Last Updated on 09/09/2024 by Arun jain
After taking the internet by storm in recent years with his Emmy-winning sketch comedy series I think you should leave, Tim Robinson got her first major film role in friendshipA surreal friend comedy co-star Paul Rudd which is making its world premiere tonight in the Midnight Madness section Toronto Film Festival.
Quite familiar to anyone who’s a Robinson fan, with its socially awkward characters, offbeat dialogue (“It’s not trespassing, it’s adventure”) and odd bits of slapstick, the film follows Craig Waterman (Robinson), who is married to his wife ( is from suburban discon). Kate Mara), who sees no reason to change her life or make new friends…until weatherman Austin (Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. Mysterious yet friendly, macho yet vulnerable, Austin changes everything for Craig, until his obsessiveness and childish nature threaten to ruin the friendship and possibly everything else in his life.
For a writer and an artist at once Saturday Night LiveRobinson has been ever since friendship The TV veteran is making his feature directorial debut — reuniting with Deong — on the HBO pilot. Chair Company. Robinson would not address that project or its future I think you should leavewhich aired its third season last fall. But in Zoom conversation with friendshipThe director and lead actors of the trio, the new fifth season pic, state of the theater comedy, Rudd’s recent collaboration with John Carney and Next Anaconda pictureand more.
Look at the timeline
DEADLINE: Andrew, can you tell us about the inspiration behind the film?
Andrew Diong: Its seed came [during] 2018. I asked someone I thought I was going to make a new friend, someone I worked with…the job ended and I thought this might be a new friend. I asked them to hang out, and I blew up, and I caught myself spinning about it. I’m like, “Oh, wow.” I’ve never seen a friendship between two grown men fall apart in a movie in a certain way, so I started toying with that idea, and then it eventually became this.
DEADLINE: Did you intend for the film to be a sort of send-up of buddy comedy tropes?
Deong: No, I really don’t think so. I just write from a place that seems interesting. I want it to be fun, in a way that we haven’t ideally seen before, so I’m trying to write with that instinct. So it’s less about pointing things out, but just trying to find what would make my parents, or anybody’s parents, laugh, and make me laugh, Paul laugh, Tim laugh. In an interesting way that seems like something universal, but somehow timeless. It sounds pretentious, but that’s where I’m coming from.
Deadline: Tim and Paul, what appealed to you when you read the script?
Tim Robinson: When Andy sent it to me, it was the fastest I’ve ever read anything. It was really funny and sad, in many ways, and I loved how sad the character was.
PAUL RUDD: Same. I really love things that exist in that funny and sad world where everyone is trying to do their best, but they don’t have the tools to do it well, no matter what they’re trying to accomplish. I think the characters are funny, relatable. I thought it was funny. And tonally, I was like, what is this, right? I couldn’t put my finger on it when I read it. I definitely love Tim and Andy, and so that was really a huge part of the appeal, but I loved that it was this story that I didn’t know where it was really going to go. I didn’t know how it would resolve itself, and it seemed funny, and sad, and just the right amount of weird.
DEADLINE: Paul, it sounds like you’ve been signing on to smaller, more out-of-the-box projects lately after working on tentpoles for several years. What would you say the choices you are making about where you are creatively?
RUDD: I don’t know. I judge everything individually. My whole thing is, I really like working with people that I like to hang out with, whose work I find inspiring, and usually in some of the smaller stuff or indie stuff, you get more of that. I’ve had a bit of a run around where I’ve been in these big studio films, which was a bit new for me. Marvel stuff has never been like that before. i think [right now] I don’t think it’s different because I’ve always tried to do small, interesting things, but that’s part of the appeal. They are fun to work on because you can get into them a little more. You’re not painting on such a large canvas.
Deadline: Tim – This is your first major film, was acting for the big screen always a goal? Or was this just a case of the right project? Do you see yourself going further into film?
Robinson: I think this was perfect for me. I was a big fan of it. I don’t think anything like “I want to do more of this,” or “I’m thinking of doing more of this.” If it comes to me and I read it and I want to do it, I do it, or I don’t. So it’s like I don’t have a plan, but this was something that spoke to me and I thought it was funny.
Deadline: Here your character feels very much in the vein of those you play on I think you should leave. What interests you about socially awkward characters in scenarios taken to extremes?
Robinson: I think it’s as simple as that, it’s a sensitive matter. These are the kind of guys that I find funny, the way they act, and so it’s pure and easy to be sensitive to. That’s what’s funny to me.
DEADLINE: As far as creative vision, what kind of conversations did the three of you have before filming?
Deong: When I sent the script to Tim, I was like, “I wrote this for you and I want to shoot it this way. [Paul Thomas Anderson’s] The Master” Because The Master Really funny and it can be all kinds of things, and any kind of reaction is appropriate. There are so many different reactions to watching that movie, and for me, that’s the most rewarding thing about watching something, where I’m like, I can feel almost two emotions here at once, and there’s some hard comedy moves, some more here. An artistic, perhaps more pretentious move. But it’s something I was always reaching for. Master There was a touchstone, but in terms of acting, everything had to be played on the ground, so we would just make sure that we always touched the realness of the feeling in every scene. And these people are very bright and spontaneous. You don’t really have to do much with Paul and Tim – they’re already so committed to delivering something that feels so real and natural.
RUDD: I think so [Tim and I] Only the innate of both types knew what this was. I think we’ve all seen it the same way, so really “How do we play this?” There weren’t that many in-depth conversations about.
Robinson: When we started shooting, even the stuff that was in the script, we realized that day that some things didn’t fit into the tone, the groove that we got. So, we threw out some stuff that was like, “Oh, this is funny on the page, good on the page,” but then you’re like, “Oh, it looks different than what we’re shooting. “
DEADLINE: Paul, you have to flex your musical skills a bit with your part…
RUDD: If it curves, I think I need to work on it a bit.
DEADLINE: Is it fun for you, though? Or do you just end up in a comedy asking about yourself?
RUDD: I don’t know. I think it was just, that part was in the script. It seemed like, oh, from Tim’s character’s perspective, this would fit the checklist of things that would normally be considered cool. The fact that the guy is in a band, and the fact that he’s on TV.
It’s fun to do. It’s also fun to play characters that might look cool, or try to, but they’re not really, and I think the character I was playing would be someone who might have figured out who they are and all that, but that Not at all. He has his own insecurities and things that make him sad in his own way.
Deadline: Was there a lot of improvisation on this set?
Deong: No, barely. Tim and Paul are very good at it, so naturally, there will be little additions, but for the most part that’s the page.
Deadline: How did you get Subway on board for the frog poison hallucination sequence?
Deong: Honestly, it’s a producer’s question. I didn’t think we would ever get them. I thought I had to make a fake sandwich place, and right away, they were like, “Yeah. And you want money?” It was like, “Oh my God.” They were down for nothing, and it was weird.
Deadline: The state of theatrical comedy has been in the public discourse lately, with Vince Vaughn, for one, studios seeming less willing to take big swings these days. How do you feel about the relative lack of comedy for the big screen compared to a decade or two ago?
RUDD: I mean comedy movies don’t go anywhere. They are always around, and they are the ones I want to see. It would be nice to see a renaissance where they start making a lot more, but I don’t know. I can’t find my frickin’ thermostats, let alone the movie industry.
I don’t understand the logic behind most things. Is it because humor just doesn’t work well globally, and that’s why they don’t want to put money into this kind of thing? I’ve always thought that comedy is best when people are sad and the world is on fire, so I think that comedy [should] Doing gangbusters these days, but it doesn’t seem like it.
People are watching movies very differently than they did 10 years ago, and certainly, studios are making them differently. There are more television shows. It looks like they put more into it.
DEADLINE: Andrew and Tim, you recently reteamed on a comedy pilot Chair Company For HBO. What can you tell us about it?
Deong: I absolutely love it. Fingers crossed that we consider making more.
DEADLINE: Paul, you also have some exciting projects coming up in between the new John Carney film Power Ballad And A New Anaconda film With Jack Black. What are you most excited about at the moment?
RUDD: Football season. [Laughs] I mean, I think with everything I’ve done, I’ve always been really excited about it and hoping it works. Carney thing, I just finished. It’s awesome, and it was a unique and fun experience. The next thing you were just talking about, this Anaconda The movie, I think is still being fleshed out, but I really like those guys [Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten]The last movie they did and Jack is great. So we will see. I’m excited to see how it is if it all comes together.
Post “Just the Right Amount of Weird”: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd and Andrew DeYoung Talk Surreal TIFF Comedy ‘Friendship’ and the Paul Thomas Anderson Picture That Served as Inspiration appeared first deadline.