Interview | Marc Maron and Craig Robinson from The Bad Guys

I went back and forth laughing about, “I’m having a baby.” So, it’s probably that. Even though I did some French accent stuff that was pretty high up there, but I think, when I would go to those high-pitch numbers, we couldn’t stop laughing. It was fun making those guys laugh in the booth. So, I’m going to go ahead and just say, me as a pregnant woman.

Marc Maron: Well, for me, it was the fact that they wanted me to do it. So, that made it pretty easy (laughs). I did not know the books but I was given all the books and I looked at the character and I read the script and I was definitely in. I could relate to relate to the snake.

Craig Robinson: I’m like Marc, I was all for the role. They pitched it to me, and I got to see what the characters looked like, what the idea for the movie was and some of the people involved and it was a no-brainer for me. I was, like, you had me at hello.

Marc Maron: It feels like the thing they should take away is that even if we’re irritable and cranky and mad that you should always stay focused on your friendship and that it will most likely persevere.

Craig Robinson: For my character, you can have layers. You can be a gentle giant, but you know just, don’t mess with me. So, it’s okay to have both sides in your person, but try to lean towards that gentler side.

Marc Maron: They always encouraged it during the reads. I was fortunate enough to actually do a lot of scenes in person, with Sam Rockwell, and they’d let us go for a while and we’d find some stuff. But there’s always a part of certain scenes where they would encourage the improv.

Craig Robinson: We would get to improv. Funny thing about improvising with animation, let’s say you’re doing one line and you’re trying to give them a few different versions of the line. You start improvising around the line and then it gets a laugh. Then this one line could turn into this crazy other line that would inform something else. So, yes, we definitely improvised.

Marc Maron: I enjoyed Piranha a lot, but I think, you know, Sam had the good role. The smooth role. You know, the straight guy role. He didn’t have to yell or scream. Like, he used his regular voice.

Craig Robinson: I probably would have gone for Piranha. He was hysterical. He made me crack up.

Marc Maron: Yes. I would hope so. I would like to think I’ve changed, or at least I’ve been able to stifle the worst part of me. I totally believe that people can change. If you act differently enough, it’ll stick.

Craig Robinson: It takes 21 days to make a habit. But, yes, the answer is yes.

Marc Maron: I think, from my point of view, the message is a lot about judgment, and not judging people on one thing, or one behavior, or whatever you’re projecting onto them. But also, I think it has a lot to do with friendship and loyalty.

Craig Robinson: I agree. Friendship is a strong current in this one.

Marc Maron: I was able to record with Sam quite a bit. The scenes that Craig and I had, I don’t think we recorded those together. But they’re pretty funny. Rocco and I did a lot of work around the more delicate, friendship stuff. We met in person a couple of times during COVID and also we did work on Zoom together around certain scenes.

Craig Robinson: I was solo, in the booth. I was working with Pierre and one of the producers and then we would throw jokes back and forth. I didn’t work with any of the cast until we did a table read on Zoom.

Marc Maron: Not in animation, ‘cause you just do it over and over again. It was kind of taxing on my voice because, for some reason, when I do animation, I’m always up here like this (changes voice) and after a couple of hours, it definitely starts to be difficult.

Chris Robinson: I had to do a French accent, which I’m not the greatest at. Then, I had to pretend to be a woman, so, yes, there were definitely some challenges.