Exclusive Interviews with the Actors of Keeping Up With the Joneses – In Theaters October 21st

 

When I received an email asking if I wanted to see an early screening of Keeping Up With the Joneses and interview the cast  that includes my very favorite Hollywood leading man (Don Draper anyone?) I about fell out of my chair.  Anyone who knows me, knows that Jon Hamm is my favorite and I could watch Mad Men over and over again (and have).  Besides being very nice to look at, he is a great actor as well as is the rest of the cast, Isla Fisher, Zach Galifianakis and Gal Gadot in this rather funny movie that has us watch Zach’s character eat snake, participate in fast car chases and show us all that there is something extraordinary in our ordinary lives if we just look for it.

 

 

An ordinary suburban couple (Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher) finds it’s not easy keeping up with the Joneses (Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot) – their impossibly gorgeous and ultra-sophisticated new neighbors – especially when they discover that Mr. and Mrs. “Jones” are covert operatives.

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Jones appear to be the perfect couple but Isla’s character thinks there is something  about them that doesn’t seem right so she goes about following Mrs. Jones around town to see if she can discover what it is they are hiding.

 

 

 

The entire cast,  Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Gal Gadot are extremely funny and you will enjoy watching everyone play their parts so well.

 

Jon Hamm is the perfect man but like Don Draper, there is something a little amiss under the beautiful exterior.   Zach’s character is enjoying getting to know his new “perfect” neighbor who he thinks is just a regular guy.  He has a bit of a bromance going on and we see his character starts to grow on Mr. Jones, much to his surprise as in his line of work he isn’t suppose to get close to the targets.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Mr. Jones takes him to a Chinese restaurant, but not for anything you’d find on a normal restaurant menu.  I was laughing so hard during this scene because it reminded me of traveling through Southeast Asia and sometimes eating things I wasn’t sure what was being served.  For this scene alone, I highly recommend the movie! You’ll be laughing the entire scene!

 

The Red Carpet Event:

Seeing some of my favorite actors up close was so awesome!  The Red Carpet event was held at The 20th Century Fox Studios and it was a blast getting my picture taken on the red carpet.  A girl can dream right?!  I even sighted Larry David at the premiere!  You can check out a quick video of the party on my Instagram page here.

 

 

We had a chance to sit down with the actors at The Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica the following day.  Everyone was really nice and down-to-earth.  I have yet to come across an actor who isn’t just a normal person once the lights are off of them.  It was quite refreshing and Zach and Jon had us laughing the entire time.

 

Blogger:  Can each of you talk about becoming part of this project?  What was the attraction to you?  And, Jon, particularly did you always want to play a spy and, you know, secret spy and–?

Mr. Jon Hamm:  –I don’t think I always wanted to play a spy.  I think there’s a special place in any sort of boy’s heart of growing up with James Bond and that whole kind of thing that makes it cool and I think what we found in this is like there’s something kind of naturally funny in the way–in taking these kind of prototypes of masculinity or cool sort of like things that we see and then putting them in situations where things don’t go perfectly as scripted.

Zach and I have known each other for quite some time.  But, what I really liked about it was that both characters kind of–it sounds so hokey, but like they both learn something about themselves.  And in my character’s–when we were talking about going through it, I just said, “Like, I just feel like it should be something that it seems like something that he has everything, and yet he doesn’t, or he might be really good at this job, but he doesn’t necessarily like it,” because I think that’s something that everyone can identify with.

Nobody on the planet can identify with being a James Bond because that person’s fake.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  He is?

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Real spies sit like in the–yes, he is.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Okay.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  I mean, I’m sorry.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  All right.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  I’m sorry you’re hearing it now for the first time.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Please don’t tell me about the Easter Bunny next.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Easter Bunny is not real.  Santa Claus is very real.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Thank you.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Bite your tongue.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Thank you.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  So, anyways, I appreciated that with both Greg [Mottola, director] and Zach and myself.  We were all on the same page with sort of trying to find some kind of humanity in what is obviously a very high concept kind of story.

Blogger:  Zach, for you, do you consider yourself a people person?

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  [Snorts].  No–I mean yes.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Yes.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Yes.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Yes, I would say so.  I would say you are.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  I am.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  Absolutely.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  I am, but I think I’m shy sometimes.  But, I was a shy kid.  But now I’m expected to be a little bit maybe the thing that you see in the movies and stuff.  But, I’m pretty quiet.  And I like to be by myself, but I like to go out to dinner with folks.  It’s nice to see you ladies and sir.  But, yes, I’m somewhat of an introvert, somewhat, a little bit, I guess.

But, I like Jon.  I liked all the actors on this movie.  We went out to dinner and stuff.  We socialized.

Mr. Jon Hamm:  We did a lot.  We did.  We had a very nice time.

Mr. Zach Galifianakis:  Yes.

 

Blogger (me):  And the snake scene was just terrific, so funny.  So, how much of that was ad-libbed, or do you guys stick to the script?

Mr. Jon Hamm:  There was a lot–not much was necessarily ad-libbed, I mean other than a few interjections here and there.  But, you know, that scene was actually a replacement scene for a scene we had shot earlier during main production.  We wanted to get it as written as much as we could.

But, the good part about working with friends about people that you know is that there’s a little room to wiggle around if you feel like you need to or if you feel like it makes you feel more comfortable or if you think it’s funnier honestly.

 

 

Next we had a chance to sit down with the lovely Isla Fisher and Gal Gadot.

Blogger:  I keep asking all the actresses how much of the–were you guys ad-libbing, or did you stick to the script?

Gal Gadot:  We mostly stuck to the script, right?

Isla Fisher:  Yes.

Gal Gadot:  But, we had a freebie after every take.

Blogger:  So, how much of that was you using the script?

Isla Fisher:  Well, we haven’t seen the latest cut.  I definitely improvised, because whenever I would make up a line, Zach [Galifianakis] would make up a line back, and then I would end up improvising.

Gal Gadot:  They were hilarious.

Isla Fisher:  So, we would just go on a tangent and Greg Mottola [Director] never yells cut if he thinks something’s amusing, even if it’s not even pertinent to the scene or going to be relevant to the plot.  He will just let us go.

Blogger:  That’s so funny.  That’s great.  Well, it’s good, so a lot of freedom.

Isla Fisher:  Yes.

Gal Gadot:  Yes, yes, yes.

Isla Fisher:  There was a lot of freedom, which you need in a comedy.

Gal Gadot:  In general, Greg allowed us to be free and do what we thought the characters would do and just gave us little notes that ever so slightly notes of how to balance the four of us together.

Isla Fisher:  But, I do think that we felt comfortable doing that because you came very much with a very clear idea of Natalie, and you’re so brilliant in the film.  And you ground it completely, and I think that all of us have kind of done our research and really came very prepared to inhabit the emotional landscape of these people.

So, once he could yell action, we were kind of there.

Gal Gadot:  Yes.

Blogger:  That’s great.

Isla Fisher:  But, when I went off and, you know, made a choice that Greg didn’t like, he was very gentle, but he always kind of guided me back because he’s kind of into character comedy detail, Greg Mottola.

Gal Gadot:  Yes, and at the end of the day, he really knew what he wanted.

Isla Fisher:  Yes.

 

Blogger:  Zach said that you could take a joke.  You know, you were very open to, like, all kinds of–you know, he could throw stuff at you–.

Isla Fisher:  –Yes–.

Blogger:  –And you’d be like that’s okay.

Isla Fisher:  Aw, that’s nice.  I wish I could reciprocate.  No, obviously, when you work with someone like Zach Galifianakis and you’re a comedy nerd like me, I’m a fan of great comedy.  I’ve watched all his stuff.  I’ve seen his standup.  I love Between Two Ferns.  So, all I’m thinking the whole time when I’m a comic actor, but I’m not a standup, so I’m just thinking the whole time please say something funny.  Say something in the funny to make Zach laugh.  If you can make Zach laugh, you’ll really feel good about yourself.

So, I was very motivated to impress him, which is the best vibe to have in a comedy, because then you have the appetite to try to be funny when you–anyway, obviously, I’m stating the obvious here.  And he was just a total gentleman, and what’s great, he didn’t use the movie as a vehicle for himself.  He allowed all of us to have a time to shine.

I mean he’s a big comedy star.  It could have easily been the Zach Galifianakis movie, and it’s not.  And the reason we’re all great in the movie, I think, if I don’t mind patting ourselves on the back, maybe cut that last line out.  It sounds kind of braggy.  I did not mean to do that.  But, I think the reason we all had moments where we shine is because he is so collaborative and generous and kind as a person.  And he genuinely loves people and is interested in people and interested in human stories.  And he is just a really great guy.

Over to you on Jon [Hamm].

Gal Gadot:  Jon thought I was the PA when we first met.  This is how it all began, really good, right?  We had a table read, and I saw him the first time downstairs.  Usually the director or one of the producers would have introduced us.  But, I saw him, so I just went to introduce myself.  And then he was like very polite.  And he just got off a flight.  And he’s like can I please have some black coffee.

And I said–.

Isla Fisher:  –But, you made it, right?

Gal Gadot:  I said–yes, and I spit in it.  I said, sure, but you know I’m playing your wife.  I’m Gal.  I’m playing Natalie.  And then he felt embarrassed, and he was super sweet about that.  And he apologized, and he was super sweet.

Isla Fisher:  You should have said, “I’m a method actor, and I’m getting into character.”

They went on and spoke about how wonderful it was to work with both of them and you could tell they had a lot of respect for each other.  Isla said she really depended on Gal during the filming because her husband (Sasha Cohen) was out of town and they had just had a baby so Gal helped her out a lot during the filming of the movie.  I love seeing when two strong women support each other and aren’t threatened by each others talents.  This mutual respect was really evident between Isla and Gal.

 

We had a great time interviewing Matt Walsh and Maribeth Monroe who play the unsuspecting neighbors (with a plot twist).

Blogger:  Like, us being in this like cool suburban neighborhood, I love that neighborhood.  I want to move in.  (She is referring to the cool setting in the movie – the neighborhood is very homey and friendly).

Mr. Matt Walsh:  Yes?

Blogger:  I think it’s cool.

Ms. Maribeth Monroe:  It’s really cute.  Isn’t it?

Blogger:  It was.  It was.

Ms. Maribeth Monroe:  Yes.

Blogger:  They had parties in October.

Mr. Matt Walsh:  Yes.

Ms. Maribeth Monroe:  Yes, I know, right?

Blogger:  I live in LA, so nobody knows anybody.  Did you grow up in that kind of an environment where you kind of knew your neighbors and, you know, had block parties and things like?

Mr. Matt Walsh:  I did.  I grew up in Chicago, and then at some point around ten, we moved to the ‘burbs.  And I love Suburbia.  It was very friendly.  We would have pickup basketball games with the dads every Saturday.  We would have, like, neighborhood-wide hide-and-go-seek chases through people’s yards.  We pissed off some of the grumpier homeowners, of course, throwing snowballs or eggs around Halloween, things like that.

But, it was very typical, and I currently live in LA, and I enjoy having a Ralph’s five minutes from my house.  And I have kids, and so it’s nice to unplug and relax.  And the other thing that the movie hit for me is there’s always sort of a social kingpin like Jeff Gaffney, who’s Zach’s character in this movie, where he’s having the party for Halloween.  He’s having the party for New Year’s.  He’s having the Summerfest.

And I have a brother-in-law like that who’s like a deejay, and he always has like a bowling party in the spring and then a dance party in the fall.  And he has this Super Bowl party.  So, I related to the social calendar and the importance to that group of friends of having that guy who puts on the festival because I think adults need to kick up their heels.  But, obviously, when you get older and you have kids, you can’t truly kick up your heels anymore.  But, it’s nice to have those moments on the calendar.

Ms. Maribeth Monroe:  Yes, I, just like Matt, grew up in the Midwest as well.  I grew up just outside of Detroit, Michigan, so definitely a suburbs guy through and through, probably middle class.  I wouldn’t say upper or low, but definitely middle class.  My family was pretty religious growing up, so I attended a Lutheran church for most of my life.

And so, my parents kind of ended up being these kind of church organizers in a way.  We had a lot of these kind of parties that were centered around the Lutheran church I went to.  But, we would have like every Halloween they’d put up a haunted house, and every, you know, spring they would do a bakeoff.  And, you know, there were always these church functions of kind of bringing people together.

But, yes, I think my childhood growing up is probably what I brought.  As far as experiencing that was probably very similar to the Gaffneys in this neighborhood, for sure.

 

Be sure to check out Keeping Up With The Joneses out in theaters tomorrow, October 21st.  This is the perfect date night movie with your hubby or best gal pal.  I really enjoyed it and I think you’ll find the entire cast and storyline quite endearing.

Director: Greg Mottola

Writer: Michael LeSieur

Producers: Laurie Macdonald, Walter F. Parkes

Actors: Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Gal Gadot

Rated PG-13

 

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