Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari talk "30 Minutes or Less"
Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg and "Parks and Recreation" star Aziz Ansari are teaming up for one of the most unusual comedies in years, "30 Minutes or Less," also starring Danny McBride and Nick Swardson.
In the film, Eisenberg plays the slacker pizza delivery guy Nick, who gets kidnapped, has a bomb strapped to his chest, and is forced to rob a bank. Nick recruits the help of his teacher and former friend Chet (Ansari) to carry out the ill-planed heist.
Eisenberg and Ansari recently sat down with us in New York to discuss their take on this high-concept subject matter.
With the plot of this film, how do you make kidnapping and robbery funny?
Jesse Eisenberg: The comedy really comes from these two regular guys...I'm a pizza delivery guy and he's an elementary school teacher...being forced to do this insane thing of robbing a bank. And so the comedy actually comes from the bank robbery. The actual realistic reaction that they have to it. So they go and buy plastic toy guns and spray paint them to make like real guns---
Aziz Ansari: We wouldn't go buy machine guns. We wouldn't automatically become the crew from "Heat." We would have to do a very shoddy job.
Eisenberg: Piece-meal effort.
Ansari: Yeah, a piece-meal effort to do it. And I think that's what's funny about it.
There's one joke after another in this film. There must have been a lot of improvising on set?
Ansari: Yeah, definitely. We improvised a lot of stuff. We would do scripted takes. Then afterwards, the director [Ruben Fleischer of "Zombieland" fame] was really encouraging about any ideas we had. Definitely a lot of stuff in the movie is improvised.
Speaking of the director Ruben...Jesse, this is your second time working with him. You also worked together on "Zombieland." It seems like you've really developed a strong working relationship together?
Eisenberg: Yeah, I mean this movie has some similarities to "Zombieland" in the sense that it's very funny and fast-paced and visually very interesting. And yet the characters and the cast are all, like, really kind of fleshed-out people. And the comedy is really derived from their interplay rather than some kind of silly...face-making or something and-
[Ansari interrupts him by making a silly facial gesture]
Ansari: That's my next movie. It's called "Uh-Oh" [silly face again.] That's the poster. I don't know what it's about but I just sold that movie based on the poster and the title [Eisenberg laughs]. That would actually make a billion dollars.
That gun song was great [a scene in "30 Minutes or Less" features Ansari's character singing a childlike tune about getting shot in the face by police during their heist.] Where did that come from?
Ansari: I told Ruben, 'Hey, I have this really dumb idea. It could be one of the worst things in the world.' And he was like, 'Try it...' And he really liked it and it made it in [to the final cut of the film]. And the other day, someone sent me an email...it was like a video of a four-year old kid singing that song...I don't know if I should feel good or bad about that.
"30 Minutes or Less" opens in theaters nationwide this Friday.
