A chat with Kyle Bornheimer of ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED

Confession time: every time I see Kyle Bornheimer as a guest star or a commercial actor or something, I’m 100% more inclined to enjoy what I’m watching because he has such an infectious energy on screen.  His energy combined with Alyssa Milano’s are big reasons that I’m tuning into tonight’s all new episode of ABC’s ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED!  Read on to find out what drew him to the role of Perry, what is coming up in tonight’s all new episode, and why other people should be watching!

We are talking about ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED.  Tell me a little bit about how you got involved with this show?
Ricky Blitt, who created the show, who was one of the writers of FAMILY GUY for years.  You should talk to Ricky if you haven’t. Ricky is a character, but Ricky Blitt contacted me and said he had this part for me and I read the script and it was this character named Perry who is this incredibly nice, incredibly romantic man and I knew instantly what I could do with it and because Ricky was involved and Alyssa Milano was onboard it became somewhat of a no-brainer.  I just knew the character I could go to some really interesting places with…then we had a long, long, way to long, table read in the room with Ricky Blitt at one time meeting at his place, which almost turned into a slumber party where we basically acted out every scene in the script.  I would play Perry and he would play every other character that he could come up with, stuff to do and physical comedy.  I really wanted to play the physical comedy and he really liked that I could bring that to it..

You mentioned having the back and forth, one into the physical comedy, him being really excited about having that in there, it sounds like you have a really good working relationship.  Do you go to Ricky and the writers and say I have this idea, let’s maybe try to throw that in there or do you just follow what they have for you?
I trust Ricky a lot and he has a great team of writers and they, I mean TV writers, especially on RC have kind of the craziest schedules in town and they work really hard so I am very sensitive about not bugging them too much and then they are the funniest people in town so they don’t need me.  What you learn when you’re doing a show if one joke that you love gets replaced because of some reason it is going to get replaced with an equally as good joke which is real exciting when you’re working with someone as good as Ricky and his team.  What is funny is when we sort of run it all together then  you just sort of bat ideas around and that is actually like playing with your friends. It is like being a kid and just pretending in the basement like what if I did this and what if I did this and Jim Burrows, who is the director, who is a legitimate legend in the business.  He directed all of the CHEERS and TAXI, WILL & GRACE, he has just got a bag full of comedy that, you’re like can I do something here as I walk in, he will just throw something at you and it will be the funniest thing you’ve ever heard and so that back and forth is really fun which I also think makes our show really unique, that everyone is invested in kind of adding little touches here and there to make it special and there is no dead moment, there is always some comedy going on in the background, in the foreground, somewhere there is something funny going on and we really were dedicated to finding small, big, medium, all sizes of kind of comedic moments in there.

The cast chemistry is great, too, I believe that you guys have all been friends for years. That kind of relationship comes across to the viewers.
It is instrumental I think.  When we all got together to start doing this we started hanging out right away and instrumental in that was Alyssa who just has a very energized personality.  It is as cool to sit down and have a conversation with her as she is to work with and she was one of the first on board with this so I think when Kelly and I and Josh all came aboard we all sort of just, even between takes and rehearsing we are usually just sitting at a table hanging out and we immediately felt like you said, like we’ve known each other for a long time.  Then when we are sitting and doing a scene together you have a short hand that was established pretty early on, I think it’s because we are all very interested in making it good and we knew to do that that we should perpetuate what was already there, which was a great friendliness between us all.

What can you tell us about what we are coming up on this week or maybe in future episodes?
This week we learn a little bit more about Kelly’s character Lisa who has a penchant for dating kind of bad boys and when it is posed to her that she should maybe date a nice guy she unfortunately finds the worlds most nauseatingly nice guy, played by this really funny actor named Daniel O’Brien.  It is a great episode for her.  My character and Josh’s character, Shawn and Perry have a little bit of a tiff between them that goes into some interesting places.  They start with him forgetting to pick me up from the dentist after I have had my wisdom teeth pulled.  So there is a lot of physical comedy in this one and it’s great.  This one kind of explores both Rebecca and Lisa’s relationship.  They have a little tiff that they have to get over and Sean and Perry have a little tiff they have to get over.  It starts very funny and then there’s a nice sweet middle, well actually a nice sweet ending actually that comes off as perfectly toned that I really like.

Why do you think that this is a show that people should be tuning into?  What draws people in?
Our fresh take. Ricky Blitt has a wonderful sensibility where he is incredibly fresh and irreverent and edgy in his comedy but he loves totally classic comedy in the sitcom world and he marries those perfectly. He is one of the best comedy editors I have ever worked with in putting a scene together and it lends itself a great flavor, very unique flavor.  Like I said we kind of jam pack it with small, big, light, heavy moments that are just very well placed, like a nice soufflé maybe, I am going to go with that analogy, for some reason I picked that word.

Do you get a chance to watch other shows on TV?
My favorite show right now is MINUTE TO WIN IT and then when WIPE-OUT starts hopefully this summer that will probably be it.

I was kind of shocked the first time I watched that.  I did not expect to be crying of laughter.
Yeah I know.  It’s watching people fall that’s funny.

It really is.
That’s my form of viewing right now.

What else do you have coming up besides ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED?
I have a movie right now that is playing in theaters called SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE, which is very funny, its great. It did really well.  It got great reviews and it’s a great comedy staring Jay Baruchel and I play his jerky brother and that’s still in theaters.  I have something coming out in September called YOU AGAIN with Kristen Bell which is a great, great comedy.

One comment

  • I haven’t watched Romantically Challenged but I did watch that other show Kyle Bornheimer was on last year…I can’t remeber the name. It got cancelled. I liked that. Kyle was sorta like the new Jack Tripper. Shame is didn’t get a second season.