Larry Hankin on El Camino, the genius of Bill Hader, and getting axed on Friends
TV Features Larry Hankin
Larry Hankin has left an indelible mark on television history. After all, his crotchety Mr. Heckles was the reason Joey moved in with Chandler on Friends. And, on Breaking Bad, his character Old Joe proved a useful ally to Walt and Jesse, loaning them his magnet in a pivotal moment. But that’s just the tip of the Heisein-berg: Hankin has earned nearly 200 acting credits since 1966, tallying up numerous TV guest appearances, and making memorable supporting turns in films like Escape From Alcatraz and Billy Madison. All of that is to say, Larry Hankin is the ideal candidate for a Random Roles interview, and the actor did not disappoint. Over the course of our delightfully lengthy chat, he detailed his experiences filming El Camino in secret, explained why he jumped at the opportunity to work with Bill Hader on Barry, told us why he didn’t mesh well with Adam Sandler, shared the “best piece of directing” he’s ever gotten from Larry David, and revealed the real reason Mr. Heckles was killed off of Friends. He even opened up about the year he spent homeless, how it informs his work, and the satirical comedy inherent in having nowhere to punch but up.
Larry Hankin’s new book—The Loopholes Dossier – A Satire—was inspired by his year of homelessness, and is available now on Amazon.
39 Comments
Man, I’d really love to know what Larry has to say about all of those roles! BY READING ABOUT IT IN AN ARTICLE.
Don’t you know that readers really prefer the pivot to video? The numbers are clear!
https://www.ccn.com/facebook-lied-about-video-metrics/
When are these idiots going to understand we don’t want video Random Roles? Or at least publish a fucking transcript for us!
But this requires less work on their part!
Agree 100%!
Yeah, I was expecting an article here. I feel cheated. If I wanted to watch TV, I’d watch TV.
I mean. He wrote it in his book. So go buy the book. Because that’s the intention of this post. To mention he wrote a book and he would like your money so that he can continue to not be homeless. Since he was at one point. And now he’s not. Wanna know what happened? Buy his book. EDIT: Ok, I just noticed that there’s a video attached that probably explains everything that’s in the book. I’m leaving my post up, because it’s still relevant. Go buy the book. But yeah…. A transcript under the video would be nice..
“I’m leaving my post up, because it’s still relevant.”
It’s very much not relevant, but then again it wasn’t relevant before, except to show what a cock you are.
I’m disappointed your post used the letter “i”.
The people who think autoplay video is a good way to force people to watch their ads will burn in everlasting hell. The ones who think disabling the pause or mute buttons while the ad plays is an even better idea need their fingernails pulled out very, very slowly while still alive.
Probably the same fuckos who decided to stop letting us hover over the other Gawker sites at the top of the screen to see the top articles.
Yes! I hate that nothing pops up when you hover over the other sites anymore. Glad I’m not the only one. I definitely am reading less articles across their sites than I used to be as a result.
Probably the same fuckos who decided to stop letting us hover over the other Gawker sites at the top of the screen to see the top articles.THANK YOU! I miss those flyouts too
I figured I had lost them because I’m using an ad blocker.
And the top stories from the other sites are gone from the left side of the screen, too. What even is the purpose of that left side?
It’s kind of sad that TPTB decided to do that because the video is actually very enjoyable.
Can someone give me the gist of why he was fired from Friends? Or how far into the video that part is?
They wanted to have one of the main characters move in to that apartment so that they could use the same set.
At the very least (and that’s not saying much), the videos now play. It used to only play the ad, then would freeze up and not load the content. If you refreshed, you got to see that ad again. Repeat ad nauseam.
This was such a great feature before it went to video.
His delivery of “Magnets!” is possibly my favourite bit of El Camino.
That Bill Hader story was great, and so were his scenes on Barry. Super dark and hilarious interplay with Stephen Root.
Ugh come on. Print the goddamn thing.
oh great, another reason to no longer visit AVclub!
Fuck your videos. Write a fucking article.
Came to the comments to bitch about it being a video and not a proper Random Roles, sees others are already doing the good work. Also, totally agree that removing that preview pane of what’s on the other sites was a stupid, bullshit move.
Is there any discussion about his role as Kramer with a then heavily-balding Jeremy Piven as George on the Jerry pilot?
Y’all understand that some of us are at work, peeking in on the internet during our down time, but not wanting everyone in the office to know that we’re peeking in on the internet? I had to stop visiting EW.com and THR because they have this crap, too. Just stop with the autoplay, please? Thanks–the working class joes and jills.
This guy.
THIS GUY.
…GIVE US A FUCKING TRANSCRIPT AT LEAST.But this guy, I tell ya. I did really like him on Friends, Breaking Bad, etc , but fuck this article.
Oh man, a video. Bummer.Hankin was nominated for a Live Action Short Film Oscar back in the ‘70s for a short film he directed and starred in called “Solly’s Diner”. It’s pretty good. Wonder if he talked about it.
Here’s a question for people who know from internet things: Am I helping this nonsense by clicking the link and commenting on it? A click is a click, right?
My whole life, I never had a sure thing.
Least you could do is have the audio on this not be awful…
Maybe I’ll get round to watching this video, though I doubt it.Annoying decision to not have this as an article.
Oh good, another video I’ll never watch.
He was absolutely incredible in that Barry role. The part was one of those small roles which is very important for the overall core of the show (as he was obviously what Barry is going to become), and he just nailed it. That Hader let him do his own interpretation really impresses me – the instincts, wow.
I’m not clicking a link. I’ll just assume he’s a very interesting fellow and the stories were delightful.
Of course no transcript is a bummer.But lets talk about the crap ‘production’ of the video;
When the audio of the off-camera interviewer is sometimes 2wice as loud as the interviewee, that’s a problem.I mean, c’mon. I had to turn it way up to hear Larry H and he was still muffled sounding – then the off camera guy chimes in and it’s fucking totally loud. Then later, the interviewer is at normal level and Larry gets too loud.
The vid was obviously jump-cut edited – why not do a a quick audio mix too.
Jeeze! Get it together.
Call me a crazy outlier, but I would really rather read this as an article.