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Nat Faxon: Oscar doesn’t satisfy his Hollywood hunger

3 min read
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NEW YORK- Nat Faxon won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for “The Descendants” starring George Clooney, but that hasn’t left him with a sense of security.

“Even when you win an Oscar I think you’re still always trying to prove your next gig,” said Faxon, 39, in a recent interview.

He believes the tendency to search for more exists outside of Hollywood as well.

“I think that is true not only in our industry but in life in general,” he said. “Even if you had all the money in the world, you’d have to fulfill something else or there’s always the next thing. You’re never in that exclusive club at the top of the mountain where you’re drinking champagne and eating like kings.”

Faxon is also an actor and director. He stars with Judy Greer in “Married,” now in its second season on FX (10:30 p.m. Thursday).

“Working with her is very easy and I think that’s a tribute to how good she is, you know? When it’s hard and there’s a struggle, especially when you’re supposed to be married, you’re working a little harder for that connection. With Judy, it’s so seemingly effortless on her part, it makes you relax.”

Before “Married,” he played a big brother to Dakota Johnson as a young, single mom in the short-lived Fox sitcom “Ben and Kate.”

Faxon isn’t surprised that Johnson turned out to be a scene-stealer in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

“She is very adept at playing many things,” he said. “One of which is the sort of frazzled, sort of uncomfortable, foot-in-mouth scenario. … And she does it really, really well. … Not to say that’s like all she does. That’s one thing that I always remember from ‘Ben and Kate.’ I was like, ‘Oh, you’re so good at that.”‘

Faxon divides his on-camera time with behind-the-scenes work, writing and directing with Jim Rash (best-known for his role as a costume-loving, over-the-top college dean on TV’s “Community”).

“I guess we could be greedier and more selfish and fit ourselves into more things that we do, but some things just don’t work out,” he said. “You end up casting a bigger name that gets the movie financed. You have to be a little bit flexible in what makes sense only for you … and what makes sense to get a different person to do it.”

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