Timothy Simons’ breakout role as Veep‘s Jonah Ryan, the lanky office creep turned politician, required uncomfortable yet hilarious material, including a #MeToo parody entitled “#NotMe.” Simons told The Hollywood Reporter’s Comedy Actor Roundtable that he never worried about going near difficult subjects, because the writers on the HBO comedy were so good.
“They’re so good at handling those kinds of things, and always making sure that the joke is on the right person.”
“As a performer, I never really have got nervous about it,” he continued, “just because ultimately the joke is never on any of the people that he is saying terrible things about, it’s always on how terrible of a person he is.”
Simons was the newcomer to this year’s roundtable, seated among comedy veterans such as Jim Carrey and Ted Danson, and told the Roundtable he doesn’t feel as if he has “made it” in Hollywood.
“I feel like everybody that I met, outwardly, you look at them and think, ‘Well that person, that’s person’s fine. They’re perfect. They’re sailing. They’re never gonna have to hustle.’ Then you meet them, and they still hustle.”
“I did see Steve Buscemi at a party one time,” Simons told the Roundtable. “That was amazing.”
Simons joined Carrey, Danson, Henry Winkler, Don Cheadle and Sacha Baron Cohen for the Comedy Actor Roundtable. The full Roundtable airs June 30 on SundanceTV. Follow all the Emmy season roundtables at THR.com/Roundtables.
Related Stories
