We all have that friend — or we are that friend — who’s always being treated like a doormat. For Tony Hale, who’s famous for playing lovably codependent characters in comedies like Veep and Arrested Development, his role in The Decameron is an opportunity to take that neediness to new heights (and lows).

“The word for me was desperation,” Hale tells Tudum, summing up the best description for his character Sirisco. When The Decameron opens in 1348, the pestilence has hit Italy hard, and a group of wealthy nobles and their servants run off to a rural getaway for an escape … and to party. Catering to the guests’ every whim, while hiding that his master actually died of the bubonic plague before their arrival, is Hale’s Sirisco.

Says showrunner and creator Kathleen Jordan, “Oh man. I was very, very excited to be able to talk to Tony about the chance for him to play the role. I love Tony. I can’t look at him [when I say this], but it really was such an immense honor to work with somebody whose work I’ve admired for so long.”

“In seasons of comedy that are meant to go on for a long time, there is less room for change,” says Jordan. “Those characters necessarily need to stay where they’re standing in order to keep the stakes of the comedy up. But what was such a joy was being able to work with Tony and to see the depth and range that he brings to the table. I know that this is a said thing, but it really is true that if you can do comedy and you really can do it, as we all know that Tony can… I mean, the Emmys speak for themselves.”

While Jordan couldn’t look at Hale while saying all that, Hale would like to state for the record: “I’m going to have that on loop in my home for the next two years. So if you come over to my house for a party, you’re just going to see Kathleen saying that on my television.”

Below, Hale discusses the one thing his character always wanted but never got in The Decameron, how he channeled Gregory Peck while filming in Rome, and his idea for Netflix’s next reality series.

First and foremost, Tony, did you have a favorite bird co-star?

I mean, so many. I loved the falcon [in Episode 3]. But I was more fascinated with the falcon handler, because he was so eccentric and just had bird poop all over his body. His hands are full of raw meat, and he had bird poop all over him, and he loved it. I was like, “That’s their next show. That’s Netflix’s next series.”

A reality show with falconers.

I’m calling him the falconer now.

Tony, I heard you pulled a Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday and went on a Vespa ride. How magical was it to live and film in Rome?

Gosh, I really did a deep dive on Rome … I would go to the Coliseum and the [Roman] Forum. My family came, and we went on this Vespa tour. It was like Despicable Me, but my wife was on the motorcycle, and I was in the cart. There’s a [photo] from the back, and it just looks like a little cartoon situation. But just to have those experiences in Rome … that was actually during my daughter’s birthday. The whole thing was really special.

Can’t really beat the authentic Italian experience for a birthday. Al dente pasta, fine wine …

It’s crazy. Yeah, it’s like, “This wine is not giving me a headache.”

Tony, did you always know your character’s fate in the series?

I did not know my fate until, I would say, the sixth episode maybe, which was kind of nice because it kept us in that uncertainty. Obviously, the whole show is about living in that tension, living in the middle of a pandemic where you see the worst of humanity, the best of humanity. Everybody’s like, “Is death around the corner for me?” It helped that essence of it.

Throughout the show, I was wondering, “Can’t anyone just ever give Sirisco a ‘thank you’? Some reciprocity?”

Thank you! Yeah, thank you. Please! First of all, that’s the first “thank you” I’ve received this entire time. No, Sirisco is desperate for that. I love how Kathleen and the writers had a word for each character. [For each character’s key word, visit Tudum’s The Decameron cast guide here.]

The word for Pampinea [Zosia Mamet] is denial. The word for [Sirisco] was desperation. He just was so desperate to be needed and just to have connection, for someone to see him, because he felt very unseen. He desperately wanted a thank you, always.

Do you think he thought Pampinea was providing that sense of connection in the beginning of their romance?

Totally. Everybody else around them is like, “What are you doing? Run for the hills.” But it’s coming from such a broken place that he’s like, “Oh, this is going to work out,” and then it just turns. Thankfully, Sirisco comes to an awareness of that, but a lot of people don’t.

Is there any character you feel actually saw him?

Look, Sirisco was needy. He was desperate, and yes, he went to the wrong target. But he had a relationship in Arriguccio [Dustin Demri-Burns, Sirisco’s former colleague who we meet in Episode 6] that I believe was the first time he really felt seen. I would say the first love of his life was this friendship. I love the twist, the surprise, that even he couldn’t help himself from destroying it. That up and down and the back and forth of that is really amazing.

Go give Sirisco a thank you and watch The Decameron now, only on Netflix.

Meet the Cast of The Decameron