Sam Lerner – The Goldbergs

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you have been working on?

A) The show has been keeping extremely busy. We shoot for eight months out of the year. My part has kind of expanded a lot. So, I’ve kind of just been doing the show because scheduling doesn’t really work out for other stuff. But I also worked on a smaller indie film over the summer called Fun Mom Dinner. It’s Paul Rudd and Adam Scott as the Executive Producers and they have small parts in it. It’s Molly Shannon, Toni Collette, Bridget Everett and Katie Aselton. It’s pretty cool!

Q) What is in store for Geoff this season on “The Goldbergs?”

A) This season is a little different since I’m now dating Evie (Allie Grant). Ali is super funny and one of the sweetest people in the world. They have me with her and Erica (Hayley Orrantia) likes me now, which is a great reversal of last season. It will be interesting to see where that goes. I’m not sure what will happen, but the writers kind of tease about it saying, “We’re working on it.” I, personally, think eventually (and I would assume that this season) that something would happen between us since the tension is getting pretty high with it. He’s still in the JTP. He’s still friends with Barry (Troy Gentile). He’s still going to school. We’re all Seniors now and he’s kind of stuck in this love triangle right now. That’s most of what we’ll be seeing from Geoff this season. We also just shot an episode about The Globetrotters and we got to play basketball. It’s the older kids versus Dave Kim and Adam. It’s a lot of really cool stuff!

Q) What was your first reaction when you learned you would be getting more screen time this season?

A) I was so excited! Adam F. Goldberg has taken us and made us a part of this world, which is really amazing because he kind of calls the shots on the show. It started as one episode. I think we’re almost at thirty now, which is incredible and I’m so grateful for that! I was super excited. They told me over the summer that, “Geoff has always been obsessed with Erica and we’re thinking we’re going to completely reverse it and have her realize that she made a mistake!” It was so exciting for me because I was like, “Great! I have a job next year and I’m going to be back on a show that is so fun to work on!” I was very excited about that.

Q) There is a great chemistry between Geoff and Erica.

A) Hayley and I love each other. We’re actually such good friends and its’ super awesome how close we’ve become. We’re always on set together and in scenes together so we talk a lot. We have a lot of common interests. She’s really great. When we shoot the scenes just between us, it’s almost conversational. It’s not like I’m nervous for a big scene. It’s just like I’m talking to Hayley.

Q) Talk about working with Troy Gentile. You must have some great behind the scenes moments together.

A) Troy is the best! I tell everyone I know that Troy is truly one of the funniest people that I have ever met. He is so perfect in that character that it is insane. I just don’t think that anyone else on the planet could play Barry the way that Troy does. Troy and I are good friends. We actually knew each other before the show started. We are child actors so we kind of ran into each other at auditions all the time. We even tested for a movie once together a long time ago. We’re super close and we hang out outside of work sometimes. When Troy turned twenty-one years old to a bar. We’re buds outside of set, for sure.

Q) Was there anything you added to Geoff that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) That’s a good question! I think I’ve just added little quirks and stuff. It was more Season Two (the first season that I was on) where I knew I had to make myself standout more because I knew it was a small role that could have been just one, two or three episodes. There were a lot of episodes where I literally only had one line the entire episode so I kind of really tried to do my best on that line and put a little spin on it that makes it funny. It was literally expanding my role every episode so it was like, “Okay, I guess I’ve found my little niche. When I’m given a small thing I can make it bigger.”

Q) You have great comedic timing and you frequently star in comedic roles. What draws you to that particular genre?

A) I prefer comedy over other stuff, one hundred percent. I’ve always been drawn to it. I like funny people, movies, shows, etc. So, I’ve always gravitated towards comedy. I’ve taken improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade and I’ve taken different classes. I think comedy is something that you develop on your own. A lot of it is timing. So, I gravitate towards comedy, but I still think it is important to take acting classes. When you are good dramatically, it helps your comedy. It is all intertwined. Funny people can do drama and I think it is a little harder for dramatic people to do comedy. So, the fact that I have started on comedy and am working in drama makes me feel like I can turn out to be someone who is well rounded in this career path.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the fan feedback you receive during episodes?

A) It’s funny. I don’t get a ton of interaction or it is a lot more now ever since the Geoff and Erica thing has happened. I’ve been getting all these tweets lately and they call us “Gerica.” So, they have added our names together. This one girl tweeted me, “If Gerica doesn’t get together I’m going to kill myself.” That got pretty serious so I was like, “Well, now we need to get Gerica together because I don’t want anyone dying over a lack of Gerica.”

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about this season of “The Goldbergs?”

A) Yes, the Halloween episode that airs October 26^th. That one is really special and I can’t say too much, but it furthers the relationship between Geoff and Erica a lot. There is some nice stuff between them in that episode and it was really fun to shoot and also very scary because I had to sing in it. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I think I pulled it off the best that I could. There is a lot of good stuff coming, but I think Halloween is the most exciting!