Joel McHale cast again as a jerk in winning dramedy ‘Adult Beginners’

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TORONTO – Perhaps it won’t come as a surprise to say that in the sharply written dramedy “Adult Beginners,” Joel McHale plays a jerk.

After all, the Emmy nominee made his name on the subversive cult comedy “Community” portraying — in his words — a “professional selfish jerk,” a persuasive and imaginative liar and lawyer who has to go back to college because his degree was fake.

From there, McHale starred in the foul-mouthed smash “Ted” as a rich slickster who makes persistent, inappropriate advances on Mila Kunis’s character. In the Adam Sandler comedy “Blended,” McHale portrayed a deadbeat dad to Drew Barrymore’s two kids. In “Deliver Us From Evil,” also out this year, McHale again played a somewhat jerky sidekick to Eric Bana’s stoic Bronx cop.

And in “Adult Beginners,” screening at the Toronto International Film Festival,” he plays Hudson, a pampered, coke-huffing layabout who represents the dark days of star Nick Kroll’s Wall Street past.

So why is it that McHale finds himself again and again cast as supercilious slimeballs?

“Well I keep saying yes to them, so there’s that,” a candid McHale said this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I don’t mind playing jerks. If I get typecast as a jerk, I’ll be like: ‘Hey, look at that! I’m getting typecast! This is going great!’

“I do speak my mind in real life,” he added. “And I guess that could be interpreted as jerky. But I don’t care.”

McHale turns serious, however, when discussing the one upcoming project in which he does not portray a jerk: “A Merry Friggin’ Christmas,” due out in November.

He stars opposite the late Robin Williams as a father who brings his brood to a family holiday gathering only to realize he forgot all the gifts, and has to embark on a long roadtrip with his dad to get them back.

It’ll stand as one of Williams’ last roles. And McHale is still deeply rattled by Williams’ recent suicide.

“If you had said to me, you’re going to be in a movie with Robin Williams and you’re going to star opposite him, I’d be like: ‘What did I do in my life to be so fortunate? What happened? Why is God blessing me so much?'” said the 42-year-old.

“And it was. It was a dream come true to work with him and to work with that cast. And then when he killed himself it was as disturbing and sad a thing as I’ve ever been around.

“I’ll miss him deeply,” he added.

— Follow @CP_Patch on Twitter.

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