Soup Star Heads to the Big Screen
Joel McHale, Matt Damon
You know him as the wiseass host of E! Network's popular series The Soup, but Joel McHale is shaking things up these days in a serious movie with Oscar-winners Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh in The Informant.
The dark comedy/thriller based on Kurt Eichenwald's "The Informant: A True Story," tells the tale of brilliant academic Mark Whitacre (Damon), a rising star at conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland. But some shady price-fixing tactics within his company ultimately lead Whitacre to become one of the FBI's highest-level executive to turn whistleblower in U.S history.
McHale's role as FBI agent Robert Herndon was "about as fun as it could be." What really stuck out about the experience was working under the direction of Soderbergh. "As large as his genius is, it's matched by what a great guy he is," says McHale. "There was no yelling on the set, no crazy hours, no neurosis. It was a great attitude on the set and he makes it so easy for the actors to do what they do."
The movie, filmed mainly in Decatur, Ill., (where ADM is located), was what McHale calls his "first real role in a real movie," despite his smalls parts in films, including Lords of Dogtown. "Ultimately I'd like to have an acting career on film. That was my goal when I got [to Los Angeles] — but that doesn't mean I'm not having a ball at The Soup!"
As far as working alongside Hollywood's heartthrob, McHale simply put it, "Matt Damon is a peach.
Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, American Beauty), Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men) and Tony Hale (Arrested Development) also star in the upcoming film set to hit theaters late 2009.
