The grass is greener on the other side in Aziz Ansari’s directorial feature debut, Good Fortune, a modern take on the life swap genre.
Keanu Reeves leads the ensemble cast as Gabriel, a low-ranking guardian angel who spends his days presiding over Los Angeles drivers who text behind the wheel. Determined to make a difference and shake up the monotony of his duties in the City of Angels, Gabriel meddles in the life of Arj (Ansari), a struggling gig worker making ends meet by taking on various gig economy jobs and stocking Home Depot shelves, all while living in his car.
Hoping to teach Arj a lesson about coming to terms with his own life, the well-meaning but naive Gabriel swaps Arj’s life with that of Jeff’s (Seth Rogen), a wealthy venture capitalist living large in a ritzy home high above the hills. The comedy, written by Ansari, also stars Keke Palmer as Arj’s labor union organizer coworker Elena and Sandra Oh as Gabriel’s otherworldly superior Martha.
Below, Ansari walks Entertainment Weekly through the script page for a pivotal scene in the comedy, in which an incredulous Arj learns that he is now living Jeff’s luxurious lifestyle — trips to the Mediterranean, personal assistant, and all.
Are wealth and success all they’re cracked up to be? Well, yeah, if you ask Arj.
Lionsgate
Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen swap lives in ‘Good Fortune’ script page
Lionsgate
Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen swap lives in ‘Good Fortune’ script page
A modern take on the body swap genre
Arj, initially hired as an assistant to Jeff, finds himself in a Twilight Zone situation as he discovers that he is now living the life — and in the home — of Rogen’s wealthy tech bro. Jeff, it appears, is now Arj’s assistant.
Ansari mines from very real issues afflicting the average Angeleno today to craft a realistic, modern take on the genre popularized in such films as It’s A Wonderful Life, in which Henry Travers’ guardian angel shows Jimmy Stewart’s banker what life would be like if he were never born. “Seeing things from someone else’s perspective is a great tool for storytelling,” Ansari says of the classic trope. “I think that’s why it’s something that people go back to.”
It was during an Uber ride several years ago that the film’s premise began to take shape. “I was on a stand-up tour. I was riding in an Uber with another comedian, and we were talking about how, as we travel around the country, we’ve seen more and more of homelessness,” Ansari recalls. “The Uber driver, who was like a hipster guy in his thirties, did not seem like the person that would describe this experience about how he had become homeless for a while and had been sleeping in his car and showering in the gym and how just one or two things going wrong immediately disrupted his life.”
Research involved speaking to union laborers and even working within the gig economy himself to capture that authenticity. “The last thing I want is for someone to watch this and roll their eyes at the portrayal of what [Arj] is going through.”
A well-meaning but inept angel
Photos of Jeff on vacation, living his best life, displayed around the home are now replaced by photos of Arj on vacation, living his best life. To be clear, Arj is still Arj, and Jeff is still Jeff — it’s their lives as opposed to their bodies (à la Freaky Friday) that have been altered.
Gabriel is hopeful that Arj will learn that there’s more to life than money. He plans to check in with Arj at the end of the week to assess the situation — though the results may not be what he’s expecting. Ansari mined from Reeves’ past comedic roles — the Bill & Ted franchise, Parenthood — when creating the otherworldly character for his own harsh lessons about life on Earth.
“He’s really funny when he is playing these guys that are kind of naive and maybe a little dumb, but always coded in this incredibly sweet innocence and lovability,” Ansari says of Reeves. “Originally, it was just that he’s an angel and he screws up. But then I thought about the idea of an angel where his only job is saving people from texting and driving, and that made me laugh. The idea that that’s now a thing that angels have to get involved with because so many people are texting and driving. At some point, the angel community was like, ‘We gotta step in here.'” Still, he adds, there’s an “air of wisdom” about the character.
A side of chips and guac, hold the dose of reality
Arj lounges in the pool outside of his new luxe abode, while his assistant, Jeff, floats some chips and guacamole over for an afternoon snack. He’s living the life. What on Earth was Gabriel rambling on about before, anyway?
Arj “finally gets a breather” from the constant hustle and bustle, Ansari says. “He feels this frustration that I think a lot of people feel, where you see all of this wealth and success around you.”
For some folks, “they’re living the time of their lives and get to travel all over the world and do all these things,” he says. “But that’s a slim portion of the population’s experience.” The reality is, “most people are having a hard time [and] living paycheck to paycheck,” and “working multiple jobs just to get by,” he says. “So this guy finally gets to get a taste of this whole other life that he sees around him. Whether it’s in real life or Instagram, he’s finally getting a minute to enjoy that.”
Good Fortune hits theaters Oct. 17.
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