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Martin Starr chats ‘Intruders’, ‘Silicon Valley’ & our chances of more ‘Freaks & Geeks’ [Exclusive]

Martin Starr interview: We talk exclusively to the star of Silicon Valley and Freaks and Geeks about his latest film Intruders.

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

Intruders arrives on Bluray, DVD and digital platforms this week. The film screened at last year’s Frightfest under the name Shut In and tells the story of a young agoraphobic woman, Anna, who finds herself under siege by a group of burglars. Playing one of the intruders is American actor Martin Starr. He plays Perry, who is definitely the most dastardly of the invaders as he has a very interesting way of trying to keep Anna in check.

Starr started his career in the wonderful, but sadly short-lived television show Freaks and Geeks as Bill Haverchuck. He’s since gone on to star in movies SuperbadThis is the EndVeronica Mars and Adventureland, but is most recognisable at the moment for his role on HBO’s Silicon Valley. On the show he plays Bertram Gilfoyle, a sardonic software engineer. Ahead of the release of Intruders we caught up with Martin to find out all about the new film, as well getting fresh insight into Silicon Valley and whether he thinks we’ll ever get a Freaks and Geeks reunion show. Read our full and exclusive interview below:

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

In a nutshell describe Intruders.

Fundamentally it’s a about a woman whose agoraphobic and she has three men invade her home thinking that she’s not there, then of course find out that she is. Terrifying moments ensue.

Your character Perry isn’t the nicest of guys, what was it about the role that interested you and how did you justify his actions?

I mean… my humanity can’t justify it, but in what he saw the world to be I don’t think those same moral quandaries occur. Personally I just thought it’d be a lot of fun after reading the script. For me it was a departure from a lot of the things that I’ve done before so that was exciting for me to jump into a new mind set. To be honest I like how crazy he is and how uncertain you are of [him] what he goes through, and I liked playing around with that.

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

You have a big fight sequence, how much fun was that to shoot and how much were you allowed to do yourself?

I didn’t have a stunt person, and I think I was the only one on the movie that didn’t have a stunt person. So all of that I did, and it was really fun. That was actually our first day of shooting, that big fight scene.

That was the first day? That’s one Hell of an introduction…

(Laughs) Yeah it was the first thing we did. It was odd and totally counter-intuitive to do it that way I guess. But that’s the way we had to do it because of the budget, that’s just how it had to be.

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

I can’t not talk to you about Silicon Valley; you play Gilfoyle who is definitely a character, how much fun is he to play and how alike are you?

Tremendously different, but [he is] so much fun to play on the show. He’s an easy pair of shoes to jump into, especially with those guys. We are able to have so much fun in that process, not only are the five  guys I work with so immensely talented at acting and improvising and comedy in general, but we also have, in my opinion, the best writers in comedy television. I din’t know how I ended up here, I’m really lucky to be part of the show.

How much do you and the other cast members actually understand about all the tech speak that your characters say?

It takes a lot of guidance sometimes from our on-set experts. We tend to at least understand on a base level what we’re talking about. Sometimes things get a little in depth but most things are weird intricacies of the world of coding and computers and technology, like spaces versus tabs which was in the last episode. Space vs tabs, or tabs vs spaces, however you want to look at it, it is an actual thing. Most of it is tangible, you can understand it, it just doesn’t feel very familiar until you figure it out a little bit.

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

The show’s also just been snapped up for a fourth season, if you could pick, what storyline would you give Gilfoyle?

Oh I don’t get to make decisions like that… I’m really happy with what we’ve got to do so far. Most of the fun that I get to have on the show is related to my relationship with Kumail Nanjiani, the Dinesh / Gilfoyle situation. It’s the most fun for both of us really to play in and we’ve gotten to have our fun this season and hopefully we’ll get to have more in the next. We’re kinda like the onset married couple (laughs) those characters are so intertwined and there’s such a love / hate relationship. They need each other but have this contentious relationship at the same time. It’s fun for me to play in that world.

I think it’s nice that we finally have a show which has a similar core group of characters to The Big Band Theory but approaches it from a more sophisticated angle…

I mean the show was proceeded by so much. I’m sure The Big Bang Theory was in some way guided by The I.T. Crowd which you might be familiar with. This has been a common thing that has just been building up. We happened to perhaps be early adopters to creating a series feel and digging into the depths of a full storyline that is attempting to accurately portray this world, whilst still being completely satirical and funny hopefully.

Freaks and Geeks has had the best post show success rate of anything else out there, pretty much everybody is still working – are you still in touch with anyone?

Yeah we all pretty well do keep in touch. Some friendships have flourished. Yeah that was quite an experience. I can’t say whether that was the launchpad, but certainly Paul [Feige] and Judd [Apatow] had quite an eye for talent and really put together a good group of people. I feel lucky to have been a part of that.

Martin Starr Interview

Martin Starr Interview

In this day and age all the cult shows are getting revival series – X-Files, Gilmore Girls, Prison Break, Twin Peaks etc, do you think  we’ll ever get a Freaks and Geeks one off special? 

I don’t think so no. If I had to guess I would say no. I don’t want to disappoint people, I just find it hard to imagine all of those people becoming available at the same time. I don’t think we could do what Arrested Development did, the way they manipulated it and just showed one or two characters at a time and allowed people to still have their crazy hectic schedules. I think this really needs a group dynamic so ultimately it would be very difficult to find the time where everyone was available. But on top of that I think its something that you also don’t want to f@*k it up (laughs), for lack of a better phrase. It’s so well encapsulated in that eighteen episodes, Judd [Apatow] and Paul [Feig] put so much thought into the arch of that season always thinking that the show was going to get cancelled. We shot the last episode somewhere in the middle of the season because they anticipated the end was nigh. Luckily we got a full eighteen. I find it hard to live up to expectation when that turned out as well as it did and its appreciated as much as it is.

True, and some of the comebacks haven’t been great…

It’s also that perhaps we got lucky with the way it turned out. It’s such a US television thing that you need fifteen years to be a success. Whereas in the UK in general shows are often left at two seasons and are looked back on as a success. They’re looked back on with a lot of appreciation instead of this ‘two seasons means nothing until you get to five or six or seven’ [in the US]. To be honest sometimes I think keeping it short and sweet and hitting the mark is more valuable.

You worked with Rory Culkin on Intruders, and your next project sees you star with his brother Kieran – what can you tell us about Infinity Baby?

I’m excited about it, it was a unique shooting experience. The movie just looks so good, I’ve seen a lot of the screen captures of the edit room right now. I don’t think I’ve been a part of a movie that has shot in black and white before and, I don’t know, there’s just something so cinematic about that that I don’t think I recognised until being part of telling a story in black and white.

It’s a really strange, awesome, weird, also kind of science fiction movie that takes place in the near future. Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are both in it and its got an excellent cast. Honestly what I was most excited about, besides really loving the script – I think it’s a really interesting story, it’s really strange and funny and just offbeat in all the right ways – but I think what I was most excited about was Kevin Corrigan and I play a very odd couple in the movie. I’ve been friends with him for years, maybe fifteen, sixteen years. Around the time we did Freaks & Geeks, he did an episode of that and we met each other then and have become friends over the years. I was really excited to finally get to work with him. I think he’s immensely talented.

Intruders is available to buy and download now. Catch Martin weekly in Silicon Valley on Sky Atlantic, Thursdays at 10pm.  Read our Intruders review here.

Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.

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