Jon Stewart & Amy Sedaris on Colbert’s 'Late Show’ Move

© Wesley Mann | The Hollywood Reporter

While on the promotional trails for their latest projects, Jon Stewart (‘Rosewater’) and Amy Sedaris (‘BoJack Horseman’) discuss their good friend Stephen Colbert’s move to hosting the ‘Late Show’ in 2015, his and his character’s fear of bears, and how Amy found out about his three-legged pet rabbit.

And be sure to grab yourself a copy of the September 5 – 12 Toronto issue of The Hollywood Reporter, featuring Jon Stewart on the front cover.

Jon Stewart on Directorial Debut ‘Rosewater,’ His ‘Daily Show’ Future and Those Israel-Gaza Comments

Back at The Daily Show, Stewart returned to an altered landscape. Oliver mostly had held the show’s ratings and proved his own star quality: Three months after Stewart returned to the anchor chair, HBO executives announced they were giving Oliver his own show — Last Week Tonight, which premiered in April.

“[Jon] definitely believed in me more than I believe in myself,” says Oliver.

Then, on April 10, another shoe dropped. Colbert, who has spent nearly nine years perfecting his conservative blowhard pundit persona on The Colbert Report — the show that follows Daily Show on Comedy Central and also is produced by Stewart — was named to replace David Letterman on CBS’ Late Show.

“I had been on him for years for that,” says Stewart. “I’ve always thought that the long game for him was a show like [Late Show]. He brings elements of Parr and Carson and Kovacs and silliness and song and dance but also real intellectual curiosity that is a wonderful novel combination for that format. I think there’s been a beautiful arc to [Colbert Report]. But it was time.”

Colbert tells me that he talks to Stewart “about every major career decision.” He notes that their real parting was in 2005, when Colbert left to start his own show. “I wanted someone to give me the ball, but I didn’t want to not work with Jon,” he says. “And they gave me everything I wanted; they let me be my own man, but I got to still be with my friend and the guy whose work and example I admired. That was the real discussion; Late Show wasn’t much of a discussion.”

Colbert will depart in December; his 11:30 p.m. slot on Comedy Central will be filled by Larry Wilmore’s Minority Report, which Stewart will executive produce, just as he has with Colbert. Of course, Stewart was courted for the Late Show job in 2002, when Letterman was considering leaving CBS for ABC. And in 2003 there were discussions with ABC executives for the slot that eventually went to Jimmy Kimmel. But he says he was cured of those aspirations by the dismal experience he had with his eponymous MTV show in 1993; it was moved to late-night syndication in season two, where it languished in 2 a.m. slots throughout much of the country before being canceled in 1995. Letterman was Stewart’s final guest.

“That tends to leave a mark between your eyebrow and your ear,” says Stewart. “I wish it were more like a Harry Potter lightning thing, a sign of surviving. Once your name is on a show and they lock the door on you, you tend to remember that. This is not meant to be self-deprecating, but in the same way I feel about my acting, I just don’t feel that I’m particularly well-suited for it, for all that you need to do.”

Full Interview: The Hollywood Reporter.

Amy Sedaris Is Hollywood’s Beloved Rabbit-Loving Comedian Crafter

People are excited for Stephen Colbert to take over the show, but there’s still a little bit of a mystery surrounding what it’s going to be like because people are so used to watching him on The Colbert Report as that “Stephen Colbert” character. Most people can’t imagine what he’ll be like as himself. You’ve been friends with him for years. Any insight?

Well, he’s got that Southern charm. He’s genuinely interested. He’s engaging. He’s a very positive person. He can see the good in everything. I think he’ll go to that other character that he plays on that show because that’s part of him, too. He’ll mix it. But once you’re out there and there’s a live audience, everyone’s playing a different version of themselves. You know? There’s a camera in front of you. There’s an audience. You automatically are different. I just think people will see this other side to him, because he has this whole bag of tricks people haven’t even seen yet. This guy can do anything, and his reference level is so high. It’s going to be from talking to politicians to talking to reality TV stars, but he’ll be able to do it. It’s gonna be a good show.

One of my favorite stories that I’ve read about the two of you was that you once staged a rabbit intervention at his house.

I didn’t even know he had a rabbit! I was like, are you kidding me? How could you not tell me you had a rabbit?! I had to find out from Paul Dinello. So I went to a party at his house and I met his rabbit, and I was like, “Do you have any idea what you’re doing wrong?” He wanted to get rid of that rabbit, but the kids wanted it, so it stayed. Because when my rabbit died he was like, “Want a new rabbit?” But I sent him some hay and some information and he turned it around. It’s a really cute little bunny and it’s doing really well. It lost a leg. It has three legs. But I got on his case about it, for sure.

Full Interview: The Daily Beast.

Telluride 2014 Interview: Jon Stewart on ‘Rosewater’

CraveOnline: I wanted to show you this sign on the door of my hotel. I tweeted “Stephen Colbert warned us about this.”

Jon Stewart: [Laughs] You’ve got to be very careful. I keep thinking Herzog is going to do another documentary about a bear in a gondola. Put a bear in a gondola and see what happens.

When Stephen goes to “The Late Show,” who is going to warn America about the bear menace?

I just think he’s going to have a larger platform to do so. That’s going to be the beauty of it.

But I thought he wasn’t going to do his persona on “The Late Show.”

You know, there are parts of the actual Stephen that are also afraid of bears. Without his persona, there will still be some of the things that translate.

Full Interview: Crave Online.

(Thank you to Clem for the Tips!!)