Entrevue pour le film «Bonne fortune»: six questions à Aziz Ansari

Although he started his career as a comedian before becoming an actor in Parks and Recreationhe's also flexing his writing muscles on the Netflix series Master of nothing. Today, he reconnects with his love of directing as he steps behind the camera for the second time to bring a buddy comedy to life. Good luckwhich he also wrote and produced, and in which we see Keanu Reeves as an angel (yes!) and Seth Rogen as a wealthy startup founder.

Aziz, you are bringing us a comedy about your character, Arge, who does odd jobs. Good luck It's both a moving film and a very sharp critique of the platform economy model, of people who work three jobs and can't afford to pay rent. How did you manage to find this balance?

The problem of people trying to survive is all around us. And the time has come for me to make a film about it. I did as much research as I could. I've interviewed a lot of people who actually do these small jobs. I talked to sociologists and tried to understand. You know, when it comes to comedy, sometimes things aren't funny in and of themselves, but there are ways to present situations while staying true to what's going on and adding funny things.

Is it just me, or is this a clip from a Frank Capra movie? Life is beautiful IN Good luck?

Oh, that's absolutely true, and I watched that movie several times while I was working on mine! This is such an incredible film. Not only for the obvious reasons that make it a classic, but even when you look at the storytelling and writing, it's incredible to see in the first few minutes how quickly Capra puts everything together. And when I rewatched it in the context of this film, I realized it was all about social class. And this topic is avoided in many modern films, which seems absurd because everyone knows about it.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LIONSGATE

Keanu Reeves plays Gabriel, an angel who watches over your character and changes your life along with Seth Rogen, a wealthy business creator. How did you imagine this character?

I always had a simple idea: take this typical situation Life is beautiful. My casting director told me that Keanu Reeves was interested, so I met him and realized that no one else could play the role. This is so wonderful! So I made the character play more to his strengths. He's so funny, he plays a guy who's a little stupid, naive, just sweet and innocent. He's so good that the more time I spent with him, the more I perfected the role. And the more time we spent together rehearsing and developing the character, the more the role matured. I was incredibly lucky that he wanted to make this film. He's a movie icon and I can't believe he's in the movie.

PHOTO BY EDDIE CHEN COURTESY OF LIONSGATE

What kind of director are you?

I always give actors a list of movies to watch. I work on the script, then when I'm casting, I spend time with the actors, trying to get to know them as much as possible so I can bring their voice to the script and play to their strengths. I've known Seth Rogen very well for almost 20 years. But I didn't know Keanu Reeves that well. So I really wanted to spend a lot of time with him to get to know him better. All the actors were kind enough to give me their time, and we worked hard on the script to refine it. We read the scenes together to make them funnier. I also talk a lot about the characters with the actors, it's a real collaboration. Maybe it's because I'm an actor myself, but I like to actively collaborate with my actors to make sure they feel comfortable and that I'm putting as much of their voice into the script as possible. And as a producer, I had a great support team. Every film is a kind of miracle, I was very lucky that everything went well.

PHOTO BY EDDIE CHEN COURTESY OF LIONSGATE

You say that every film is a miracle. And this one too, right? Because two years ago you pitched the script to Seth Rogen?

Yes, part of that is because we stopped filming because of the Writers Guild strike. So there's a big break. I've been working on other things, but the original idea, the first spark that fueled it all, was probably in 2019. It seems like such a long time ago. But I remember I was in Colorado on tour. I was in an Uber with another comedian who was opening the show, and we were talking about how we were seeing an increase in homelessness. And the Uber driver, a Caucasian hipster in his thirties, told us, “You know, I was homeless for a while.” And he started telling me what happened to him, that he slept in the car and took showers in the gym, and many other people did this. In fact, there is a completely different reality: invisible homeless people sleeping in their cars and showering in the gym.

Good luck will console moviegoers from October 17th.