Maybe I decided to do this story just because I couldn’t stop chuckling as I went through GQ’s slideshow. It’s absurd – Will Arnett should not crack me up this much. He plays basically the same over-confident douche mess in television show after movie after show after movie. And I buy it every time. Okay, not really, but if one of movies comes on television, I end up watching it and laughing guiltily. I love when he’s on 30 Rock too – I love when he goes homoerotic, and his banter with Alec Baldwin is better than Tina Fey’s (sorry Tina). Anyway, Will is reuniting with Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development, which was the series that pretty much made Will’s career. On AD, Arnett played Gob Bluth, the oldest Bluth. Gob was a narcissistic mess, and Arnett was brilliant. I love that Arnett is reuniting with Hurwitz, and I love that Arnett doesn’t think it’s a step down to go back to television. Here’s the short GQ piece:
Despite how it might sound, Will Arnett is not about to play another Will Arnett role. You know the type: the stunted, spoiled, filthy-rich dumb-ass. Gob Bluth on Arrested Development. Devon Banks on 30 Rock. Countless jerk-offs in countless movies. But Arnett is adamant that Steve Wilde, the man at the center of Fox’s Running Wilde, his new sitcom from Arrested creator Mitch Hurwitz, is different.
Steve, you see, is a stunted, spoiled, filthy-rich dumb-ass…with a heart. The scion of a ruthless oil baron, Steve throws decadent parties to give himself humanitarian awards and competes with his neighbor/arch-nemesis over who can buy the teensiest, priciest miniature Arabian horse.
But at his core, Steve is a sad-sack romantic, desperate to win back the hand of his childhood sweetheart, an always-saving-something environmentalist played by Felicity’s Keri Russell. And as far as Arnett is concerned, this constitutes a reach.
“I’m moving out of my comfort zone,” he says, “and right into my wheelhouse.”
There’s a fine line between repeating yourself and carving out a niche—and Arnett knows how to walk it. (As Hurwitz puts it: “Will is like a child who’s forced to act like a man wrapped in the body of a man who acts like a child.”) Arnett’s imbeciles resonate because they lampoon the distance between the stupidly rich and the rest of us, and that’s a very “now” subject.
Arnett, who’s married to Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler, grew up well-heeled in Toronto, hanging out with teenage Gob Bluths and Steve Wildes and getting himself thrown out of—sorry, “asked not to return” to—his elite private school. But he resists the idea that he’s mining anything for his art.
“Ultimately, maybe I’m just good at being a fool,” he says. “Maybe that’s just the sad reality. God, that’s so depressing. Thanks for ruining my life.”
[From GQ]
One of the things that kills me about Will is that I don’t understand how he didn’t end up wanting to be a traditional leading man – he’s handsome and tall and he’s got a great beanpole nerd-hotness that I could see for a straight dramatic actor. And yet, somehow, this handsome, rich Canadian ended up being Hollywood’s go-to douche comedic actor. Strange. Anyway… I’m now looking forward to this series. Do you think any of the Arrested Development people will make an appearance? Bateman? Jessica Walters? LIZA?!?
Photos courtesy of GQ online.
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