How Aziz Ansari Made Wealth Inequality Funny in Good Fortune | Interview
ComingSoon spoke with Good Fortune director Aziz Ansari about making his directorial debut film. Ansari discussed the experience of working with a star-studded cast, his interest in angels, and more. The comedy movie is available now to own on digital services and will be released on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on December 9.
“The film follows a well-meaning but rather inept angel named Gabriel who observes a struggling gig worker, Arj, who is barely making ends meet in Los Angeles, and intervenes to show him that money can’t solve all his problems. Gabriel swaps Arj’s life with a wealthy venture capitalist, Jeff, but the plan backfires when Arj is convinced his newfound wealth has, in fact, solved all his problems. As Arj refuses to switch back, Jeff is left without his fortune, Gabriel loses his wings, and all three are forced to confront what it truly means to be human,” reads the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: I saw Good Fortune a second time today, and I laughed just as many times as the first showing. That’s a real trademark of a good comedy. There are some comedy movies I’ve seen 50 times and I’m still laughing just as hard as the first time. As a comedy writer and director, how do you kinda approach that idea of rewatchability? Is it just that a well-crafted joke is always gonna land or do you put any thought into that?
Aziz Ansari: I don’t know how you can write towards rewatchability. I think if you just do something that works and is funny, then hopefully it has repeat value and the jokes are strong enough.
What made you want to tackle classism and wealth disparity in Good Fortune? Because we see your character, Arj, and it’s wild to think about, but there are so many people who are just significantly worse off than him. He’s struggling, but he’s still doing pretty all right. So there’s like this whole other level. So what made you want to explore this?
I think for me, these issues of wealth disparity and everything are all around us. When I did research for the film and I interviewed all these people, it was shocking, like how many people talked about things like sleeping in their car and how hard it was to get by and the struggles they had. And it went to a level you didn’t always expect. To me, if this is what’s going on, then it was a challenge to it. Write a movie that dealt with these things, and do it in a funny way.
Keanu Reeves is just fantastic in this film. What stood out about him as a collaborator? Because I think people forget just how much of a comedic mind he has, since he’s always kicking so much ass, but you really use him to his full potential here.
Oh, thanks. He was fantastic, and we spent a lot of time working on his character together, developing the character, and working on his scenes. He was very generous with his time, rehearsing and really trying to dial it in. For me, when I first read the script, imagining him doing it, it made me laugh.
Then, as I got to know him, I just put more and more of him into the character. He’s just such an iconic voice. It’s very easy to write to, and I kind of just really just started tuning into like what his strengths were, comedically, and how to write this stuff to really play to his strengths. That was when I feel like it really went to another level.
The guy’s an icon, and he’s been a screen presence for decades for a reason. He knows what he’s doing, and yeah, I think his performance is spectacular.
You wrote such a fun optimism for Gabriel, and it contrasts with Seth’s Jeff so well. The whole buddy comedy segment of the film with those two, I could watch them interact for like two hours themselves, but obviously, we have to have a plot. So, how was it like balancing their chemistry and using it to their full potential? Because I thought that was just so great how they played off each other.
Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things where you cast these people for their roles and then you hope they’re all gonna play well together. And for him and Seth and for Keanu and Seth, I remember when we shot the scene, their first big scene together was a scene where their when Keanu’s eating for the first time, and I was… I just immediately could tell, “Oh man, they have great chemistry and their energies play off well against each other.”
Seth is just so funny up against his energy. Keanu being kind of quiet and just kind of a little more like this, and then Seth being like this [gestures wide], it just worked really well together.
This wasn’t originally set to be your directorial debut. We had the whole situation with Being Mortal. What were the biggest lessons that you learned from shooting half a movie before this that gave you the confidence to really go all out with Good Fortune?
Aziz Ansari: Being Mortal was a lot different in terms of its tone and subject matter and everything. For me, Good Fortune, I trained for it doing Master Of None. It was probably closer to Master of None than Being Mortal in a way.
The fun thing is I worked with Alan Yang, who’s a producer on this film and worked on it with Master of None. The exciting thing for us was like, “Oh, okay, we’ve never done anything with like this angel character and had these kinds of otherworldly elements.” So that was fun and a good challenge.
Two cast members from Being Mortal, Seth and Keke, also came into Good Fortune. What did it mean for you that they had that experience and they wanted to follow you to this project too, and really believed in you?
Well, you know, that’s your hope. You work with these actors, they have a great experience, and they wanna work with you again. Those guys are incredible. So, I was really happy that they came on board this one.
This film has a very life-affirming message to it. Like, I felt great walking out of the theater the first time, and it’s good just to laugh in a theater with a crowd. What stood out to you about just the audience response to Good Fortune now that it’s been out?
It’s been awesome. I mean, you work on these things and they’re kind of in this void where no one gets to see it, and then it finally comes out after years, and the reception’s been so awesome. We got such great reviews and more cool to me is just like, people coming up to me on the street and telling me they saw it and what it meant to them. And yeah, it’s been an amazing experience.
You have a lot of fun with this idea of the Angel hierarchy. And each angel having different roles. I thought Sandra O was just perfect casting as the head angel. You don’t get better than her. What interested you most about this idea of Angels and them all having these different niches that they fill and help people out throughout the days?
Well, I’d had this idea of the angel interacting with the guy and trying to change his life, and it backfiring, but then I was like, “Well, what if the guy’s not even supposed to talk to people? Like, what if he’s supposed to not be that kind of angel? What if he has another job?”
For some reason, the idea of an angel in charge of stopping people from texting and driving just made me laugh. And it was always that. It was a fun thing to kind of realize, “oh, like giving Gabriel this journey of being this angel that wants to do more, and then it goes wrong, and then he gets punished and becomes human.” Like, that felt like a fun arc for Keanu’s character.
Some of your best onscreen moments are playing off Seth Rogen. You both have a lot of improv experience. When you’re working with someone who is that experienced and knows how to make it playful, how much easier does that make getting the most out of your setups?
I mean, he’s just such a pro, and you know that he’s gonna help you get the scene to where it needs to be, and you know if something’s not feeling right, he’ll know, and we will work on it together and either come up with the joke together or improvise. It’s just fun for me directing, it’s like you’re just going scene by scene. Let’s just get this scene, let’s get the next scene, and then you’re done with the day. He’s a great partner.
What’s next for you as a director and creator? Or do you kind of want to keep focusing on films? Do you want to have a TV idea? Is it just keeping an open mind and seeing what opportunities arise? What’s kind of next for you?
Aziz Ansari: I’m on a stand-up tour now, and I wanna film the special next year. Then I have other film ideas that I’ve been working on, and I’d love to make another film the next year after. I don’t know. It’s so hard to get films made, especially original films for theatrical release, but I feel lucky that we were able to pull it off in this, and I hope to pull it off again.
You mentioned Alan Yang. I know you’ve had such a great creative partnership with him with Master of None, and he worked on Parks and Rec as well. What stands out about him as a creative partner? Because you two just clearly work off each other really well.
It’s one of those things where you’re just on the same wavelength, and when you find those people, you keep ’em close because it doesn’t happen all the time. Sometimes I’ve seen people, and I’ve even tried to do it where you have someone else’s Alan, and you try to make him your Alan, and it doesn’t work. It’s like, yeah, no, there’s something about you guys that works, and he’s a great friend, and I’ve been happy to continue working with him.
Thanks to Aziz Ansari for taking the time to speak about Good Fortune.
Source: Comingsoon.net