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 towards 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 deal with the canceled movie. And it seems, they share thematic DNA.
The South Carolina-born Indian-American actor, author, director, and slapstick comedian 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 sequence “Grasp of None.”
Might “Good Fortune” and his should-have-been debut “Being Mortal” have swapped titles? In spite of everything, 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 stated he bought 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 stated he then referred to as Seth Rogen, additionally a star of “Being Mortal.” He informed Rogen, “Hey, I do know you’re free and have been presupposed to work at present. Should you wanna make this present day much less shitty for me, are you able to learn this script [for ‘Good Fortune’]? He stated, yeah, and he referred to as me in two hours and stated, ‘I’m in, let’s do it.’”
That’s how “Good Fortune” started. Ansari had a fundamental 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 relationship. Via the previous, Arj meets Jeff (Seth Rogen), a venture-capitalist angel investor in tech corporations. 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 might 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 seems like a far cry from Tom Haverford and Dev Shah. When requested about shifting from narratives concerning 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 stated, “’Grasp of None’ was nearly the right 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] by way of IVF. For each of these episodes, I needed to do lots of work interviewing individuals, attempting to grasp 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 lots of the identical DNA as ‘Grasp.’ It’s about seeing issues from different individuals’s views.”
Anasri stated, “So for ‘New York, I Love You,’ there was a phase a couple of 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 Dwelling 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 stated the script’s conceit about angels actually started to hit house as soon as he pulled off a casting coup with Keanu Reeves. That Ansari is himself an actor and a slapstick comedian helped him determine the comedy of “Good Fortune,” plus the truth that he was again within the acquainted mode of performing and directing in equal measure, as he had in “Grasp of None.” (Against this, in “Being Mortal,” Ansari stated he had a a lot smaller position.)
“’Being Mortal’ is predicated on a guide by Atul Gawande that’s about life (and demise) points,” stated 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 far more easy 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 accomplished, like ‘Invoice and Ted’s Glorious Journey’ and ‘Parenthood’ particularly. 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 fascinated with Reeves whereas trying on the script, Ansari stated he might “simply think about him having this bright-eyed marvel concerning 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 angle he does. I simply had a sense it could work… He’s so nice, he’s the soul of the film.”
How the relationship scenes between Arj (Ansari) and Elena (Ackie) are blocked brings to thoughts “Grasp of None’s” method to the identical, and Ansari agreed. He stated 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 reduce is a nightmare. You’re so scared. Should you edit as you go alongside, you decrease that a bit of bit,” Ansari stated. “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 pictures 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. At any time when Haworth was on set, Ansari would run in to check out the dailies and the evolving reduce.
“Grasp of None” followers shall 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 stated that his mother hates performing, nevertheless it was lots of enjoyable having his dad round, as a result of lots of the story is concerning the want for household in a spot like L.A.
“Parks and Rec” followers can 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 forged director, Carmen Cuba. One position that was very enjoyable to forged was Felipe [Felipe Garcia Martinez], who performs a dishwasher that Keanu works with,” Ansari stated. “We’d been studying these individuals, and none of them actually felt like the actual man that might 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 number of the scenes.”
He added, “Then I referred to as Keanu and stated, ‘Hey, I’ve this concept for that character. Wouldn’t it be cool if we used an actual man, as a result of I feel he would convey some authenticity to the position?’ He stated, ‘Yeah, I’m down.’ So we use Felipe, and he reveals up, and he’s the one particular person 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?’ They usually’re like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s been telling us on a regular basis. He’s telling us about Keanu and all the pieces.’ Yeah, Felipe’s nice.”
If Ansari have been an angel, what would his division be? Ansari stated, “Perhaps the Angel of Screenwriting Inspiration? I really like to assist writers out which might 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.