'About My Father' Actor Anders Holm on His Billionaire 'Clown' Role: 'He's Not a Serious Person' (Exclusive)
In the new family comedy About My Father, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco introduces his hard-working dear old dad (Robert De Niro) to his girlfriend Ellie's (Leslie Bibb) family, who are hotel business billionaires. Like something out of a Meet The Parents playbook, laugh-out-loud hijinx ensues, as Maniscalco desperately tried to help his father make a good impression, while also trying to find time to plan a marriage proposal. Playing one of Maniscalco's future brothers-in-law is Workaholics star Anders Holm, who sat down with PopCulture.com to discuss his role as Lucky Collins, a character he endearingly referees to as a "clown" who is "not a serious person."
Joking about how "method" he got for the role as a billionaire son with a helicopter license, Holm joked that he learned to fly "just for this movie," then quipping, "That's the cool thing about this world is you get to escape from your real self and become these people. Then when you leave the movie, a little bit of them stays with you." He then added, "So I've been known to just approach helicopters, get in the pilot seat, and it's become a problem. But, I wouldn't want it any other way." Holm later joked, "You know what, it's just 2023, times have changed. Can't just hijack a helicopter anymore."
While Lucky doesn't come across as a very self-aware individual, Holm has an idea that he might be more clued-in to his own flaws than he's perceived to be. "I think he knows that he's an embarrassment, and he just wants his dad to believe in him," Holm said. "He just wants one iota of respect, but he ain't going to get it, because he's a clown. You know what I mean? He's not doing anything with his life. He's a fun guy. He can race you down the mountain, he can fly in the copter, but he's not a serious person. And I think his dad doesn't appreciate that."
Ultimately, Lucky is very much a product of his environment, not unlike some TV "nepo-babies" that have become very popular over the past few years. "That's the perpetual cycle for these kinds of people where you're like, 'God... I feel so bad for them,' and then they do something you hate," he said, then comparing the Collins family to the Roy family from HBO's Succession. "That show's so good at making you go, 'You know what? They're kind of funny. They're going through a lot. This is a complicated family,' and then they do something that you're like, 'But I hate them. They're not good people.' You know? They endear you enough, so that you're like, 'I think I can relate to these people.' Then they I don't know, brush their teeth with gold toothpaste or something."
Playing the role of the Collins parents are David Rasche as dad Bill and Kim Cattrall as mom Tigger. When pressed for who he thinks would make the better real-life parent, Holm pondered, "I mean... Mom is so tough. I know she's a nice person, but when she goes to work, she's pretty intimidating, you know? You can't mess with her. Dad's a little softer, a little more flexible, but also he's not very giving."
Offering his take on how Lucky might sway, Holm added, "I guess I'll say this, he probably would go with Dad, but Mom would be better for him. Mom's the kind of person who wouldn't feed the bears, right? Because then the bears don't know how to hunt for themselves, and I think that if it was just him and Mom, she'd be like, 'You got to fend for yourself,' and he might evolve, which is not funny."
It would be remiss to not mention the third Collins sibling, Doug, an awkward and timid activist played by Brett Dier (Jane The Virgin, Fresh). Speaking about his on-screen brother, Holm joked, "He's the same guy. I mean, he's not the same guy. Brett's character is probably Brett at 11, and Brett himself is already at nine. You know what I mean?"
Holm continued, "He was going on these silent retreats as they were putting him through the audition process," then revealed that one of Doug's most hilarious on-screen dynamics is something from Dier's actual life. "That's his flute that he already played in real life, and then they wrote it into the movie." He then quipped, "It's a joke. But it's real. Brett's the man. We had a really good time. We're different, but we're working together."
Finally, Holm shared a heartfelt takeaway from his time working on About My Father, saying, "That's what I like about this job, is that people that are different than me are forced to hang out with me, and then learn something from them. I don't know if they get anything from me, but that's the cool thing about this job is that you rotate through these work groups. You're not stuck with somebody for years or whatever, just a couple months, and you hang out and you pick something up from somebody that you maybe would never have hung out with before." About My Father is now playing in theaters.