Jemaine Clement: 'Alice and Steve' co-stars bonded over embarrassment

LOS ANGELES, June 8 (UPI) -- Jemaine Clement plays Steve in Alice and Steve, on Hulu Monday, and had never met his Alice, Nicola Walker, before the show. The characters are lifelong best friends.

In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Clement, 52, said he and Walker bonded quickly over having to act silly together in public. The pair is introduced running through the streets after a funeral.

"There are all these people who are waiting to cross the bridge but they had to wait so they'd be watching us acting drunk," Clement said. "Those kinds of things are quite hard to do where you're acting like nobody's watching, but actually there's 100 crew watching and some members of the public watching."

Alice and Steve sing "Alright" by Supergrass during their romp, but another song did not make the final cut.

"We had to do a scene singing 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' in a karaoke scene after the funeral," Clement said. "Nicola handled the heavy work on 'Total Eclipse of the Heart.' I just did 'Turn around' and she did the rest."

Clement is one half of the musical duo Flight of the Conchords with Bret McKenzie. He discovered the artist Gil Scott-Heron when Steve is dressed in a Scott-Heron T-shirt in one episode.

"To familiarize myself with him, I started listening to him," Clement said. "He's brilliant. It's really interesting, his music and poetry. 'Whitey on the Moon,' that's a really great one just as an example if I was to recommend one."

Flight of the Conchords has reunited to perform their first shows in eight years this year. Even Clement was surprised to see audiences singing along to songs like "Mutha' uckas."

"It's amazing people still remember and enjoy that song," he said, adding that nobody completed the obscene word the lyrics carefully censor. "They do it how we do it."

Clement said he and McKenzie are working on new music, but it is in early stages.

"We have been writing some new songs but we haven't finished any," Clement said. "We've started a whole bunch."

In fact, Alice and Steve is Clement's largest acting job in many years. Flight of the Conchords had an HBO series which Clement and McKenzie wrote.

Clement wrote What We Do in the Shadows and its spinoff Wellington Paranormal with Taika Waititi, and the duo collaborated on Time Bandits with Iain Morris. His appearances in the Avatar films and M3gan 2.0 were filmed quickly.

"If I would have a week off, I'd go and act in something," Clement said. "So this is the most acting I've done in a long time because it took three months to film and it was a nice break from being at my computer."

Though Alice and Steve is primarily a comedy, it also allows Clement to show more vulnerability than many of his comedic roles. Steve begins dating Alice's 26-year-old daughter, Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith) which causes friction with Alice.

"I've done indie films where there are vulnerable moments," he said. "There's one I did in New Zealand called The Moon is Upside Down, quite a vulnerable character."

Clement appreciated the multiple tones Alice and Steve balanced. Without spoiling episodes, writer Sophie Goodhart's scripts did not go to obvious places.

"There are definitely parts that are cringe comedy and there are parts that are straight out like a rom-com, these little falling in love moments that are quite cute," Clement said. "Then there are parts where you're worried for this guy's life. He might be murdered. You don't see those together usually at all."

The age gap between Steve and Izzy is addressed, but Steve feels guiltier that he's dating Alice's daughter regardless of age.

"He's not interested in dating a younger woman," Clement said. "He's already decided, but then he meets one that he really likes. It's more that her age isn't a feature, it's something he ignores. He's not seeking a younger woman. He is seeking love though."

Steve's other romance in the show is with a dog named Crosby. Clement's working relationship with the dog was more bittersweet

"From the very first scene of the show, Crosby sneezes and the dog needed to be trained to sneeze," Clement said. "So the dog was constantly sneezing on me to try and get a reward. It wasn't always the most fun for me but everyone else thinks Crosby's so great."

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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 8:37 AM.