TORONTO – Will Arnett is ready, willing and able to talk about … flatulence.
Hyper aware of the stink raised by critics over a particularly gaseous gag in his new sitcom, The Millers, the TV comic launches into a fervent defence of the everyday moment during a recent interview to promote Thursday’s premiere.
The joke plays out soon after his character Nathan, a recently divorced TV reporter, begrudgingly welcomes his newly single mother, played by Margo Martindale, into his home.
Upon returning from work, he barely greets his mother before having to ask: “Did you (pass gas)?”
“This happens when you get older, they just slip out,” Carol replies.
Arnett says he can’t understand what the fuss is about, recounting a conversation he had with a critic who considered it “low-brow.”
“And I said, ‘You know what? Give me a break. Everyone is taking themselves so seriously, who cares?’,” Arnett says in a phone call from Los Angeles.
“It’s a very funny moment and it’s very real and it’s a son asking his mom about it. It’s not done in a gross way. It’s just done in a very sort of real way.”
Some might see the broad comedy as a departure of sorts for the Toronto-born Arnett, who rose to fame playing quirky characters in sharp-edged single-camera sitcoms including Arrested Development and 30 Rock.
Here, he plays a regular Joe who is eager to rediscover the single life, but his plans are interrupted when his meddlesome parents decide they are separating after 43 years of marriage.
Get breaking National news
The nosy Carol moves in with Nathan while befuddled dad Tom, played by Beau Bridges, moves in with daughter Debbie, played by Jayma Mays of Glee.
“You have a guy who’s 42 and he’s trying to hit the reset button on his life with his mom who’s also trying to hit the reset button on her life,” says Arnett, who also happens to be newly single, after splitting from comic Amy Poehler last year.
“It’s challenging enough on its own but having your mother riding shotgun with you on that ride is definitely going to make it a lot more difficult and interesting.”
With directing legend James Burrows calling the shots and Raising Hope and My Name is Earl writer/producer Greg Garcia behind the scripts, Arnett says that joining the project was, “as they say, without-a-brainer.”
“I just thought, well these elements are so good, the script is really funny, Greg Garcia, I totally respect, he’s just the best guy and Jimmy Burrows is an absolute legend,” says Arnett, who mostly recently starred opposite Christina Applegate in the NBC comedy Up All Night.
“It’s the equivalent of being asked if you want to go and play on an all-star team. Like, yeah, I do!”
Add in Martindale as his character’s mom and Bridges as his dad and you have a powerhouse cast that’s hard to beat.
“They’re both such great actors. And that’s what you need to do — you’ve got to kind of build from the ground up and you need to have people who are great actors to bring a sort of believability to these characters. And then it’s funny on top of it.”
And although jokes abound, the show’s premise revolves around the very real phenomenon of the so-called “grey divorce,” a recent trend in which grey-haired baby boomer couples are going their separate ways.
The corollary to that has been a wave of aging parents moving in with their adult children.
Arnett notes that’s also simply a result the economic downturn, but recalls that it wasn’t uncommon a generation ago to see such sandwiched households.
“It seemed like we took a break from that for about a generation and it became much more in vogue to put your parents in a nursing home or whatever, or a retirement community,” he says.
“But I remember my dad telling me about … growing up in Winnipeg when he was a kid (and) when his grandpa retired off the farm he moved in with my dad’s family. And he lived out his days with them. And that’s what happened to his parents before him and blah blah blah. That’s what you did.”
The Millers debuts Thursday on Global.
Comments