The Big Picture

• David Krumholtz shines in Oppenheimer & Leopoldstadt, showcasing his range and talent.
• Krumholtz discusses challenges of Lousy Carter, a morally bankrupt character in a comedy.
• Krumholtz's passion for theater and music, including his love for Grateful Dead cover bands.

Are we living in a David Krumholtz-aissance? It certainly feels like it. The last year has been nothing short of outstanding for the actor, who starred in both the Best Picture Winner and the Best Play on Broadway. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, both lauded for their magnificent storytelling and performances, deal with very different, very heavy topics; the Oscar winner is an origin story for the development of the atomic bomb and the Tony winner follows, “a prosperous Jewish family who had fled the pogroms in the East,” in early 20th century Vienna. What they both have in common, though, is David Krumholtz, one of the hardest working and most dedicated actors, who is finally getting his due.

If you’re wondering where you have seen Krumholtz before, the answer is many, many things. He’s beloved for playing Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause, (which he recently reprised for the Disney+ series), pops up in nearly every project by his good friend Seth Rogen, led over 100 episodes of the CBS series Numb3rs with Judd Hirsch, and commanded the screen alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal in HBO’s series The Deuce. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of a filmography that includes a range of titles from 10 Things I Hate About You, Freaks and Geeks, ER, Law & Order: SVU, The Good Wife, and The Judge, the latter of which might’ve featured his Oppenheimer co-star Robert Downey Jr.’s character smugly urinating on him.

During this 1-on-1 with Collider, David Krumholtz talks about how addictive performing theater can be, how his career has changed since Oppenheimer and Leopoldstadt, the challenges that came with his latest project, Lousy Carter, in which he plays a morally bankrupt professor who learns he has only a few months to live, and why he’s so, well, grateful, for being part of a Grateful Dead cover band.

COLLIDER: You’ve guest starred in a lot of TV shows, and you’ve led TV shows. What’s a show that’s currently on the air that you’d love to guest star on or join the cast of?

DAVID KRUMHOLTZ: Wow. I mean, I don’t watch anything. My kids have commandeered my TV and I can’t watch it. I’ve never seen Succession, never seen The Bear or Beef or any of that. I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to be on Curb Your Enthusiasm and it never happened, which was a bummer. And I think I know why. I’m drawing a blank! I don’t know what’s on TV. My kids are terrible.

I don’t know how old your kids are, but, Bluey?

KRUMHOLTZ: I would do a voice on Bluey. I’d play the long-lost New Jersey cousin.

Now I need to see that. Everyone I’ve told that I’m talking to you says, “Oh, he makes everything better.” That’s just the common theme. You’ve had a crazy couple of months between Oppenheimer, obviously, and Leopoldstadt. What has that whole experience been like?

KRUMHOLTZ: It’s really been gratifying. I count my lucky stars. So much of it is luck, really. And also, some appreciation, you know, connecting the dots of my prior work. I kind of loved the idea for a really long time of showing so much range and being so chameleonic that people couldn’t connect the dots. The guy who was the elf in The Santa Clause was also the murderer on ER, for instance, that you couldn’t make that connection. And recently, people have been starting to make the connection, and as a result, there’s a little more respect being thrown my way, which is nice. I didn’t need it for the longest time, but now that I have it, I kind of don’t hate it. It’s nice to be respected. I’ve been working really hard for 32 years, so at some point you kind of go, “You know what, take the compliments,” and that’s what’s happening. But, that being said, I’m desperately trying to stay out of the state of enlarged expectations. You’re in the Best Play on Broadway, you’re in the Best Movie of the year, and you think, “Oh, something major’s about to happen with my career,” and that’s not necessarily been the case at this point, and I can’t count on that happening, and if I stay in a state of enlarged expectations, I’ll be really disappointed. I’ll go crazy. So, I’m trying to keep my sanity amongst it all and just focus on being a good dad and doing the best work I can when I get the work. The reward for me is the work itself, whether it’s work that I get off of my reputation and off of Oppenheimer or Leopoldstadt, or, it’s actually the work from Oppenheimer and Leopoldstadt. Sometimes I just got to be happy with just that. But I am thrilled to have been part of two projects in the last year that really have moved people and have had relevance and have changed peoples’ perceptions on very important topics.

I know you started out in theater when you were quite young. Would you want to go back and do it again?

KRUMHOLTZ: Yeah, absolutely. They don’t seem to want me very much…

(Laughs.)

KRUMHOLTZ: But I’d definitely love to, maybe do lighter fare than Leopoldstadt, that was a huge mountain to climb, Tom Stoppard and the subject matter. Yeah, I loved the experience. It was difficult and kind of confusing at first, but it grew on me and it became something that I feel was really needed, that I needed to do. I still need to do it. When we were rehearsing Leopoldstadt, The Piano Lesson with Samuel L. Jackson was rehearsing one floor above us in the same building, and Sam Jackson would go out on the street in New York with his sunglasses on, his hat, and a surgical mask on and sit, and watch New York traffic go by and no one knew it was him. But I knew it was him. A few times I was out there thinking, “I should ask him,” and then one time I did. I went up to him and I said, “Why do you do theater?” and he said he had to. He just had to. At that moment, I was like, “Why?” but when I was done with Leopoldstadt I knew what he meant. It’s addictive.

Wow. That’s really beautiful.

KRUMHOLTZ: Yeah.

And I love the thought of him just watching and no one realizing it’s him.

KRUMHOLTZ: The world walking past one of the biggest stars in the world, yeah.

'Lousy Carter' Wasn't an Easy Filming Experience

I liked how Bob [the writer and director of Lousy Carter] who you’ve worked with before, brings the same crew of people along with him. Between the cast and the “Thank Yous,” it’s Nick Offerman, Martin Starr, etc. How many years ago did that bond form?

KRUMHOLTZ: I met Bob when I was 19. He was, at the time, dating a dear friend of mine and I met him through her. I didn’t think he liked me very much, but then you come to realize that that’s sort of Bob and he kind of gives that vibe off, like, that he doesn’t like anybody. And then he asked me to do this film called Tuna and I felt that he was not happy with what I was doing, and then we didn’t speak for about, I don’t know, 15 years. (Laughs.) Or more. And I thought, “Oh yeah, that guy Bob Byington. He doesn’t cast me ever, he’s making movies with other people, and good for him.” But so many of the people he was working with were my close friends, like Martin Starr and Kevin Corrigan, and I thought, maybe he’ll come back around one day. And he did. It was Frances Ferguson and then this.

I was shocked that it was a true story.

KRUMHOLTZ: It’s so strange that it says that. I don’t know why it says that.

It’s not true?

KRUMHOLTZ: It’s the most autobiographical, as close to an autobiographical story as Bob has ever told, but, Bob never found out he was dying. He’s a liar.

(Laughs.) It’s kind of like a Fargo situation where it’s like, “This is all true,” and none of this happened. I don’t know how much to spoil, but were you shocked at the ending?

KRUMHOLTZ: I wasn’t shocked but I was not thrilled. So I voiced my very forceful opinion very clearly and quickly when I first read it, that I felt that it was tonally shocking and that it wouldn’t work. And Bob disagreed. We fought about it. And then we filmed what was written and it didn’t work. It didn’t work when we filmed it and it didn’t in post, and then Bob was kind enough to go, “What should I do?” and it was nice to be proven right, especially in that sort of cat-and-mouse contentious relationship with a director, which I have with Bob. A love-hate. Eh, love-dislike. “Hate” is a strong word. But it was nice to sort of go, “Oh really? So I was RIGHT!?”

(Laughs.)

KRUMHOLTZ: No one likes an “I told you so,” but I sure like being an “I told you so.” So, I kind of talked it out and said, you know, “make it funny. Somehow make that moment funny.” Or the moment immediately afterwards, make it crazy funny, make it obviously a joke. Because originally it was very dramatic. It involved dialogue that was very preachy and deep, and it was like, “Well what happens, what is this movie?” This movie just became an entirely other film. We’re crossing genres in a very clunky way. Eventually, I think we got it right now. People seem to like it and it does its job. It still has an impact but it has an impact comedically almost, which is good.

'Oppenheimer' and 'Lousy Carter' Had Very Different Shooting Schedules

The scene that stuck out to me that made me feel like I need to see you in a one-man show was the eulogy. You totally took over the scene and I felt like I was in the audience, not to sound too corny. How much prep went into that part? Because it felt so authentic.

KRUMHOLTZ: We shot the movie in 15 days. I’m in every damn scene of that movie. Literally. There’s not a scene I’m not in. We shot about six or seven pages a day which was very difficult. His dialogue is very specific and long-winded and the character’s long-winded. It was a mountain to climb every day, and it was difficult because he wants it word for word. You can’t change a “can’t” to a “cannot.” It’ll ruin the take in his mind. Lots of late nights up with Emilia Brahm who was the script supervisor on the film. After work, getting together, her and I, and just running lines. Running lines for the next day, running lines, running lines, and praying that the next morning I remembered things. A lot of abandoned takes. A lot of frustration and moments like, “God, I almost had it,” or “I was this close,” or “Can we just live with the one word that was off?” But we got it. There was some tension and some fighting and, “Fuck you, too bad, this is hard and we’re running out of time to shoot this so you’re going to have to live with what you got, which is almost exactly what you wrote.” Bob was not malleable in that regard and he wanted what he wanted and I was able to do it. At a certain point I stopped asking for leeway and my focus was on getting it one hundred percent right, so that there were no fights.

Was 15 days one of the shorter shooting schedules you’ve had?

KRUMHOLTZ: I think it’s the shortest ever. I’ve been in a lot of small films as the lead. This was actually my sixth? Fifth or sixth as the lead in an indie. But this was the shortest one, I think. There’s another one that was twenty days.

And how long was Oppenheimer?

KRUMHOLTZ: Three months!

Did you have any professors that you thought of when you were preparing for this part or professors that really inspired you growing up that you want to thank?

KRUMHOLTZ: No. I mean, I went to college very briefly. I think, to some extent, certain professors of liberal arts sort of stuff are — God bless them — wonderful bullshit artists. And when I say “wonderful,” I mean it. The world needs bullshit artists, but they are. And so that was really the only thing I could think about doing. He’s a bullshit artist and they catch him right away. His students catch him immediately. He’s caught. He’s an impostor.

I like your back and forth with Luxy Banner.

KRUMHOLTZ: She’s amazing.

What was it like working with her?

KRUMHOLTZ: It’s wonderful to work with someone who has just this fresh, new energy. She was really grateful to be there. She had never had a role like this, not even close. She’s a wonderful person, a lot of fun to be around. She’s so good in the part. This old veteran, embittered, jaded bastard needs to be around that energy. She was lovely, wonderful. I love her and I love her performance.

As soon as I saw you two I was like, “Oh, they’re having fun.”

KRUMHOLTZ: Yeah we had fun.

Kind of random, but you are in a Grateful Dead cover band.

KRUMHOLTZ: That’s correct.

Do you have any upcoming shows you want people to look out for? What do you like about performing in a Grateful Dead cover band and how did that start?

KRUMHOLTZ: We have a show April 24th at Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York at 8:00pm. That’s a Wednesday. Garcia’s is a great venue, The Capitol Theatre is a legendary venue, so it’s an honor to play there. I moved to New Jersey from LA almost 10 years ago. Had no idea what to do with myself in New Jersey, had never lived in New Jersey. My wife’s from New Jersey. Got bored really quickly, started to panic, found that there was this really broad Grateful Dead cover scene — broad and specific — but broad meaning there were like forty Grateful Dead cover bands around me. That were playing constantly! And I thought, “That’s so strange. This is like the hub of Grateful Dead-head-ness.” And so I started going to the shows, and eventually, maybe one drunken night, I was singing along with one of the bands and they heard that I could sing, and they asked me to sing with them, and they kept asking me to sing with them and then they told me to get bongos, and I thought, “How absurd.” And then I thought, “Wow, this is really a manifestation of my midlife crisis. I’m playing bongos and singing in a Grateful Dead cover band in dive bars in New Jersey.” Then I came to absolutely love it and love the scene and love the fans and love the musicians and really respect the musicians. There are some amazing bands in New Jersey. Amazing Grateful Dead cover bands in New Jersey. I go around the country, I see a lot of other Grateful Dead cover bands in other cities… nothing holds a candle to the quality of the ones in New Jersey. There’s a real love and a real respect there and a real competition between the bands that’s respectful, but also, you know, you gotta be great to hold your own. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of fun. I needed a hobby. I didn’t have a hobby. I needed one. Badly. So it’s perfect. I get real satisfaction out of it.

Lousy Carter is in select theaters now.

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