Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
After spending twelve seasons and 272 episodes playing Detective Elliot Stabler on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, there were really only two directions in which Christopher Meloni’s career was likely to go: either he was going to find a similar role in another procedural or he was going to do everything in his power to avoid ever taking that sort of path again. Thankfully, Meloni chose the latter. Granted, Happy! does find Meloni playing another police detective, but aside from an occasional similarity in temperament, Nick Sax is no Elliot Stabler, and this series doesn’t even remotely exist in the same universe as L&O: SVU…unless, of course, you can imagine Stabler partnering with an animated winged unicorn voiced by Patton Oswalt.
Decider talked to Meloni in advance of Happy! returning to SYFY for its second season, and he talked about how he found his way onto the series in the first place, what it was like working with guest star Ann-Margret, and how his character is evolving. In addition, he discussed the fun of returning to the world of Wet Hot American Summer, the education of guesting on Pose, and why there’s no point in people asking him about whether he’ll ever play Elliot Stabler again.
DECIDER: I’ve been loving Happy! thus far, and if I may, let me just say that it is absolutely insane.
CHRIS MELONI: [Laughs.] Good! That pleases me. That warms my heart.
I figured that was what you guys were going for. Anything that has Grant Morrison’s name in the credits tends to land in that realm.
Yeah, man. It’s everything I could’ve hoped for.
I know you’ve told this origin story before, but for those who haven’t heard it, how did you find your way into the series? Did they approach you?
Yeah, They said, “Hey, you’ve got an offer. Read it!” I read it. I read the script through, and it was one of those rare moments where you literally go to the last page and you’re stunned, because it’s so outside of the box. I was, like, “Okay, now I’ve got to talk to these people to see if they’re walking the walk.” Because, y’know, I’ve done certain things that looked good on the page, and then all of a sudden it’s watered down. So I was, like, “Okay, let’s see if these guys have got the cojones.”
So I spoke to Brian Taylor, who’s the head writer. He’s leading the charge. And what I appreciated was that he didn’t bullshit me. Because I kept going, “What is this world? What is the feel? What’s the feel and the look you’re going for?” And he just kept going, “Uh… I don’t know!” [Laughs.] He goes, “Why don’t you come on board, and we’ll figure it out!” And it was just so refreshing, because it was obvious that he wasn’t just some guy off the street going, “I don’t know!” He just truly didn’t know how to translate the angle that I was coming from. I understood he was highly intelligent, and he just came at it from a different angle than I was, and he wasn’t trying to bullshit me. He wasn’t trying to bait the hook, and I appreciated that. That’s kind of the basis of our relationship.
It’s one of those series where, as it started, I wondered, “Can they possibly keep up this pace throughout?” And that has proven to be a big “yes.”
Yeah. And that’s really to the credit of Brian Taylor. And all the writers! But he’s the one who wields the big whip takes them into this place of madness.
Had you been at all aware of Grant Morrison prior to this?
You know, I wasn’t. I just don’t swim in those waters. But I always appreciate what I don’t know and being educated to what I don’t know or whatever world I don’t just instinctively inhabit. So it was kind of cool with all the people who, when I would say his name, were going on like I was summoning Jesus Christ himself. I had no idea that he held such an esteemed place in this world, so that was kind of fun to figure out. And then to meet the guy, who’s wonderfully crazy… I love it.
With season two, the most exciting thing to me initially was the discovery that Ann-Margret was going to be in it.
[Breathlessly.] Oh, yeah… She’s awesome.
And she apparently still has the moves, based on the clips I’ve seen.
Yeah! Yeah, man, I was, like, “Oh, my God, she’s pulling out her Vegas act! This is fantastic!”
So is Nick a different guy in the second season, or is he just evolving as the season progresses?
There you go: he’s evolving. I think Nick is a unique fish – you know, like in a fish-out-of-water story – but for a guy as old as he is and as capable as he is in his very limited way, which is drinking, taking drugs, and killing people, he really has very little relationship to humanity, nor does he want any. But by virtue of what’s discovered in season one, he’s kind of forced to deal with the question of what it is to be a human being. A functioning human being. [Laughs.] It gives him a lot of challenges.
Hearing the “Make Easter Great Again!” for the season’s villain, combined with the fact that you played Donald Trump in The Kellyanne Conway Story, makes it seem like this is going to be a politically-relevant season.
Yes, thank you. [Laughs.] Yeah, I was in the writer’s room when they came up with that, and I thought that was a stroke of genius.
Is that the only real spot-on jab, or does it get more specific?
No, because to be very honest, it never came up, and it was never where we lived. Because I think this is a world divorced from that. Look, this is a world of excesses and perversions, and I think by virtue of what we have in governance right now, they overlap, because it is such a gross perversion of what should be happening. But there’s nothing intentional.
With Season 2, would you say there’s any overt attempt to try and ramp things up further, or does it stay at the same already-frantic pace?
Yeah, you know, I don’t know if it was, “Oh, we’ve got to make it bigger, badder, better,” but I think that… Well, look, Season 1 was so crazy that you bump into Season 2 and you keep going, but you go, “Oh, we kind of did that scene,” or you go, “Oh, that’s kind of already been done.” And I think you just naturally have to think a little wackier or a little bigger just to delineate, so you don’t rehash. So maybe that’s how that comes about. It’s always difficult.
Just to touch on a few other things in your back catalog, how was it for you to get the chance to revisit the world of Wet Hot American Summer?
Oh, it was like going home. I love those guys. They’re one of the few people that I always pester to hire me. I appreciate their sensibilities, I learn from them… That’s how it felt, and that’s why it was like going home.
Did it feel slightly schizophrenic, given that between Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, you were doing Underground?
Yeah! [Laughs.] And that’s a good pull. I mean, let’s be honest, they could not have inhabited more disparate spaces.
How was the experience of doing Pose?
Now that was eye-opening. I really learned a lot about the people that inhabit that community. I’m good friends with Billy Porter, who’s one of the stars of it. I didn’t have scenes with him, but I got to see him do his thing. That was great. But truly, I’d talk to my co-stars and learn their histories, and…everyone should be exposed to it. It’s not a world that I would ever know about in personal, in-depth detail. It really was eye-opening.
I have to ask the obligatory question: do you think you’ll ever return to the role of Elliot Stabler before Law and Order: Special Victims Unit goes off the air, whenever that may be?
No idea. They’ve never come to me, so I have no idea.
I know you’ve said in the past that it was really a question better asked of someone other than yourself.
Yeah, you know, I get the question a lot, and I’ve said my piece, so I think everyone should go somewhere else with the question! [Laughs.]
Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?
Yeah, I’d say Diary of a Teenage Girl. I actually thought that should’ve been nominated for an Oscar. But what do I know?
I had hoped that Surviving Jack would last longer.
Yeah. [Long pause.] Yeah. That was fun. And I loved all the people that were involved in it. It was just one of those things. I think it was a victim of the changing landscape of television.
No matter what the networks say about how the fall season isn’t as important now as it used to be, I still feel like they don’t throw their full promotional heft behind series that premiere at mid-season, like Surviving Jack.
Yeah. And I also think they prefer shows that are produced in-house, which Surviving Jack wasn’t.
To bring it back to Happy! again, how have you enjoyed working with Patton Oswalt? Not that you work with him in person, but…
Yeah, it’s literally a case where most of our work together is when we’re doing promos. I mean, sometimes I’m in the booth when he’s doing his voiceover stuff. But he’s kind of legendary, and he’s so smart, so I always appreciate being in his company. He’s got a big heart and a lot of humanity to him, so he’s a great presence to be around. So I appreciate him, I love working with him, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s on the show.
Provided SYFY continues to keep the series going, is this something you could see yourself doing for as long as it lasts? Or is it too exhausting to keep it up for the long haul?
By the end of the season, it’s tough. [Laughs.] But, no, I love doing this show. I’m never happier than when I’m on that set, getting to play Nick Sax.
New episodes of Happy! air on Wednesdays on SYFY, but the entirety of Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.
Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)
