It all started back in 2010, when British comedian Rob Brydon and actor Steve Coogan did a TV series called The Trip, which followed them over the course of week as they traveled England's Lake District dining out on delicious food and having free-wheeling, frequently funny conversations. The series was then edited together into The Trip, which then inspired three more movies. After installments in Italy and Spain, Brydon and Coogan's Trip franchise comes to an end with The Trip to Greece. In this fourth feature, the semi-fictional versions of Rob and Steve are taking to the road and traveling across Greece as they chart the same course once taken by Odysseus. As they make their way from one hallowed historical site to another, their journey will have them making pit stops at lush restaurants with plenty of open-air seating and good food, firing off new jokes and making light of some real-life recent events (prepare for lots of fun ribbing about Coogan's BAFTA-nominated turn in 2018's Stan & Ollie).

During a 1-on-1 phone call with Collider, Brydon opened up, discussing not just The Trip to Greece, but also the Trip franchise as a whole. From learning how to make Coogan break during dinnertime scenes to his favorite meals to working with Winterbottom on these four movies, Brydon shared it all. Here's what happened.

COLLIDER: 10 years is quite a lot of time to spend with Steve Coogan. I imagine it's been quite an adventure. What have been some of your favorite bits about working alongside him for so long a time, and working on a franchise like this?

trip-to-greece-rob-brydon-steve-coogan-tunnel
Image via IFC Films

ROB BRYDON: Well, I mean, he's a remarkable man. He's larger than life creative force. He lives a very big life. He has a lot of incident and drama in his life. There's always a lot going on. It's fascinating. We know he's a brilliant creative force. So it's been hugely stimulating working with him, not without its occasional bumps in the road. When you're doing this sort of thing we're doing here, we're sort of picking holes at each other, and we sort of said we'd have a gentleman's agreement at the beginning that that was okay. But now and again, we'll have a moment.

I remember in this one, the meal we have in Piraeus where we talk about Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man, there was a moment there where I think I touched a nerve and he said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa," and we started a little fight when it broke. It has happened the other way over the years. But then it's soon forgotten. It's not dwelt upon. I think we sometimes push it just to avoid it being bland and cozy.

How has working on this series of movies impacted your life? You've been able to travel and have meals which I certainly would love to have, and I just am wondering what sort of memories or impressions you're left with after this experience.

BRYDON: Well, it's been a very fortunate experience, because what happens for Steve and myself is that these trips... It's a trip in the sense of what we're making, but it is a trip as well, and these places are curated for us. All the best bits are chosen for us. So as I look back over the 10 years, I have so many different memories sitting.

It tends to be stuff outside of the filming, because the filming is work. Then we'll have times when we're eating together, either Steve and I in the evening with the crew, perhaps, or on a day off and we've gone to visit somewhere. But I can think of many evening meals together, either just Steve and I or with the crew, enjoying a drink together, and they're very, very special.

trip-to-greece-rob-brydon-steve-coogan-dinner
Image via IFC Films

I go back to that thing Hoffman always used to say about the number of actors at any one time who're in work. So I can take it back to that level of appreciation and just... My God, just to be working is great. Then to be working on something like this, where we've visited these amazing places. Then once we're there, we're not just speaking someone else's lines, but we're getting to create and improvise. It's one of the most creative jobs I've ever done. So it's been an entirely enjoyable experience.

Have been times, especially while filming The Trip to Greece, where you find you two are trying to make yourselves break or laugh, and if you've sort of figured out which things can make each other break, and what those might things be.

BRYDON: Well, I think I'm more of a natural performer than Steve is. I think I enjoy entertaining more than Steve does. I sometimes think of Steve as someone who's been given this incredible talent and sort of sometimes feels, "Well, I better use it then, given that I've got it," whereas I... So I quite like trying to make him laugh, and I think I probably try to make him laugh more than he tries to make me laugh.

In the first meal in this one, there's that bit where he talks about coming outside his house with a blanket to sit down and read, and then some flies come and he goes back in the house. I start reacting as if it's a wonderful anecdote that he's told on that, and he bursts into laughter. I love making him laugh, because he won't laugh at just anything. He's quite fussy. So I will enjoy that.

Then it's a lovely feeling when we do hit a rich seam, and you know it when you do. You just feel it. Sometimes you can hear titters from the crew. That's very rewarding. Sometimes you've got to go digging around for quite a while before you hit that seam, of course. But when you do, it's very rewarding.

At this point, with a fourth movie under your belt, I'm curious to know about the creative process in shaping the Trip to Greece story and filming with Michael Winterbottom at this point; I'm just curious what that all looks like.

trip-to-greece-rob-brydon-steve-coogan-masks
Image via IFC Films

BRYDON: Well, with all of them, it's Michael. It's Michael Winterbottom. He is the author of the trip. I always say that he draws it and we color it in. So everything is Michael. He will contact us and say, "You guys free at a certain point?" And they speak to the agents and the diaries, and we look when could we do it, and then we meet for a lunch and he'll say... We'll have heard by then which country it is, so you'll hear it's Greece. "Oh, okay, we're going to Greece," right? Then Michael will have mapped out the route, the restaurants, in this instance, following in Odysseus's footsteps. So that's all him. That's nothing to do with us. He will have plotted out the story that, in this instance, involves Steve's family.

So we just turn up. He'll give us a little research, and typically Steve will do some. I will do none. I had thought this time I might try a bit harder so I could be a bit different. Maybe I'd know something. I just never got round to it. It's probably for the best, because I think it works better for us if... And it all is a slight exaggeration of reality that he knows more about it. He would've made an effort to learn something so that he can lord it over me, and I won't mind that. It'll bother him that I don't mind. That's the vibe that works between us.

Going back to your pre-meal comedy bits: There are so many that I could see being turned into a comedy special or a movie. I'm wondering if there's a particular bit (be it the "Come, come, Mr. Bond" mom, or the "Henry VIII as a Cockney gangster" moment) you either really enjoyed just running with, or that you could see being great fodder for something bigger outside of the movies.

trip-to-greece-rob-brydon-hillside
Image via IFC Films

BRYDON: Well, I don't know about for something bigger, but I mean, I remember in The Trip to Spain, there's the bit where we get served the two scallops, and then we start the James Bond thing as if one of them is poisoned, so we've got to turn the plate the other way around. I think that just came to us because of the way she laid the plate on the table. That would be an example of straight away, you know that's going to be good. Sometimes you spark on things and "We'll see where this goes." But we both clocked the way the plate's been put down, and I think we both had the same thought and we turned it around. We're familiar with that sort of a scene in Bond movies or spy movies. That was a delight, because we both know the grammar of those scenes. I remember that.

I also remember from The Trip to Greece, as from The Trip to Spain, early on when we talked about the Spanish Inquisition, and Steve imagines I'm on a rack and he's torturing me and stretching me on a rack, but I'm quite happy because it's going to make me a little bit taller, and things like that. I mean, there's lots of them where we got into a role. Yeah, we just get into the swing of things and really enjoy it.

There's also a point in The Trip to Greece where you ask Steve what kind of monument he would like erected in his honor. I wonder if you've ever thought about how would you like to be remembered, or what you would like to be remembered for? I know this is kind of a big, existential question, so take it as you will.

BRYDON: Well, I've always said that it doesn't bother me. I only really want to be remembered fondly by my family, right? My wife, my family, but specifically my children. I mean, that would be the greatest thing, if they went on into their life thinking they've had the best father they could possibly have. That would be just fantastic if you were this figure in their lives when they were the age that I am now, and presumably I was long gone, but I still loomed large with this wonderful, positive presence. That would be great. Failing that, a statue in a shopping center.

The Trip to Greece is reportedly said to be the final movie. Is there anything that you'll miss in particular about making these movies?

trip-to-greece-rob-brydon-steve-coogan-together
Image via IFC Films

BRYDON: I'll miss the experience of traveling with that small unit, all knowing each other, all having a shorthand. Arriving in different places... On this one, all of a sudden we're arriving on Hydra, and then another time, now we're driving into Athens. That's a wonderful thing to do, and to do it with friends. Because a lot of the crew have remained the same over the years, so you become friends with them. I'll miss that. Forgive me if I've already said this. I have this comedian's instinct for getting off while they're still laughing, and I really didn't want to outstay our welcome.

Just because I'm very curious, if the door was open for a fifth movie or perhaps a TV special, would that be of interest [or] of possibility?

BRYDON: Bit farther down the road, yes. But it would need to be, I would say, at least 10 years. If Steve is still alive, then I think that would be a lovely thing to do in 10 years.

Finally, the food is incredible. I can't watch these movies without also having a snack at hand just to keep the hunger away. Is there a particular meal from The Trip to Greece which really sticks with you?

BRYDON: Yeah, let me think now. I have to pick through them in my head. I think the one in Piraeus where we do the Dustin Hoffman stuff, that was delicious. That was adorable, actually. That was very nice. But don't ask me what it was, because I can't remember. But I just remember it was particularly nice.

The scenery, as well, was just amazing, too. I'm highly envious. It's fantastic.

BRYDON: Oh, yeah. But it's interesting. I mean, a lot of the scenery you see in this we didn't see, because of course, there are a lot of drone shots. So some of the angles I'm also seeing for the first time when I watch the finished thing. When we drive to the beach where Steve gets the phone call from home, and the drone shoots up over the car, we never got to see the bay from that angle. I think that really is quite stunning.

The Trip to Greece is now available in select theaters, digital, and on-demand beginning Friday, May 22.