The bonds of brotherhood, close and enduring, have shaped the destines of Hollywood filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass.
When their latest directorial excursion, Paramount Pictures’ Jeff, Who Lives at Home, hits theaters Friday, March 16, the duo will explore this theme with actors Jason Segal and Ed Helms.
The film tells the story of Jeff (Segal), a slacker who lives in his mother’s basement, as he searches for his true destiny while spending a day with his older brother, Pat (Helms), who is following his possibly adulterous wife. The film is written and directed by the Duplass brothers—best known for their 2010 film, Cyrus—and marks their fifth collaborative project.
The Vanguard and other university publications recently participated in two conference calls with Helms, Segal and Mark Duplass. They discussed the difference between working in television and working in film and the philosophy behind goatees.
The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Question: How did you become involved with Jeff, Who Lives at Home?
Ed Helms: Jeff, Who Lives at Home was a script that got floated my way by Jason Reitman, who is one of the producers on it and a friend. He directed a couple of Office episodes. So we had become buds. And then I guess Mark and Jay Duplass had written a script, and Jason jumped on to produce it and thought I might be a good candidate for it. And so Jason just sent it to me directly, and I loved it right away, watched all of the Duplass brothers’ movies and said, “Sign me up. Let’s do this.”
Q: What was the comedic chemistry between you and Jason Segal and Susan Sarandon?
EH: It’s kind of a funny movie—or a curious movie, I should say—in that it might not be what you expect from Jason Segal and me. Obviously, we both come from a background of doing a lot of comedy, and Susan Sarandon obviously has done some great comedy work as well. But this movie, in keeping with the Duplass brothers’ tone, rides the line into drama a little bit. So we actually had a really good time improvising together but not necessarily finding the funniest jokes as much finding the most authentic way to do a scene. I would say the chemistry was fantastic. We just had an amazing time working together. But it wasn’t always about finding the laughs. It was a new challenge for me because it was about finding realism and authenticity.
Q: Did you have any experience with dramatic acting and improv prior to Jeff?
EH: Certainly not dramatic improvisation [laughs]. I don’t even think I could have told you what that is before working on this movie. I don’t know that dramatic improvisation troupes are selling out theaters. I’ve never heard of that. But no, I hadn’t done a lot of drama. I mean, in high school I was in All My Sons, and that might be about the most dramatic thing I’d ever done.
Q: How are you similar to your character [Pat]?
EH: The character kind of wants to do the right thing. He wants to be a good guy, and I certainly share that. This guy gets in his way a lot, and I certainly get in my way a lot. I don’t think I’m quite as dysfunctional as this guy—at least I hope not—but I do share that kind of struggle to be a better person. And then, of course, we also look a lot alike and we have the same voice. But we have a very different fashion sense, to be clear [laughs].
Q: How do you think audiences will respond to this more serious side of you?
EH: I can only hope that this movie is well received. I’m insanely proud of it. I’d still call it a comedy, and I think it very much lives in that world, but it’s more. It’s more of an honest look at dysfunctional people than most work I’ve done. So it might be a little bit different than what people expect, but I hope in a good way. Kind of a nice little treat, if you will. A little twist on the expectation.
Q: How much freedom did the Duplass brothers give you as far as working with the script and giving you direction?
EH: Well, it’s funny, because they wrote a fabulous script. Down to the word, it is a wonderful, compelling, hilarious and moving script. That said, they were the first ones to say, “Don’t say a word of this.” [Laughs] We improvised almost every line of the movie, and it was really exciting because the filmmakers, Mark and Jay Duplass, just really love that collaboration, and that’s kind of a rare thing in writers and directors.
Q: What’s with the goatee?
EH: [Laughs] Pat is someone who is very desperate to portray himself as someone who really has his shit together but who doesn’t really have his shit together at all. And it’s that chasm between what he wants to be and how he wants to present himself and what he really is that defines this guy. And that’s where the goatee comes from. It’s something that Pat, as someone closing in on middle age, sees as this lifeline to youth somehow. And it’s a misguided attempt to feel edgy and young, and you see it a lot. I think a lot of people have goatees for a lot of reasons. Some of them are good reasons, and some of them are bad reasons. Pat has it for bad reasons. And it absolutely helped me get into character. Every time I saw that goatee in the mirror in the morning, I just felt like that guy. I felt like kind of a needy guy, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Q: Jason, do you prefer working on TV shows or movies?
Jason Segal: They’re both really fun, but I think I like working on the movies better because it’s such a concentrated amount of time. Your job for three months is to focus on a character, and then you know you get to leave it behind, whereas when you do something for eight years [like CBS’s How I Met Your Mother], it becomes a little bit more like going to school. You go every day, and it’s the best school you could possibly hope to go to, but there’s something really fun about getting to know these people in a very contained amount of time that I really enjoy.
Q: Jason, what is it that drew you to Jeff as a character?
JS: It was just so clear to me how to play the part, and that’s all due to the way the Duplass brothers wrote the movie. I had no questions about what his intent was or his style or anything. My job was just to come in and do what they had written. And so then when you got to the improvising, it was so simple because the character is—I mean, I know there’s a lot of complexity to him—but what I loved was that it was so simple, at least in my mind. You just show up and be really regular. And so I think that’s what really drew me to it. And then the story I think is just unbelievable.
Mark Duplass: The answer is perfect writing.
JS: [Laughs] Yes, there you go. Well said.
Q: Mark, what has it been like working with your brother time and time again? Was this film different for you?
MD: This is the largest budget we had ever worked with before, so you always feel a certain sense of responsibility to make the movie good out of the more money people are putting into it. But in terms of me and Jay and our working relationship, our general feeling is that making a movie is really hard, and making an entertaining film is almost impossible. So we just feel like there’s strength in numbers by having two of us, and whatever conflicts might arise between us are quickly dwarfed by the Herculean task of trying to make a feature film that doesn’t suck.
Q: Mark, your films tend to be darker than a lot of mainstream comedies. Can you talk a little about that?
MD: This is almost our mainstream movie, relative to who we are. But I think what happens in terms of the term “dark comedy” and how it applies to us is that we really like what we call “tragic comedy,” which is comedy that is rooted in inherently, seemingly sad situations. You’ve got this guy, Jeff, who is 30 years old and living in his mom’s basement. He doesn’t have a job or any real relationships. And his brother, Pat, is even older than that, and he’s trying to get emotional fulfillment out of life by purchasing expensive automobiles. And those are sad or dark situations, but for us, at the end of the day, we just love these guys so much, and we root for them, and we want them to win. So I guess on some level we feel like it differentiates us from the average dark comedy, like, say, War of the Roses, where you relish in seeing them getting beat up. [The characters in Jeff] get a little beat up, and they have it rough, but ultimately, we’re kind of rooting for them to win.
JS: Like Hot Tub Time Machine.
MD: Yes, exactly like that. Just more boobs, that’s all [laughs].
JS: [Laughs] Yeah.
Q: Mark and Jason, what was your favorite part about working on the film?
MD: I got to shoot car chase scenes for the first time [laughs]. My brother and I have made movies that are about relationships and people and the interpersonal dynamics between them for a long time. And in this movie, I got to put a Porsche on the road and drive it fast and shoot it with Jason Segal sticking out of the sunroof. I think there was a lot of different fun stuff that we were not normally afforded in our previous films.
JS: For me, it was that previous to this I had been doing a lot of writing and producing of the movies that I was doing. And so on this one, I got to just be invited to the party without having to, you know, prepare all the food and decorations and all that stuff. And so my job was just to show up and have a good time at the party [laughs]. I really enjoyed that element of it.
MD: Yes, you showed up, you ate all the fucking hummus and you left before doing the dishes [laughs]. It was perfect.
JS: It really was nice.
Q: Mark and Jason, is there an interview question you’re always asked that you’re just sick of answering?
MD: “What was your motivation for writing this film?” And it is the first interview question that I get from everyone, and it is a definite interview killer. So I appreciate your thoughtfulness [laughs], and hopefully you’ll take note of that one.
JS: Mine doesn’t relate to this movie, but it’s been for the past eight years, and it is: “Who is the mother?’”
MD: Oh, no, they don’t.
JS: Oh my god. All—yes, every interview. “Who is the mother?”
MD: God [laughs]. See, I can just hear your soul deflating right now.
JS: Totally. The other one that was rough over the past like year and a half was, “Who is the bigger diva on set, Amy Adams or Miss Piggy?”
MD: Oh, that’s a good one.
JS: And in the back of my mind—like, at first it was fun [laughs]—and then finally after months of press, I was like, “I’m an adult. Miss Piggy is a puppet. Please quit asking me this question.”