{"id":490209,"date":"2025-10-11T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/490209\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T05:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:30:10","slug":"will-arnett-bombed-at-real-comedy-clubs-for-bradley-coopers-new-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/490209\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Arnett bombed at real comedy clubs for Bradley Cooper’s new movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Is This Thing On” is a ‘midlife catharsis’ movie, says Cooper.<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Will Arnett<\/a> is much funnier in\u00a0real life.<\/p>\n

Take it from Bradley Cooper<\/a>, who directs the comedian in the sentimental new dramedy \u201cIs This Thing On?<\/a>\u201d (in theaters Dec. 19). The film follows a finance guy named Alex (Arnett), who after splitting from his wife Tess (Laura Dern), stumbles into an unlikely hobby as a standup comic. It becomes a therapeutic exercise as Alex hops between Greenwich Village comedy clubs, venting about marriage, sex and family, but often struggling to land a punchline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite an acting feat,\u201d said Cooper, speaking to reporters after the movie\u2019s first-ever screening at the New York Film Festival Oct. 10. \u201cFor him to play this character is so amusing. He\u2019s still funny, but he\u2019s not Will Arnett funny. It was a real testament that he was able to dive in and do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The “midlife catharsis” movie, as Cooper describes it, was inspired by a true story and co-written with Arnett and their friend John Bishop. The film begins with Alex and Tess’ separation, and there’s very little explanation about why exactly they got to that point.<\/p>\n

Reading the script, Dern says she admired the “unbelievable complexity of the relationship,” as the couple admits that “we don’t know how we got here. Most of us don’t in moments of despair.”<\/p>\n

New York Film Festival: <\/strong>Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet unveils thrilling ping-pong epic at secret screening<\/a><\/p>\n

For Arnett, it was crucial to capture Alex’s evolution as a standup comedian. “He’s not the Michael Jordan of comedy,” the actor and host of “Smartless” says. “The first time he goes on stage, he’s never been in front of a mic before, and then you see him progressively get comfortable. There were moments that we shot where the joke was too good or too clean.”<\/p>\n

The project was filmed around New York at locations that were personal to the cast and crew. The scenes with Alex and Tess’ sons, for instance, were shot at the same school Cooper’s 8-year-old daughter, Lea, attends. Cooper’s dogs also play the family pets: “They’re incredible,” he joked. “I’ll let them know when I get home that you gave a shout-out to Charlie and Lucy.”<\/p>\n

The standup scenes were also filmed in real comedy clubs with real audience members. Many tourists in the crowd “had no idea who Will was,” Cooper said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

“There were some great bombs,” Arnett added, recalling one particularly disastrous set while testing out Alex’s material in front of an actual audience. “The only people laughing were Bradley and our friend, Bob, in the back because I’m bombing and I cannot recover.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIs This Thing On?\u201d is Cooper\u2019s third film as a director, after 2018 music drama \u201cA Star is Born\u201d starring Lady Gaga and Leonard Bernstein biopic \u201cMaestro\u201d in 2023. Both movies were nominated for multiple Oscars including best picture and featured Cooper in lead roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actor, who has yet to be nominated for best director, has a small but scene-stealing part in “Is This Thing On?” as an eccentric pothead who confides in Alex about his own marital woes.<\/p>\n

Asked what he learned about himself through making this movie, Cooper quipped that “cameras are heavy. I’ve always had a big butt and glutes, and thank God there’s finally a good reason for it. I used to feel ashamed about that.”<\/p>\n

But in all seriousness, “I was surprised how at ease and relaxed I was doing this,” Cooper said. He credits that in part to Arnett and Dern, who have been “dear friends for decades. There’s that comfort level, when you come to work and you see this person that you’ve been through everything (with). These two people know every single thing that I’ve been through, and then to make art with them \u2012 that’s what you dream of.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIs This Thing On?\u201d was the closing night selection of the New York Film Festival, which welcomed megastars including Julia Roberts (\u201cAfter the Hunt<\/a>\u201d), George Clooney (\u201cJay Kelly<\/a>\u201d) and Daniel Day-Lewis (\u201cAnemone<\/a>\u201d) over the last two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Is This Thing On” is a ‘midlife catharsis’ movie, says Cooper. NEW YORK \u2014 Will Arnett is much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[5784,4021,9996,33137,4080,5787,2197,118554,161752,6454,75618,77,26670,3462,5791,9472,75619,3943,12,5179,5185,5180,7626,5181,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-490209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-affiliate","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-bradley","11":"tag-bradley-cooper","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","14":"tag-comedy","15":"tag-comedy-films","16":"tag-cooper","17":"tag-drama","18":"tag-drama-films","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-films","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","23":"tag-movie","24":"tag-movie-reference","25":"tag-movies","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-overall","28":"tag-overall-positive","29":"tag-positive","30":"tag-reference","31":"tag-u0026","32":"tag-uk","33":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115353893368584982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}