In directing duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon’s family-friendly comedy Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, based on the children’s illustrated books of the ‘60s, audiences are introduced to a miraculous singer crocodile named Lyle (voiced by Shawn Mendes). After months of seclusion when his caretaker, a magician by the name of Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem), left Lyle in the attic of his New York brownstone, a new family moves in. When Mr. Primm (Scoot McNairy) lands a new teaching job, he relocates his family to the Big Apple, where his son Josh (Winslow Fegley) has a difficult time adjusting as he copes with loneliness and new anxieties. In a whirlwind of magic and music, Josh and Lyle find a new friendship in one another that helps them both grow from their insecurities.

Ahead of the release for this Sony Pictures film to digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down to talk with McNairy, who plays Mr. Primm in the movie. During their interview, McNairy shares the disbelief he felt when Speck and Gordon first contacted the actor for a comedic role and talks about the joy of being able to share his work with his children. McNairy also talks about what it was like working with Bardem as a fan and co-star, Halt and Catch Fire, and about his upcoming projects working with Amy Adams on Nightbitch, Andrew Durham’s Fairyland, and Blood for Dust. You can watch the interview in the video above, or read the full transcript below.

COLLIDER: For people that actually don't know your work, if someone has never seen anything, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

SCOOT MCNAIRY: Steven, great question out of the gates. I'd have to answer that not from an audience perspective, but more a personal perspective, and it's more based on what I was going through in my life, or the times that I had on that shoot, more so. It may not necessarily be the shoot itself, or the film itself, and this'll probably come satelliting a couple [of] times, is Godless.

I just loved being in New Mexico and on that shoot and on a horse. I loved the character, I loved the story. One of the greatest moments in my life as an actor was having a walkie-talkie in my saddle bag and them saying, "Go head over the hill and then we'll tell you when to come back." I went over that hill and I sat out there and waited for them to call, but obviously, something happened with production and they were messing with something else. So all this time went by, and I was sitting there on that horse in that cowboy hat, and all that stuff, and it just felt like such a euphoric moment of, "Holy shit, this is what it was like 150 years ago, right here, looking out over nothing." You can't see [anything], and you're on this horse, [and] it was just sort of a moment of bliss that stuck with me forever. I had one of the greatest times on that job. But it's like those little moments that are more so what makes me remember it and not necessarily the role in which one would know me from, if that makes sense.

Yeah. If I remember correctly, that was a seven-episode series and it was fantastic.

MCNAIRY: Oh, thank you so much. I had so much fun shooting that job. I wish it could have lasted 20 years.

When did you actually feel like you could pay your rent and be an actor for a living?

MCNAIRY: You never feel like you can pay your rent as an actor for a living in the future. You kind of feel like you can, based on what's happening. But I was 22 working as a carpenter-

Oh, you were doing the Harrison Ford thing.

MCNAIRY: I mean, I guess. I think Harrison was probably a much more precise and better carpenter than myself. But yeah, I was building sets for this event planning company down south of Los Angeles, and I got a commercial. Then I got another one. I made more money on those two commercials than my entire salary for the year. I know. Which was, I don't know, 35 grand or something. I remember I went to a long two, three years of getting tons of commercials, and I quit my job and I never had another job.

Well, [at] 26 years old, there was a lull and I went right back to remodeling. I was remodeling closets as a carpenter. So even when you feel like things are never going to change, they have so many times throughout my career that you just don't take anything for granted, and it just makes you so much more grateful for any work that you have. That's more where my head is, that I'm just grateful and trying not to think about the future or the past, just think about now, and now is great. Now is good. Now I can pay my rent. I don't know if I will be in six months, but I'll cross that bridge then.

Many people see you as a more dramatic actor. When Will [Speck] and Josh [Gordon] called you and said, "We want you to do this," which is more comedic. Were you like, "Yes. Oh my God, yes"?

MCNAIRY: Well, no, the first thing I said to them was like, "Well, y'all are shooting a comedy." And they said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, why are y'all calling me?" I had worked with them 15 years ago doing commercials. I'd done a bunch of comedy commercials for them. I just said, "What do you mean?" I was like, "No one in Hollywood thinks I'm funny." And they're like, "Well, we know you're funny." I was like, "Well, good luck convincing the studio of that."

Anyways, they fought for me. They really did. I had done some comedic stuff for them in the past, and I think they sort saw an ability that I had that hadn't been utilized or isn't being utilized, and I'm so grateful for them to even give me that opportunity. I was over the moon. I've been trying to get into something lighter than drama for over five years. I feel like I'm just now scratching the surface [of] opening up the different genres that I've been able to work in.

One of the things about making a film like this is you can actually share it with your entire family and kids. Is that one of the things you were like, "Oh my God, everyone in my family can watch this."

MCNAIRY: A hundred percent. Because everything I've done in the last 10 years, no one in my family can watch. My kids see me come and go, so I was so elated to be able to have a project that I could show my kids. I even brought them to [the] set in Atlanta and showed them the set and the crocodile and the CG, all the different suits and stuff. It was just awesome for them to see that and then be able to also take them to the premiere of it. Yeah, it's a really special moment for a father, or imagine for any parent to show your children what it is that you do instead of telling them about what it is that you do. I don't tell them much other than I'm an actor and they're starting to come to an age now where that's making a lot more sense to them.

Be honest. Is the Nintendo Switch behind you, yours or the kids?

MCNAIRY: You want me to be real honest? It's my kids and they’ve only got one game on it because I don't know how to set it up or work it, or anything. So it really just sits there, and until I take the time to sit down and figure out how to work it and download the games and stuff, it just sits there.

I have a Nintendo Switch and I played Animal Crossing for a little while.

MCNAIRY: I haven't been a gamer since Madden, John Madden [in], probably, '99, 2000 was probably my last stint.

You were playing on the original PlayStation?

MCNAIRY: Not the original PlayStation, no. I think college was around the time that I was like, "All right, I got to give this up. I got to focus on other things."

Javier Bardem is such a talented actor, and Will and Josh told me about how he really went for it and was performing. Can you talk a little bit about getting to see him up close and the way he works? Because he really always gives it a hundred percent.

MCNAIRY: I mean, not only is he a hundred percent talented, the guy's a hundred percent professional, too. The sort of energy that he brings, the composure that he brings as an actor and as a person, is incredibly contagious. He was really, really willing to try anything and do anything, and really put himself out there, which is what most actors do. This was sort of a stretch for him to really come out and deliver on that level, and also just be such a wonderful human being in the whole process of it.

That, to me, is what a real movie star is. To take all that stress and all that stuff and just focus forward and stay professional and stuff. He was so endearing, complimentary, nice, fun, free. On top of that, I'm a fan of the guy for so long. So for me, it was a real moment, it was a bonus. I got to do this comedy [with] Will and Josh, and also I got to work with an actor I've been wantingto work with since I started this. So the whole thing was an eye-opening experience.

You've done a lot of different projects. Which shot or sequence, in all the things you've done, do you think ended up being the most challenging one to pull off?

MCNAIRY: It would be a commercial that I did for Mountain Dew with a company called Tractor, this Swedish directorial production company here. They were crazy. I'd done a ton of crazy, crazy commercials for them, and on this one, they were like, "Hey, we want you to swim with sharks." Any other production company I would have said, yeah, but it was Tractor. I was like, "All right, I know you guys, I'm not actually going to swim with the shark." They're like, "No, we'll figure it out." Of course, I was skeptical. Anyway, they had me hanging from these wires and we had to match frame this dorsal fin of a shark that was a green screen while shooting water cannons at me, and swinging at a certain time to match frame to make it look like I was riding this great white shark.

I just remember it was in December down at Fox Baja [Studios], and it was freezing cold. These cannons were getting shot, we were in the water for four days. It was a lot of fun, but it was definitely one of my most memorable shoots of me saying to myself, "I really got to get out of these commercials and get into something else." Only to know that now I'm doing the same thing, but sitting five months in the snow or in the water. That's definitely a memorable shoot for me, that Mountain Dew spot that I did, I don't know, 16 years ago.

I have a lot of actor friends, and the thing about a commercial is that if you book a big national ad that ends up going for a while, it can buy you a house.

MCNAIRY: Yeah, I think probably 15 years ago that could happen. Yes, there are those. They're [few and far] between, though, these days, from what I hear. We worked a lot on commercials, and I went on six or seven auditions a week and only got about 15 to 18 of them a year. So if you look at the odds, it's not that high. Everybody at this company we were at, JPA, everybody that was there did all right.

Every time I talk to you, I bring up a certain show called Halt and Catch Fire because I fucking love it. Do you find that people continue to want to talk to you about it, or have more people seen it? It's so good, you know what I mean? When it was on, it was five people watching it and I was one of the five.

MCNAIRY: I knew you were one of the five, we talked about this because I knew the other four. Honestly, I thought the show was good when we were making it. I thought the writers and the showrunners had really, really done an interesting job. I didn't think it was ahead of its time, you just don't know why things aren't catching on. I always believed in the show and believed in the writers and the showrunners, and it was just getting eyes on it, I feel. During the pandemic when everybody went through their list of things to watch, they eventually hit it. I feel like a lot of people watched that show over the pandemic, and I did get a lot of texts and stuff saying, "Hey, I hadn't seen this show. It's really good." I just feel like that did us wonders, in regard to that show.

The sad thing about it is that I really wanted the show to keep going and get into modern times with computers. It didn't really gain speed until we had already been shut down. It was a great show, wonderful experience, great cast, a great time, [and a] huge learning experience for me. It was my first series I'd ever done. I’m very grateful for that learning experience. People were viewing it much more over the pandemic and after the pandemic, it did get the viewership that we never got previously when we were airing.

Yeah, I mean listen, I'm just grateful it was even on, and it had more than one season.

MCNAIRY: Every season we did, we had to bookend it because we just never knew if we were coming back, and that's the nature of the game. It would've been so nice to know that because these guys would've tied in things from different seasons and stuff. Regardless, they did a fantastic job at weaving that needle through that show.

I totally agree. I looked at the always-accurate IMDB and you have some pretty cool stuff coming up. You got to work on Fairyland and Nightbitch and Blood for Dust, The Line. Do you take breaks?

MCNAIRY: Yeah, I mean I took a huge break at the beginning of the year. I took about four months off and hung with my kids and my partner. I do take times off, but also when I start working, in a perfect world, you kind of bang out as much stuff as you can altogether and then pull the ripcord and take two months off, three months off or so. I love working. People would ask me, "What's the hardest thing in the entertainment business?" It's saying no. It's like you want to do all these projects and you waited around for a decade to work and you couldn't get it, and now it's here and you have to say no to things. It's really confusing and hard sometimes.

I can't imagine. Tell me about the projects. You got to work with Amy Adams, and I'm curious about these upcoming projects. What can you say about some of them?

MCNAIRY: The film I did, Nightbitch, with Amy Adams, [Marielle] Heller was heading up as director, and just with those two, I mean an incredible duo. It's a wild, wild movie and story, and weird. It's an adaptation, the film is out of the brain of Mari Heller, so we did some crazy stuff on it. I think it's going to be really sad and fun, funny, endearing. There's a bit of a horror element to it. All in all, this one is going to be such a surprise, I think to me, and even a bigger surprise to audiences. For me to even try to explain what it's about, or what happens in it, would not do it justice. And also, I probably could be way off.

I heard a little bit about what it's about and it sounds crazy.

MCNAIRY: When they put it together with all the things that are happening to Amy and stuff, it's going to be interesting. Then Fairyland is a film that Andrew Durham directed, with Greg Lauritano and Sofia Coppola producing. It's a memoir of Steve Abbott, a bisexual or gay writer/poet that raised his daughter as a single father in the Castro just before the AIDS epidemic. Essentially, it's the story about the love of a father for his daughter. It's a true story, but also for me it was about the extent that a father will go to for their child, and how it doesn't matter if you get it right or get it wrong, as long as you show up as a parent. I think it's going to be a beautiful film. I'm really excited about it.

Blood for Dust, I'm just about to get started on that. Rod Blackhurst is heading that up as the director. It stars Josh Lucas and Kit Harington, as well. It's more of a fun, popcorn, cat-and-mouse story, but with Rod Blackhurst's touch to it, he's very, very specific. I don't want to use another film to explain it, but I hadn't started it either. I think you discover a lot about a film and a character when you're doing it. I'll probably have more for you the next time I talk to you about that particular project.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is available to own on digital November 22, and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on December 13. You can watch Collider's interview with the directors below: