-I thought you didn't go to Nevermore.
-I didn't.
You dad got all the brains.
But I used to drop in on him.
Usually from the ceiling
with a dagger clutched between my teeth,
just to keep him on his toes.
-Of course.
-He filled me in on what's been going on.
Monsters, murder, mayhem.
What fun!
-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We're here with Fred Armisen, everybody.
That was a clip from "Wednesday,"
currently streaming on Netflix.
What a cool project, directed by Tim Burton.
-Can't believe it.
Can't believe I got to do it.
As soon as they asked me to do it, I --
The first thing I remember offering was like,
"I will shave my head to do this."
And I did.
I really wanted to, like, get into it.
-'Cause sometimes when you say, "I'll shave my head,"
they'll say, "Oh, don't be ridiculous.
We'll just put on a bald cap."
-Yeah, but you know those things take forever.
-It is. As an actor, it's almost --
if you're willing to shave your head,
you've saved so much time. -Absolutely.
And it always looks kinda weird. You can always kind of tell.
No disrespect to makeup artists around the world.
You're all so talented.
[ Laughter ]
Phew.
[ Laughter ]
-So you shaved your head and Uncle Fester --
this is, you know, an iconic role.
How do you approach Uncle Fester?
-You know, there was kind of like an "SNL" thing to it
where I did remember the TV show and I just
tried to do it like I was doing the original TV show.
It's almost like representing the original character.
-That's really fun. -Yeah.
And Tim Burton was great.
He's like, you know,
I don't know how you picture him,
but I thought he'd be like, a little bit sort of quiet.
But he's kind of like, a pretty tough, confident guy.
He's not a New Yorker, but he seems like a New Yorker.
-That's so funny, yeah.
I think of him way differently,
that he would be sort of like quirky and like,
would give your notes through a little cupboard door.
-That's --
That's exactly what I mean, yeah.
-One of the other things I want to talk to you about,
because "Documentary Now," we just had another season,
our fourth season
of a very unique and special show.
[ Applause ]
It was sort of inspired by this sketch
you and I wrote together where you played Ian Rubbish,
a punk rocker from the '70s. -Yeah.
-The only punk rocker who liked Margaret Thatcher.
-Yeah.
-And it's a sketch I'm really proud of.
One of the things about working with you was always,
especially when it was music stuff,
is you would be incredibly specific
about the music.
If it was punk songs from the '70s,
you tried to write great punk songs,
and they are still catchy and I still love listening to them.
The other thing is, you can do a really good British accent,
and I feel like watching a bad one...
-That's nice of you to say.
I do like doing it.
I want to add one thing.
Seth wrote the lyrics to those Ian Rubbish songs.
[ Applause ]
-We're a very good match.
-Honorary punk. -Honorary punk.
You've also made an observation to me before about how --
because I think it happens more this way than the other --
British actors playing Americans.
-Yeah, sometimes when you watch something,
you can tell that it's a British person,
'cause it's like, a non-specific accent,
them doing an American accent,
and like, they try to toughen it up a little bit.
[In American accent] "Hey, I'm gonna read the newspaper.
I'm gonna try to smoke a cigarette.
C'mon, get out of here."
But you can tell it's, like, not specific enough.
No disrespect to British actors.
They all do great.
[ Laughter ] Phew.
-I want to ask one more thing,
because obviously, this is a trio that we know
from "The Californians," you, Bill, Wiig.
[ Applause ]
There's an unseen sketch
that the same three of you did called "The Australians."
-Yes! -That didn't ever go to dress?
-It did go to dress, twice. -It went to dress twice.
A different concept, but explain "The Australians" real quick.
-So this is a sketch you've never seen but
all it was was just me, Bill, and Kristen
as Australians packing to go on a trip.
So we've got a big suitcase open and we're just like,
[Australian accent] "Got to throw a boomerang in there."
And we just list Australian things.
"DVD of 'Muriel's Wedding.' Alright."
And that's all it is.
We just list these Australian things.
And at the end of it,
the credits go downwards.
Like, you know, sort of opposite.
[ Laughter ]
-So the way the toilets flush backwards in Australia?
-The credits, yeah.
And yeah, and that was the whole sketch
was just us listing things.
"Rain gear. Throw some rain gear in there."
And that was it.
-My recollection of it is, it was very patently clear
about halfway through the sketch that it was not going well.
And then the three of you would just start
enjoying it even more.
-Even more. -Because I would say,
as a trio goes, in my history of the show,
the three of you had a sort of affection for each other
and so you really were having just as much fun
when things were going badly.
-Yeah, and it was a nice, simple sketch, but yeah.
You can really feel -- this is something you pointed out.
Sometimes you blame the audience.
You're like, "They're just really quiet tonight."
But then --
[ Laughter ]
But then later in the night,
you'll hear them laugh at someone else's sketch.
And you're like, "Oh, they're here."
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Oh, they were --
They were just making a value judgment on me.
[ Laughter ]
-That was specific.
-Nothing's worse than when you walk off after a dud
and you see, like, people going out for their sketch
and you're like, "Best of luck. They're real quiet."
And then like --
-This was one of those, yeah.
-Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for sticking around.
I love you very much. -Love you, too.
-You guys, that's Fred Armisen.
"Wednesday," currently streaming on Netflix.
We'll be right back.