Just weeks before the American political conventions get underway, a crucial figure has yet to commit to the presidential race.
Jason Sudeikis, who plays Saturday Night Live's Mitt Romney as a cheerfully buttoned-down, out-of-touch, Ward Cleaver-like figure, said he has not yet decided whether to return to the show when it resumes this fall.
After nine years at SNL - the last few as the show's most valuable straight man - Sudeikis has been spending recent months focusing on his movie career. He plays the long-suffering aide to Will Ferrell's blundering congressman in the political spoof The Campaign, which opens today, and is currently filming the road comedy We're the Millers opposite Jennifer Aniston.
Stepping away from SNL entirely would be a risky decision for Sudeikis - for every alumnus of the show who successfully transitions to film or other TV work, there's a cautionary tale who flames out. And playing an election-year contender on SNL is a high-profile, potentially career-boosting gig - Tina Fey won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Sarah Palin during the 2008 race.
A chance to ride the zeitgeist, however, doesn't seem to be enough of an enticement for the 36-year-old actor to stick around. Sudeikis said he wants to take on more responsibility at SNL but maintain the flexibility to pursue other projects, a tricky balance to strike on a notoriously demanding live weekly show.
"I'd like the opportunity to use creative muscles that ... haven't been asked of me for the first nine years that I've worked there," Sudeikis said in a recent interview at a Sunset Strip hotel. "It could be some sort of title change. The least of the concerns is anything financial. I'm not buying a boat because of writing skits. It's more having a desire to give more to a place I really believe in. To stay just for the juice of being in the public eye - of being Mitt Romney - is not enough."
In town from New York, Sudeikis is mellow but politic about his future, wearing workout clothes and a pair of gleaming white Nikes, a gift from his girlfriend, actress Olivia Wilde. His face has a splash of freckles, normally hidden by makeup when he's on screen.
Sudeikis's Romney drops phrases like "jiminy cricket" and "whoopsie daisies," and shame-lessly panders to groups as diverse as pet owners, Dungeons & Dragons fans and piercing enthusiasts. Nailing down the character has been challenging, he said, because Romney has revealed so little of himself on the campaign trail.
Unlike SNL's gifted President Clinton impressionist, Darrell Hammond, Sudeikis doesn't devote hours of study to create an uncanny resemblance but relies more on an instinctual sense to create a character. "I usually just watch something for a couple minutes," he said. "I'll be more inclined to read something about someone and figure out what external influences make him who he is or what he is than poring over tapes.
"It's a weird time in the world. You say one wrong thing and lose points. We're probably just watching a guy who's scared to screw up. So my Mitt is a little square, a little boring, a little disconnected from the human experience."
In The Campaign, Sudeikis's character, Mitch, is the most high-functioning clown in a political circus. From director Jay Roach and writers Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, The Campaign stars Ferrell as Cam Brady, an airhead Democratic congressman from North Carolina who is running for re-election against bumpkinlike Republican bigmoney pawn Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis). A bipartisan skewering of the modern electoral process, The Campaign is packed with torn-from-the-headlines details - Cam's devotion to his hair was inspired by a widely circulated video of John Edwards preening to the tune of I Feel Pretty and Marty's campaign funders, the Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), are a nod to conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
"I think The Campaign is right on time," Sudeikis said. "People are getting cynical about the news. It doesn't seem like there's one place to watch where you get the straight dope. You watch the channel that proves your point. I would argue that comedy has taken on the role that folk singers had in the '60s and '70s in the sense that people come to us for the truth."
In The Campaign, Mitch manages Cam's gaffes, which include punching a baby and tweeting profanity. In one scene, he pantomimes the words to the Lord's Prayer to Cam from the back of the room during a debate.
"I never thought of anyone else but Jason for that part," said Roach, who also directed Meet the Parents and Game Change, the HBO drama about Sarah Palin's vice-presidential campaign.
"Mitch was designed to be this likable guy who always has to clean up after the candidate's messes and scandals. We wanted someone who in his earnest desire to do the right thing for his candidate sometimes gets caught up and goes too far himself."
