Exclusive: Cast Talks ‘Friends From College’ At NY Premiere

‘Friends From College,’ Netlifx’s new eight-episode series created by husband-and-wife team Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco, premiered last Monday at AMC Loews 34th Street.

The show follows forty-something couple Ethan (Keegan Michael Key) and Lisa (Cobie Smulders) as they reconnect with college friends and fall into a web of complicated relationships with one another. We caught up with the cast and creators on the red carpet.

Nat Faxon

Can you tell me about the character you play?

NF: I play one of the friends from college. When I was growing up they were called trustafarians—basically kids that had a ton of money and no real goals in life. They always were able to do whatever they wanted, party all the time, and never get a real job—maybe they had an office at their father’s company, but never really went—and then probably grew up and felt guilty, like they probably should have done something more meaningful with their lives.

Was there any room for improvisation in the script?

NF: I would say we always tried to do a few takes where we stuck to the script and tried to get what was on the page correct, or at least close to. The writing was so strong on this show that it felt like an injustice to improvise, to change it up for no reason really. When it’s already really good you kind of just should do it the way it’s written. But that being said, I will say Nick is incredibly loose and fun and is not strict at all when it comes to saying the words exactly, so it was a good mix. I would say we’d get a few takes that were on script, and then we would do some fun, kind of where it loosened up. I think probably the final product ended up being a little bit of both.

Do you still keep in touch with your friends from college?

NF: Yes, I do. I have a good group of friends who I still keep in touch with pretty regularly. Hopefully they’ll enjoy this, you know, and see themselves in some of the parts.

Jae Suh Park

Can you tell me about the character you play?

JSP: I play Marianne, and she’s kind of the bohemian of the group. She doesn’t believe in marriage, she doesn’t believe in monogamy, lives in the same apartment she did when she was in college. She’s an artist, an actress.

What do you like about filming in New York?

JSP: Not having my child with me? [laughs] No, I’ve never lived in New York long term, so it was really fun because I was able to go back and fourth quite a bit. I stayed in Brooklyn, I was in midtown, I was in Long Island. I was able to enjoy so much, so that was really fun for me.

What was it like working with this incredibly talented cast?

JSP: I’ve been telling people it’s kind of like we’re in the Super Bowl of comedy. I’ve never been a series regular on a show, so I feel like I was accidentally thrown in. I was Rudy, and then I just kind of had to make due with it. But everybody was so amazing and so wonderful and so supportive that it was just wonderful and so much fun.

Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco

What was it like working with Netflix?

NS: It’s been awesome. They’re really hands off and very supportive. The notes they give, they say you can take it or leave it, but their notes tend to be really helpful.

FD: They really trusted us to make the show that we wanted to make and set out to make, which is kind of incredible. And they just let it unfold that way. But then they would read scripts and say, “Just so you know, this is how we feel about this character,” and they were always right.

NS: When we went to them, they were like, “We’ll make it.” There wasn’t like the process of writing a pilot and then making the pilot. They were just like, “We’ll make the series.”

FD: That’s like your fantasy as a writer.

What’s the dynamic like working together?

FD: We really enjoyed it. The first season was kind of a breeze in that way. We definitely challenge each other, and have some ideas that are exactly the same and some that are really different, and it seems like hashing it out is a useful way to come up with something that will be interesting .

Do you approach making shows and film in a different way?

 NS: Not really. This is a longer story that we’re telling, so it’s like a movie is two hours, this is four hours. We treated it exactly like a movie—we wrote everything before we shot, we had rehearsals like a movie, we cross boarded everything so we shot out of order. We basically treated it like a movie.

Annie Parisee

Can you tell me about the character you play?

AP: I play Sam, and she is in a moment of perhaps self-revelation after a lifetime of arrested development.

Do you find you can relate to that at all?

AP: Aspects of it. I mean, God, I hope I don’t have it as bad as she does [laughs]. But I can relate to that feeling of just not wanting to grow up, like not wanting to be at the moment where it all starts to count, and then suddenly realizing, “Oh, I’m already there, and I’ve been there for a while.”

What do you like about filming in New York?

AP: Well I live here, so it makes it really easy and convenient for me. But also I had a couple of iconic New York filming moments. Once we shot on the steps of the Met, and it was just gorgeous, and there was a scene that we shot in the middle of Park Avenue late at night with the steam rising, and you can see the MetLife building in the background. I was like, “Wow, this is my life. I get to do this.”

Do you have any upcoming projects?

 AP: I just did a project with Jeff Daniels called The Looming Tower.

Keegan Michael Key

Do you still keep in touch with your friends from college?

KMK: I keep up with a few friends from college. I have college friends and graduate school friends, and I try to make an effort to stay in touch with them. My best friend from college, her three children are my godchildren, so I spend time with her—she’s going to come see me in Hamlet in a couple of months. It’s all about who you make an effort with, because you know how you find that sometimes you’re friends with people you’re around? And then you move away and you go, “Oh, that’s too bad. Oh, maybe we weren’t that great of friends.”

Who are you in the group? What’s that dynamic like?

KMK: I’m never the planner. Somebody else organizes, and then I execute. So like, “OK we got everyone in the party. Now Keegan, you take over and make sure everybody’s happy.” That’s my job.

Are you at liberty to tell me anything about Predator with Shane Black?

KMK: [Pantomimes a nervous glance over his shoulders, around the room] I think that people find the original Predator to be very clever and funny. I think if you were to watch this movie next to the old Predator, you would find that there’s two to three more laughs. I can tell you that. I’m trying to think if there’s another subtle way I can tell you anything else, but I don’t think there is. There’s just a lot more there to enjoy.

Cobie Smulders

I loved you in Literally Right Before Aaron. What an amazing, charming movie.

CS: Oh! You saw that?

What was it like being part of this ensemble cast?

CS: It was stupid, so stupid, because everyday we would be onset, and right before we would roll it was like we were already doing a scene cause we all got along really well. Nick Stoller is amazing at hiring–like, I think he has a no asshole policy, because it’s really hard to get a group of—how many of us are there? Eight? Seven?—and none of us are jerks. I mean maybe I’m a jerk. I don’t think I’m a jerk, but that’s hard for me to make a judgment call on. But nobody I’ve worked with is a jerk, and I think that that is so important when you’re doing an ensemble. You have to genuinely like each other and be entertained by each other.

All episodes of ‘Friends From College’ will be available on Netflix on July 14th