James Austin Johnson is hitching a ride back to Whoville. Saturday Night Live's resident Donald Trump impressionist (and noted Bob Dylan expert)
James Austin Johnson is hitching a ride back to Whoville.
Saturday Night Live’s resident Donald Trump impressionist (and noted Bob Dylan expert) returns to voice the Grinch in the second season of Wondery’s ‘Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast, which launched last year with 10 episodes of Johnson interviewing celebrity guests in character as Dr. Seuss’ infamous holiday hater.
Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal that season 2 of the podcast will feature guests Jon Hamm, Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Tony Hawk, Brittany Broski, Tori Kelly, DeAndre Jordan, Heidi Gardner, Fortune Feimster, and Nick Kroll.
Each episode of the season, which premieres on Wondery on Nov. 25, will end with a serialized mystery storyline trying to find the Whoville kids’ missing letters to Santa — and the Grinch’s in-universe producer Cindy Lou Who will further investigate the case in the Wondery+ bonus show Cindy Lou to the Resc-Who every Tuesday and Thursday.
The second season of ‘Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast will premiere with Hamm as the Grinch’s first guest of the year. You can listen to an exclusive preview of their conversation above, as well as a teaser of Johnson getting into character in the video below.
EW chatted with Johnson about all things Grinch, including his dream guest for the show, similarities to Trump and Dylan, and how he would fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: From the outside looking in, this feels like a massive year for your career. You had a voice role in the biggest movie of the year with Inside Out 2. You probably have the strongest job security of anyone at SNL in the wake of Trump’s reelection. There are reports that you’re involved with the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown that’s generating awards buzz, and now you’re ringing in the holiday season with more Grinch episodes. Does this feel like an unprecedentedly powerful period for you, or is it just another few days at the office?
JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON: Oh, man. When you list it all out like that, I guess it’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? I am someone who’s always just thinking about my family and how I can best set them up, and I never thought I would be able to be an actor and support a family that way. So that’s what is electrifying about hearing that list makes me go, ‘Oh good, I’m employed. Awesome!’ That’s good for a newborn dad.
It’s electrifying to not only be doing stuff that’s cold to me, like SNL, but my son, who’s two, is soon going to be able to appreciate stuff like Inside Out 2 and the Grinch show. So I like that. It feels like as he gets a little older here in the next couple of years, he’ll be able to get into what I do for a living — I do silly voices for a living! My child won’t be able to appreciate SNL for 15 more years. That’s when he’ll think that’s cold, as he gets a little older. So yeah, it feels like a good mix of things when you list it out to me. It makes me sound really cold. I hope people think I’m cold. I just feel like a dorky dad. [Laughs]
Does your son have any understanding or awareness of the Grinch and your involvement in it?
Well, I showed him a little bit of Star Wars: Episode I, and when he saw Darth Maul, he took off running to the other side of the room. So we’re keeping the scary guys away from the baby at the moment. But it’s fun playing the Grinch. Yeah, he’s a villain, but it’s such a silly world. It’s really fun to blend the overdue night stuff with the Dr. Seuss storybook stuff. I think it was really significant to me to do comedy that newborn parents would appreciate that had an element for newborn kids. I’m trying to entertain my son now, and anyway, he responds to a lot of fart noises. Hopefully there’s not too much fart noises on the show. We are a classy show.
I was like, alright, how do we do something that kind of really is for the whole family? Something that has a little bit of all the niche reference comedy that I’m famed for, mixed in with screaming and yelling and solving Christmas mysteries. It’s going to be really fun to show it off. My nieces and nephews really love it. They’re kind of the cold kids who are giving me their take on the show, and my son will eventually be able to get into it. We’re still stuck on the solar system. He hasn’t moved on from how cold Jupiter and Mars are, so maybe he’ll get into Christmas next year.
James Austin Johnson.
Wondery
Which guest were you most excited or starstruck to work with on this season of the Grinch?
I’ve been working on Jon Hamm and John Stamos for a while now. I just was like, ‘Oh man, they would be great for the show.’ Stamos: an American icon, a Beach Boy. It simply does not get better. And then Jon Hamm — it’s Don Draper, ‘Shut the door!’ ‘That’s what the money’s for!’ These are guys that need to be moving into the Seussosphere, you know what I mean? I’m in the Seussosphere and I’m loving it, so I wanted to get those guys in. Fortune Feimster was really fun too. I really loved chopping it up with other comedians, obviously.
And then probably the GOAT of the season — I mean, I haven’t heard it since we recorded it, but it was so much fun in the studio — former president Danny DeVito. This man, if you want to talk about an American icon, I mean truly an American icon. Danny DeVito, come on. So Danny DeVito and his daughter did the show. That was a little starstruck. I think the Grinch was a little starstruck. Grinch lives a very It’s Always Sunny-style lifestyle. He’s a mess. He’s depraved.
Heidi Gardner is the first current SNL cast member to guest on this Grinch show. What was it like working with her in this different context?
Heidi and I love working together at [SNL]. I mean, I love working with Heidi at the show. I won’t speak for her. She’s one of my favorite comedians that I’ve ever seen. I think that’s a crazy aspect of the show is you are at the table read and you’re looking around and it’s just the cream of the crop. I mean, it’s the crème de la crème. Heidi is certainly that.
And it was pretty engaging because I’m the Grinch when I’m interviewing Heidi Gardner. I’m the Grinch on The Grinch. It’s not James Austin Johnson. It’s the Grinch, and I think she’s used to working with James Austin Johnson. So this whole thing where the Grinch is my Hannah Montana, it’s a pretty engaging lifestyle. Yeah, she’s the best. The improvisers, the sketch comedians, they know exactly how to respond to the Grinch because it’s a little bit like a buckin’ bronco of a conversation. It’s like being strapped to a rocket, man.
Who would you say the Grinch is more similar to: Donald Trump or Bob Dylan?
Oh, man, what a good question. And you know what? I’ll tell you, I get asked this all the time, and I’m so glad that you asked me because it’s just one of my favorite questions to answer. Bob Dylan is someone who is constantly reinventing himself. And that’s kind of where the Grinch is at in our show. Stealing Christmas in How the Grinch Stole Christmas — that’s his “Blowing in the Wind.” You know what I mean? But if you go see Bob Dylan, I mean, he’s recorded 39 studio albums. So I’m playing a version of the Grinch — it’s like the Grinch going electric. The Grinch becoming a talk show host is the next phase of his creativity, the next phase of his art. So I see it as a Dylan-style trajectory for the Grinch each season of the show. He’s growing into a recent artist, frankly.
James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump on ‘Saturday Night Live’.
Will Heath/NBC via Getty
But then you look at Donald Trump, and this is a guy who he just wants to be listened to. I mean, what can you say about Donald Trump other than the fact that he is someone who likes to chat? He likes a lengthy chat, and that puts him in the same stratosphere as the Grinch, a distinct personality who loves to gab. So weighing those two things together: There’s nobody like the Grinch, I’m sorry, I can’t answer your question. There’s simply no one like him. It’s the Grinch. His name has “The” in it. That’s inimitable.
Have there been any conversations about bringing your Grinch into other media — movies, TV shows, SNL sketches?
I mean, there’s talk of bringing the Grinch into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I mean, I don’t know who’s having those conversations, and I can’t confirm that they’re happening, but it’s an electrifying prospect. I’d have to get really ripped, I suppose. I think a Jacked Grinch could really achieve a Dwayne the Rock Johnson level of renown. You know what I mean? Jacked Grinch just throwing cars through windows and swinging from girders with explosions going off behind them, helicopters taking off into the sunset. Ryan Gosling is the best friend. If it happens, I’m here. I’m hanging by the phone. The more I talk about it, the more excited I become. It writes itself.
How does your performance style differ when you’re doing a voiceover role versus on camera work? Do you find yourself more self-conscious of your voice, or is it a more laid back experience if there’s no camera?
I love doing voice work, and I love doing silly voices. For me, any character that I play probably starts with the vocal performance. It starts in the ear. I love the sound of people’s voices, so I usually start there when I’m forming a comedy character. But that said, I mean, I grew up doing theater all my life, and I did standup all the time through my overdue teens and twenties. And so there’s something extra that you get from performing for others, so it always takes a second when you’re a voice artist who’s alone in a booth to conjure up that feeling of excitement that you get from a live audience. You have to create your own feedback, and it does kind of put you in your head a little bit. But with that, it does open up a lot of innovative possibilities. That can just be really fun. I mean, through voice acting. I can play an anthropomorphic purse, or an venerable man, or an venerable woman, or a bird. I dunno, it’s just fun to let your imagination go crazy rather than the tension and excitement of the live performance. Perhaps it’s more of an interpretive act or something like that.
They both hold a huge place in my heart, but I will say that I am really grateful that I did not have to get into eight hours of makeup to play the Grinch. Let’s just say: bullet dodged. I think that’s probably the best thing about voice acting — no makeup chair with prosthetics painstakingly applied to your face, especially in the Grinch’s case. I mean, he’s a hairy guy, and that little belly of his. I’m glad I don’t have to get in the makeup chair for that. I’m glad it’s not on camera. Now I get to, to really let loose just from the comfort of my Hokas.
‘Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast.
Wondery
Who’s your dream Grinch guest?
My dream guest might be Tom Waits. He’s this sort of elusive figure and he’s got a energetic, raspy voice, and he’s either crying or screaming. And I think that the Grinch and Tom Waits would really get along. I love watching venerable David Letterman clips, and Tom Waits was always the best guest on Letterman, and he’d have a bizarre interview. And then you play a little song. And I think that the Grinch can really identify with Tom Waits’ growly, abstract, Berlin barfly Halloween gospel thing. I think they’d really hit it off. Tom Waits is one of my favorite artists of all time. Can you see a through-line, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits? I only like guys whose voices sound like accordions falling down the stairs.
I’ve saved my stupidest question for last. Charli XCX is hosting SNL this week. Is the Grinch brat?
Grinch is so brat. The Grinch is sooooo brat. It’s brat. I mean, when I think about how brat the Grinch is, it’s just brat to even think about. It’s so brat. I can’t even explain how brat is brat. It’s that brat. So yeah, the Grinch is brat. I mean, there’s no other way to say it. The Grinch is brat. Brat. Brat exclamation point, BRAT all caps, BRAT all caps plus exclamation point, lowercase brat like on the album cover. He is all those things.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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‘Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast premieres on Wondery+, Amazon Music, and podcast providers everywhere on Nov. 25. Listen to our exclusive preview of the Grinch’s conversation with Jon Hamm above.c
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