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Interview: Will Forte Talks Nebraska

As understated as his Nebraskacharacter, he spoke to us about the terrifying prospect of working on Alexander Payne’s latest.

Interview: Will Forte Talks Nebraska
Photo: Paramount Vantage

Will Forte had a lot of things to be worried about heading into Nebraska. As one of the lead actors in an Alexander Payne film, he’s walking in shoes once worn by Jack Nicholson, Paul Giamatti, and George Clooney. He’s also acting next to some of the form’s greatest living treasures, among them ’70s legends Bruce Dern and Stacy Keach. The comedian, who made his bones on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, also had to fill the most reserved role in the film. His Arthur Grant is the meek modern counterpart to Dern’s quietly assertive Woody: The elder Grant went to war in Korea and exudes gruff masculinity with every step, while the latter has spent most of his existence selling stereo equipment and seems in a state of permanent anxiousness. Woody is trekking, insatiably and with determination, toward a payday he believes is waiting for him in the titular state, while Arthur can’t even manage a commitment to his significant other. Forte, stripped of his outlandish personas and afforded none of the narrative zaniness that defined films like MacGruber, is left with nothing to lean on but his naturalistic acting ability. Coming off more like the understated Arthur than any of his go-for-broke sketch-comedy personas, he spoke to us about the terrifying prospect of working on Payne’s latest.

So what’s it like having to physically confront Stacy Keach?

Well, he’s a very nice man!

I’m terrified of him. I’ve seen The Dion Brothers and Fat City.

He is a physical specimen. He’s a rock, you know? I at least felt like if I accidently connected with his face, during the punching scene, then nothing would happen to his face. My hand would just shatter into a million pieces, like a crystal. He just makes that whole [scene]. And he had to do it over and over again, because of course I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just throwing these punches willy-nilly all over the place. Finally, one connected. Each time though, he was perfect. He’s such an amazing actor. You get this stuff that normally a stuntman would do, and he’s perfect, amazing to watch. Being connected, physically, to certain things is tricky for me. I would, for sure, not be as good at taking a punch as he was.

It seems like, with Keach, with Dern, with the old-school Paramount logo that opens the film, Alexander Payne is making a concentrated effort to call us back to the American cinema of the late ’60s and early ’70s. What’s your relationship to that era of filmmaking and how do you connect to it?

Well, it’s interesting. I was born in 1970, so I watched some of those movies with my parents, but I was a kid. So I took out different things than an adult would. Then the AFI came out with their top 100 list. I looked at the list, and I realized I’d only seen 25 or so of them. So I ended up watching that entire list, except Lawrence of Arabia, which I’m waiting to see on the big screen. And I rewatched the things I had seen before. So I got to see these wonderful movies. And you know, somehow Paper Moon isn’t on that list? I just watched it…God, what a great movie.

I was actually just thinking last night about how there are distinct similarities—narrative structure, shot compositions—shared between Nebraska and Paper Moon.

Interestingly, I’m going back to L.A. later this week with Bob Odenkirk to introduce a double feature of Nebraska and Paper Moon. And I just got to work with Peter Bogdanovich! That was why I’d watched the film. Somehow I’d never seen it, and everyone said I had to.

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Bogdanovich has made another movie?

Yeah, it’s called Squirrel to the Nuts. It was a really fun experience. That guy, he’s the ultimate cool dude. Just super mellow. He knows exactly what he wants, and he’s an amazing director, but he’s just so relaxed, and unflappable.

Well, all these guys, these influences, come from a prior generation, of men, and of filmmakers. Do you feel this film is speaking about a generational divide, or is the animosity between your character and Bruce Dern’s character specific to that family?

Well, obviously, you know, every generation has their different qualities. And this is a relationship that felt very familiar to me. My grandfather was very much the way that Bruce is in the movie. A sweeter version of that, as I got along with him very well, but he was a man of very few words. And so I felt I understood that relationship. Years ago, I didn’t think about why that was. He was just Grandpa. I’m sure there’s a lot of what you mentioned in the film though. It’s an aspect of it. But I didn’t have to think about that too much. The script is so well-written, it’s a template.

How did you feel about that script, on first read?

Well, it was beautiful, but a little heartbreaking. I loved it, and I felt a connection to this character, but I felt there was no way I would be able to be in this movie. I knew Alexander Payne was doing it. And it was such a bummer, I’m thinking, “It would be so fun to play this part, but there’s no way [I could get the job].” Somehow, you know, from George Clooney in Hawaii to Will Forte in Nebraska? It was just the most unexpected thing to get this role, and it’s just been so exciting the whole way through. I never thought I’d get a chance to do something like this in my lifetime. I’d already got to do my dream job. SNL was my goal when I was starting up in comedy. I was one of the rare people that got to do their dream job. So to get a chance to do something like this, too, it’s unbelievably cool, and I’m so excited.

“Something like this” meaning dramatic acting under such a respected filmmaker?

Yeah, I never felt like, “Oh, I have to go into drama.” Because I think my footing is very uneven in comedy territory. It’s not like I’m some go-to guy in the comedy world. I’m very proud of what I’ve done, but I know my place.

So when you’re performing, and you reach a funny line, does it present a bit of dissonance? Is it tough trying to play things dramatically without resorting to “jokey” line readings?

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Yes, well that was the tricky thing for me. I’m very much the straight man in this movie, I think, both in terms of comedy and drama. So when it would come to a line where it could be considered a joke, and I could potentially give it a joke-read, it would be tricky. Because my character is probably not a great joke-teller. That was the tricky part. I would over-think that stuff. What would happen is you say it a bunch of different ways and Alexander would pick the one that felt right to him. And yeah, most of the time [he picked] the takes that didn’t feel like joke-reads.

Well, Payne has had such an interesting progression as a filmmaker. His first films were such uproarious comedies, right? But now he has you, a comedian, in the lead role, and he seems more interested in making something that’s divorced entirely from the comedic genre.

Election was the first Alexander Payne movie I ever saw. Well, I guess it was only his second movie at the time. But I had seen everything he released after that and had become such a huge fan. I only got a chance to see Citizen Ruth after I got this job, and I don’t know how I missed it, it’s so great. I hear he has this great student film too. I’m not sure what it’s called, but I’ll have to seek it out.

It must be very intimidating getting the call to go work for him. Especially when you’re spending most of that time in a car acting alongside Bruce Dern.

It was very intimidating leading up to doing it. The auditioning process was nerve-wracking, because I just get nervous in those situations. Coming from a writing background, I didn’t do a lot of auditioning. The SNL job, similar to this, just kind of came out of nowhere. I was doing a Groundlings show, and you put together your own audition. You put together characters you’ve been doing already for years, so there’s a comfort to that. But the audition process where you go in and read other people’s lines? I wasn’t used to that. Once I got the job, it was elation, and excitement. But then, intimidation. My mind started playing tricks on me. I started getting nervous. I didn’t want to ruin this guy’s movie! And then I hear it’s Bruce Dern, and it’s like, “Great, another guy I can be afraid of.” Every piece of the puzzle was coming together, and they were all beautiful. And I wanted to make sure I didn’t ruin what was shaping up to be a wonderful movie.

So the moment I got to Nebraska, we were there for about a week before we started shooting, Bruce was just so cool. And Alexander too. Just so wonderful to me. By the time we shot, we felt very comfortable. You see June in this movie, and you’d never know what a sweet woman she is. It was very nice, this rehearsal week. We didn’t really rehearse at all, we just became friends. Bruce and June and Alexander and I, we would just go to dinner and hang out. Alexander would even drive us around to locations, and show us what we were doing, but we only read through the script, the four of us, one time. And that was it. It was so nice though, because by the time I was sitting in the car with Bruce, there was none of that fear or intimidation. They made me feel like I was part of the team. But once we started, the nerves had subsided.

You mentioned having a very personal connection to the character when reading the script.

It’s something that’s hard to describe. I feel like there’s something about this guy, the way he treats his family and his life, that feels very familiar to me. I mean, he seems a little “stuck” in life, and there are certainly areas where I’m stuck. I had good parents who raised me right, and I feel like I try to do the right thing, and I think he does too. It’s hard to describe, but there was something there.

Was it the relationships between characters you connected, or the small moments, like seeing the family gathered together to drink beer and watch baseball?

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It’s a bit of everything. I read that, and that was my Grandpa, watching sports. I remember the chair he’d watch it in; he was always in the same chair, everyone had their spots. In this movie, everyone sits in their spot. It’s funny because we’ve all been in that situation before, you know? The idea of spots feels very familiar to me. I guess everyone has their spot.

Jake Mulligan

Jake Mulligan is the film editor at DigBoston. His work has appeared in Esquire, the Boston Phoenix, and other publications.

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