons and shit like that, anything where I can just be like, “Okay, for a second, this life isn’t real, I’m a dragon slayer,” or I’m like a space cowboy or anything to just take a break.

With Thanksgiving coming up, is there anything that you’re planning to binge watch with your time off?

Well, I’m all up to date on Westworld. You know what I’m watching, actually, is – I’d never watched it growing up – but I’m watching X-Files. I like it. It’s interesting. I must have caught a very exceptionally good episode or I caught it late at night and I was like, “Wow! What is this? This is incredible!” I will say, not all episodes are that good, but it’s good and I’ve got Kumail (Nanjiani) who is a nut. I was like, “Hey man, I think I get X-Files,” and he was like, [Kumail impression] “Let me tell you what you’ve got to watch” and he gave me all of these episodes. He’s like skip these, watch these. He freaked the fuck out. So I’m slogging my way through it. It’s pretty fun, though. It’s a good for, I have a little nighttime marijuana to put me to bed and for like an hour before you start to get sleepy you’re actually genuinely stoned, so a little bit of that, little bit of X-Files, that’s the perfect evening. I get my mind constantly blown.

[Watch Joshy on Hulu starting this Friday, November 25]