Daily Archives: August 14, 2011

Perhaps best known for his work as the effortlessly entrepreneurial Tom Haverford on “Parks and Recreation” — or as the swaggering, shouting stand-up Randy in “Funny People” — Aziz Ansari is now playing the best pal. Of course, this being the crime-comedy “30 Minutes or Less,” Ansari is playing the best pal to Jesse Eisenberg’s wired-to-explode pizza delivery man, cringing at a safe distance even while standing by his friend. We talked with Ansari in L.A. about improvisation, Lunchables, tipping and how true equality means getting to play flawed characters.

This script comes across your desk and you’re being told, ‘Hey, you’re the best friend; you’re the straight guy, but it’s your version of the straight guy.’ How do you put that together?

Ansari: I got the script, and I thought the premise of the movie is about two regular guys that are best friends are forced to rob a bank while having a tumultuous time with the friendship. That was a good idea. Ruben really let me make the character my own and add whatever voices I had. So I was pretty comfortable with that, taking the part, even though on paper in a sense it’s a statement part because I’m not the guy going through crazy things. I knew I could figure it out, and I think I did.

That chance to figure things out, that was moments like making up the crazy, ‘This is how we paint our guns / when we’re going to get shot in the face’ song?

Ansari: There was things that I improvised that made it in, but there was funny stuff in the script for that character. It wasn’t a boring straight man part/ There’s been a lot of hilarious straight men performances recently. I think a lot of stuff Seth Rogen does is really funny in that vein. Michael Cera in ‘Superbad.’ I don’t really think of it as written as a straight man part. We’re both characters, but he‘s going through the crazy thing with the bomb.

How satisfying is it to get slightly into the mode of being a bad teacher?

Ansari: (Laughing) You mean as in the film ‘Bad Teacher?’

As in your character.

Ansari: Yeah, I know. I’ve done a few things where I’ve worked with kids and just been really mean to kids. That’s always really fun. During that scene, I told them, ‘Let’s add something here and make it a funny scene.’ I did that text-message thing (reading a student’s text message out loud in class.) — that was fun.

Do you hang out with Mr. Eisenberg a lot to create that illusion of friendship, or do you not hang out with him a lot to create that illusion of being slightly on the outs?

Ansari: I think we hung out a lot, so we could have a rapport and have a relationship that would be what we see onscreen as a variation of our lives, back-and-forth as far as the comedic chemistry. We hung out and tried to become best friends, and we got along really well and we’re still good friends.

Is it very much the case that you know people like Eisenberg’s character, you know the man-child who has Lunchables?

Ansari: I don’t know anyone that out of control, I don’t think.

Do you feel like you’ve come to terms with the whole thing of growing up and taking responsibility for your life the way Eisenberg’s character has to, or is part of the reason why a life of showbiz appeals because of that slight element of arrested development?

Ansari: To me, if you’re doing this kind of work, if you’re successful, it’s a lot of hard work and you’re pretty smart and responsible. I don’t think you’re going to get very far if you’re poof-ing around and not really focused on the work. I think that the nature of my work, comedic or whatever, I’m smart about what I do and I work really hard, so to me it’s a regular job.

When you come onboard a project like this, and there’s people like Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, how much of you is playing comedy sponge? How much of you is listening, to go, ‘Okay, I now get how they get laughs; I now get their sense of rhythm?’ Or are you somebody who’s such an idiosyncratic performer that you don’t do that whole ‘eavesdropping on other comics’ thing, even unconsciously?

Ansari: What’s great about all of us in the movie is we each have our own unique thing and that’s what we do. To me, my answer would be no. We each have our own thing and we connect.

What kind of a tipper are you when you get to delivery food? Do you try to show a little respect to delivery nation, or do you just say, ‘No, you’re on your own; maybe you should have thought about that before you dropped out of community college?’

Ansari: In general, I tip very big. I feel like other people are jerks, so I try to compensate.

Is that a southern hospitality thing?

Ansari: Yes. Or just in general how I was raised to be a nice person.

How was shooting in Grand Rapids? It really has that great look, but also doesn’t really feel like a major metropolis.

Ansari: It was great. It was a fine town. I didn’t get a ton of time to really explore the town. When I was there, I was filming all the time, and I would just come home and rest and get up and film. I was pretty much working. It was great.

When you’re doing things like making up the ‘spray painting the gun’ song, does it vary, now and then you throw things at the wall and nothing seems to stick, and now and then you — bang! — get it in one? Are you somebody who can just do this stuff fairly instantly, or is there a lot of hidden sweat that goes into it to look effortless?

Ansari: That song, I did it a few times. I had it in my head how I wanted to do it, and then I finally hit the thing way I thought. It’s a lot of rewriting on the spot sometimes. You try, and then it can kind of work, and then you refine it and you get a version that works. A lot of times you say things in the moment and it sticks. That Lunchables that we mention, I just said that in one take. I had that idea, and I said it. That came out, and that was a one-time joke; it worked. Other times, a longer thing you might want to refine it and then get it right.

Do you find we’ve transition into this period where the irresponsible, charismatic, but slightly unlikable characters has opened up a little bit in terms of the fact that with the ‘Harold and Kumar’ films, we’re establishing that in comedies, characters who are not necessarily the white, Anglo-Saxon dominant paradigm can be slightly flawed, slightly goofed up, slightly slack people, and it’s not a pejorative judgment; it’s more like these are fully dimensionalized characters with the same right to make mistakes as anyone?

Ansari: I think that’s just people catching up with the way that the world really is. Every Asian kid isn’t really some diligent, hard-working kid. There’s Asian kids that are stoners that listen to rock music all the time that people are like, ‘Let’s see that person in a movie; let’s make a person that’s more normal.’ Not to say other people aren’t normal. I think it’s moving away from making these ethnic caricatures. They’re rounded people, and I think there’s more and more of them in recent years, and in every sitcom has that Indian guy. It’s not like the kind of Indian guy you would have seen in a movie or a TV show 20 years ago.

When you said there are Asian people who do drugs and listen to rap music, all I could think, ‘Yes, there are. I learned that from ‘Grand Torino.’ I learned that from Clint Eastwood.’ I don’t know if you’ve seen that.

Ansari: I didn’t see that, no. That’s where he’s racist, right?

It’s chock full of Korean gangbangers. It’s really a blow for equality. If there were a hypothetical ’30 Minutes or Less’ sequel, would you want them to double the delivery time or half it? Would it be ‘An Hour or Less,’ or would it be ’15 Minutes or Less?’

Ansari: 15, so there’s more tension. It would be a tough one to make a sequel for.

–From my article at The Hitlist