Dallas, Texas, July 26, 2012
Presbyterian Outlook: You put the romantic comedy kind of on its ear in this one.
Rashida Jones: I think it’s a genre that we respect, a lot, and grew up on, and it’s hard to tell that story in a different way, because it’s been told so well, and so many times. I feel like we approached it with caution, where we were going to try to do something a little different, maybe invert some of the conventions.
Will McCormack: Yeah, it’s such a familiar convention: you fall in love, you fall out of love, and then you either fall back in love or you don’t. There’s not that many things to do, so we tried to freshen it and invent it and update it in ways that felt interesting to us. But more than anything, I felt like we just tried to be honest, and not try to sugar-coat, or ironic, or satirical about the painful parts of it, and what heartbreak has been like for us and the people around us.
RJ: Yeah, they fell out of love, and that’s how their journey begins, and ultimately ends.
WM: Yeah, and it’s also about acceptance: you think your life is going to go one way, and then you reach a certain age, and it’s so disappointing to find out it’s not, but you realize life goes on, and hopefully you grew a little bit because of the heartbreak.
RJ: Yeah, he didn’t grow, and she did, then he did, a little, and she missed him, and then he wasn’t interested anymore, and then she grows, because she gets rejected…it’s all timing.
WM: What’s that old expression: God’s in charge of what happens to you, but the devil’s in charge of the timing? It’s hard to make those two things intersect. (I don’t know. I’m single. Very lonely.)
RJ: (laughs)
Presbyterian Outlook: This somewhat reflects your own experience as a couple, right?
RJ: We had a moment like, “You know, we’re better off as friends.”
WM: Yeah, we were kids. But our relationship is a lot like Rashida’s and Andy’s in the film. We are best friends. We hope we never have to get divorced. But the story came not just from us, but from a lot of our friends who have been in dysfunctional relationships with exes. Rashida came to me with the idea, we volleyed it back and forth, and we wrote it together kind of quickly – in four months.
RJ: And four years for it to actually come out!
PO: You sat side by side on one computer, right? Did you read each other’s minds?
RJ: (laughs) We do tend to share a brain, sometimes. And we speak the same language – not necessarily masculine or feminine, but balanced in that way, and we’re actors, so we act out all the scenes, and if they sound wrong, we know they’re wrong, and we fix it.
WM: Now we write separately, which is more efficient, but not as much fun.
PO: (to Will) Did you see yourself as Jesse?
WM: Only for a millisecond. I’m a character actor; always will be; I was perfectly happy to play Skillz (a minor role). Besides, Andy (Samberg) did a great job.
PO: What do you want to write about next?
RJ: We’re OK putting the rom-com-dram genre to bed.
PO: No pun intended.
RJ: (laughs) No, pun intended. Maybe writing about family. And siblings. And parents. And mortality. Life’s meaning, and how that changes for you as you get older.
WM: What success means. Does it bring happiness? Parenthood. Relationships. But still a comedy. I think all movies should be funny.
RJ: Yeah, there needs to be some levity.
WM: There’s comedy every day. And even in heartbreak, the moment you know you’re getting better is when you’re able to laugh a little bit.
Ronald P. Salfen is minister of St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Irving, Texas.
