{"id":19561,"date":"2025-12-26T18:10:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/26\/interview-will-arnett-and-andra-day-on-breakthroughs-and-villains\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T18:10:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:10:32","slug":"interview-will-arnett-and-andra-day-on-breakthroughs-and-villains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/26\/interview-will-arnett-and-andra-day-on-breakthroughs-and-villains\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Will Arnett and Andra Day On Breakthroughs and Villains"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Laura Dern and Andra Day at a special Q&A panel at Angelika Film Center in advance of the film\u2019s theatrical release. Photo by John Nacion\/Getty Images for Searchlight Pictures<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A flailing relationship is no joke\u2014unless you\u2019re Alex Novak (Will Arnett<\/a>), who stumbles into personal salvation by cracking wise in front of a live audience. Multi-hyphenate Bradley Cooper\u2019s latest film c?<\/i><\/a>, now playing in theaters nationwide, traces this journey, which begins with Alex\u2019s spur-of-the-moment impulse to get up in front of a crowd and emotionally unload. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time that he talks about what he\u2019s going through,\u201d Arnett told Observer. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the first time he admits it to himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What triggers the confessional is a still-fresh separation from longtime wife Tess (Laura Dern<\/a>), after 20 years of marriage (and 5 years as a couple before that). A quarter-century together will change anyone\u2014moving to the suburbs, having kids, sacrificing professional goals for familial stability. The real question is how to acknowledge that change in each other without falling apart.<\/p>\n

Arnett, who co-wrote the script with his writing partner Mark Chappell<\/a> and Cooper, came up with the idea for the film after hearing the origin story behind British comedian John Bishop<\/a>, who unexpectedly started his career in comedy\u2014and saved his marriage\u2014by turning his estrangement from his wife into comic fodder that became a catalyst for personal change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a midlife catharsis, not a crisis,\u201d explained Cooper at a press screening before Is This Thing On?<\/i>, which premiered as the Closing Night Film of the New York Film Festival. \u201cThis movie\u2019s not about a guy who\u2019s unhappy in his profession. It\u2019s that he\u2019s not really comfortable with who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnett echoed the sentiment during his talk with Observer. \u201cWe don\u2019t see Alex at work, for instance,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t see any of that stuff. What was important to us was really getting down to him trying to find his voice. And by that I don\u2019t mean his comedic voice, but his voice as a person\u2014to see him start to connect the dots and be able to actually speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Will Arnett in Bradley Cooper\u2019s Is This Thing On?<\/em> Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. \u00a9 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is This Thing On?<\/i> is both a thematic continuation and a pivot for Cooper, whose trajectory as a writer-director-actor-producer includes his splashy Lady Gaga<\/a> vehicle A Star Is Born<\/i> and the ambitious Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro<\/i><\/a>. Both of those were big-budget productions that, at heart, were relationship dramas writ large. Is This Thing On?<\/i> compresses that canvas and trades studio spectacle for low-budget intimacy.<\/p>\n

Intrigued by the story\u2019s possibilities, Cooper\u2014who has known Arnett for almost 30 years and even was his roommate in L.A. as their careers were getting off the ground\u2014offered to join Arnett and Chappell to explore the script\u2019s characters further with a rewrite. He then added himself to the cast (in a small role as a Falstaffian goofball buddy nicknamed Balls) and brought together a terrific ensemble, .including Academy Award winner Dern; Andra Day<\/a> as Balls\u2019s frustrated wife; Arnett\u2019s Smartless<\/i> podcast cohost Sean Hayes<\/a> as his newlywed friend (coupled with Scott Icenogle<\/a>); plus Christine Ebersole<\/a> and Ciar\u00e1n Hinds as Alex\u2019s parents. Amy Sedaris<\/a> and Peyton Manning<\/a> pop up in smaller roles, and stand-up legend Dave Attell<\/a> even makes an appearance.<\/p>\n

Cooper and his collaborators pulled together the film very quickly and shot almost entirely on location in New York last spring over 33 tight days, getting it edited in time to premiere at the NYFF in the fall. \u201cNew York is a treasure chest and very, very little was shot on a stage,\u201d said Cooper, a native Philadelphian who relished being back in the downtown neighborhood where he spent time as a grad student in places like the Comedy Cellar and Bar Six (both of which play key roles in the film). Alex\u2019s apartment is on 12th between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, right on the same street where Cooper got his MFA at the New School.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a small budget,\u201d said Cooper, who often served as his own camera operator. \u201cThat shot of him crossing Sixth Avenue? I\u2019m on a seatbelt on a dolly handheld with nothing shut off from the street. That\u2019s all actual traffic. And there\u2019s just the cop there. We\u2019re like, \u2018Is it okay?\u2019 \u2018Yeah, you got ten minutes.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, okay!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But that run-and-gun indie vibe was inspirational for the cast. \u201cIt\u2019s like Christmas on steroids!\u201d said Dern at the NYFF press screening, and then invoked her longtime professional relationship with David Lynch<\/a>. \u201cInland Empire<\/i> was the only other experience I had where my director was right there with the camera. Bradley, as an actor and as our family, knows us so well and feels the instincts with us in character. The most fun of your life is to be in it and feel an instinct as an actor that you catch up to after the take is done, and you go, \u2018Oh man, maybe I should try this\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnett was even further in uncharted territory, handling a dramatic role while surrounded by Oscar-caliber talent. \u201cFor me, that was a lot of the work,\u201d he said. \u201cTo just be present in those moments and be open and vulnerable. These kinds of roles never came my way,\u201d said the actor best known for indelible turns like being Job in Arrested Development<\/i> or the voice of Lego Batman. \u201cBut, also, I did it to myself. I\u2019ve heard people say that I got typecast. Well, I didn\u2019t have to do all the things I did. I had fun doing them\u2014but certainly to do something like this is much closer to what I\u2019d always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day, an Oscar-nominated actress better known as a Grammy Award-winning singer, plays a small but larger-than-life role in the film as Christine, an unhappy wife simmering with marital discontent. She has a seminal scene with Arnett when Christine hilariously confronts Alex about the rage she feels toward him. \u201cShe tells him straight up, \u2018I despise you because I hate myself. You remind me of me\u2019,\u201d she told Observer, laughing. \u201cLet\u2019s see what you\u2019re going to do now with that truth!\u201d<\/p>\n

But that interaction speaks to a greater truth: the film has no villains, only people who are adrift and unable to communicate with each other. \u201cShe\u2019s not a victim,\u201d said Day about her character. \u201cShe\u2019s not blaming everyone else. She\u2019s like, \u2018What am I passionate about? What do I love? Well, shit, maybe I\u2019m pissed at myself!\u2019 You know what I mean? I love that the movie talks about this theme of grace. We have to transform as people in order to actually have a pulse and be alive. We need to have grace to allow other people to transform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dern echoed those same feelings at the NYFF press screening. \u201cThe film finds the unbelievable complexity of relationships. I hadn\u2019t seen a script or a film allowing us to know that we don\u2019t know how we got here. Because most of us don\u2019t, in moments of despair, in one\u2019s self and in relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for Arnett, as the lead in this marital reckoning, Is This Thing On?<\/i> was truly transformative. \u201cIt was a difficult task for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI did have to recalibrate and remember why I started doing this in the first place. Making a movie like this was how I always envisioned my life going when I was a young man. For me, it was kind of like a rebirth in a way, as opposed to a new thing. It was just reconnecting to something I always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Will<\/p><\/div>\n