Jason Lee

Hi Jason. Your moustache is looking particularly fine today.

It’s a pretty damn good moustache, but I gotta tell you, sometimes I regret having the idea of having one for the show. I hated it at first. Now it’s not so bad but I am getting hungry to shave.

Who in history had the best moustache?

Me, of course! Tom Selleck’s was too manicured. He was more like a playboy. Mine’s more manly. Burt Reynolds had a good one though.

So Earl’s now in prison. Ever had an experience with the law enforcement community?

I was arrested for skateboarding on private property in my 20s. They put us in a holding cell for hours. But nothing like this. I mean, Earl’s in a real prison with real scary people.

How would you cope in the clink?

I’d be one of those guys that acts crazy. I’d talk to myself and just freak people out so they’d leave me alone.

What’s happened to the list?

It used to be that each episode was so much about one list item that if you didn’t tune in you wouldn’t feel you were missing out. Now with Earl in prison you have to follow and see what the hell’s going to happen to him.

Does he stay? Does he get out? Will the list be back?

You’ll just have to see.

What would be top of your Earl list?

When I was a teenager, I let a friend drink and drive, I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was not cool. I’d add that to my list if I had one.

And on the flip side what's been your most petty act of revenge?

Me and Ethan [Suplee, who plays Randy] like to break wind a lot on set. He is louder. But I am smellier.

You seem to still have a lot of fun on set. Jaime Pressly has said you like to stand on your mark and break wind so she walks right into it. Can you actually hit your mark like that?

No. I’m not one of those guys that goes on Howard Stern and farts a bunch on command so that his wife can have breast implants.

Jaime also said you called everyone and everything "teabag". Why the love of that word? Does it stem from a particular teabagging incident?

That would have been more exciting! No, I think I just made it up and started saying it. Like everybody’s a teabagger or I teabagged that person or this person got teabagged by that person. It’s just a silly running thing that we have on the set.

Do the girls get the hump if you accuse them of being teabagged?

No. But they’re team players. And Jaime’s as straightforward as they come, she’s like, “Oh f*ck that, goddamned cocksucker this and f*ck that.” She’s like a hardcore southern chick and she tells it like it is.

Which lady do you think is a bit of alright?

I don’t know about now but when I was a kid I had a huge crush on Alyssa Milano in Who’s The Boss. I’m also a big Cate Blanchett fan. I think she’s really attractive. Very talented. It’s also a bit depressing that with all the ‘Lindsay Lohans’ in the world you wish there were a few more ‘Cates’ to balance it out.

Do you think Lindsay Lohan’s talented then?

Yeah. Definitely. Absolutely. She’s not un-talented. I think you just get mixed up with the wrong people.

You have a son called Pilot Inspektor…

It’s a cool name! He loves it!

…were you ever concerned about the grief he’d get at school with that name?

No, but he goes to a little hippy school where all the parents have also called their children interesting names. He has a friend named Zoot. And another called Zelly, Cosmo, Layla…

You were a pro-skater before the acting. When was the last time you were on a board?

I’d actually started skating again pretty much every day before I signed on to do Earl. Now I’d like to but I can’t cos of the show [eg insurance].

You’re 38 tho. Is there any age limit when you shouldn’t really be getting on a board anymore?

Well Tony Hawk is still amazing and he’s 40. I was 25 when I quit and that was kinda old then, now you’ve got pro skaters still in the limelight making a million bucks a year at 32.

Did you make a million bucks a year?

I think my biggest year I made, like, grand, but these guys now with all the sunglasses and the commercials and the X-games, these kids are millionaires!

What kind of stuff makes you laugh?

Movies. Funny movies. My speed is more like Caddyshack, The Jerk, you know? And of course I love Family Guy. Curb Your Enthusiasm is great. Oh and Gervais. I’m a massive Ricky Gervais fan.

We loved you as Jeff Bebe in Almost Famous, what are the chances of a rock reunion? Would you all get back together?

Sure. Yeah I want to do something like that again. Absolutely. Oh that’d be great. Anything with Cameron Crowe, he’s amazing.

As the lead singer of Stillwater, what’s your karaoke tune of choice? Fever Dog? Or Tiny Dancer?

[Laughs] Nooooo. I’m not a singer. I don’t do karaoke. I play a few chords on the guitar. I like old country stuff as it’s the easiest to play. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.

What’s your favourite film you’ve been in?

Probably Mallrats. Cos it was my first movie. It was kind of like the feeling you get the first time you go away to summer camp or something when you were a kid.


My Name Is Earl Season 3 is released to rent and buy on DVD on 20 October from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment