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IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA’s Charlie Day on Green Man, Canned Wine, PACIFIC RIM 2 and THE LEGO MOVIE 2

Last week saw FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia return to TV (Wednesdays at 10 PM E/P) for its milestone tenth season, helped in no small part by star Charlie Day‘s “wild card” character Charlie Kelly. But since, in recent years, Day has widened his exposure in big-budget hit films like Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s The Lego Movie, we made sure to ask him about the status of their much-anticipated sequels when we caught up with him at this week’s TCA Winter Press Tour…

On reprising Benny in The Lego Movie 2

I hope I get to, because I love doing it. But the phone has not rang yet. Those guys are busy and working, and they’re super-secretive about everything they do now. They’ve not told me yet. I hope that I get to come back.

On owning a Lego model of Benny’s spaceship…

I have a Benny, but I don’t have his spaceship. So I can keep my desire to build one alive. [Laughs.]

On Pacific Rim‘s reception and the announcement of Pacific Rim 2

What did it make, four hundred million dollars? I was surprised that the story wasn’t that it was a giant success. It’s the first thing I’ve ever made that made close to half a billion dollars. [Laughs.] I don’t know what you have to do to be a success these days. So I was thrilled [when the sequel was announced], just to get the chance to work with Guillermo again. He’s such a special person. He created that world and those characters, and it’s great to be a part of something so original.

On why Guillermo approached him for the role…

He was a big fan of Always Sunny. He saw there was a scene where I was haunted from bashing rats, and he thought that I could be haunted from seeing kaiju. [Laughs.] He showed me drawings, he showed me sketches that he had done, and just showed me the world. It was just so exciting to be that into this man’s mind for a minute. I just loved that.

On moving from the TV comedy of Always Sunny to epic filmmaking…

You’d think it would be [different]. But at the end of the day my job is to really believe what I’m doing, between action and comedy. That didn’t change. The outfit changed, the world changed, the sets changed. [My approach didn’t change] too much. The only thing that was difficult was suddenly I realized, “I have all this scientific lingo that I truly have to sit down and memorize!” Normally I read a scene once or twice and get it, but these are words and things that I just don’t know. I had to almost learn a new language. That was a bit more challenging. But it was still the same thing, which is “Let’s come to work and make something interesting to watch.”

Both Pacific Rim and Lego are just choices of trust. Guillermo del Toro calls you up and if you’re me, you say yes. And it was the same with Lego. I knew Chris [Miller] and Phil Lord from when I worked on the Luis Guzman show and they were staff writers, and we did ten episodes. I just followed their careers. Up until that time we hadn’t worked together but we stayed in touch. I admire what they do, so really I just knew that I was in such good hands that all I had to do was come and give them what they wanted and have some fun. I did almost nothing. I worked two days. Then they go and they make a great movie.

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On returning for Pacific Rim 2

Unfortunately, it’s like Lego. They keep me in the dark. It’s a shame. I’m a decent writer. [Laughs.] But every now and then [Guillermo] will send me emails saying, “Get ready! Get ready for madness!” I’m hoping I’ll see something this year. So I don’t know. I know what you know. I’ve got to find out through the press, and occasionally Guillermo will be like, “You’re coming back.”

On whether Pacific Rim 2 and 3 could shoot back to back…

That’s an interesting idea. Yeah, that might be a good way to do it. That’s so out of my league, what to do. That’s Legendary’s ballgame, so I don’t know anything about it.

On It’s Always Sunny‘s Green Man phenomenon…

I’ve seen less Green Men, I think it’s calming down a bit. But it may still be out there. I’ll have to put the Green Man suit on again. I don’t think I’ve worn it since season 5, so maybe we’ll have to write something for season 11. [Laughs.]

On reports of airlines serving It’s Always Sunny‘s canned wine…

You know, when I was in high school, there was this kid, and he was one of the cool kids… I didn’t smoke, but he was a smoker, and I bumped into him and I noticed he was hiding a lit cigarette in his Coca-Cola can, so he could walk around the school and smoke a cigarette. And I thought, “Wow, that guy’s the coolest guy ever” — although I do not endorse smoking [laughs]. Then I thought of that for the canned wine episode. I’m surprised it’s taken off.

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