Will Hines wanted a ham and cheese sandwich from the deli downstairs. It was 2006, and he was a video producer at AOL in New York City, the kind of gig that meant wrangling cables, shooting simple interviews, and shuffling endless digital files.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some British singer doing an interview on the floor below us,\u201d his boss said. \u201cYou might as well film her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking about the lunch I had to get after,\u201d Hines recalls. \u201cI hit record, and she starts singing, and it was unbelievably good! I was completely stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two months later, Amy Winehouse was a global superstar. Hines went back to thinking about lunch.<\/p>\n
Two decades later, not much has changed.\u00a0Hines \u201992 (CLAS)<\/strong>\u00a0is still drifting into surreal moments and reacting with calm curiosity \u2014 case in point, crawling across the bathroom floor of a Hollywood improv theater with his friend and business partner Jim Woods, spoofing the horror film \u201cThe Substance.\u201d After seeing the movie, they wondered what would happen if Hines took the drug at the story\u2019s center. Weeks later, they were shooting their own short film.<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, I shot a piece on \u2018Jimmy Kimmel,\u2019\u201d Hines says. \u201cI was a dentist in some sketch. They called me last minute. \u2018Can you be here in an hour?\u2019 That was my day. I canceled everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n At 55, Hines has built something rare in comedy \u2014 a career based on adaptability. He\u2019s a reliable character actor and one of improv\u2019s most respected teachers, running what he half-jokingly calls Improv Grad School.<\/p>\n Hines can slip into the absurd with deadpan precision, whether playing a creepy landlord on \u201cBroad City,\u201d an icy district attorney on \u201cBrooklyn Nine-Nine,\u201d or a rich guy who hunts people on TBS\u2019 \u201cLost\u201d parody \u201cWrecked.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cBroad City\u201d role was especially sweet. Hines had taught Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) and introduced them to Amy Poehler. After Poehler became their champion and producer, \u201cthey cast me in their show, partly as a thank-you, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n That role marked his first time on television and \u201cthe first of many creeps that I\u2019ve gotten to play,\u201d he says laughing. Why does he keep getting cast as the creep? \u201cI\u2019m a shy person, so when I\u2019m at rest, I\u2019ll stay very still and try not to betray any feelings out of what I think is politeness, but I think it comes across as, \u2018What\u2019s that weirdo thinking?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n On \u201cBrooklyn Nine-Nine,\u201d Andy Samberg encouraged him to improvise and even directed him to \u201cgo smaller, completely dead.\u201d He was right, Hines says. \u201cIt was funnier that way.\u201d<\/p>\n His favorite project was \u201cWrecked,\u201d where he spent 10 weeks in Fiji playing an alpha-bully loudmouth jerk who hunts people for sport. \u201cThe showrunners liked having us play against our appearances. I love playing villains,\u201d Hines admits. \u201cIt\u2019s no problem for me. I don\u2019t know what that says about my personality, but I love being the bad guy.\u201d The series never found a wide audience, but Hines remembers it fondly: \u201cThe cast and crew were so happy to be working that everyone had a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n