INT: Poehler/Arnett

Come
Friday the 30th of March, the hilariously devious duo of Amy Poehler
& Will Arnett will be hitting the big screen, right alongside
the likes of Will Ferrell & Jon Heder. The movie is BLADES
OF GLORY, a slapstick and over-the-top ice-skating romp. In
it, the co-stars play a brother and sister determined to show up the
movie’s “heroic” leads… in comically villainous fashion,
of course.

But
this isn’t the first time Poehler and Arnett have been paired up
together. During the run of the riotous (but woefully cancelled) TV
show ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, Poehler, the much-loved SNL star, popped
in for about five episodes as Gob’s wife. Gob of course was played
by Arnett, in a role that solidified him as one of the greatest
sitcom character of all-time (in my mind, at least). He was also
seen recently as the lead in LET’S GO TO PRISON.

During

JoBlo.com
‘s time with the two stars, we were able to get some insight in the
bizarre (but oh-so-funny) world of a “Ferrell” comedy, and
what it’s like working on one. If you thought these two were funny
off screen, you should see them in person. On top of giving a nice
taste of what else the future has in store for them, they also
managed to make my jaw ache with laughter. And the deadpan sincerity
with which they spoke made everything they said all the more
hilarious. But you don’t need me to tell you how hilarious these two
are – you can read for yourself.

Amy Poehler	Will Arnett

How
did you get this movie together, and were you excited when you heard
who else was in it?

Arnett:
I almost dropped out. When I heard that [Will] Ferrell was in it, I
almost dropped out… because he comes in with a lot of attitude.
He’s clearly all roided out and I don’t endorse that. We have to
think about kids who are our future.

Poehler:
He was juicing the whole time. We would get these threatening
letters – cut out letters in the mail that said, ‘Do this or else.’
Then it would be signed Will Ferrell.

Arnett:
Why cut out all the stuff and then sign your name on it? Also, it
said, ‘This is a DNA sample, just approved.’

You’ve
worked with Will Ferrell before, right?

Poehler:
Oh, Will and I loved working with each other on ‘SNL.’ I had a blast
working with him when he was there. So in all honesty I was super
psyched to be able to work with him again. It was because we don’t
work together a lot and so we like the idea of doing a creepy
version of working together, which is fun.

Is
this close to your real relationship?

Arnett:
Well, we’re not brother and sister.

Poehler:
We’re actually not. We checked before we started filming.

Arnett:
We’re not. Again.

Did
you base your performance on any real couples, or did you watch any
couples?

Arnett:
Well, we watched the Olympics – they were on right around the time
that we were starting the movie – and one of the couples that we
drew a little bit of inspiration from was the Italian couple. I
can’t remember the names.

Poehler:
They were an ice dancing couple, but we didn’t base our characters
on them. It was an example of high drama in real life though where
she was dropped and their routine was over and they stood and looked
at each other and she would not look away and bow.

Arnett:
There was like thirty seconds of awkwardness afterwards. Everyone
had already stopped clapping basically and she was just staring at
them.

Poehler:
Then the announcer said, ‘She will not forgive him.’

Arnett:
Then they were standing up in the kissing corner, where they’re
waiting for their scores to come up –

Poehler:
That’s what they call it.

Arnett:
And you could tell that he felt so guilty because they would’ve won.
All they had to do was finish. He sat there and goes, ‘Whew… Huh?’
And she’s just boring a hole in his head.

Is
playing the assholes in the movie fun?

Poehler:
Yeah, it’s fun.

Arnett:
I don’t know. Ask Will. Whew! We’re having a good one around here!
Yes, quite seriously, playing the assholes in the movie is fun.

Poehler:
It’s super fun. It’s fun to be the bad guy – the villain – and we
got to be total jerks. Really confident dumb dumbs.

What
about practicing the ice skating moves?

Poehler:
We trained for many months. I mean, Will knew how to skate because
he’s from Canada and you have to know how to skate or else you get
kicked out of the country, and then I had to learn pretty much from
scratch.

Arnett:
Amy did an awesome job of learning.

Will
and Jon had more creative skating moves in this, and you two –

Arnett:
What movie were you watching?

Poehler:
No, yeah. They had to do a lot more stuff. We did Will and Jon’s
skating as well, didn’t we?

Arnett:
Yeah. We doubled for them.

Poehler:
A lot of people don’t know. We did all their moves too and all their
punch lines.

Arnett:
Write that down. I was Will’s comedy double as well… and coach.
Whatever. I don’t want to make a big deal about it. You can write
about it if you want, but honestly I’m so modest about it.

Rumor
has it that there might be an ‘Arrested Development’ movie.

Arnett:
Who said that?

The
Internet.

Poehler:
Then it must be true! I have got to check out this thing called the
Internet. What is it?

Arnett:
I’ve sent you like thirty letters about this.

Poehler:
I know you have.

Arnett:
I don’t know if it’s something that would ever happen or not. It’s
something that we talked about and it’d be a lot of fun. It’d be a
lot of fun to work on and to do and to go back and be with all those
folks who I love very, very, very much.

Were
you sad that a show that was so critically acclaimed was never
really given a fair chance, and that TV networks don’t give shows a
chance these days?

Arnett:
I don’t know. I have two minds about it really. Yeah, it is a shame
that it was cancelled so early on. However, having said that, we
never really got any ratings. So the fact that Fox — look, they
kept us on the air for three years and they didn’t even have to do
that.

Poehler:
So it’s America’s fault.

Arnett:
Yeah, it’s the fault of American children. Young children everywhere
should be ashamed of themselves.

Poehler:
And now they’re going to have Neilsen ratings on college campuses.

Is
that true?

Arnett:
Yeah, they didn’t have it before.

Poehler:
If they had it before it would’ve been different.

Arnett:
I imagine it would’ve been different.

Poehler:
I know that ‘Arrested’ had a huge college audience. So it’ll be
interesting to see if that does make a difference. Although, the
idea of a college student to fill up their Neilsen box sheet is
slim.

Don’t
they make dough?

Poehler:
Yeah, you do make some dough.

Arnett:
Yeah, college kids do anything for money, believe me.

Are
you going to be the next person to leave ‘SNL?’

Poehler:
Well, I’m finishing up this season and I have also next year as
well. So I’ll be back next year. I’ve been having a blast this year.
It’s been really fun and I love the people I work with and it’s a
very addictive New York job. So I’m looking forward to it, coming up
next year.

Arnett:
Are you planning on burning the building to the ground when you
leave?

Poehler:
Yeah. No one will be left alive.

Arnett:
People depend on that place though.

Poehler:
If I’m not there the show don’t go on.

They
might have to change the name then, right?

Poehler:
Right. I don’t care what they change it too. It just has to be
different.

Arnett:
What about the ‘Amy Poehler Memorial Night Live Show?’

Poehler:
I like that.

Arnett:
God! Wow!

Poehler:
You suggested it.

Arnett:
Well, you didn’t need to agree.

What
do you have coming up next, both of you?

Poehler:
I’m working on a film, speaking of ‘SNL’, with Tina Fey. We’re
shooting this summer. It’s called ‘Baby Momma.’ That’s for Universal
and then a couple of things are coming out.

What
do you play in that?

Poehler:
I play the baby’s momma. Tina plays like a high-powered executive
woman who tries to have a baby and can’t and so she hires me as her
surrogate. It’s a very odd couple.

Will,
what are you doing next?

Arnett:
I just finished up ‘The Brothers Solomon’ with Will Forte at the end
of last year and that’s coming out. I’ve got a few scenes in ‘Hot
Rod,’ a couple of guys who work on the show with Amy – Will Samberg
and those guys.

Poehler:
You’re working with Ferrell again.

Arnett:
I’m working with Ferrell right now on the basketball movie called
‘Semi-Pro.’

Are
you one of the players?

Arnett:
Well, Will plays the owner/player/coach of the Flint Tropics and I
am in his employee. I am the color commentator for the team for the
radio broadcasts.

Do
you both have similar comedy tastes, you and Will? Do you both lean
towards more improvisation?

Arnett:
I think that we both work better in a freer environment where you’re
allowed to kind of do what you want and I reject the scripted
format. That’s why I love the ‘Real World’ so much… because it’s
so real.

Poehler:
It is really real. I can’t wait for reality movies.

Arnett:
Reality movies are going to be soooo good. They already started.

Poehler:
Oh, ‘The Real Cancun’ was a reality movie.

Arnett:
‘Jackass.’ There are other ones.

Poehler:
Every documentary.

Arnett:
There’ve been a lot of comedy reality movies.

Poehler:
For real?

Arnett:
I think so.

What
about the chase scene in this with skates on? Was it physically
demanding?

Arnett:
It was.

You
had a great look on your face.

Arnett:
Well, I was tired. That’s what that look was. We shot that over the
course of about a week in Montreal and it was hard. We started
shooting that – the first shot of the movie, I guess, was inside the
mall where I’m chasing Will and I end up doing the splits and stuff.
We kind of shot into this movie out of the can and even though it
was physically demanding and goofy and stupid and we got to work
with stunt guys that we could kind of push to the ground.

Poehler:
There was one time where they said you could do whatever you wanted
to the stunt guy.

Arnett:
Yeah, and they had to kind of condense that stuff too. If we’d have
had it our way that chase scene would’ve been about a half hour
long. But all these people along the chase, half of them were stunt
people and they said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ So there were a few
takes where I literally pulled myself up by a dude’s face. I put my
hands on his face and pulled myself into frame and really took
advantage of it. What else can you do? Ferrell and I really went for
it a couple of times and pulled down these kiosks and stuff and
really went on a rampage.

Is
there going to be any more of that stuff on the DVD?

Arnett:
I don’t know. I hope so.

Poehler:
I hope so. There is a lot of good stuff.

Arnett:
There were a few scenes that were shortened.

Poehler:
I bet there’ll be some good stuff. I wonder what will be on there.

Now,
you’re doing a character in ‘Shrek III?’

Poehler:
Yeah. I play Snow White in ‘Shrek III.’

How
was that?

Poehler:
Super fun. I play one of the princess’s friends. She has all these
princess friends and it was great. I started to do, luckily, a lot
more animated stuff and I’m doing a show on Nickelodeon, an animated
show that I’m doing.

Did
you get a chance to work with anyone on ‘Shrek III’ or were
you all alone?

Poehler:
No. I didn’t. I’ve only met them when they hosted. I’ve met her from
when she was hosting and stuff, but I had to kind of do all my stuff
on my own, but it was super cool to be a part of that. It was fun. I
just played Snow White as a very type A personality.

Arnett:
Animation is kind of fun because you can really go off in any
direction that you want, right? There is no sort of limit as to what
you can do. It’s almost like you can’t be over-the-top in animation,
in a weird way… I guess I can. Most people can’t.

Would
you do an animated film?

Arnett:
I’m doing a bunch of them, yeah. I’m doing that ‘Ratatouille,’ Brad
Bird’s new movie.

Who
do you play in that?

Arnett:
I play the German chef in the kitchen. And Amy and I are also
working on ‘Horton Hears Who.’

Poehler:
Yeah, that’s really fun, with Jim Carrey and Steve Carell.

Arnett:
And we’re working on ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.’ It’s a
children’s book and
Sony
is making it into a big animated extravaganza and Amy and I are
doing that as well. We’re spearheading that actually.

Who
are your comic heroes?

Poehler:
Cheech and Chong. No. I don’t know.

Arnett:
There are so many and for different reasons and in different ways.
Bill Murray obviously as a sort of comedic actor, he’s pretty tough
to beat. He’s super funny.

Poehler:
I would say the little girl in ‘Small Wonder.’

What
about when you were growing up?

Poehler:
Oh, yeah. Everyone on ‘SNL.’ I loved Gilda Radner and I loved Steve
Martin, all the ‘SCTV’ people. I loved Katherine O’Hara. I love
Woody Allen, all of them.

Arnett:
All the STD people?

Poehler:
No. I said something different.

Arnett:
There are so many people who work on so many levels and that you
love for different reasons. My favorite comedy of all time is ‘Withnail
& I.’ I think that’s pound for pound the funniest movie.

Poehler:
Mine is ‘Earnest Goes to Camp.’

Arnett:
And you love that one.

Poehler:
I love Monty Python as well. You have to say Monty Python, right?

Arnett:
No one will take you seriously if you don’t.

Poehler:
It’s too stressful to name your comedy heroes.

Arnett:
Yes, because there are people reading it who go, ‘God, my name
better come up.’

Poehler:
Like any of those people are reading our interviews.

Got
questions? Got comments? Send me a line at: [email protected].