NICHOLAS STOLLER
INTERVIEW BY ROSE BYRNE
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRYAN SHEFFIELD
GROOMING BY JHIZET PANOSIAN/EXCLUSIVE ARTIST/DIOR HOMME
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Nicholas Stoller may have spent his youth at boarding school but he’s no snob. As a graduate of the Judd Apatow School of Funny [He wrote on Judd’s college-set series Undeclared] he’s proving one project at a time that he can do brash, shocking, memorable comedy with the best of ’em. After penning the likes of Fun with Dick and Jane and Yes Man, Nick made his directorial debut in 2008 with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which starred Cockney wild man Russell Brand as rock star extraordinaire Aldous Snow. Superbad’s Jonah Hill also put in an appearance as an eccentric waiter. Well, it seems those two didn’t get enough of each other the first time round because Nick’s reunited them in his latest flick Get Him to the Greek. Russell plays Aldous off the rails (he’s just released a nose-diving album about problems in Africa), and Jonah is a record company intern responsible for escorting the leather-clad liability to LA for a career-saving gig. But no Apatowian movie full of bizarre men would be complete without a leading lady: step up Rose Byrne (Damages’ Ellen Parsons), who plays pop star Jackie Q and Aldous’ love interest. Here, she chews the fat with Nick about Jonah Hill’s method acting, The Muppets and the sheer brilliance of improvised comedy.
ROSE BYRNE—Where are you?
NICHOLAS STOLLER—I’m in LA. Are you in Australia?
RB—No, I’m in New York. Are you at home or in your office?
NS—I’m at home – in my home office.
RB—How are you enjoying all the press for Get Him to the Greek? Do you find it tiresome?
NS—As a writer and director I don’t normally do that much press, so I actually really enjoy it. It’s always fun to just talk about yourself [Laughs]. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy talking about themselves? Maybe a Buddhist monk?
RB—How do you find the repetition aspect, though? That’s what I struggle with.
NS—Yeah, I feel a little bit guilty when I know I’ve repeated the same joke eighteen times, but then I just do it again. As an actor, you have to do so much more. I think if I had to do as much as you guys I wouldn’t find it so novel.
RB—How has the reception been to the film?
NS—People seem to really like it – the audiences go nuts during it and it makes me laugh… so I don’t really care.
RB—Well, that’s the main thing, and if you think it’s funny, that’s a good sign. I didn’t realize you were from such a posh family – going to boarding school, and then Harvard. Coming from that sort of background, how do you feel about directing these comedies that are essentially quite raunchy? What does your family think?
NS—Well, I come from a nice background, but it’s not like we’re aristocratic or anything. [Laughs] I grew up loving comedy and watching all the stuff that comedy nerds watch, you know, all the Mel Brooks movies and Airplane! – all those kind of movies. My dad was obsessed with comedy.
RB—Do you ever want to direct a drama?
NS—You know, I don’t. I could imagine directing something that has more drama in it, but my way in this stuff is always comedic. Essentially, any good comedy is dramatic and then there’s comedy that comes from a serious situation. Obviously, the dialogue’s different.
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