Zach Galifianakis Interview on Netflix’s ‘This Is a Gardening Show’

Zach Galifianakis is very understanding when, as he explains what he’s planted in his garden this spring, I trip over the difference between perennials and annuals. “The language is totally off,” he says. “That’s why I just call perennials forever plants.” 

The forever plants in question — hardy kiwi, rhubarb, asparagus — are part of the actor’s effort to court more bees to his property. It might seem odd to be getting gardening tips from the star of such comedies as the Hangover franchise, Baskets and Bored to Death, but Galifianakis’ green thumb isn’t exactly a secret. Back when we both lived in Venice Beach, the strip of land he cultivated on his block was something of a neighborhood novelty. Inspired by urban gardening advocate Ron Finley, the actor cleared the public plot of discarded syringes, filled it with compost and planted ghost peppers, grapes and raspberries for anyone to forage. Since he decamped for rural British Columbia, where he lives with his wife and two sons, Galifianakis has only gotten more preoccupied by the hobby. 

He says wants more people to get turned on to growing their own food. He’ll probably persuade at least a few with his new Netflix series, This Is a Gardening Show. A cross between a PBS-caliber horticulture documentary and Kids Say the Darndest Things, with the famously deadpan Galifianakis playing host, the six-part series is equally funny and urgent — insisting in every episode, somewhat ominously, that the only future is agrarian. During a recent visit to Los Angeles, where the actor was also pitching his new AMC drama The Audacity, Galifianakis spoke about his passion project, working with kids, a Between Two Ferns regret and the nickname he’s earned from his agents after passing on so many offers. 

Happy early Earth Day. 

I like that there’s one day that we concentrate on the Earth.

We get one for the Earth, but there are two National Donut Days. 

Welcome to America! (Laughs.) 

You’re in Los Angeles today, but you live in Canada, right? You filmed the show there.

I’ve been visiting that area for over 25 years, so I knew the garden tradition here. But, yeah, I’ve lived there close to 10 years — off and on. Mostly on now. Because I grew up in a small area, I wanted to get back to that. And L.A. was never my … I was never going to sit at Norms Diner and retire here. 

How would you describe your current relationship with Hollywood? We’re speaking because you’ve got two new series. You have a movie out later this year. You clearly work. But there’s this narrative that you sort of left. 

The lifestyle of Hollywood never fit with me. It’s not my thing. So I work in it, but then I separate it. For me, it’s more healthy that way — to live in it and constantly go to things, that ain’t me. Maybe it would be if I’d been successful when I was younger, but I was a busboy at a strip joint till I was 28.

Which one? 

Stringfellows in New York. Not proud of it. I do think my approach has always been a little bit different. I feel like I have a healthy relationship with show business because I am not that into it. 

Do you still enjoy the work? 

Always. I wake up in the morning, ready to go to work. Talking about it is where I go, “Oh, had I known this was part of the job …” No offense to you, but this is the difficult part.

You’ve spoken in the past about your struggles with being a public figure. How are you feeling about that these days?

Some of that stuff I’ve said in the past about being known, I’m a little embarrassed by it. Because it seemed like I was complaining. That was never my intent. I was just trying to be honest. I never find that showbiz people are that honest about being known and what it does. It rattled me. It did, and I didn’t like it. That is not my feeling anymore. I don’t think about it at all. I live in an area where no one gives a crap, which is wonderful. The onus put on actors is so silly to me. It’s how we got a celebrity president. 

I’ve been covering entertainment for years and I still don’t fully grasp the dynamic we’ve arrived at between audiences and public figures. 

I’ve always rolled my eyes at it all. And I think I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder in this town. What we prioritize right now, I worry about immensely.

What was the origin of the chip on your shoulder? 

The first laugh I ever got in an audition was for a drama. They were laughing at me. I just felt like this small town kid from Appalachia. And everyone else was private school punks. So I wasn’t going to go to any of the parties. That was my attitude. I think, healthily, it kind of still is. 

Are your agents ever like, “Hey, buddy, you want to do a little more?” What’s that back and forth like? 

About six months ago, they told me, “You know what our nickname is for you around the office? Dr. No.” I was like, “Is that with a K?” I’m a Libra, and I somewhat subscribe to that stuff because I am a big believer in balance. I give enough of my life to the media already, as I see it. I could name some names that are constantly online, that are constantly needing to be seen. I think there’s something missing there. If this went away tomorrow, I feel so fortunate that I got to work in it. Show business is not a forever plan. But I don’t really have any other skills, so I don’t know what else I would do.

Living outside of Los Angeles and New York, do you find yourself missing being able to just go to a comedy club on any given night to get something out? How do you scratch the itch without having that outlet? 

That is the part I miss. I miss the rubbing of shoulders with other comedians and doing live stand-up. I can’t do that where I am. And doing stand-up is not like riding a bike. You can’t be absent for a couple months and then expect to have that rhythm back. For me, it doesn’t work. I don’t have the microphone or an audience, but sometimes the poor clerk or whoever’s checking out at the store might have to hear me trying to do some jokes. 

Do your kids think that you’re funny? 

They used to. I’m their father, so it’s different. But I hope they still do.

How old are your kids? 

I don’t know. I have no idea. You can print that. 

The kids on This Is a Gardening Show appear to be very amused by you. As someone who interviewed a lot of celebrities on Between Two Ferns, in what ways is interviewing celebrities like interviewing children? 

I don’t want to be mean to children. (Laughs.) My approach is much different. I didn’t want the show to be that grumpy character that I did. That’s not me. I wish I kind of changed my name for Between Two Ferns, actually. I wish I made that more of a character. Asking dumb questions is always my thing. I just think it’s funny, but your approach to children is different than it is interviewing Jon Hamm.

So you wish you hadn’t done Between Two Ferns as “Zach Galifianakis?”

I think so. Sometimes, people think you’re the person that you’re actually playing. Two nights ago, I was at an airport bar and a guy comes up and he’s like, “PG or R tonight? What are we having?” I’m like, “I don’t drink.” I mean, I used to. But, because of The Hangover, they just assume.

I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a moment, because I do agree with what you’re doing on This Is a Gardening Show. But your mission statement is that the only viable future is agrarian. There are a lot of people who don’t have the space, the money or the time to grow their own food at any scale to be anything other than a novelty. And shopping at farmers markets is much more expensive than at a chain grocery store. So what do you advise people who share this interest, but have socioeconomic or other roadblocks?

I agree with those statements. You’re right. When I first started doing it, I could barely buy seeds, but you can start small. That’s the great thing about it. Starting small doesn’t mean that you automatically have space. In the city, it’s tougher. We try to lean into some of that stuff in the show — to show how you can grow things in your own house, in a window, that kind of thing. There are also community gardens. I just want to get the conversation going here. Look, I don’t have the answer. Yes, farmers markets can be expensive. Growing food properly does take more time and care. The way we’re doing it with a quick fix is the way our food became unhealthy. So I think you’re correct in all that, but you have to prioritize.  Do you want to spend your time and money on more subscriptions to watch things or do you want to grow things? We are so addicted to these screens, and I’m so baffled by it. I treat my phone like a landline. If somebody calls me, maybe I’ll get it. 

What was the call like for this show? 

Out of nowhere, these producers called me and said, “Would you host a gardening show?” I think they saw that spot in Los Angeles where I gardened. I’d already been thinking about a gardening show, but my idea was different — much more based on comedy than the actual growing. I’m happy with this. This is more informative. I want parents and kids to watch it together so they can discuss these things. Kids love gardens. They love them much more than they do a lot of other stuff they do in school. And a lot of the stuff we’re teaching them is not as important as their food.

The science part seems like a good Trojan Horse for the dietary aspect. I still remember, when I was a kid, one of the most satisfying things was planting a seed and a few months later being, like, “Holy shit, there’s a carrot there now.”

That would’ve been a good name for the show, Holy Shit, There’s a Carrot. For me, it’s about the small miracles that are in the garden and the pleasure you get from producing a carrot out of basically nothing. It’s fascinating. To take a small seed and then it becomes a 25-pound pumpkin, there’s a lot of reward in that for people. Not for everybody, but for people like me. 

You interview a lot of experts on this show. Did you learn anything that blew your mind?

There are all these tricks that gardeners use that they came up with on their own. There was an apple grower, and she was telling me that she ties down the branches of her apple trees because if you stress out an apple tree, it produces more apples. Never knew that! I do have this old apple tree. So my dog and I have been doing a tug of war over branches to stress out the tree. I don’t know if that’s enough.

Before I let you go, what do you want people to take away from this show — other than a distaste for Ryan Reynolds, whom you mock at least once in every episode? 

Who I’ve never even met! I don’t know that guy! (Laughs.)

But he makes an audio cameo at the very end.

I wasn’t even the one who called him. I think we sent him some grapefruits as a thank you. But I do want people to be inspired to try to grow something. It’s just as simple as that. We’ve got to green it up. We’ve got to green up everything.

This story appears in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2026 Sustainability Issue. Click here to read more.