Will Arnett Interview, Monsters vs Aliens

MoviesOnline sat down recently with talented funnyman Will Arnett to talk about his new 3-D animated sci-fi action adventure, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon and featuring the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd and Stephen Colbert.

Arnett plays The Missing Link, a macho half-ape, half fish who is always ready for a ride…usually to the nearest beach to pursue and scare the female frolickers. Pre-historically, he was the first creature that decided to step out of the water and onto dry land, evolving as he went. Sadly, he chose to leave the water and step onto land at the height of the Ice Age. Thousand of years later, thawed by paleontologists, The Missing Link tried to return to his watering hole, now a five-star resort, where he was captured and locked up.

When California girl Susan Murphy (Witherspoon) is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action. Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound where she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters:  the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Laurie); The Missing Link (Arnett); the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B. (Rogen); and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. 

Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious Alien Robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country.  In a moment of desperation, The President (Stephen Colbert) is persuaded by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

Comic chameleon Will Arnett, who was selected to fill the flippers of The Missing Link, explains: “What I love about The Missing Link is his willingness to jump into any situation without really reading the inherent dangers of that situation. He’ll do anything. He’s like, ‘Hey, what are we gonna do today?’ ‘We’re gonna try and take on some alien invaders!’ ‘Sounds great, let’s go!’ He doesn’t put a whole lot of thought into it. I identify with that impulsiveness, I think.”

Will Arnett is hysterically funny and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about lending his voice to the cast of “Monsters vs. Aliens” as well as his upcoming film and television projects:

Q: Was Han Solo your choice for the Vanity Fair cover?

WA: Yes, that was my choice. Well, that was my second choice. My first choice was I wanted to go as Withnail from Withnail and I. Too obscure. Too obscure so they said no go.

Q: How would you compare Monsters Vs. Aliens to Sit Down, Shut up?

WA: They're similar in approach in that you're just in a booth by yourself. But, Sit Down, Shut Up we had to crank out an episode each week which involves usually doing a table read, that I was usually not involved in person. I would have to call in and I would be in my living room listening to a noisy conference room and just kind of interject with a line here and there. Then do the record and then do subsequent rerecords, so we were under a much tougher timeline on Sit Down, Shut Up to deliver the episodes because it starts airing in April. Monsters, we had the luxury, or I certainly had the luxury of a lot more time to kind of finesse my part. I don't know if that's evident in the final product. It might be embarrassingly not. At least I had the benefit of a couple of years. I bet the animators and the producers and the directors would be like, "Hey, man. We didn't have any luxury. It was rough."

Q: What was the best part of making this movie?

WA: Good question. I would say probably being able to, when you're doing each take, to try to kind of top yourself, do something a little bit different as you're trying to discover who the character is, try to figure out what kind of makes him funny or what makes him tick. That for me was a lot of fun. Also, seeing everybody else's stuff and realizing that I had to raise my game.

Q: Do you have to feel connected to the character? You don't resemble a missing link.

WA: Thank God. Let me just start with that. Yeah, you do have to have a connection and again, I think that one of the benefits of the process taking so long, for the actors anyway, or at least for me, was that you do have a lot of time in between sessions to think about who the character is or where they're coming from or where they're going so that when you start to, if you - - when they give you a certain amount of latitude to improvise or to bring your own ideas into it, they're coming from a real place that's driven by character, not just trying to do something that might seem funny or shocking or whatever. Any time that you work on anything, any kind of movie or TV show and live-action endeavor, of course the director is a very important part of the process because they're kind of your guide. In this, the director is very much your guide because you don't have the benefit of hearing the other actors and you can't feed off of that so you have to put a tremendous amount of trust in the directors and their vision and what else is happening in the scene. That's the person that you bounce off of really, so it is a real collaboration between the actors and the director, maybe more so than in any other format.

Q: Did you pick up on the message that it's okay to be different?

WA: Yeah, it's got a tremendous message. It kind of, right from the get go, they realize that they have to embrace - - the world realizes that they have to embrace these people who are different. I think that that's a very positive thing that can't be reinforced enough. We live in a world now where we think that we're very progressive and advanced. It's only when we can break all that stuff down that we really can consider ourselves progressive. So I think it's a great message.

Q: How did you balance Link being a misfit and a frustrated guy?

WA: Well, I had the benefit of appreciating that life is very frustrating every day and just used that. I don't know, my frustration with traffic in Los Angeles maybe. But I kind of like a character who doesn't have - - who thinks that he's got a lot going on but constantly comes up against the fact that he really doesn't. There's something in there. There's nothing more satisfying to me than a super confident idiot, because I think that out of that, sometimes you might be able to squeeze a little bit of comedy juice. Not enough for a full glass but maybe just for a sip. Wow, that's a great metaphor, guys. Let's write that one down. I wish I had a recorder.

Q: What's your favorite scene in the movie?

WA: Well, I loved a lot of the action sequences. The sequences when the alien first lands and they all attack it. When the military attacks it with all these bombs and guns and stuff was pretty amazing to look at. I also like the scene where the alien's chasing Susan through San Francisco and she's running across the rooftops. She makes one final jump and ends up grabbing the gutter and then just falls like two inches or whatever. That was a really fun scene.

Q: Is the process liberating or restrictive?

WA: Well, I am guilty of using a lot of face work. Truthfully, it does take away a lot of - - obviously, your physicality and you can't rely on that. So in that way it is, but it's a challenge because you have to convey the same sentiment just using your voice. Of course, the animators are helping you out and they're drawing all this stuff, so you go in, you get the script, you start to record when they're just early on, when they just have animatics. Then they have to animate to what you've done initially. It's a constant back and forth. They draw stuff, then you have to vocalize what they've done potentially, but they really kind of compliment each other. It's a different challenge and it's a different skill set that you're using and you don't have as many freedoms but you also have the liberty of being able to interpret a line a certain way and then immediately do it totally differently. They don't have to do a big relight or a big reset or it doesn't have a dramatic effect on the way the thing goes. They just keep rolling a bunch of digital tape until they tell you to quit it.

Q: Were you ever afraid of monsters when you were little?

WA: Well, yes. Very. Very. Mostly, I would probably say the number one culprit would be probably The Boogeyman. He still scares me, just knowing that he's out there and that he's real.

Q: The metaphorical one or from films?

WA: The REAL one who lives under my bed.

Q: Did you see what Link would look like when you signed on?

WA: I was frankly insulted at first. My initial reaction was how dare you? This is not what I look like. And they said yes, it is. I like him. I think that he looks kind of cool to be honest. First of all, he's mostly smiling. Well, his mouth is smiling but his eyebrows are frowning so that's a lot of information. You really get to see a lot of information on this guy but he looks very - - the art in this movie is amazing, I thought. Says the guy who's in the movie. Great, thanks man. You thought it was great? Cool.

Q: Did that physicality help you find the voice?

WA: For sure. Somebody asked me what is it you most resemble in the character in yourself. I said well, that dumb grin that I'm guilty of having a lot. Yeah, he's got that kind of puffed out chest and that sort of bravado about him and yet he doesn't really have a lot of brains to back it up. I can identify with that sadly.

Q: Does the character stay with you when you've done it for four years?

WA: In my nightmares? Oh, if he and the boogeyman get together, I'll never sleep. No, of course because you do the voice, maybe you catch yourself sometimes saying things in a certain way and like oh gosh, that sounds a lot like that guy. And you hope that you don't order a cup of coffee at Starbucks and they say, "Hey, you're that dumb Link guy." Yeah, yeah, yeah. "You do sound like an idiot!"

Q: Is G-Force a complete contrast?

WA: Well, G-Force is a really fun movie for I guess for the whole family and for kids particularly. I like to think of it as a kids movie Bruckheimer style. He brings a lot of the action and adventure that people are used to in a Jerry Bruckheimer film and brings it to a broader audience, weaves a storyline that's something that kids can really appreciate and get behind. Doing that was a really fun movie to be a part of and of course there is an animated aspect to it because there are all these - - I guess animated, I don't know if that's the right way, sort of CG characters that are in the film. These other actors, Jon Favreau, Sam Rockwell, all these guys, Tracy Morgan, they get to put their voice in at the end after we've already finished shooting. So it does seem a little unfair.

Q: What do you play?

WA: I play an FBI agent who's trying to shut down this rogue government project that was developed to try to give animals, domestic animals, the ability to speak, to use as spies. This lab, the crazy scientist played by Zach Galifianakis, he's kind of at odds with this maniacal sort of devilish entrepreneur billionaire played by Bill Nighy, so there's this crazy web.

Q: Do we see your romantic side this summer too?

WA: Yeah, in When in Rome, yeah.

Q: Do you like romantic comedies?

WA: I do. I mean, I've never really done 'em before. I play an Italian guy from Rome in this movie so I look a little different. Different might be a kind way of saying it. I look pretty bad but I've got long, long dark locks. I play this painter who falls under the spell of Kristen Bell.

Q: How would you take stock of your career and what would you like to see happen in five years?

WA: It might be hard to see it through the tears. I've been very fortunate that I've been able to continue to work and work with people that I really like. I've had incredible experiences. Arrested Development was certainly a highlight professionally for me. Working on that series was so gratifying in every way. And I've been able to do a lot of different things, whether it's Blades of Glory, or doing these animated things like Monsters. To be able to continue doing stuff and working with really talented people is very gratifying. I probably should have more of a plan. I don't have the benefit of being all that sharp. So I could probably do a better job on that, in that regard, but my goal really is to just do stuff now, to do stuff that makes me happy and that seems like it'll be fun to work on and with talented people. There are things that are coming up that I'm really excited about. I'm writing a new show with Mitch Hurwitz for Fox. Mitch Hurwitz created Arrested Development and we're working on that now. Of course we're going to be shooting the Arrested Development movie sometime in the next year or so. So that's the kind of stuff that gets me up in the morning.

Q: Where do you think Gob will be when we see him again?

WA: Boy, who knows? I'm going to have to beg Mitch for mercy on that one. I'm sure he'll have me in some kind of compromising position, but I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if Mitch is really sure yet either but it'll be really fun to get back into that world. I'm looking forward to it.

Q: Has everyone signed on for Arrested now?

WA: You know, honestly, I'm not really sure as to which - - who is or who isn't on board. As far as I know, everybody is prepared to do the movie so I really don't know in that kind of stuff.

Q: Michael Cera was the holdout.

WA: Yeah, I'd heard that too but I hadn't heard that in any official capacity so I really have no idea. That's kind of out of my pay scale but I'm excited about doing the movie.

Q: What is Sit Down, Shut Up?

WA: Sit Down, Shut Up is an animated series for Fox created by Mitch Hurwitz, based on an Australian show about teachers who aren't really very good teachers, in a Florida high school. It's a really funny show that also is visually interesting to look at because it's animated, it's live action background with animated characters animated on top of that. We always say it's the first animated show with a locations manager. So that's coming out April 19 on Fox.

Q: Would you work with Amy again?

WA: With regards to working with Amy, I will absolutely not ever work with her again. No, of course I would welcome it. We had a great time. When she came on Arrested Development it was great. We had a lot of fun making Blades of Glory. That was a really, really fun movie to make so if the right situation were to present itself, I'm sure we would but we don't really kind of think about it in that way. We try to not do it too much.

Q: Will you guest on Parks and Recreation?

WA: If they would have me. I don't know. If they would. It's a really funny show. It really is. It's in the same style as The Office because of course it's from the people who brought The Office to America but Mike Schur and Greg Daniels are hilarious writers and the scripts have been really funny and the stuff that I've seen has been great so I'm really excited for it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Q: Any other projects coming up?

WA: That's it. We're very early on in those things. Just working on the new show, the new sitcom.

Q: Which night is it?

WA: Sit Down, Shut Up comes on, it's on Sunday nights, the animated show is on Sunday nights, part of Fox's Animation Domination.

Q: Who do you voice?

WA: My character's name is Ennis Hoftard. He's a genius. Let me just say that. He's an English teacher but who's preoccupied with his own physical fitness over the welfare of students.

Q: Will you return to 30 Rock?

WA: I'd like to. I haven't spoken to those guys about whether it's going to happen or not but it would be fun. I love it.

Q: Which summer movies are you looking forward to?

WA: Star Trek. I think that's going to be awesome.

Q: How's being a new dad?

WA: It's great, thanks. It is great.

Q: Any funny stories about the newborn?

WA: Not really, just business as usual. It's fantastic.

“Monsters vs. Aliens” opens in theaters on March 27th.