Aziz Ansari‘s characteristic directing debut, “Good Fortune,” wasn’t meant to be his first effort as a filmmaker: That will’ve been “Being Mortal,” referred to as off mid-shoot in 2022 amid accusations of misconduct in opposition to Invoice Murray. So it was inevitable that alongside the TIFF premiere of “Good Fortune,” a comedy starring Keanu Reeves and “Being Mortal” star Seth Rogen, he’d have to handle the canceled movie. And it seems, they share thematic DNA.
The South Carolina-born Indian-American actor, author, director, and humorist is understood by audiences worldwide as serial entrepreneur Tom “Deal with Yo Self” Haverford on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” and because the extra somber, lovelorn Dev Shah on the Netflix hit collection “Grasp of None.”
May “Good Fortune” and his should-have-been debut “Being Mortal” have swapped titles? In any case, within the TIFF premiere, Keanu Reeves performs Gabriel, the Angel of Texting and Driving — in L.A., sure, the Metropolis of Angels, the place on this comedy, angels exist — and finds himself demoted to human by his angel boss (Sandra Oh). Thus, he turns into mortal. “Whoa!” Ansari informed IndieWire in Toronto. “I gotta course of that,” when requested.
When the information of “Being Mortal’s” cancellation broke in April 2022, Ansari mentioned he received a deluge of “I’m sooo sorry” texts. He recalled pondering, “I can’t take care of this. I don’t wanna be on this woe-is-me second.” Ansari mentioned he then referred to as Seth Rogen, additionally a star of “Being Mortal.” He informed Rogen, “Hey, I do know you’re free and had been presupposed to work right this moment. Should you wanna make at the present time much less shitty for me, are you able to learn this script [for ‘Good Fortune’]? He mentioned, yeah, and he referred to as me in two hours and mentioned, ‘I’m in, let’s do it.’”
That’s how “Good Fortune” started. Ansari had a primary model of the story prepared, the place he performs Arj, a down-on-his-luck documentary movie editor dwelling out of his automobile and compelled to take part within the gig financial system as a Taskrabbiter and home-improvement retailer employee. Via the latter, Arj meets a union organizer (Keke Palmer, additionally a “Being Mortal” star), whom he begins courting. Via the previous, Arj meets Jeff (Seth Rogen), a venture-capitalist angel investor in tech firms. When Gabriel (Reeves) intervenes as a result of he can’t assist however take pity on Arj’s misplaced soul, Gabriel decides to swap Arj and Jeff’s lives. There you may have it, a “Prince and the Pauper”-esque fable, touched by an angel, with a rebellious and playful streak of working-class consciousness.
Empathy for the working class certainly looks like a far cry from Tom Haverford and Dev Shah. When requested about shifting from narratives in regards to the center class — Ansari co-created “Grasp of None” together with his longtime collaborator Alan Yang, additionally a producer on “Good Fortune” — and from TV to movie, Ansari mentioned, “’Grasp of None’ was nearly the proper coaching floor to prepare to do that movie. There was an episode on Season 2 referred to as ‘New York, I Love You’ and one other episode in Season 3, the place the character performed by Naomi Ackie [goes] via IVF. For each of these episodes, I needed to do a number of work interviewing individuals, making an attempt to know experiences that weren’t my very own… I hope for individuals [who] like ‘Grasp of None,’ [that] that is type of what they hoped I might do with a film. It has a number of the identical DNA as ‘Grasp.’ It’s about seeing issues from different individuals’s views.”
Anasri mentioned, “So for ‘New York, I Love You,’ there was a phase a few cab driver, a doorman, and a girl who was Deaf. This man Stefano and I did a DoorDash ride-along, after which I took over his account and did stuff for a day. That fueled the entire phase with Seth [in ‘Good Fortune’], the place he finally ends up doing DoorDash. I additionally spoke with this man, Vincent, who tried to unionize a Residence Depot in Philadelphia. He was so inspiring. The Elena character that Keke Palmer performs [is based on him]. So we interviewed lots of people that did these sorts of gigs. That course of is one thing that helped me tremendously in doing ‘Good Fortune.’”
Ansari mentioned the script’s conceit about angels actually started to hit residence as soon as he pulled off a casting coup with Keanu Reeves. That Ansari is himself an actor and a humorist helped him determine the comedy of “Good Fortune,” plus the truth that he was again within the acquainted mode of appearing and directing in equal measure, as he had in “Grasp of None.” (In contrast, in “Being Mortal,” Ansari mentioned he had a a lot smaller position.)
“’Being Mortal’ is predicated on a ebook by Atul Gawande that’s about life (and loss of life) points,” mentioned Ansari. “It was fairly heavy at occasions, and it was a heavy shoot. So I used to be excited to do one thing that was rather more simple comedy. When Keanu’s identify first got here up, I began watching all his movies like ‘Level Break’ and ‘Pace,’ however I went again to the comedies he had performed, like ‘Invoice and Ted’s Glorious Journey’ and ‘Parenthood’ specifically. You type of see little bits of his comedy energy. He’s very humorous when he’s taking part in a man that’s type of naive, however on the identical time so candy. And that’s Gabriel, proper? He’s so lovable. However he’s type of dumb. [Laughs]“
In desirous about Reeves whereas wanting on the script, Ansari mentioned he may “simply think about him having this bright-eyed surprise in regards to the web, him being this angel that will get thrown into the deep finish of being a human and struggling in L.A., however having the perspective he does. I simply had a sense it will work… He’s so nice, he’s the soul of the film.”
How the courting scenes between Arj (Ansari) and Elena (Ackie) are blocked brings to thoughts “Grasp of None’s” method to the identical, and Ansari agreed. He mentioned whereas planning to shoot these romantic moments for “Good Fortune” that he and Alan Yang acknowledged that is their “bread and butter.”
Ansari additionally edited the movie whereas he shot, which is a daring selection. “This notion of watching the tough lower is a nightmare. You’re so scared. Should you edit as you go alongside, you decrease that a bit of bit,” Ansari mentioned. “You simply begin feeling the rhythms of the film, and also you begin understanding what’s working camera-wise when it comes to the cinematic language. ‘Oh, these sorts of photographs really feel good,’ or ‘oh, let’s keep in these singles a bit of bit longer.’ No matter it’s, you simply be taught what your film is, [and] you possibly can type of lean into issues.” Ansari credited his editor, Daniel Haworth, with whom he labored on “Grasp” as properly. Each time Haworth was on set, Ansari would run in to check out the dailies and the evolving lower.
“Grasp of None” followers will probably be delighted to see the director’s father (Shoukath Ansari) present up in particular appearances, although Ansari’s mom (Fatima Ansari) doesn’t characteristic in “Good Fortune” as she did in that Netflix present. Ansari mentioned that his mother hates appearing, nevertheless it was a number of enjoyable having his dad round, as a result of a number of the story is in regards to the want for household in a spot like L.A.
“Parks and Rec” followers will even discover Joe Mande, who performed Morris for a couple of episodes on the NBC sitcom and served as a author. Within the movie, Arj meets Joe’s character whereas Taskrabbiting in line at a Cinnabon. The casting of secondary and tertiary characters feels very intentional on this movie, including to the groundedness of a film as a lot about Los Angeles as it’s set there.
“We had a tremendous solid director, Carmen Cuba. One position that was very enjoyable to solid was Felipe [Felipe Garcia Martinez], who performs a dishwasher that Keanu works with,” Ansari mentioned. “We’d been studying these individuals, and none of them actually felt like the actual man that may be at the back of the kitchen with Keanu. So me and my producer Kelsey [Comeau] went right down to his restaurant, and he got here out, and we did a few of the scenes.”
He added, “Then I referred to as Keanu and mentioned, ‘Hey, I’ve this concept for that character. Would it not be cool if we used an actual man, as a result of I believe he would carry some authenticity to the position?’ He mentioned, ‘Yeah, I’m down.’ So we use Felipe, and he exhibits up, and he’s the one individual I met who doesn’t know who Keanu Reeves is! Months after we wrapped, I went right down to the restaurant, and I used to be like, ‘Felipe!’ He was there. And I used to be like, ‘Did you inform all these individuals you’re a film star now?’ And so they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s been telling us on a regular basis. He’s telling us about Keanu and every thing.’ Yeah, Felipe’s nice.”
If Ansari had been an angel, what would his division be? Ansari mentioned, “Perhaps the Angel of Screenwriting Inspiration? I like to assist writers out which can be caught within the jam.”
“Good Fortune” premiered on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. Lionsgate will launch the movie in theaters on Friday, October 17.
