"Can you imagine, I just take off my wig and I'm just a jerk?" said McBrayer, after learning some Reddit "tea" suggesting he's "not as nice as you think he is."
Jack McBrayer is one of the most genuinely positive people out there ... and he swears it's not an act.
The 30 Rock alum currently hosts HGTV's Zillow Gone Wild, a show that, with a type of different host, could have easily made fun of the homeowners whose often bizarre, extra and downright, well, wild, homes are featured on it. Instead, it's a celebration of the weird, with a wide-eyed McBrayer showing actual excitement around every turn, as the owners share personal stories about what inspired their amazing abodes.
Speaking with TooFab ahead of the show's second season -- which debuts tonight -- McBrayer said that when it comes to his positive outlook, "that's pretty much how my garden grows."
"It is easy and it is fun and it is not hurtful or cynical or anything like that and I really like that," he said of fronting the series. "HGTV was very accommodating early on when the whole thing was coming about. I was like, 'Hey, I'm not the comedian who's like snarky or gonna tear you down or embarrass you or anything.' They were like, 'Perfect. We want this to be positive and exploratory and celebratory.'"
McBrayer said he goes about filming with the "curiosity of a kid" -- and said that, as an "unintended" result of his cherry demeanor and approach, "kids have been tuning in." He then joked, "HGTV is like, 'Yes. We're getting that 7-year-old purchasing power!"
While doing research for the interview, TooFab's reporter came across a Reddit thread about McBrayer and his positive reputation. It's there we spotted a comment promising some "tea" about the actor, which read, "I used to work at an improv theater where Jack performed ...and he's not as nice as you think he is ... HE'S ACTUALLY NICER THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE."
"Don't do that to me. You're very rude," McBrayer exclaimed after the comment was read aloud to him.
"I know people roll their eyes and think I’m just saccharine sweet, but my whole thing is like, it doesn't feel good to me to wake up angry," he then explained. "It doesn't feel good to me to make anyone else feel bad."
"One thing I loved about stepping into improvisation is my career, inherently, it is all about teamwork and collaboration, ensemble, taking care of your partner, making your partner look better than you. I like that," he continued. "And now I’m just at the age and stage of my career, I don't need attention. I don't need fame. I don't need that stuff. It's fun for me to root for my buddies. It's fun for me to celebrate anyone with a passion, anyone with direction and motivation."
"So, I know everybody's gonna be like alright, what's this living cartoon character trying to tell me?' But it comes honest. That’s what I’ll say," he said, before adding, "Can you imagine I just take off my wig and I'm just a jerk. I think the camera is off. I start smoking."
While Zillow Gone Wild seems like a perfect fit for the actor-comedian, he admitted that he was "a little trepidatious" about taking the gig at first. In fact, he checked in with Retta -- the Parks and Recreation actress who hosts HGTV's Ugliest House In America -- before signing on, asking whether she thought it was a good idea.
"She was like, 'Do it.' She goes, 'It's a lot of travel. but if you can do that, do it,'" he told TooFab. "I'm grateful."
He said that while he knows HGTV audiences are used to a "certain kind of host" who may know more about home renovation or real estate, he has no intention of "reinventing" the network with his show.
"I am honored to be a part of what their programming is and ... for me, the joy of the job is the learning. The joy of the job is exploring and figuring out with you the audience in pretty much real time."
He added that he would love to see a crossover with Retta at some point, adding that he had a blast filming a promo for his new season alongside My Lottery Dream Home host David Bromstad.
"I always get nervous meeting established HGTV people because again, I don’t know what I’m talking about. But so far everyone has just been amazing," he continued. "I kinda can't believe I have this opportunity. Never in a million years I'd be like, 'One day, I'm gonna host an HGTV show' and here we are."
Check out the full interview above to see what McBrayer had to say about how seeing these wild homes makes him feel about his own house -- and whether he does any "homework" by lurking the Zillow Gone Wild Instagram account that inspired the series before doing any home visits.
New episodes of Zillow Gone Wild air Fridays on HGTV.
