Danny McBride Has Incredible Relationship With This Beloved Co-Star

Chemistry between actors doesn’t grow on trees, but when it works, it enhances everything. Sometimes, you get a film where it feels like two people were forced to be around each other. Their lines just clang off of each other like hail off a grill. But when they’re on the same page, or even friends, it can take everything to the next level. You can build a whole movie or TV show off of good chemistry. Or, in the case of Danny McBride and Walton Goggins, you build several.

McBride and Goggins first worked together on the HBO show Vice Principals, about two school employees vying for the role of Vice Principal, and Goggins felt like a revelation to me. I had definitely seen him before, but never really realized it. But in this show, he not only gets to play an unhinged character, but he gets to go toe-to-toe with McBride when it comes to seeing whose character is the biggest prick. Before that, it felt like other characters were usually just responding to McBride’s heightened ones. In Goggins, he found someone who could match his freak.

Then, McBride brought Goggins along for Righteous Gemstones, a show that, I believe, will go down as McBride’s masterwork. I have no doubt that he will make more things, and that they will be entertaining, but Gemstones is incredibly special, and that is in no small part due to Walton Goggins as Uncle Baby Billy, a Preacher/Televangialist/TV Star/Movie producer/Cocaine addict. He’s transcendent on that show, and his chemistry extends beyond doing scenes with McBride and into understanding his work and vibe.

McBride recently touched on their relationship in an episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, revealing that he and Goggins have become the best of friends since they started working together. He talks about getting along with the actor and going on a joint family vacation to Greece. That story devolves into McBride explaining that he felt like Vacation’s Cousin Eddie, venturing around Greece with the put-together Goggins. It’s pretty fantastic.

The question now is: How do we get more McBride and Goggins? The former was on O’Brien’s show to promote a new book that he wrote, and, from what I can see, has no new movies in development (save for a sequel to Angry Birds that everyone is clamoring for). It probably doesn’t help that his last film, Exorcist: Believer, which he produced and developed the story for, was… yeah. Maybe he can just do a comedy movie with Goggins and save Dustin from the deluge of awful movies he forces himself to watch (for YOU).