How Jake Gyllenhaal wound up as the scene-stealing "Mr. Music" in John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch

Variety

John Mulaney says Gyllenhaal was always the first choice to play Mr. Music, whose "breakdown is one of the most purely bizarre things on TV (of 2019), period," as Caroline Framke puts it. “It was pretty clear what (Mr. Music) was and that he would just be struggling,” says Mulaney of the writing process. “(But) until Mr. Gyllenhaal came in, the level of breakdown he was going to have was uncharted.” Mulaney adds that the sketch was easy to put together, despite the high potential for failure, because Gyllenhaal was fully committed. "When a great actor commits himself to comedy, and I say this very a reluctantly as a comedian that’s not a great actor,” adds Mulaney wryly, “it’s funnier than any comedian could ever be. Every take he made a different choice, and the first one when he was pulling notes out of the air we were like, ‘This is the funniest thing we’ve ever seen and we’ve worked with many, many comic talents.’”

ALSO:

• The key to Sack Lunch Bunch is that it takes not just itself seriously, but also kids: "The best kids’ shows—like Mister Rogers and Sesame Street—genuinely respect and also like children," says Vivian Kane. "Mulaney takes this a step further in that he knows that kids aren’t just smart (and the kids he surrounds himself with are exceptionally smart), but that they also think about really deep subjects. Talk of death is at the heart of this special from start to finish."
• No, that is not Marlon Jackson's son in Sack Lunch Bunch
• John Mulaney says he broke the news that Dave Chappelle was abandoning Chappelle's Show while working as a Comedy Central temp