Despite the fact that Kirby Heyborne has starred and co-starred in almost a dozen movies, the Utah native finds himself a "wide-eyed . . . naive" newcomer in Hollywood right now.
After years of working on small-budget independent films, he's co-starring in the new Fox comedy "Free Ride," which premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on Ch. 13.
"It's awesome. Fox is amazing," Heyborne said by telephone from his home in Southern California. "They're the nicest people. Everybody from the executives on down to the production company — everybody treats me so nice. I haven't run into the attitude yet. Maybe it's because I'm so naive and just walking around all big-eyed — 'You mean I get a trailer?!? What?!?' "
"Free Ride" is a partially improvised comedy about recent college graduate Nate (Josh Dean) who has no idea what to do with his life. He returns to his Midwest home to find his parents are having marriage problems and they've turned his room into a gym, so he has to move into the garage.
Heyborne co-stars as Dillon, Nate's buddy who's married and settled down, and who competes with Dove (Dave Sheridan) — a guy who peaked in high school and has been cruising downhill in his monster truck ever since — to be Nate's best friend.
Other than a national auto ad and a guest spot on "Everwood," this is Heyborne's first foray into the Hollywood mainstream. To date, his career has been mostly inside the Mormon movie subgenre, both highbrow ("The Best Two Years," "Saints and Soldiers") and lowbrow ("Singles Ward," "The R.M.," "Sons of Provo").
"This is the first time that all I need to worry about is showing up on set and doing the best I can as an actor," Heyborne said. "Whereas, on independent films, it's — let me help load in the lights, or whatever. Which I enjoy doing. That's the one thing I love about independent film is, it's a big community where all the lines are kind of blurred and you're helping move lights or helping carry cable. But it was a lot less pressure."
Heyborne's "Free Ride" role is recurring — he's in the first episode for just under a minute and doesn't appear in the second installment, but he is in four of the first six episodes, and his role expands in later installments. And he got the part through the traditional audition process.
The show's creator/executive producer, Rob Roy Thomas, hadn't seen any of Heyborne's film work when he cast him in the show. "I just think he's very funny. Didn't you think he was great in the show?" Thomas said. "But I've heard about those Mormon movies. I'm going to have to take a look at them."
"Free Ride" isn't your average network comedy. Whereas most half-hour sitcoms have a script that runs 30, 40 pages or more, "Free Ride" works from an eight-page outline. Thomas gives his actors a basic idea of what the scene is about, where he wants it to end up, and then lets them go.
"He didn't want us to have any preconceived ideas coming into a day," Heyborne said. "So the eight pages were very minimal. It would say, 'Dillon fights with Dove.' He wanted it to be just right in the moment — whatever comes out comes out."
And that turned into a very funny scene in a later episode where Heyborne and Sheridan get into a comedic brawl.
Despite his experience with improvisation — he's been a member of two different improv groups — Heyborne acknowledges, "The first night was the biggest stress because I've never done an improvised show before. It was my first network big thing, and there's all these people on set, and you really have no feedback (from an audience). There's really no time. TV is so quick."
There are generally four writers on set with the cast, crew and Thomas. "If you said something funny, they would write it down on a card and hand it to Rob, and then Rob would say, 'Oh, Kirby, that was funny when you said such-and-such.' And then he would just say, 'Do that again and make sure you say that line again.' "
And the actors had to be quick on the feet. "(Thomas) would just say, 'Alright, let's hold the cameras. That was funny but make completely different choices and — go!' When I got home, I was exhausted because my brain was dead.
"What's fun is when you do get to make a completely different choice. (Thomas) says, 'I've got it in the camera, and now let's just go completely crazy and do whatever you want.' And that's just fun. Just seeing where the scene goes — it was amazing."
Thomas encourages his actors to bring their own experiences to the scenes. "Basically what I like to do is think of things that have happened to me and things that have happened to the people that I'm writing with, (and) with my actors," Thomas said. "We sit around and we talk at observations in life and what idiotic things we've done as human beings, and go, 'That's happened to me too,' or 'That would make a good story.' "
That turned out to be the case for Heyborne, who really is a married man with young children. "While I'm coming up with the dialogue on set, the funniest stuff is true stuff. And so I'd bring in some comments at my kid or at my wife while I'm on set, and people would start laughing and say, 'Oh, that's so funny . That's so horrible for that character.' And I was thinking, 'Oh, wait, that's my real life. Is my real life that bad?'
"But then I'd say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah — I just made it up.' "
And he's not worried that any of that is going to be a problem when his wife, Trisha, gets a look at the episodes. "She's just excited. I do throw in little shouts-out to her, because you can. I use words and vocabulary that work for the character, but she will be the only one going, 'Oh, yeah!' "
And he's as excited about "Free Ride" as his wife. "This is what you move to Los Angeles for — to be one of the big characters on a new show," Heyborne said. "So it's just great."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com