Why A24’s Friendship Doesn’t Look Like Any Other Comedy Movie
Director Andrew DeYoung talks finding inspiration in Terrence Malick and more.
Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship has all the makings of a sketch from I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson’s acclaimed comedy show on Netflix. It starts with a perfectly mundane situation, with all the social anxieties that go with it, and then, it escalates. Soon, you’ve got Tim Robinson eating a bar of soap, Kate Mara getting lost in a winding labyrinth of sewer tunnels, and Paul Rudd losing his toupee in a fit of sudden rage. It’s all so absurd, that it starts to brush up against the surreal. But DeYoung’s secret to turning what seems like a perfect premise for a five-minute sketch — Tim Robinson’s Craig is befriended by his charming new neighbor Austin (Rudd), but starts to spiral when Austin and his friends reject him — is to keep Friendship as grounded as possible.
“I think the comedy might hit harder and resonate if you really ground the emotion underneath,” DeYoung tells Inverse.
“As I wrote it, I kept picturing Tim as the lead role.”
So DeYoung shot Friendship not like a comedy, but a drama. The colors are muted and earthy, the frames are mostly wide shots, and the actors deliver subdued, almost subtle, performances. The one exception is Tim Robinson, who sticks out like a sore thumb from his first appearance — his face contorts into the wild expressions, and he delivers his dialogue like he’s an alien trying to speak English for the first time. It’s why when DeYoung was writing the script for Friendship, he could think of no better actor for the role than Robinson.
“As I wrote it, I kept picturing Tim as the lead role,” DeYoung says. “I wrote it towards his strengths as best as I could and then he fills in the gaps.”
The result is a movie whose comedy sneaks up on you. Its straightforward, muted approach lulls you into thinking you’re watching a typical A24 drama, before it hits you with a situation so absurd, you have to laugh. And that’s exactly how DeYoung wants you to experience it. “That's why I shot it the way I did, to really let us believe the emotion, so all the crazy stuff [that happens later] actually has a foundation.”
Inverse spoke with DeYoung about turning Tim Robinson into a movie star, his favorite improvised moments on set, and the unlikely arthouse inspirations for Friendship.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Tim Robinson plays the socially awkward Craig.
How did you get on board to write and direct Friendship with Tim Robinson?
It's an original idea that I wrote during the pandemic, and as I wrote it, I kept picturing Tim as the lead role. I finished the script and sent it to him, and he said yes. From there, we tried to get producers and then Paul came along and Kate. It took about three-ish years to shoot it.
Even though Tim Robinson doesn't write the movie, Friendship feels like an I Think You Should Leave sketch. Did Tim play any part in shaping the movie script or jokes, or was that from you shaping the movie for Tim?
I wrote everything and then when we were shooting day to day, Tim would have certain thoughts. [If] certain lines didn't feel right, he would put it in his own words or have an idea. So I wrote it towards his strengths as best as I could and then he fills in the gaps. I Think You Should Leave comparisons are a huge compliment because I love the show so much. And hopefully it exists in a little bit different place, but it's such a nice thing to say.
When I saw the movie, as soon as Tim’s face popped up and before he even said anything, the audience burst out laughing. I feel like he's such a comedy cannon. Everything he does is immediately funny. Did you have to sort of rein him in any way?
I mean, no different than any other actor. Yes, you get options where you go bigger, you go smaller, and I always let him do what he feels is natural in the beginning, and then we see what we need to do from there based on how the scene is feeling. But like all my actors, I like to give everybody as much of a try in the way they want to before I start meddling.
Friendship starts off grounded, before it goes off the rails.
Paul Rudd is a great improviser as well. Were there moments on the set that Tim would improvise, or that Paul would improvise?
Always they would add things. It was mostly on the page, but they're both brilliant at bringing ideas and it was so great to watch them try stuff and see what worked and what felt right. The only full scene that was improvised was the scene between Tim and Conner O'Malley. That was just fully letting them go at each other.
Can you give me an example of something that was on the page and then they would bring ideas and that would transform into something that would make it to the final product?
When the wig falls off, [that’s] the first scene that is coming to my mind. We got a lot of different options there, where Paul's really freaking out and Tim's really freaking out. And then we got smaller options, [which are] in the script. His wig falls off, he's terrified. He puts it on, is it straight? And then he gets pulled away. But there's so much room there when you're shooting for them to play out the reality of the scene. I think Tim, his reaction is him turning away and being so terrified. That's not necessarily in the script. That's Tim finding it in the day, and Paul being so quiet and terrified, that's them finding it together.
Robinson and the cast were given space to improvise.
Friendship is so unique as a comedy in that it's not really presented as one. In fact, I heard that you shot it like a drama. Can you tell me the reasoning behind this approach to Friendship?
It's an aesthetic I'm more interested in. I find comedy often shot and edited and scored in a way that I think sells out the emotion going in the movie. Some of my favorite films and filmmakers are really pretentious. I think the comedy might hit harder and resonate if you really ground the emotion underneath. And so that's why I shot it the way I did, to really let us believe the emotion, so all the crazy stuff [that happens later] actually has a foundation.
“It's such a nice rare thing to laugh in a room with strangers.”
One thing that I liked about Friendship is that it just toes the lines between realistic and absurd, and pushes up against this sort of surreal absurdity. Were you ever tempted to go even more surreal or did you want to sort of instill some boundaries for this movie's reality? For example, with Kate Mara's character disappearing in the tunnels, I feel like there's a little bit of an almost surreal undercurrent to the movie.
I mean, it's a really strange thing to happen, right? And yeah, it feels a little surreal. And I think that's why when you ground it in reality, hopefully the audience believes it because it is kind of hyperreal. And so the first half of the movie is, they think it's my job as a filmmaker to get the audience to trust it and so the back half when more crazy stuff happens, we are relaxed and we're not judging it as that can happen. We feel in this world this could happen and the emotions feel real.
Were there any movies, comedy or otherwise, that you took inspiration from for Friendship?
The Master, King of Comedy, Force Majeure, Toni Erdmann, Terrence Malick movies, Three Colours: Blue, is a huge movie. These things that are kind of treated very seriously. Force Majeure, I think like a heart, it's such an incredible comedy, but shot like it's not. The Master, I feel same applies. So I was trying to take a page from those and apply it here.
Force Majeure, I definitely can see that connection just because it is a social anxiety comedy in some ways, but it's also extremely dramatic.
It's so funny, but everyone is taking it so seriously. I think that's why it's so funny and all that anxiety and that humor bubbles up because it's taking what's happening so serious.
Director Andrew DeYoung with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd at the Friendship premiere at SXSW.
I saw Friendship at South by Southwest, and it's such a great communal theatrical experience. I felt like I haven't had that kind of communal theatrical comedy movie experience in so long. And I wanted to know when you saw this in theaters, is that the reaction that you kind of expected with an audience? Is that something that you really appreciate people to come together for?
It's an amazing experience that I wasn't expecting to that degree, to be honest. I wrote something that I just kind of felt right and that I wanted to see and hopefully people liked it in whatever way they liked it. But to be in a room where people are laughing pretty consistently, and that also is a testament to Tim's incredible powers and Paul and the rest of the cast. But it's such a nice rare thing to laugh in a room with strangers.
