Jonathan Krisel was executive producer of “Baskets,” starring Louie Anderson, which aired on FX from 2016-19. Anderson, who died at age 68 on Jan. 21, won an Emmy for his performance as Christine o…
on Jan. 21, won an Emmy for his performance as Christine on the show, which also starred Zach Galifianakis.
He knew everyone on the crew so well. When we’d be setting up a shot and the cinematographer and I would be discussing if we wanted the shot “dirty” — meaning in a close-up you see a piece of the off-camera actor — if Louie heard that, he’d immediately start singing “Ridin’ Dirty” by Nelly. It was like clockwork, and it was always extremely loud and somehow always funny.
The first take was the one. I was so caught off guard by the depth of his performance that I just started crying watching it there live. He nailed it. And only seconds before, we were just chatting — like, there was no run-up where he needed to get there. It blew me away. Zach had always kind of done a very nasal voice when the [Christine] character was being formed. [Series co-creator] Louis C.K. just said, “That’s Louie Anderson.” And everyone just started laughing, like, “That’s too funny or too insane, but we have to try.” Louie said yes on the phone about five minutes later. He got it. None of us guessed how good he was actually going to be.