Will Arnett is an Emmy-nominated actor, one-third of the hit SmartLess podcast and the voice behind more characters than most of us can name offhand. But at the end of the day, he’s just a dad wondering where his teenage son went in a rideshare.
“That’s my baseline,” he tells Yahoo with a laugh. “I literally just got a notification that one of my sons took an Uber, and I’m thinking, Why did he take an Uber? I thought his brother was taking him. That’s who I am.”
For someone who’s spent the better part of two decades delivering some of television’s most quotable lines (Arrested Development’s Gob Bluth, anyone?), Arnett is a dad first. It’s why his new film, Is This Thing On?, hits so close to home. At its core, it’s a story about holding on to the people you love while figuring out who you are when life suddenly stops looking the way you expected.
In the dramedy, directed by Bradley Cooper and in theaters on Dec. 19, Arnett plays Alex, who’s in the middle of a divorce when he stumbles into New York City’s stand-up scene. What begins as a creative experiment becomes a kind of therapy: a place to make sense of everything he’s losing and everything he might still have left. Inspired by the life of British comedian John Bishop — who discovered stand-up while separated from his wife — the film gave Arnett one of the most emotionally naked roles of his career. He also cowrote the script, shaping Alex’s journey with the same mix of humor and vulnerability he brings onscreen. (The New York Times declared his performance one of the year’s best.)
With director Bradley Cooper on the set of Is This Thing On? (Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald)
“I love the idea of somebody doing something that brings them a sense of relief,” Arnett explains. “Something that helps them reconnect to who they are through something way outside their realm, that they never thought was possible.”
Arnett says he didn’t go looking for a project like this; it found him. “I met John Bishop and I was in a place in my life where I really identified with the themes he shared,” he recalls. “I really wanted Alex to be a true reflection of somebody who’s going through this kind of catharsis, if you will, and I wanted him to feel really real. I wanted people to connect on it in a real way.”
Some parallels to Arnett’s life are hard to ignore. The 55-year-old actor and ex-wife Amy Poehler separated in 2012, with their divorce finalized four years later. The two share sons Archie, 17, and Abel, 15. Arnett has called the whole process “brutal.” The two are amicable, though, with Poehler even appearing on her ex’s podcast in April.
When I ask how fatherhood and co-parenting shaped his understanding of what Alex is going through, he replies, “Yeah, I mean, we always draw on stuff, especially through art.”
That awareness inevitably found its way into Alex. “It’s not autobiographical, but I am made up of all my personal experiences,” he says.
“The idea of bringing those experiences of my own life into this part, into this character — it’s inevitable … and certainly it’s going to color how I look at these scenes,” he continues. “I can relate to Alex, and I hope other people can too. I can bring that sort of universality of being a father in that kind of situation — hopefully bring that in an authentic way to the character of Alex, and his relationship to his kids.”
Arnett was inspired by the story of British comic John Bishop, who discovered comedy after separating from his wife. (Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald)
Of course, Is This Thing On? isn’t all existential reflection and emotional baring. Arnett has some shirtless scenes, the kind that would send many actors into two-a-day mode, but he laughs when I ask if he regrets writing them into the script.
“I was at a screening in Toronto with some old friends. My one buddy goes: ‘Yeah, you looked OK,’” he recalls. “Classic Canadian.”
Arnett continues, “There was no working out while we were making it. It was just — It’s going to be what it is, and that’s OK. I saw it in the script because I wrote it, so I knew it was coming.”
He lets the thought hang for a moment before adding, “That sort of vanity — you have to drop it. People say, ‘Actors are so vain,’ and I’m like, Yeah, well, people look at you! You’d feel the same way.”
Still, the vulnerability of those moments onscreen mirrors the emotional questions Arnett has been asking himself in midlife. One of the film’s most resonant themes is the question of identity: Who am I outside of being a partner? A parent? A performer? Arnett doesn’t hesitate when asked if he’s felt that shift.
“Yes — it’s a moving target,” he says. “You don’t sit down and decide who you are, but you have those moments where you ask, ‘What am I?’ And it shifts.”
He’s lived long enough to know the answer changes depending on the decade. “In my 30s, I was the guy who’d spent 15 years struggling as an actor, and then suddenly I had an opportunity, and I was thinking about work all the time. Then you have kids, and now you’re a parent — that’s your role.”
Today, fatherhood isn’t just part of his identity — it’s the anchor. “The greatest gift in life is being a parent to my kids,” he says. (Arnett is also father to a 5-year-old son, Denny, who he shares with ex-girlfriend Alessandra Brawn.) “That hasn’t shifted — that’s my No. 1. You’re only as happy as your least happy child. If I keep that as my constant, everything else feels less pressured.”
He pauses, smiling. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to leave my mark on the world. It’s more: ‘Did my son finish his history project?’ What I realize now is that everything else is kind of gravy. If my kids are good, I’m good.”
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