Ed Helms
My friend and I sang an a cappella rendition of Extreme's 'More Than Words' at one of our football pep rallies in a desperate attempt to look cool. For a while, I wore pink Converse All Stars because I thought it made me seem daring and irreverent.Collection: Cool
I try to explain to people that you get the roles that are right when they're right. If you have a nerd character but you're kind of a cool guy, you're probably not going to get the nerd part. The nerd is going to get the nerd part. You know, someone like me.Collection: Cool
April is tax month. If you are having trouble filing your taxes, then you should hire an accountant. They'll give you the same advice that they've given hundreds of corporations - taxes are for douche bags.
I feel like I'm worried about my later years in life because I feel like I'm using up so much good karma right now. There's going to be some sort of karmic backlash somewhere down the road.
You take a vacation to a place like Thailand and you're ready for the excitement of something new and foreign. But when you're working 14-hour days, all you want is something familiar to ground you. And there's just nothing there.
First there was the New Hampshire primary, and we had nearly a year leading up to it. And now, look! Three primaries in one weekend! How many of these things are they going to have?
I had envisioned doing comedy since childhood. For sure.
When you're playing a fictional character reacting to the real world, it's incredibly difficult and confusing and kind of messes with your values a bit.
I'm kind of embarrassed by how quickly I adjusted to L.A. I really love it. It's so pleasant.
It's incredibly fun to play someone that you don't like. It exorcises your own demons in a way. It's cathartic. We all have things that we don't like about ourselves, little things. And I get to amplify those things and put them out there. It's fun and it has a cleansing effect.
This may come as a surprise, given the nature of my job, but I am very guarded and contemplative. I'm not a naturally boisterous person.
I'm a very jaded and cynical person.
Vulnerability is huge. I love to see that in characters. It's something I feel like a lot of my comedic heroes have always done.
I happen to think singing is hilarious, especially when it pops out at the wrong time.
When you're in New York City or Los Angeles, even if you're not dealing with show business, there's still this sense that it's the center of the universe. And I think that's a really dangerous, limiting mindset.
I like being from a city that is not entrenched in show business. When you're in New York City or Los Angeles, even if you're not dealing with show business, there's still this sense that it's the center of the universe.
So long as your desire to explore is greater than your desire to not screw up, you're on the right track.Collection: Long
I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them.Collection: Wish
Don't be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self.Collection: Graduation
When you try hard at everything you do, even when it feels foolish to do so, you’re opening up doors and possibilities you might not be seeing in the moment.Collection: Doors
I think that music at inappropriate times with inappropriate volumes can be the funniest thing ever.Collection: Thinking
Chickens are a symbol of chaos. Wherever you stick a chicken, unless it's a chicken farm, it's just chaos.Collection: Sticks
I worked as an assistant editor, actually, for a few years. That was right when I was just starting to get out at night and do a lot of stand-up, improv, and sketch work in New York. It really is invaluable. I think it pounded into me an awareness of what an editor wants and needs, in terms of clarity of a moment, where and when to start and stop a line.Collection: New York
I found myself often asking the question, "Who deserves to be made fun of?" Depending on your mood, the answer can be no one or everyone. It took me a while to understand the math of how those field pieces came together. I don't think that ridicule is ever funny, but there are times when that gets the biggest response.Collection: Fun
I mean they [ Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis] are both just really good guys and also they're both extremely funny in very unique ways. We made each other laugh an awful lot, and that goes a long way. And we also went through some hard times. I mean it was hard to make this movie [The Hangover].Collection: Hangover
It's a very collaborative environment [making The Office]. We always do takes of how it's scripted, but then we also mix it up a lot too. And it's kind of a crapshoot, you never know which one... I mean a lot of time improvisation doesn't go anywhere and it's not good at all but, so what was written is often times better.Collection: Mean
Who among us wouldn't rush out and buy a Pepsi if we thought it would make the Osborne's disappear?Collection: Pepsi
I'm working on a script right about Civil War re-enactors who go back in time to the actual Civil War. It's kind of a big, crazy Back to the Future comedy. So, of course, it's the Civil War - I play the banjo. I was just having a conversation with one of the producers about some of the material and he was like, 'You know, we have to work in a scene where you play the banjo. And I was like I'll get behind that.Collection: Crazy
There is something beautiful in the mundane if you take enough microscope to it and focus in on something that seems innocuous to begin with.Collection: Beautiful
Improvisation is about finding the best joke or the silliest way to get something across. Improvising conflict is always fun because you can just go for it.Collection: Fun
[I read news] because no one's going to tell me what they really think of something.Collection: Thinking
As a hobbyist, there's something about miniature anything that captures my imagination.Collection: Imagination
One of the biggest breaks we had actually, one of the biggest, the hardest I laughed on the movie [The Hangover] was the baby was just doing ridiculous things and making hilarious faces. But I'm sitting there and I'm supposed to be having this exchange with Zach [ Galifianakis] and the baby is like staring at me with these huge eyes and acting, and just making the most cerebral faces, and I could not keep it together.Collection: Baby
All I knew is that I loved movies and comedy and TV, and I wanted to perform. I made a bunch of shorts and movies in college, and that was always fun too. I directed some plays in college. It was taking it all in and trying to immerse myself in as much of it as possible.Collection: Fun
There are certain relationships in our lives that implode, and it can feel really inexplicable and terrifying. You don't know why, and sometimes relationships end for reasons that one person keeps from the other person, and it's just totally unclear, and it just goes south and it's heartbreaking.Collection: Heartbreaking
I have profound respect for Sacha Baron Cohen, but Borat is not a particularly comfortable movie for me to sit through.Collection: Profound
I think the culture of Civil War re-enacting is also incredibly fascinating.Collection: War
[Mike Tyson] was fantastic. Well, here's the cool thing about Tyson. It turns out he's a huge fan of Old School, which was one of Todd Phillips' earlier movies. So he got to the set and he already liked Todd and he trusted Todd.Collection: School
I was just fooling around with the piano and Todd [Phillips] was like, 'Hey there's a great spot in the movie [The Hangover] where we need a little bit of a breath in the narrative. You should write a song and stick it in there.' And I was like, 'Well, what should the song be about?' And he said, 'The tiger.' 'Oh, okay.' So I went off and I wrote this song. I came back and Todd and I tinkered with it a little more and then we shot it right then. It all happened in a day.Collection: Song
The piano song that I do in the movie [The Hangover], it's a great example, that was never - that wasn't in the script.Collection: Song
Sometimes you just create a joke out of thin air in the editing room. I'm really glad I've had that experience. It gives me a little more confidence in front of the camera.Collection: Giving
This word gets overused in describing actors but I think it applies to Mike [Tyson] in this case - he was totally fearless. He jumped in and played with us comedically and improvised a lot. A lot of jokes in those scenes with him are from him improvising.Collection: Thinking
Todd [Phillips] doesn't care. That's part of his genius as a director, he will say anything to anybody.Collection: Say Anything
They [Mike Tyson and Todd Phillips] actually struck up a really pretty incredible chemistry, those two, and I think they really trusted each other.Collection: Thinking
What's cool is that in the story of the movie [The Hangover] our characters are also really kind of getting to know each other and bonding over the course of the movie. And I think you're seeing a real, a literal sort of friendship growing both in us as actors and on screen as characters.Collection: Real
Sometimes you just create a joke out of thin air in the editing room. So I'm really glad I've had that experience. It gives me a little more confidence in front of the camera.Collection: Air
Working on The Daily Show, I co-produced all those field segments, and that's another huge thing.I probably did more than 100 field segments.Collection: Fields
The biggest thing that comes out of improv that gets built on is just character traits. You know, for me the singing was born out of improv.Collection: Character
I'm sort of laughing and so Zach [ Galifianakis] started laughing [on the set of The Hangover]. And Todd [Phillips] was baffled because what we were saying wasn't that funny, you know what I mean? And it was like all the baby's face. So Todd was like, 'What is going on? Get it together guys.'Collection: Baby
God bless him, I mean a lot of times you get non-actors on a set and they get really self-conscious, especially when doing something crazy like singing along with Phil Collins. They get sort of reserved and self-conscious. Mike [Tyson] completely trusted Todd [Phillips] and totally put everything into it.Collection: Crazy