Jemaine Clement was supposed to do interviews for Gentlemen Broncos a week and a half before the film came out, but an unforeseen visa issue kept him out of the states until last week. So Gentlemen Broncos opened but we didn’t have time to present Clement’s roundtable interview until now. At least now you’ve seen Ronald Chevalier in action, and of course it’s all Conchord-y.

Q: Did everything work out with your visa from last week?

Jemaine Clement: Yes. As you can see. I didn't have to smuggle myself in.

Q: Have you had any horror stories of traveling from New Zealand to the U.S. over the years?

Jemaine Clement: I always get stopped in Canada. But I did try to sneak in there once, kind of, so they always check it out. When I came for Gentlemen Broncos, I had quite a thick beard. I grew it thick so they could shave it down to whatever and so, I got searched on every possible point there could be. I don't mean bodily, I mean through the journey.

Q: Jared Hess said you patterned your voice on Michael York from Logan's Run. Is that something you wanted?

Jemaine Clement: Yeah. I love that film anyway, so I watched it again. But also I had a lecturer, who was a sci-fi writer, a professor. And he spoke with a very deep voice, so I kinda mixed Michael York's accent with my professor's tone. That's how you make a voice.

Q: Have you ever encountered anyone like your character?

Jemaine Clement: Um, well, I mean, the lecturer I was talking about was an author and he would talk about his ideas. I even kind of changed one of his short story ideas a little bit when my character is talking on the phone about his other ideas. I used one of his ideas. He's quite a nice guy, though. I don't know if it got in the film, haven't seen it yet.  It was about a time-traveling bakery. Was it in there? It'll be on the DVD, probably.

Q: Are New Zealanders as obsessed about science fiction as Americans are?

Jemaine Clement: The sci-fi convention kind of thing just started up in the last few years. When we were shooting Concords, there was this world trade event, sort of convention. We were doing a show about one, so we went in, had a look at it. And right next door, there was a sci-fi convention and you'd see storm troopers just walking into the hotel, next to some Asian business man. You never see things like that in New Zealand.

Q: Your character had a flamboyant flair to him. Where did that come from because it was a whole part of his persona?

Jemaine Clement: I don't know. A little in the way they wanted the character and a little what would be fun for me to do it, I suppose. 

Q: You are admittedly a sci-fi geek.

Jemaine Clement: Where is everyone getting this?

Q: You have admitted in the past to liking space and rockets.

Jemaine Clement: A little, a little.

Q: Is it more than a little? Was that part of your enticement in taking this role?

Jemaine Clement: I liked some sci-fi films. I had a couple of posters of sexy robots on my wall. But other than that, I wasn't that dedicated.

Q: When you read this script, was there anything that struck you as too out there, like maybe the fascination with gonads, yeast lords? Anything hit you like, 'How is this going to work?'”

Jemaine Clement: Well I think of it as justified by the science fiction storyline, the gonads, because it's Bronco's. But I didn't think about that. I'm not in any of those [scenes], I don't think, so I didn't really have to deal with gonads. As much.