Will Arnett, Vol. II

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1:26Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy Say I Confused. Today on the show, it is Will Arnett. From Arrested Development and BoJack Horseman to Smartless, and now is this thing on an amazing new film with a fantastic dramatic turn from Will. Hey guys, thanks as always for joining me on the podcast. I appreciate all of you tuning in however you're enjoying the podcast, whether it's on Spotify or YouTube or whatever podcast platform you use. We are careening towards the end of 2025. I have to say the best year, I think, yet, objectively speaking, of Happy, Sagan Fuse in terms of the guests we've had on, certainly in terms of the audience reception, just sheer numbers.

2:05It's been a really rewarding year. So starting to take stock in everything that was 2025. And we're not done yet. We've got some really cool episodes to come, including this one with Will Arnett. I mentioned a few of his credits. You know what Will Arnett is capable of. Or maybe you didn't. maybe you didn't know he was capable of this dramatic turn in this new film he is starring in Is This Thing On? This is a collaboration between him, Bradley Cooper, behind the camera, and it's a very, it's a dramatic, funny, relatable, great piece of drama that I highly, highly recommend. I mean, Bradley Cooper doesn't choose his projects lately, certainly as a filmmaker, especially.

2:49And this is yet another, as I say in the interview with Will, kind of an excavation of a relationship. Will plays a guy, something at a crossroads in his relationship. He's separating from his wife, played by the great Laura Dern, and finds a catharsis, a way of emoting, a way of coping in the form of stand-up comedy, something he'd never done before. This is based on a true story. It's fascinating. And Will's getting the best reviews of his life and justifiably so. So a great occasion to have Will on the podcast. Before I get to more on Will Arnett, I do want to remind folks, as always, check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash happy, say I confused.

3:30You know the drill. You've heard me say it, but I'm going to say it again because we've been doing a lot of cool stuff, whether it's live stuff, giveaways with autographed merch, all that cool fun stuff is over at patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused. It's a better time than ever to sign up over there. As I always say, and I mean it, if you support us over there, it just helps us make more stuff over here. Okay. Not much more preamble for Will. As I said, you know what he's done, what he's capable of. What you should know is that I've known Will for a long, long time, and I've always had a fascinating, fun dynamic with him.

4:04I think it's based on mutual respect and admiration. I hope so. I think so. I know so. I do absolutely think he's one of the smartest, funniest guys I know, full stop. And I think he likes what I do, I hope. We had a really fun time before this podcast about a month or so ago, at least maybe two months, at the Savannah Film Festival, where I hosted an event with him in support of this film. And we referenced that in this conversation. And yeah, I've just known him forever. And we've always had kind of like a weird, passive-aggressive antagonistic vibe, but it is based on respect. And I truly do think he is so, so damn talented and just fun to talk to.

4:44I mean, he's so quick and it's really exciting to see him shine in a role like this and to see folks kind of not rediscover, because everybody's known Will is a great actor, but to see him in a different light collaborating with Bradley Cooper on something dramatic. And not to say there isn't comedy in this thing on, but I've seen it a few times and I really, it's one of my favorites of the year. It's out in theaters December 19th, Friday, December 19th. So put it on your to-do list this holiday season. Just a great piece of like adult storytelling, right? So that's my spiel. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

5:24Without any further ado, here's me catching up with the one and only Will Arnett. Hi, Will. Hi, Josh. How are you? I didn't see you there. You jumped right into... How are you doing? I'm doing great. Are we pretending to like each other today? I'm trying to reestablish. I'm trying to reset the... Yeah. Will Arnett, actor, podcaster, sometime mortal enemy of mine. I feel like there was a phase many years ago where we had some feud. I don't even know what it was based on. I don't either. But it developed. It grew. It festered like a boil. It really did. and we were legitimate nemesis. Yeah. Do you have any actual nemesis?

6:03I'm not a real, you enjoy me. I enjoy you. Do I enjoy you? What happened to your voice just now? Did it seem higher? It did to me too. I do enjoy you, Josh. Do I have an actual nemesis? I think I've had a few. I think, not really, but. Did you have a rival back in the day? You're auditioning, you're hoofing it. did you who was the actor when you walked into the audition room wow that that this fucker's gonna go it's gonna go to him again thoreau seriously you'd see thoreau's name on the sign-in sheet back in the 90s you'd be like this freaking guy yeah yeah i mean was he wearing sleeves back then was what was his he's never he's never had a sleeve breaking news today he's gonna be a dad he's gonna be a dad you gotta lay off he's he's got he's got a handful coming or double down.

6:55Double down.

6:58Okay. We're spreading the good word today. You know, I love this film. This performance is excellent. I have to say that sadly, but I mean it. I really do. Thank you. Thank you. I know where to pay you. It does pay me. The last time we saw each other was at the Savannah Film Festival. Yeah. It was a very enjoyable time down there. It was a lot of fun. It was. Where's the award? Do you have like a... You know what's funny? I don't know. And by that, I mean, they gave me an award, but nobody ever said, here this is like they gave it to me on stage and then it kind of went somewhere else and i and i left and yeah i didn't leave with the award and that's somebody needs to look into that there's nobody you're pointing at nothing somebody's on it what's your what's your relationship with awards i was thinking when i was thinking about awards and you i was thinking about arrested and i remember correct me if i'm wrong back in the day you guys won an award like the big the emmy award yeah for the best comedy yeah like that was after the first season when we weren't even sure if arrested was continuing or not do you remember that as being a very strange do i ever i remember we won best comedy right and then at the fox lot i remember driving on a couple days later and they put up a banner but it was behind this kind of this thing this gate that you drive through so you could only see for a nanosecond because it was there's the gate and then the banner was here so you're like as you drive by you can just see and it was just kind of written like congrats and then And they sent over an ice cream cart.

8:25Not a truck. A cart. What's the difference? It's just like, oh, it's like a small. It's like a little cart with a, hey, you want one of these? You want a king cone? What do you guys have? A chip witch? There's one of those. That's what we got. Yeah. Married with children gets the full truck. The full, I mean, yeah. So we were, I don't know. I've never, my relationship with awards is, I'd say, fleeting at best. I haven't been around a lot of it, but we did that. I remember that was a great, for us, it felt very validating to win the Emmy. Yeah, the show won Best Writing, Best Directing, and like, you know, a lot of stuff, yeah.

9:07Can we pull the veil back on one of my favorite moments in recent memory at the Savannah Film Festival, a moment we had backstage that we then brought on stage? Do you remember what I'm talking about? Yeah, it was... I think I'm going to connect it to this movie in a way. Watch me be a professional. Okay. But we're backstage. It's kind of a this is your life sizzle reel for Will Arnett. Rapturous applause to every significant moment. Arrested Development. Huge applause. Bojack. Huge applause. They loved it. And then flaked. And it was silent. and in that moment i feel like sums up showbiz right there the the highs and the lows the absurdity all of it to my credit i laughed harder than you did you did i thought it was hilarious you did yeah i mean all that sort of stuff it's it's it's all stuff that now at my age uh that i i it's got nothing to do with me in a lot of ways there's nothing i can do about it there's And it's not something that I think about or like, certainly I'm not going for.

10:15I mean, if I was going for it, boy, I've set myself up for a lot of disappointment. Yeah, it's just such a funny thing. But there must be something freeing at your ripe old age of 72. How old are you, for real? I'm 49. I'm 48. Interesting how that works. What year were you born again? The year right after you. There must be something freeing at your old age, very advanced age. Yeah. I'm being an asshole, but I'm being real. Like, the letting go of some of that, like... The best. Of all that shit that you were wrapped up in because of the business you were in, or any of us are in, in our 20s and 30s and to a degree in our 40s, and hopefully we start to let it go by our 40s.

11:01Honestly, it's the best. I don't... My measure of success, and I've actually kind of talked about it a few times over the last couple of years on our podcast. I'm on an award-winning podcast. You have a podcast now. Congrats. Joe Rogan Show? Is that you? You need to Google me. Honestly, I keep telling you this. Please just Google me. You know I don't have internet privileges. I know you don't because you think that the internet's not real. It is.

11:29I don't measure. My measure for success has completely shifted. Yeah. and my measure for success is am i happy in my life and and not associated with my professional life in that way it's it's being happy spending time with my kids being at home all that kind of stuff like those are the things my friends the people are important to me my sort of my support group and all the people that's when all that is good everything else is just gravy yeah um Um, so yeah, so I, you know, and even going in and doing this film, I did it because, you know, I've had people say like, oh, did you want people to see you in a different light to what you're trying to do?

12:12I was like, not really. It wasn't, I heard a story of this guy, John Bishop tells me his life story. And I'm like, wow, that's really interesting. And he got relief from doing this thing and it brought him closer to himself and his ex-wife and they kind of started talking all these elements that I liked. and every step of the way Mark Chappell had responded to that it was why we decided to start writing it Bradley responded to that it's why he came on wanted to rewrite it and work with us and direct it when Laura came on never with the intention of how it would be received what people would think it was because we wanted to do it because we liked it I was just happy that we were potentially getting it made that to me was the victory how people took it was truly secondary now not to say it's not rewarding when people come out of it and watch it and experience it and say hey i really liked it yeah it it that that movie you know it really resonated with me i i really identified with that character i really identified with that sentiment with that emotion where they're at what they're talking about Of course, that's very gratifying.

13:25But first it started with us. It's kind of weirdly selfish, as that sounds. No, I mean, the best of intentions, that sets you up for success also. And also frees you up, I'm sure, on set. So you're not thinking about the end result. You're just enjoying the process. Yeah, I never think about like, how's this thing going to play? Right. Well, because, I mean, you're a smart guy. You know what this press store was going to be like. And indeed has become. Which is everybody asking you. I really did it. I'm not that smart well you put it out of your mind I guess because I'm sure you're sick to a degree of having that conversation like can you everyone's shocked that you have this in you well no you mean it's I can compliment of course you were about to say it I did say that once to somebody recently sometimes it feels like a backhanded compliment and yet again that's another one of those things I'm not as cynical as I used to be I don't think and maybe that just comes with age.

14:21And so when somebody says that, I get what they mean. Yeah. Of course. And for them, they don't know me. They don't spend every day with me. So they're like, I've never seen you do this. They legit just mean that. Yeah. And that's okay.

14:39But again, it is something like, it never came from a place of something. I always thought I could do something like this. This is kind of the things that I always wanted to do. Laura and I were talking about it earlier today. When we were making the movie, every element, every step of the way was always for the pure joy of doing it. Right. And we liked it. And we thought it was worthy. Not worthy in the sense of like changing lives. But worthy in the sense of a creative endeavor. Yeah. And never felt like work. Nobody was making any money. we had the most incredible crew of all time you know maddie libatic shooting it scott sakamoto you know mango all these great guys these people who worked with bradley before yeah uh um you know coming together and doing this for the love of doing it i mean i i've never been on a set we were talking about this too i've never been on a set before where crew calls 7 a.m and people there at 6 45 and at 7 everybody's ready to go no big trailers none of the stuff none of the kind of bells and whistles that you're accustomed to, and yet everybody is so much happier and so into the process of making this thing.

15:54To quote a great man, it was dope. Bateman? Did he coin that one? No, it was me. I said it earlier. Oh, you're quoting yourself.

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19:35There must be also something freeing and challenging in a way. Like, I mean, you say like, you know, these were the ambitions starting out and you certainly have done dramatic work throughout your career. But like your bread and butter for many years has been like, go for the joke. No, like, like your instinct has been go for the joke. and you kind of have to let that go. Even on the stand-up scenes, the goal was not to be the most brilliant stand-up. He's a mediocre stand-up at best. Yeah, yeah. It was sort of counterintuitive when I was going out there doing this stand-up. I remember once years ago, I forget where we were, but I was with Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

20:12You know, we'd done the Lego movies and Lego Batman and everything. I want to say we were like at some sort of event or something. and Phil turned to me and he said of course you fart for a living and it made me laugh because I was like yeah you're kind of right but when you hear somebody say that to you like you're like oh wow now I guarantee you if Phil were here right now he'd be like dude I didn't mean that I love him and he loves me like it but I get what he means he's like yeah you're that's what you do you're a goof you kind of goof around and what was the well I guess the thing is like your superpower you were one of the quickest people on a set or in real life and like you have to kind of like you were giving up your superpower for this essentially yeah you're doubling your senses yeah a little bit a little bit I mean I had to do that when we were first doing the stand up I remember one of the first times going on if not the first time at the cellar Bradley stopping me and saying right before I was going to go we go we're doing something different.

21:19Yeah. And by that, I knew immediately what he meant, which is don't go in there and try to win the room. Yeah. Don't go to try to rely on your old bag of tricks. Figure out a way. You're not a stand-up, but maybe you can figure out a way to get a cheap laugh doing some bullshit that I've done before or that I'll make up in the moment. Go in there and be this guy. Let it sit there. Be a guy who's talking about his marriage breaking up and see what the audience does. And you don't know what's going to happen. and then that was the assignment that was interesting we because he's not he's not the michael jordan of comedy yeah um he's a guy trying to work out his thing and we don't even tell the story that he goes on to be a comedian we just tell the story that he goes out that he starts to kind of connect things with himself and in in his wife and so it was that was a different that was a very specific kind of narrow target to him and also in addition to that then he'd go and have all these scenes these these sort of deeply vulnerable and emotional scenes you know touching on issues that that a lot of people can relate to and in order to do them in a way that felt genuine and really connected forced me to, and there's no button on the end of the scene.

22:39Right. Right. There's no way to kind of let the air out of it. You know, even something like BoJack, which is just voice and people reference it all the time and try to sort of, you know, fit that sort of retroactively fit what everything I do into some sort of like frame of Bojack, which is a testament to how great the show was and Raphael was as a writer. But even Bojack would have these like deeply profound moments and scenes and stuff, and yet always let the air out of the bag. Right. Well, so much of this film is like, I watched it again last night, it's just behavior and like living. It's like walking.

23:19It's like I'm watching The Wrestler half the time. I'm like following you behind your back. Yeah. You're picking up your kids, checking them for lice. And it's just like there's a power in just the mundanity of living. Well, yeah. And you had a really good point, which is, A, you run the risk when you're dealing with material like this, you could end up getting kind of maudlin. Yeah. We wanted this to feel naturalistic and feel real. And part of that was behavior. You know, just the, first of all, people generally break up. They don't have a big argument in the middle of Times Square. Right. they pass each other in the hall on a Thursday morning I would say like one person got the keys in their hand and the other person's like hey by the way I can't do this anymore wait I'm going to work like what it just happens like that and you know a lot of it was there were so many moments in the film where there is no dialogue so it's just okay well it's Alex walking into his apartment so Bradley would say you know you're going to walk into your apartment and it's been dressed to look like he's only been there for a couple of days.

24:30And he walks in and he's just come from the sand and he's by himself. And he shows me how he wants it to look and where the camera's going to, what he's going to do. And then you've got to go in there and just behave. Like what does that guy do in that moment? How do you walk into an apartment? How do you be affected by all the stuff and all the stuff that he's going through in a way that feels really genuine that doesn't feel like acting right and that takes a like because you could go like all right i'm gonna go in there and play the guy doing the thing no right go in there and be the guy doing that right have the confidence that just being is going to be enough deep breath yeah letting go letting go of all my bullshit all the stuff that i think that i know don't worry about hitting your mark don't worry about all this stuff don't worry about and they just would be this guy.

25:19And this sort of actory and whatever as that sounds, it was a much more difficult, you know, I watch these actors all the time and I think, I look at a guy like Benicio Del Toro and I watch how effortlessly he moves and what he does and how he inhabits these characters. And I often wonder, I'm like, does he even, does he ever struggle with moments? Does he ever have those things? I wonder. you know it's an art to making it look that easy yeah yeah it's the best and he makes i mean that's a guy who i think deserves more credit than he gets yeah because and part of the thing is he makes it look so effortless and he makes it look so easy you don't even realize what how brilliant he is yeah i mean remember how much like he underplayed it in sicario like he's like barely speaking he's incredible and people go and and i think that there are people who would go and And I'm not suggesting that they're not sophisticated.

26:17They just go like, well, he's just being this guy. You have no idea. Right. And I think other actors recognize that and go, oh, dude, what that guy's doing is next fucking level. Yeah. He's not coming in there with like half a leg. Right. And sort of Scott Ashak said. You know what I mean? Yeah. And like, wow, look at that with this. no he's going in there he's being this guy and all his all the stuff that he's doing is is sort of internal and coming and he's showing you in very little very subtle ways these very subtle little colors fucking unbelievable this is also going to be a very big film for people waiting for the rocker reunion of you and Bradley Cooper finally rocker heads out there I can't give any updates on that yet I have so much exciting news for you yeah I'll never forget I did a Q &A with Rain for The Rocker that had like three people in the audience.

27:16It was like the saddest, like a little Q &A. No, no. Yeah, it was. It was like right in real time we saw what was happening to that film. It was just A, no Qs. Exactly. Exactly. But you go way back with Bradley before that, I assume. What's the origin story of you and Bradley? Bradley and I, we met through my ex through Amy. And when we first started dating and she was vetting me with her friends and we went for, we met for drinks with Bradley and Janine Grofflo at McManus on 7th Ave. Nice. Which used to be my local for many years. Got it. I was part of the furniture in there for way too long.

28:02And what is, I mean, I love that this is his third directing effort. He's clearly like passionate about like excavating relationships. in the rawest ways and all the permutations of that. And you kind of alluded to this, but like, you know, he's a friend. He also can direct pretty much anything he wants right now. And for him to say, like, I want to work with you on this at this point in my career, that's a meaningful act of generosity and friendship and all of it. For sure. Yeah. I mean, it is. And, you know, it is a very generous act. But at the same time, it also felt very, A, it was very gratifying that he connected with the material.

28:53Yeah, I feel like I don't want to sound like he's no you of faith. No, no, no, no, no. He obviously connected, like, of course, this is right in line. What I'm saying is this is right in line with what he loves. Yes, 100%. What I was going to say is I just like that he connected with it. And I like that it was a vote of confidence that he connected with the idea of me playing this part. And that he was, and it was through our relationship that he did recognize. And it was generous in the sense that this kind of stuff wasn't coming my way. And he recognized that and said, you should do something like this.

29:31and I'm going to come and do it with you because you can do this in a way that I maybe didn't even fully believe in myself. The film that we presented him with that he read hadn't really fully excavated the relationship in the way that it ended up being after he got his hands on it. He understood like, oh, there's a lot here and you can do this and you are going to do it and I'm gonna do it with you. And so in that way, it was very generous. Do you think he resents that you're Batman and he's Jor-El, that's not, I mean, that's like second tier. That's not even a superhero. I don't know, dude. You tell me.