Former “Saturday Night Live” and “Ladies Man” star Tim Meadows is returning to television in Fox’s “Son of Zorn” a series which combines cartoon animation with live action characters as Zorn a cartoon character is thrust into our world. Tim spoke with us about his character on the show and more!
How did you become involved with the show?
Tim Meadows: Well what happened was I was shooting a movie called Pop Star Never Stop Never Stopping. Chis Miller and Phil Lord the two directors from the Lego Movie were on set while I was filming a scene. The next day I got a call from my manager saying they were asking if I would be interested in shooting a presentation for Fox. I read it, I heard the idea, I loved the idea and I was like if we can make this work it would be great.
How would you describe your character on Son of Zorn?
Tim Meadows: Craig is a mild mannered psychologist and teacher. He teaches at an online university. He’s Cheryl Hines’ fiancé on the show. He starts off as an adversary of Zorn and then they start to develop a somewhat adversarial friendship.
How is Craig similar to you?
Tim Meadows: I think I’m a mild mannered person. I listen to people I’m not overbearing. I’m a pretty nice guy, I work hard. People like me in general. So I think I have those things in common with Craig. Craig is a little bit sillier than I am and I would say a little bit wimpier than me.
How was it interacting with a cartoon character like Zorn rather than a live human character?
Tim Meadows: It was kind of weird in the beginning because I hadn’t done a lot of green screen work I did some but not a lot. So in the beginning it was weird because we would have an actor on set and we would block the scene with the actor there and then when we shot the scene the actor was gone and he would do his lines from behind the camera. You get a little bit disoriented because you have to look in one place but the voice you’re hearing and reacting to is coming from another area. In the beginning I would always look over to the actor off camera and then that would ruin the take because I should be looking from where Zorn will be talking from. So I had to get used to it, I had to get used to the idea of not looking at where the voice was coming from.
What was your favorite part about working on the show?
Tim Meadows: My favorite part is the cast. Working with Cheryl and Johnny and Artemis and the stand in for Zorn his name is Dan Lippert he’s a comedian actor. It was the best part of the show going in hanging out with those guys all day. We’d make each other laugh and we were all discovering the show together. It was fun.
What was your favorite character growing up?
Tim Meadows: I think the cartoon I got excited about when I found out it was coming on was the Jackson’s tv cartoon [Jackson 5 cartoon].
What can we expect from the series?
Tim Meadows: You can expect to see a very uniquely funny show. It’ s different but it’s grounded ins stories you can relate to like family, a divorce, living in a different culture being a father or parent or a teenager. We tackle a lot of things that you see on other tv shows but a lot of humor comes from the fact that we have this character Zorn in the mix.
What is your secret to maintaining your longevity in the entertainment acting industry?
Tim Meadows: I would say that I like to work and one of my rules for myself is never ever quit. As long as I can do it I want to keep doing it. I think the other key to my longevity has been the friends and connections that I have made over the years. My friends make movies and they hire me for their movies or tv shows and I’ve done the same for people that I know and have work with. I think that’s part of it you make connections, you make friendships and you keep working with those people and if you do a good job they remember it.
What else can we expect from you?
Tim Meadows: I’m doing some episodes of The Goldbergs on ABC, I have a recurring character on that show, shot that a few weeks ago. I’m out on the road doing standup again in the fall so I’ll be out there doing that. That’s it right now just doing Zorn that’s all I’m really concerned about hopefully we get picked up for another season.
The show will have a special preview tonight!