5 Questions With 'Suburgatory' Star Rex Lee
For the last seven years, Rex Lee has been best known as Ari Gold's long-suffering assistant, Lloyd (best said with a bellow) on Entourage. But thanks to ABC's sublime Suburgatory, fans are continuing their love affair with the funnyman -- and learning he's not just a one-trick pony!
I caught up with Rex in advance of tonight's Mr. Wolf-centric episode to find out why this role worried him and what he's hoping to do in (fingers crossed!) season two!
Insider.com: Lloyd was such a signature role -- did you worry that people wouldn't be able to see you as anything else when that show came to an end?
Rex Lee: I was completely worried about it when Entourage was coming to a close, but I couldn't have planned this any better. I did want to line up the next job rather quickly. In the beginning I worried the characters were too similar, but it's my job to bring their differences to the forefront so people didn't think I was doing the same thing every time. Which brings me back to why I was worried in the first place – I don't want to say that Lloyd is a lot like me, which he kind of is, but I worried people would assume he was too much like me and therefore, I wasn't acting. I didn't want that to be the perception ... although a bunch of friends I knew before Entourage thought I wasn't acting on that show – they thought I was being myself. Which is disturbing [laughs].
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Insider: It's quite amazing how much Mr. Wolfe has been developed given he's not the main character and this is a 30 minute sitcom with a rather large cast.
Rex: I know, it's been really exciting and was definitely a surprise to me. I read the pilot and assumed that would be the role, but once I was a part of the show and started talking to Emily [Kapnek, creator], it became clear that she wanted all the characters to deepen and mature. She wants everyone to be very specific and layered and textured.
Insider: And tonight's episode features a lot of Mr. Wolf -- what can you tease?
Rex: Well, as I said, Emily is into having the characters deepen and this is about Mr. Wolf wanting his relationship with Chef Allen to deepen. I can tell from talking to people who watch the show that some didn't pick up on the fact that they're actually dating [laughs]. Maybe part of that is we've never actually stood together in a scene. Tonight is the first time you see us in a frame together [laughs]. It's about the deepening of that relationship and how my character is already ready for more of a commitment. Mr. Wolf is looking for something, anything, that might help bring them closer together because he worries they're not as close as he wants.
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Insider: And the photos hint that a puppy factors into that?
Rex: Yes -- I don't want to give too much away, but there might be some mistaken identity and some chases – this is the Suburgatory action episode [laughs].
Insider: It seems like a given that Suburgatory will be back next season -- what would you like to do with Mr. Wolf next year that you weren't able to this year?
Rex: There was a little bit of PDA that we filmed for tonight's episode that didn't make it into the final edit – I wouldn't mind if that was a little more up front. I think the world is ready for that and if they're not, we should make them ready.
Suburgatory airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.
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