Clone High's Will Forte and Nicole Sullivan Talk Returning for New Episodes, Abe and Joan Relationship and More

Coming Back to Abe and Joan

NICK VALDEZ, COMICBOOK.COM: It's blowing my mind speaking with you as someone who got to see the MTV run of Clone High 20 years ago now, so it was awesome to see it come back for not one but two new seasons. So I do have to ask the two of you, how did it feel to come back to being Abe and Joan again while having to adjust and jump back into the minds of these hormone-addled teenagers?

WILL FORTE: Oh, it was very exciting. This was a show that meant so much to me. It was my very first acting job. I had met Chris [Miller] and Phil [Lord]. We have the same agent, so our agent, we were all at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 1998. We became friends and would just watch Survivor together, and I was a writer at the time. I was writing for Third Rock from the Sun when I met them and then went to That '70s Show from there.

So when I was at That '70s Show, they approached me about doing the voice of Abe, and I had never done any on-camera acting or voice acting. So I was terrified, and it was just the best experience. I loved the show so much and just always looked back very fondly on it. After 20 years, there's no reason you would ever think that that would come back, but when I heard that it did, it was just this very exciting surprise. And it's been so nice to put Abe's top hat on again.

NICOLE SULLIVAN: I agree with Will. It was very not expected, and so it was such a delightful surprise to hear about it. I loved working on the show 20 years ago. I say that when we started the show, I did not get the show. I was doing the thing. I was like, "I don't know what's happening. I don't understand." And about halfway through I was like, "Oh, I think these guys are really interesting and clever. Look at them." And I am referring to Chris and Phil.

And then by the end of the run I was like, "God, I think they might kind of be geniuses, and Will Forte is hilarious." And then they pop into superstars, all of them, and not just superstars, like talented, warranted super stardom. And I'm like, "Wow, they were right. I was right. They're brilliant and Will's brilliant." And I love that they discovered Will Forte. I mean, the brilliance of Chris and Phil never ends. You always go like, "God, they figured out that Will should be a hilarious person on TV." And they were right. And stepping back into the character Joan was awesome. I'd say she's eternally frustrated, and I think that's so fun to play that.

How Was It This Time Around?

Did you notice a difference coming back and doing it now for the revival series? Was there any element that was easier recording and doing all this stuff now than it was 20 some odd years ago with the original series?

SULLIVAN: I didn't know, Will, that was your first. I don't think I knew that was your first acting gig. I mean, he took to it so... I wouldn't have noticed. I'm sorry, I wouldn't have known that was your first job. You took to it so quickly. Again, I didn't understand it back then.

When you get these scripts and I didn't know the guys. Bill [Lawrence]'s like, "Try this show," so it took me a minute to get it. Those first five episodes, I don't even know what I was saying. So it was easier for me this time because once I watched that season, once it was on, I was like, "Oh my God, look at this." So then I got it. So yeah, it was easier for me.

FORTE: I would say it was way easier for me this time around. It was my first job, so I was so in my head about everything. I didn't know how when you're done with the recording session, back then, I needed somebody to say, "That was great. You were so good in there. You're exactly the Abe we had hoped for. You just don't know." So if somebody's not saying something like that, I go home and I'm like, "They hate what I'm doing, they're going to fire me."

And then just over time, you grow and you harden your shell, and it just gets easier and you realize how everything works. And so, coming back after 20 years, I had a lot of experience. I just had more experience in dealing with that stuff, and I could just go into the booth and just have fun as opposed to overthinking everything. It was very nerve wracking because I knew who Nicole was and I was a big fan of hers, and so to be doing the show with her and the rest of the group was very intimidating. This just felt like a homecoming when we did it this time, and yeah, it was nothing but fun this time around.

Abe and Joan's Journeys

One of my favorite things about these new episodes is that we get all this silly stuff that Clone High was known for back then too, all of the teen parodies. But this time around with two new seasons, they were able to actually work in some real teen drama and some interesting character work. And so, Abe and Joan kind of go on their own journeys across the two seasons. So Will, I want to start with you because Abe in the first season went from being ostracized to having these dated references and outdated jokes, and then in these newer episodes, he's right back into the core group. So I wanted to know how you reacted to navigating Abe's journey through these new episodes.

FORTE: Oh, man. It is so easy to navigate this stuff because the writing is so good. It's a very hard thing to trust in this business, but it's so easy with these guys and this whole group that writes the show. You just go into the booth and laugh with them and do whatever they say. There's not a lot of, "Well, would I really say this?" You just say what you've been told and it always works out great because they have thought out everything and they always have contingencies if there's anything that's maybe not... It is just the best job ever because you're just working with a bunch of people who are overachievers. It's not always like that, so that's why this is such a fun show to do because it's so funny, but you're also it's very easy and fun.

Nicole, it's the same question for you because Joan goes on the opposite journey. She's in the friend group first, and then she tries to off them at the end of that first season. And then this new episodes, she goes from being outsider of a Bleacher Creature to then being a part of the friend group again. So how did you feel about Joan's journey through these new seasons?

SULLIVAN: They wrote it so beautifully chaotic. I mean, it's chaotic, her life. But it's the teen mind. She's a fear-based person, I think. She works from the place of, "I'm not accepted, no one likes me," which I don't know, I feel like we all feel that way 90% of the time is that, "No one likes me. What am I doing? Should I pick a new friend?" All of that is real and they wrote it so... It's seemingly randomly making choices, but to play it, it makes perfect sense when I'm in Joan's head that suddenly the Bleacher Creatures should be the people and if she can get them, and then suddenly if I do this cheerleading gig, this will make... All of that makes sense to me when I'm playing Joan.

Another Cliffhanger

Unfortunately, it all leads to another cliffhanger. With that first season all those years ago, Joan and Abe were about to confess something to one another, and we didn't find out what that was because they were frozen on ice for literally two decades. This time around we're left on another cliffhanger where Abe and Joan were once again going to say something before a missile comes down and the "To be continued" hits. And so Nicole, what do you think Joan was going to say? What do you want her to say?

SULLIVAN: I think she's going to say she loves Abe, but I'm not sure she means it. I don't think she knows what she wants, but I think she wants to say that to him because I think it's part of her, this is a bad term, but part of her DNA is loving that man. But that's really where she comes from is like, "Abe, Abe, baby." But then I'm not sure she'd want to stick with it once she said it.

So Will, I wanted to find out your take on that too. What do you think Abe was going to say in that moment, and what do you want Abe to say to Joan?

FORTE: I have to be honest. My memory is so bad that I don't remember how the cliffhanger goes. I mean, I'm listening to this and I'm piecing it together through what you're saying, you have to understand that this process is going on. A lot of this we did, was it two years ago for sure?

SULLIVAN: Yes.

FORTE: Probably finished about a year ago, and there are multiple different alternate takes that you're doing. So early on when I was doing voiceover stuff, and Nicole, I wonder if maybe your brain holds this stuff better than I do, but I would try to really remember what everything was and try to track everything. But then you just realize it's kind of impossible because right when you remember a storyline, you'll come in a couple months later and they'll have changed the arc a little bit, and you're not reading the whole thing. You're just reading the new dialogue, which will be, oh, there's a new couplet here. And then 20 pages later there's a new little scene here, and you kind of forget how everything fits together.

SULLIVAN: Yeah, I agree with Will because you do an episode, but then two months, three months, four months later, you're redoing part of that episode and part of the episode after and part of... So when you go in for retakes, you're doing parts of six different episodes but just a few pages at a time. So your brain goes wonky trying to remember what happened in what order. And the show works in sort of a chaotic way anyway with plots and stuff, so it makes a bit of a mess for this old lady.

Should Abe and Joan Be a Couple?

Speaking to that we can get a bit theoretical in that case! Teen dramas have their will they/won't theys, and Abe and Joan is the biggest will they/won't they of Clone High. But sometimes these shows actually do make their leads a couple. Is that something you two would want to see for Abe and Joan? Is there a story you want to see with them in a relationship?

FORTE: Well, I mean it definitely seems like Joan and Abe are Ross and Rachel, right?

Yeah.

FORTE: I leave that all to these brilliant writers. The more scenes I get to do with Nicole the better. She's one of the funniest people on the planet, but I leave it up to them what they want the arc of the characters to be. But I feel like they're always bending towards each other and they never quite get there, but we'll see. Who knows how it'll turn out.

More Clone High?

Just in terms of the future too, if Clone High does get picked up for more episodes, is that something the two of you would be interested in?

SULLIVAN: Absolutely not. There's no way I'm coming back to this show. [laughs] No, of course I'd be interested. It's one of the best jobs I've ever had.

FORTE: The weirdest thing would be if somebody else came in and started doing the Abe voice. That would be very weird just because this is... Yeah, oh yeah, I do what Chris and Phil tell me to do. So if they call me and say, "We're doing more. Go, get in there, say this."

Clone High's two seasons (and the original series) are now streaming on Max.