Before Tony Hale saw his hand chomped by a seal in Arrested Development, faced crayon-created monsters in Sketch, or battled the most terrifying beasts of all—D.C. politicos—in Veep, he was a Sigma Chi fraternity brother flailing through choreography in Step Sing.
“Some of us were tone death,” he recalls, “and others had two left feet, but we made it work!”
Hale ’92 found other means to get on stage at Samford, participating in the university’s Christian drama group, the Word Players, which he described as “a lifeline for me.” It served as a prelude to an acting career in which he has won three Emmys and set the bar for neurotic oddballs. As Hale jokes, growing up nervous, bullied and asthmatic laid the perfect foundation for his characters.
Asked what brought him to Samford out of high school in Tallahassee, Florida, Hale deflects with the kind of dry humor that has endeared him to audiences for decades. “Since my memory is so bad, I’m gonna say the grass was cut really well that day.”
Unsure whether he could earn a living as an actor, Hale eschewed studying theater to become a journalism/mass communication major at Samford. He’s still thankful for that choice and what it imprinted on him about editing for conciseness. “When I go over scripts I always think, ‘Get to the point, get to the joke.’”
Moving to New York after college to pursue acting didn’t yield immediate results, unless Shakespeare in the Parking Lot counts as a springboard. Waitering and catering jobs helped Hale survive until he began landing commercials. “My type was the guy who’s not all there,” says Hale, which became fortuitous once the breakout role of Buster Bluth was being cast for Arrested Development.
That series ran five seasons and, thanks to Netflix, warrants rewatching to grasp the gags piling up across scenes where Buster fakes a coma, dates Liza Minelli and feeds Cheetos to a Roomba. Hale remains grateful for fans who quote lines from the show two decades later, and for the lesson it taught him about personal success.
“Getting a sitcom was my big thing, but when I got Arrested Development it didn’t satisfy me the way I thought it was going to satisfy me,” he told PBS during a recent interview inside Samford’s Brock Recital Hall. “I gave it so much weight—too much weight—and I learned that if you’re not practicing contentment where you are, you’re not going to be content when you get what you want.”
The ultimate contentment arrived with his daughter Loy, born just as Arrested was being cancelled. “In the midst of all that anxiety, she was a light for both my wife and me—and always has been,” Hale says.
Joyful and riding momentum, Hale landed a role in another iconic ensemble comedy, Veep, for which he won two Emmys portraying Gary Walsh, an unconditionally devoted assistant to the vice president of the United States. The HBO series, revered for its tsunami of comic insults, had Hale cracking up to the point that co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus teased him, “You know you're not watching the show; you're in the show!”
Reality seeped into the script when Hale asked the writers to make Gary’s hometown Birmingham. During an episode in which the VP visits Gary’s family home, photos of Hale’s Samford days appear on the wall. “Isn’t that fun?” Hale says. “Two of those photos are from Samford parties.”
Coinciding with Loy’s teenage years, Hale voiced Forky in Toy Story 4 and Fear in Inside Out 2. He created and developed the children’s series Archibald’s Next Big Thing and won a Children’s and Family Emmy for The Mysterious Benedict Society.
Hale starred in other acclaimed films such as Being the Ricardos, Woman of the Hour and Nine Days. He recently released Sketch, a family-friendly movie in which he plays a role closest to his heart— that of a girl dad. The film culminated eight years’ worth of pitching, producing and fundraising and garnered a 95% fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
“It was definitely a passion project for me,” said Hale, who wanted the movie’s scary moments to match what he experienced as a child watching Goonies. “Grief is not an easy process. It was a heavy topic, so we wanted to make it accessible for kids and families.”
Hale and his wife Martel recently relocated to Birmingham, moving closer to their parents and enjoying a simpler pace of life between new film projects. Hale will be speaking at Samford’s commencement in December, returning to the campus where his faith was fortified.
“It’s cool how God takes stuff you’ve gone through and can bring it into life and laughter,” he told PBS. “Our business is incredibly uncertain. Knowing there’s a loving presence that sees a bigger picture gives me a lot of strength and a lot of hope.
“This business will say ‘you have value when you get this award’—but that’s not true. Your value stays the exact same before and after success.”
