When I walk into the conference room at Epix's New York City headquarters to interview the prolific actor Chris O'Dowd, he's sat himself in a chair in the furthest corner of the room, feet away from the table. I tell him he looks like he has a plan "Oh, I do," he says, ominously and Irishly.

As someone who grew up mostly on a diet of weird British television, it's an honor to be interviewing the 40-year-old actor, who got his big break on the U.K. sitcom The IT Crowd, a show my high school peers revered and one that maintains a healthy fanbase in America, too. Since then, O'Dowd's been in a lot of stuff you've probably seen—think Bridesmaids, This Is 40 and The Cloverfield Paradox—even if he's not always The Guy.

He is, however, very much The Guy in Epix's series Get Shorty, based on the book of the same name, which itself was once adapted as a movie with John Travolta and Danny DeVito. The series bears little resemblance to that flashy movie, and O'Dowd tells me he purposefully didn't watch it until after the show's first season wrapped. "The film is very polished," he says. "It's like a bar on Friday night when you've got your good clothes on and you're flirting and the music's nice. Our show is that same bar, but it's 3 a.m. on a Tuesday and someone's cleaning up spilled pints."

The show is a bit of a departure for the lad from Ireland who cut his teeth on irreverent comedy. O'Dowd's Miles is intense, occasionally terrifying, and really quite large. GQ spoke with the actor about the show, working with Ray Romano (yeah, he's in it, too), and his small, small role in a big, big movie franchise.

GQ: How are you, Chris?

Chris O'Dowd: Great form. Great form, feeling good. Feeling alive. Feeling like I'm in the autumn of my youth.

This show shares a name with the book and the movie, but it's entirely removed from that world except for the most basic, basic premise.

I think that's fair. I think in its spirit, it's much closer to the book than the movie. A lot of Elmore Leonard's work I think has that kind of dark, dusty feel to it. Particularly Get Shorty, but it is very much its own beast. The first episode establishes that we were something of a mob who tried their best to take over Hollywood, but given the modern connotations to that, we make it more of a drug cartel than an Italian crime family, which I think makes sense.

And especially since you're, you know, Irish.

That's true, but it's a Latino drug mob. I actually don't know at what point the Irish thing became a thing. There was something nice about him being such a fish out of water. He's not necessarily connected to the family. You don't want him to be too close to them because you want him to be in peril.

Miles's relationship with Rick (Ray Romano) feels like The Producers sometimes.

Oh. I love the idea of doing songs. Right? Yeah, that would be great. A musical episode. I don't know if we could get away with that.

Well, Shameless did some weird shit. Maybe one day.

There is scope to be very creative with the show because of the industry that it portrays. I mean, I'm working with Ray and he uses desperation so well in his work, as well as anybody I've seen. He's so adept at conveying fear without feeling needy. So maybe it does have something of a Producers quality because when you're watching them, there's something inevitable about their failure.