Pilot season can make or break an actor, and no actor knows this better than Will Arnett. It took the Toronto native around 13 years to become an overnight sensation; he's been blowing everyone away as Gob on the now-canceled Fox sitcom Arrested Development, recently receiving an Emmy nomination for best supporting actor. But before Arnett ever stepped on the Segway to play the hilariously cocky, womanizing magician of the Bluth family, he had very disappointing pilot experiences—the first of which was 1999's The Mike O'Malley Show.
"All of us on the show knew each other, and it was going to be this incredible opportunity for us to do a show together," says Arnett of O'Malley. "And right from the get-go we were absolutely killed by the critics. They pronounced us dead before we even got out of the gate. That took its toll on everybody, and it was hard to recover from for a while." A couple of years later, Arnett was cast and promptly fired from the Still Standing pilot on CBS. "I don't think I ever really gave them exactly what they wanted out of [the best-friend role], and ultimately it was a character that I probably wasn't ready to play yet. Maybe I wasn't old enough, but sometimes you can kind of fudge it and make it work if need be," admits Arnett.
"Initially, when I found out [I was fired], it was incredibly tough to take because I wanted the job and my ego kicked in," he continues. "You think, 'God, everybody's going to think that I'm a failure.' Once I sort of got over that hump and I understood that most of it was about my ego and I was able to look at it for what it was, I got over it. I think it was probably through those experiences that were ultimately disappointing that I was able to enjoy success. It puts it in perspective, and you realize how fleeting all of it really is, and you learn to not take yourself so seriously." The New York–based actor, who studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, considered quitting, but his career in voiceover kept him afloat financially, with voicing gigs for Lamisil tablets, promos for CBS, film trailers, and GMC Trucks.
"I won't call it a sideline, because it's not," says the actor about voiceover. "It's something that I devoted a lot of time to and I really worked on, and it provided a tremendous source of income for me." Meanwhile in L.A., Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz was having trouble casting the role of Gob for his pilot. The casting director, Deborah Barylski, had cast Still Standing and opposed the firing of Arnett, so she insisted Hurwitz consider Arnett for Gob.
"I had made this decision in my mind that I wasn't going to read for any television pilots that year," Arnett recalls. "Not that anybody would care, but at least from my perspective I was making some kind of a stand that I wasn't going to take it anymore." According to Arnett, Barylski badgered Arnett's manager to get him to audition. After initially saying no, Arnett put himself on tape. Ironically, the reason he was cast in Arrested was the reason he wasn't cast in Still Standing.
"We weren't looking for exactly the right type," Hurwitz admitted at a Museum of Television & Radio cast panel discussion. "Will kind of brought this sort of macho energy, like this cock of the roost." As George Oscar Bluth II, Arnett was a showman, doing anything for a laugh with his flamboyant machismo. Over three seasons, Gob's antics included stints as a "Hot Cop" stripper and an over-the-top magician, and he has fancied himself a crooner and ventriloquist. Armed with a "streetwise" African-American puppet named Franklin, Gob recorded songs such as "It Ain't Easy Bein' White, It Ain't Easy Bein' Brown." He groaned through a cover of Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" for Gob's brother Michael and enjoyed hearing his own music while making love to virtually any female.
Arnett relished getting audiences to like and relate to Gob during his rare softer, wistful moments. The actor has been able to do the same for countless other creepy, deviant characters in his career. On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit he played a pedophile; on Sex and the City his character loved having sex where he could get caught; in Monster-in-Law he played a slimeball with a taste for very young girls; in Southie he ratted out his best friend, played by Donnie Wahlberg; and in RV he was Robin Williams' germophobic boss.
"Gob on paper is a pretty unlikeable guy," says Arnett. "At the heart of it, he's such an incredibly selfish, cowardly character. [Unlikeable characters] go on much more of a journey. I don't have a lot of interest in playing a down-the-middle guy who never really changes from moment to moment, because there's nothing challenging about that." Arnett has nine projects coming up, including the film The Ambassador, which he'll be writing, producing, and starring in as the "quintessential ugly American." Are there plans for an Arrested Development movie? "Of course there have been discussions about it on all sorts of different levels," reveals Arnett. "Whether that will happen or not I don't know, but I'd always be interested in working with all the really talented, funny actors and incredible writers again. I'd jump at the opportunity."