{"id":209478,"date":"2025-09-08T05:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209478\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:58:10","slug":"aziz-ansari-on-writing-for-keanu-reeves-parks-rec-spinoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209478\/","title":{"rendered":"Aziz Ansari on Writing for Keanu Reeves, ‘Parks & Rec’ Spinoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAziz Ansari<\/a> is making his directorial debut with the existential comedy \u201cGood Fortune<\/a>.\u201d But technically, it\u2019s not his first time helming a feature. In 2022, he was halfway through directing the Bill Murray<\/a>-led comedy \u201cBeing Mortal\u201d when Searchlight pulled the plug<\/a> over Murray\u2019s \u201cinappropriate behavior.\u201d Ansari hopes that someday he can finish what he started.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there\u2019s a world where I could finish\u00a0\u2018Being Mortal,’\u201d he said during an interview at the\u00a0Variety\u00a0Toronto Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0Studio. \u201cI\u2019d love to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s plenty for the \u201cParks & Recreation\u201d star to celebrate in the meantime. \u201cGood Fortune\u201d made heavenly debut its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 6. Ansari admitted that the film carries pieces of himself. \u201cMe and Seth always joke that we\u2019re much closer to Jeff than we are to our other characters. That Jeff stuff is sometimes maybe a little making fun of ourselves. Even making the movie sometimes, you know, it\u2019s like, oh God, why can\u2019t this just work out? But you push through. Everybody\u2019s had those moments where you feel like you want to give up. The movie\u2019s about that moment for this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch of the writing happened after he deliberately unplugged from the digital noise. \u201cI\u2019ve never written more and felt more productive in my life than since I pushed aside smartphone use and internet use,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that\u2019s just me. I know that\u2019s not something everybody can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to casting, Ansari considered stepping aside. \u201cThere\u2019s always a little part of me that\u2019s like, \u2018Why don\u2019t I just call Riz Ahmed and get him to do it?\u2019 But the big advantage of writing for myself is I always agree to do my projects and I don\u2019t drop out. I\u2019m very easy to work with. I do whatever I need myself to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWriting for co-stars Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves proved just as natural. \u201cWith Seth, I know his voice so well I can really write to him. And Keanu, his voice is so iconic. Even though I didn\u2019t know him, I was able to get it pretty close. Once I got to know him and we got to collaborate, I really could dial it up. It was a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnsari\u2019s big TIFF moment arrives at a time when \u201cThe Office\u201d is getting a spinoff. As for \u201cParks & Recreation\u201d getting the same treatment centered on Tom Haverford, Ansari said he\u2019s not even sure the lovable character is still around in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHopefully, he\u2019s okay and hasn\u2019t lost everything in some ill-faded crypto investments,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnsari called the shelving of \u201cBeing Mortal\u201d a \u201cdisappointing thing,\u201d but it opened up a new destiny with \u201cGood Fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t dwell in that collapse,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a moment where I kind of was like, \u2018OK, this is what\u2019s happened.\u2019 And I was very grateful I\u2019d been working on \u2018Good Fortune\u2019 and had it in my pocket, a rough version of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked whether the film shifted his own philosophy on fate, Ansari paused and added: \u201cI think you just have to try. Even when things are hard, you keep pushing. That\u2019s part of the journey. It\u2019s all a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aziz Ansari is making his directorial debut with the existential comedy \u201cGood Fortune.\u201d But technically, it\u2019s not his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[114374,171,77123,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-209478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-aziz-ansari","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-toronto-film-festival","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167147362363798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}