Joel McHale on Working With His 'Hero' Robin Williams in 'A Merry Friggin' Christmas'
"It was like someone had shot me in the heart," McHale said of Williams' death.
— -- "A Merry Friggin' Christmas" opens in theaters this weekend, starring Joel McHale and the late Robin Williams, where the icon shows off a darker comedic side as McHale's crusty, anti-holiday father.
McHale, 42, said working with the Oscar winner was "the experience of a lifetime."
"If someone said to me, 'You're going to be in a Robin Williams movie and are going to be playing his son,' I'd say, 'I must have won some sort of lottery,'" McHale told ABC News. "It was something I always dreamed of and when I got to do it, it couldn't have been a better experience. He was so amazing and so giving and kind and cool. He's everything you want in meeting one of your heroes."
Williams died in August at the age of 63, followed by an intense mourning from the comedy world and fans alike.
"When I found out he died, I couldn't believe it. It was like someone had shot me in the heart," McHale added. "I think the way the world loved him was pretty rare. I went to his funeral and it was one of the sadder things I've been to in a long time. I will miss him terribly. He was one of those guys, if he weren't even an actor, I'd be like, 'I love that guy!'"
The movie is a who's who of the comedy and sitcom world, including Lauren Graham, Jeffrey Tambor and Candice Bergen. McHale said he would have loved to have had the chance to tour and promote the movie with the late icon.
"I'm really happy with the cut of the film; I hope he would be too," the "Community" star added.
McHale spoke to ABC when he hosted Canon's PIXMA PRO City Senses VIP gallery in his hometown of Seattle back in October. His gallery theme was football, which is timely, because his hometown team just won the Super Bowl last year.
"It all comes together perfectly. I like Seattle, I like football and it's football season," McHale said. "It was a harmonic convergence of things."
The "Soup" star and comedian added that the high-quality Canon printer used to make the photos for the gallery made him feel that much better as a photographer. Whether this new experience has lead the multitalented actor to try his hand at directing and stepping behind the camera, he's not sure.
"I don't know if I would be good at directing. I feel like I tell people all the time to do stuff," he joked. "So, in that sense, I'm a director, especially with my 9-year-old and my 6-year-old.”McHale said photography is something that he uses in everyday life, "documenting the lives" of his sons Edward and Isaac.