Nick Kroll teases 'The League' cast mates, season premiere

Thursday October 11, 2012 2:00 PM By Chris Serico

Photo credit: Handout | "The League" star Nick Kroll is a comedian who grew up in Rye.

Rye native Nick Kroll recently told Newsday Westchester that he doesn't talk as much smack as his character, Ruxin, on "The League." But then he went ahead and mocked his cast mates anyway.

(OK, so he was joking when he made fun of them, but more on that in a bit.)

It all started when we asked him the extent to which he related to his character, Rodney Ruxin, an attorney who's unrelenting when it comes to all forms of competition on FX's funny fantasy-football series, whose season four premiere is tonight.

"I would say that Ruxin is probably one of the most unlikable people that I've ever encountered," he joked. "And I would say that I am not hugely unlikable. I'm moderately unlikable, and Ruxin is unbelievably unlikable."

And that's when the comedian — whose own Comedy Central series is slated to premiere in late January — started talking about the likability of his co-stars on "The League." I'll let his quotes speak for themselves.

"What's funny is that we're all really awful to each other on the show, but personally, to each other, we're actually very nice and loving and supportive," he said. "But I think what really helps the show is that we can be really terrible to each other on the show, but, underneath, you still feel like, 'Oh, these guys are friends,' because in real life, we really are friends."

After a beat, he continued: "But [Stephen] Rannazzisi's got a big, stupid head; and Mark [Duplass] is ugly; Paul [Scheer] has bad comedy instincts; [Jon] Lajoie can't play music; and Katie [Aselton] has bad breath."

(Beware of spoilers from previous seasons of "The League" from this point onward. You've been warned!)

At the end of the second season of "The League," Ruxin emerged victorious, promising an "unrelenting reign of Ruxin" to follow. By the end of the third season, Ruxin declared himself the winner by default. Kroll says Ruxin's (self-proclaimed) reign "continues to evolve" this season.

"He takes on a new role inside of the league, and he's going to be taking on some issues at home, and he's going to want to change some things around the house," he added. "And there are a lot of things in Ruxin's life that will remain a constant — in that he's awful to everyone, and everyone hates him."

In the stunt-casting department, Kroll says he doesn't know if Jeff Goldblum will return this season or later to play Ruxin's dad. But Goldblum might be playing that role in real life regardless, even when cameras aren't rolling.

"I think there's talk of it," Kroll said. "Jeff Goldblum actually came to my birthday, and my actual father was there. I tweeted out a picture of the three of us, and it just said 'My Two Dads.' I definitely look more like Goldblum than I do my own father."

"The League" returns tonight at 10:30 p.m. on FX.

Tags: Rye , Nick Kroll , The League , FX , TV