Will Arnett has lamented the fact that he is rarely considered for dramatic roles because he's so established in comedy.
The star, who is best known for comedies like Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman and 30 Rock, leads his first dramatic film with Is This Thing On?, in which he plays a man who discovers stand-up comedy while going through a divorce.
Arnett created the opportunity for himself, writing the script with Mark Chappell before bringing it to his friend Bradley Cooper to direct.
In an interview with IndieWire, Arnett admitted dramatic roles don't come his way because Hollywood has boxed him into comedies.
"I thought that I would end up in a more sort of dramatic realm," he said. "I think because I kind of went down that path, they just didn't really come my way or people didn't see me that way. It's not (that) they didn't think I had the capacity. They just never considered me, and they didn't have to. Why would they?"
Being a dramatic lead for the first time meant Arnett had to be vulnerable without using comedy to fall back on, and the SmartLess podcast co-host confessed that he wasn't sure if he could tackle the more emotional beats.
"What can I do to understand, to sort of be sensitive in the material, and to get to a place where I can allow myself to be vulnerable enough in front of these people so that I can access that? And that was the real job for me," Arnett shared. "And there were a lot of moments where I thought, 'I don't know if I can do it.' And there were moments where I thought, 'Is this terrible? Am I going through it?' Like, can I?"
However, he discovered that he did his best work when he let go of those insecurities, adding, "Anytime that I did, anytime I kind of shed my ego and just kind of opened up and did access parts of my own life experience in that way, were always the best parts."
Is This Thing On?, also starring Laura Dern and Cooper, is now in U.S. cinemas. It will be released on 30 January in the U.K.
