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Real Colbert: 'I Embody the Bullshit'

Earnest Colbert calls himself unambitious, religious

By Jane Yager, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 3, 2009 8:50 AM CDT

(Newser) – It wasn't Stephen Colbert's on-screen persona who turned up for a recent Rolling Stone interview, but the real Stephen Colbert—a man as "preppy, earnest, and gentle" as Ned Flanders. In the interview, Colbert dishes on his style of deconstructing the news: "I take the sausage backwards, and I restuff the sausage. ... We falsely construct the hypocrisy. And I embody the bullshit until hopefully you can smell it." More highlights:

Colbert's character owes an apology to only one person—"you'd never know who it was" and he's not telling.
No Stephen Colbert movie in the works—he's too busy and too "unambitious."
Colbert's a devout Catholic: "I'm moved by the words of Christ, and I'll leave it at that."
Collaboration with Jon Stewart: "I love that it's my own show, but there's still a connection with Jon, and he's a fantastic, fantastic mentor and friend."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Stephen Colbert poses during the launch party for "Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream" in this Monday, March 5, 2007, file photo taken in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

In this May 27, 2009, file photo, Stephen Colbert poses for a portrait in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)

In this Nov. 20, 2008, file photo, Stephen Colbert arrives for a taping of "The Late Show with David Letterman" in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)

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...we joked about the Colbert Nation and then we said, "Oh shit, it's real." That's an interesting thing, and that's another improvisational aspect — that discovery is better than invention. - Stephen Colbert

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Real Colbert: 'I Embody the Bullshit'