His recent characters include “The Douche” and a spin instructor with IBS, but funnyman Nick Kroll gets serious in his latest role as a failed entrepreneur who moves back in with his sister in Adult Beginners. Helmed by Boston producers Paul Bernon, David Bernon and Sam Slater, the dramedy premieres on April 22 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where Kroll will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
What is your favorite part of the film? What I really like about it is that obviously it’s called Adult Beginners, and it really is about the fact that people I think feel…like adults but also still feel like kids in a lot of ways. But it’s really the story of brothers and sisters…. I’ve talked to people who have been like “I’ve got to call my sister,” or “I’m going to call my brother,” after watching it, which I really love to hear.
Could you relate to the feeling of being an adult beginner? Oh, for sure.… By the time my dad was my age, he had four kids and had started a business, and I could barely get a printer cartridge for my home computer.
What did you enjoy about this more dramatic role? Being able to just play something as you would play it without having to worry about having a joke at the end every moment was cool.… But the truth is that I think life is filled with funny moments and sad moments, and so I think we were just trying to capture that—that funny things can happen in sad moments and sad things or traumatic things can happen in funny moments. Those things are inextricably tied together.
You have played so many characters over the years—do you have a favorite? Well, on my show, Kroll Show, which just also wrapped up after three seasons, I played Larry Bird, obviously a Boston god, which I kind of loved playing. It was a really weird character for me because in my mind, Larry Bird was such a quiet guy, didn’t like people, didn’t like to overly socialize.… This past season we did a version of Cheers called Chairs, and he was the bartender. It was him and Bill Walton, played by Seth Rogen, and my friend Jon Daly played Kelsey Grammer, and [there was] the frozen head of Ted Williams. It was a very, very Boston-centric sketch.
He’s on a Kroll
His recent characters include “The Douche” and a spin instructor with IBS, but funnyman Nick Kroll gets serious in his latest role as a failed entrepreneur who moves back in with his sister in Adult Beginners. Helmed by Boston producers Paul Bernon, David Bernon and Sam Slater, the dramedy premieres on April 22 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where Kroll will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
What is your favorite part of the film? What I really like about it is that obviously it’s called Adult Beginners, and it really is about the fact that people I think feel…like adults but also still feel like kids in a lot of ways. But it’s really the story of brothers and sisters…. I’ve talked to people who have been like “I’ve got to call my sister,” or “I’m going to call my brother,” after watching it, which I really love to hear.
Could you relate to the feeling of being an adult beginner? Oh, for sure.… By the time my dad was my age, he had four kids and had started a business, and I could barely get a printer cartridge for my home computer.
What did you enjoy about this more dramatic role? Being able to just play something as you would play it without having to worry about having a joke at the end every moment was cool.… But the truth is that I think life is filled with funny moments and sad moments, and so I think we were just trying to capture that—that funny things can happen in sad moments and sad things or traumatic things can happen in funny moments. Those things are inextricably tied together.
You have played so many characters over the years—do you have a favorite? Well, on my show, Kroll Show, which just also wrapped up after three seasons, I played Larry Bird, obviously a Boston god, which I kind of loved playing. It was a really weird character for me because in my mind, Larry Bird was such a quiet guy, didn’t like people, didn’t like to overly socialize.… This past season we did a version of Cheers called Chairs, and he was the bartender. It was him and Bill Walton, played by Seth Rogen, and my friend Jon Daly played Kelsey Grammer, and [there was] the frozen head of Ted Williams. It was a very, very Boston-centric sketch.
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