HBO held a screening on Tuesday for the return of Vice Principals. The HBO comedy series begins its second and final season this Sunday. The series is helmed by Danny McBride, who also created the comedy Eastbound & Down for HBO. He attended the screening alongside Walton Goggins, who plays Lee Russell alongside McBride’s Neal Gamby.
The screening took place Tuesday, beginning with a performance by the Brooklyn Express Drumline. Goggins and McBride took questions about the series. McBride talked about how both seasons of Vice Principals were shot at the same time. “It probably made it feel more like when you shoot a film,” said McBride. “When you shoot a movie, there’s a beginning, middle, and end. You know what your character’s gonna do the entire story. So I think we kinda replicated that here. We all knew where it was heading, and we knew what everyone was gonna do… Everything we had, we basically put it up on screen.”
“I had met Walton a handful of times, and was obviously familiar with his work, but we hadn’t worked together before, and we hadn’t spent a considerable amount of time together,” McBride said on working with Goggins. “He was someone that I always wanted to spend time with, and always wanted to work with. We didn’t even think about who would play this role when writing it. We were just sort of getting the scripts out. When it came time for it to be real, and to be cast, there wasn’t anyone that we could think of that we felt had what it would take to bring Lee to life. Then – I think it was David Green had suggested Walton, and instantly we were all like ‘yes, that’s who we have to talk into doing this.’ Because that character of Lee is so tricky – he’s hilarious and vile, but there has to be a level of charisma so that you can actually watch him. That was something we thought Walton was gonna be able to nail perfectly.”
Vice Principals returns tonight, September 17th, at 10:30 PM. The show stars McBride and Goggins as two vice principals, fighting for dominance over North Jackson High School. The second season picks up after the assassination attempt on Gamby’s life, and getting vengeance on those who hate the duo.