Craig Robinson Discusses His Latest Comedy Series ‘Killing It’ and Working With Snakes on Set [Interview]

Believe it or not, working with snakes wasn’t all that difficult for Craig Robinson on the set of Killing It.

Killing It, which is now streaming on Peacock, follows Robinson as a down-on-his-luck father who hopes to start a new business. To make that dream a reality, he does what anyone else would do: he enters a snake hunting contest.

I recently sat down with Robinson during the ATX Television Festival to talk about the Peacock comedy series, what made the series stand out, and some of his favorite moments.

Robinson said the show began when he had a meeting with Dan Goor. The two had worked together previously on Brookyn Nine-Nine. 

“He was like, ‘I love everything you do. Let’s go and do something.’ Now you hear this in Hollywood all the time, and sometimes it comes true. This felt good from the start,” Robinson recalled.

Robinson then had meetings with his manager, along with Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici to discuss ideas. “They came back with three premises and they were all great, but I don’t remember the other two. But this one just stuck out to all of us. We hadn’t seen anything like it.”

Robinson said he was struck by the idea of Killing It for a few reasons. “Just the originality of it. And just being able to see myself in these situations, being stupid. And the fact that it’s true — like it actually happens. It just kept hitting, kept firing off cylinders,” he said.

While the concept of Killing It is certainly unique, its themes are incredibly relatable. Robinson spoke to the pandemic and the difficulties so many people have faced recently.

“To be broke, but still have the drive to do something, to want to do something — to have greatness inside you and know it’s there, but you can’t catch a break. That was an important turn in there for me, because that’s where I feel like — [the character’s] determination is what I identify with.”

Robinson also said he didn’t quite know what he was getting into until it came time for the first table read. “I loved that it takes dark turns, but I didn’t realize we were doing it until we got to a table read and it was like, you know, your brother gets kidnapped!”

“But in the meantime, we just got through laughing and then now we’ve got a cliffhanger. I was saying earlier how it interests me. And it’s just a gift to be working on something that interests me so deeply.”

As for what Robinson is most proud of, he said it was probably his use of sign language on the show. “We all want to be seen, you know? So this is another chance for another group to be seen.” 

He also admitted those scenes could be a challenge at times. “Some of the ASL scenes — you just want to lose yourself in it, but you have to be aware that you’re making these symbols, and you want it to be right for the audience.”

The most difficult scene for Robinson to film was actually one involving a hurricane on the Killing It Season 1 finale.

“It was unbelievable. It’s like you’re freezing, you’re wet with a wet suit on,” Robinson explained. “There’s gigantic fans blowing. It’s loud. You can’t hear the director. You can’t hear your acting partner. It was a nightmare. It was so rough.”

Of course, given the show’s premise, I had to ask Robinson about working with the snakes on set. 

“We have three versions of snakes. We have fake snakes, we have the CGI snakes, we have real snakes,” he said.

“The American Humane Society was on the set every time the real snakes were there. We had them there whenever real snakes were there. And I don’t have a problem with snakes. I got over my fear of them in 2015, when I was in Australia. I put a snake around my neck to take pictures and stuff. I said, ‘this snake means me no harm. I’ve been misled by the Bible and Indiana Jones.”

“I’m not going to go to a swamp and be like, ‘Here, snakey, snakey,'” Robinson laughed. “But if you brought one in and was like, here play with the snake. I could do that.”

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All ten episodes of Killing It Season 1 are currently streaming on Peacock.

Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. There is still more to come!

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