Jacob Wysocki on Terri, and What He Wants From Transformers 3

I was very impressed with those moments of drama between you and John. There was a real honesty there. Were those scenes more difficult for you because of your comedy background?

We shot everything in order. So, for those more serious points, we had worked together for enough time so that it wasn't awkward. It wasn't hard, it wasn't scary. It felt like I was being Terri and he was being Mr. Fitzgerald, and we were just doing it. The fact that we both have this comedy-improv thing going on really helps in the long run. For me, when I know that there's another person that's funny in the room, my inclination is, "Well, let's be funny together! Let's do bits, let's do some stuff!" So, I think that carried on to, "I just want to play." That's kind of like what acting is: playing. Giving back. All of these rules of improv that can be turned into acting rules. Always listen. Say "yes" to your partner. That worked for us to loosen up the gears and really interact with each other and be in that moment.

Obviously, John is known as a great improviser. Do you have any improv heroes -- people you look up to and want to emulate?

That's a question I've never been asked, and I'm so stoked! Matt Besser. All the UCB people. Amy Poehler -- oh, I could talk about this for hours. There's a lot of people at the theater that I do most of my stuff at that I think are really talented, but aren't big names in anything other than improv. Chris Tallman. Danny Ricker. Luis Cortes. There's some people that I think are super funny, but they're not as well known. Then you have Wayne Brady, and Ryan Stiles, and people in between. Los Angeles has such a great improv community, that's small. There's this group at UCB called Shitty Jobs that I absolutely love. It's Donald Glover and Ben Schwartz.

Love Ben Schwartz.

Ben Schwartz is amazing! He's been doing so well lately. Then you have like Sean Clements and DC Pierson. Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer are amazing. They do a show called Facebook. I wish one day I could be as good and as sharp as them. There are so many people out in L.A. that are phenomenal, but nobody knows. The cool thing about UCB is that if you're hip and have a good show there, it can open some doors. But the other places that are smaller, there are less doors that can be open.

Do you have an itch to write your own stuff then, to force open that door?

I have a sketch group (Bath Boys Comedy). Those are like my six best friends. Ultimately, I would love for us to be like our own group. You have the Broken Lizard guys. You have the Sandler crew. You have the Apatow crew. I would love for us to have our own crew and make movies. That's the ultimate goal. We all want to do this, and we're all struggling and we're all on our way. We're hoping to one day get to that level, have fun, and do what we're doing now on a larger scale. We're writing a feature for one of our sketches, called Boner Police (video below). There's stuff coming up. I still do improv in Hollywood every other week. I'm busy. My most important thing is doing content that people think is good or funny. That's what I'm doing.

Terri comes out in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, the same weekend as Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Some pretty stiff competition. Are you gonna make sure all your friends see Terri in the theater before Transformers?

I know everybody is super-stoked. I hope everyone goes to see it. They better. [Laughs] Go see Terri, and then sneak into Transformers. Transformers. I like that this movie, that they're like, "Screw Shia, let's just have these robots ruin stuff." That's all I want to see. I don't care. I would pay $15 to just watch the Transformers scenes. Cut out all of Shia, I don't care who's in it. Just show me robots fighting. That's all.

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