“The creature feature genre tends to be a little formulaic sometimes,” writer/director Jacob Vaughan remembers saying to his co-writer and friend Benjamin Hayes as they embarked on this film. One of Vaughan’s favorite movies, though, was David Cronenberg’s The Brood which stars Oliver Reed as a psychiatrist who tries to manage the anger of a woman who, when angry, births children from her belly who then go off and kill people. Vaughan loved that idea! So he and Ben created one of the craziest movies you’ll ever see about a guy named Duncan Hayslip (Ken Marino) with very poor stress management skills. Duncan has a monster living inside of him that, when Duncan gets angry, comes out of his ass to kill people. Gulp.
Executive produced by Mark and Jay DuPlass, Bad Milo features Gillian Jacobs, who we spoke to last week, as Duncan’s supportive wife, Mary Kay Place as his nagging mother, Stephen Root as his deadbeat hippie dad, Peter Stormare as his hypnotherapist, and Patrick Warburton as his obnoxious boss. I sat down with very funny Ken Marino in Los Angeles to talk about this insane horror comedy.
Danny Miller: You’re so good at playing assholes, but it was fun seeing you as this really nice guy with — a pretty big problem!
Ken Marino: Yeah, it was nice to have the opportunity to play someone who wasn’t a total prick! Between Wanderlust and Role Models and Burning Love and In a World, I feel like I’ve been playing many variations of prickiness lately!
This guy is hugely screwed up — but not a prick!
Right. Duncan is more of a victim of not being in control of his life.
I love telling people what this movie is about and then just watching the expression on their faces!
(Laughs.) Yeah, I love that, too. “It’s about this really stressed out guy and all the stresses of his life culminate in a monster that comes out of his ass, kills people, and then goes back into his ass.” It’s when I get to the part about the monster going back up his ass that people go, “Whaaaat??”
I know! I think we can all relate to the idea of Milo coming out of your ass — some of us more than others — but the idea of him going back in? Oy. There was a lot of audible groaning going on at my screening! Thank God we don’t actually see that journey.
That was my first big question when I talked to Jacob! First, I wasn’t that hot on sitting there for hours on set with my ass hanging out while they adjusted the lights! And second, I think it’s a lot more interesting to see my facial reactions to what’s happening, or to see Milo crawling up my leg and knowing what’s about to happen.
How did you figure out how to do that? Have you had to simulate many orgasms on screen — was it anything like that?
Uhhh…that was pretty different than any orgasm I’ve ever had.
Oops, maybe I’ve just revealed too much about myself!
Oh, please, I wish I could have an orgasm that intense! I guess I tried to imagine what it would feel like to give birth to a large-headed baby. As far as it going back in — I just winged it!
I have to admit that I can relate to Duncan more than I’d like to in terms of my ability to express anger and deal with confrontation. How about you? Do you ever feel that there could be a monster growing in your colon?
A friend of mine on Party Down once said that I’m Nice Ken about 90 percent of the time and then I’m Inferno Ken the other 10. I try to keep Inferno Ken at bay as much as I can, I’m not proud of him, but sometimes he just needs to get out. I guess he’s my release valve when the pressure builds too much!
I just hope getting him back inside isn’t as painful as what Duncan has to go through. I loved the cast in this movie. Did you have a say in choosing any of these actors?
No, I was just a hired hand for this film and I felt like every few days I’d get another gift. Gillian Jacobs? The best, and such a sweetheart. Mary Kay Place? Awesome! Stephen Root, Peter Stormare? My God! I knew Kumail Nanjiani before we made this film. I think he’s one of the funniest guys out there right now.
You’re all so good with improv, were there times that you went off script?
Not too much because it was so solid, but with certain actors, like Peter, there were times that we’d do the scene as written and then just start playing to see what would come of it. I like acting both ways.
Given the insane premise, were there moments when it was hard to keep a straight face?
Oh, it was ridiculous. I’d be talking to this monster like it was my little boy instead of a walking pile of shit and suddenly start thinking, “What the hell are we doing?”
I understand that Milo was a real puppet and that no big special effects or CGI was used?
Yeah, that puppet was crazy, it had all these facial expressions. These two guys were just out of frame controlling him and they were very invested in making sure he was emotionally and truthfully reacting to whatever was going on in the scene. Very cool puppet!
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Bad Milo is playing in selected cities and is available on VOD.