Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt is a man of many hats: Stand-up comedian, character actor in TV and film, animated rat, script doctor, gastronome and fast-food Taste Tester, and now father and family man. In the two years since we last spoke to Oswalt—on the occasion of his second comedy album, Werewolves And Lollipops—he has raised his profile considerably. While continuing to tour the country doing stand-up, and compiling the material for his new hourlong Comedy Central special (and CD/DVD) My Weakness Is Strong, Oswalt has appeared on TV shows including Lewis Black’s Root Of All Evil, Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, United States Of Tara, Flight Of The Conchords, Reaper, and Dollhouse. On the morning this interview was conducted, it was announced that Oswalt has landed a recurring role on the upcoming SyFy series Caprica.

In the new independent film Big Fan, directed by former Onioneditor-in-chief (and The Wrestler screenwriter) Robert Siegel, Oswalt steps into darker dramatic territory as Paul Aufiero, a loner from Staten Island who lives with his mother, works as a parking-lot attendant, and obsesses about the New York Giants. After his favorite player beats him up, Paul’s life is shaken up, but not necessarily in the way viewers might expect. Oswalt recently talked to The A.V. Club about Big Fan, Caprica, Dollhouse, why he’d rather have ice-cream sandwiches than conflict, and how having a child made him a devil-may-care badass.

The A.V. Club: How’s everything in New York?
Patton Oswalt: I love being in New York, but this time of year, with the mugginess? You’re in this city that’s visually exciting, but it smells like the devil’s diaper. I know that’s a really shallow thing to make you negative toward a city that you love, but fuck, does it smell bad.

AVC: Wasn’t Giuliani supposed to have cleaned all that up?
PO: Yeah. What happened? Put some lavender oils in the sewer or something.

AVC: The news broke today that you’re going to put in regular appearances on Caprica. Can you talk about the part and how that came together?
PO: As far as I know, they wanted some other way-bigger-named comedian and then that person dropped out, and I literally got sent the script the day before. I got the script sent to me on a Tuesday, with “Can you fly to Vancouver tomorrow?” Like, on a Wednesday morning, can you get on a plane and go to Vancouver and do all your wardrobe? And then I did that, and Thursday I shot all day. I shot all of the talk-show scenes, and we’re going to go back next week to do a lot of monologue stuff. I’m just going to be a sort of Jon Stewart-esque presence that’s always going to be on television in the background. I think that’s going to be the role I have, though there’s a big confrontation I have with Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson.

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