In Ruben Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less, Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation, Funny People), and Dilshad Vadsaria (Greek) play brother and sister who are both close friends with Jesse Eisenberg's character.  Ansari plays his best friend, while Vadsaria is the girl of his dreams. When Eisenberg is taken hostage by two criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson), he's forced to rob a bank and he enlists the help of Ansari to help him survive.Last summer I got to visit the set of 30 Minutes or Less with a few other online reporters and we got to talk to Ansari and Vadsaria. While the full conversation is after the jump, here's 5 things I learned:
- Fleischer wanted to shoot the car chases in the film like The French Connection. Instead of shooting the car scenes against a green screen on a stage, Jesse is really stunt driving and the car is being pulled along on a rig.
- Ansari says Ruben Fleischer was really open to letting him improvise. Before shooting a scene, Fleischer would tell him that if thereâs anything he wanted to try, to just try it.
- On trying to come up with good stuff while improvising, Ansari said, "usually when I improvise stuff, Iâll improvise in a take and as the takes go on you refine that improv and rewrite it over and over again. Even with Judd, youâll improvise like ten things and it will be like âOh, do those three again.â Like that kind of process. So, yeah, itâs definitely kind of like refining it. Itâs not like you throw something out and itâs gold."
- Ansari describes the film as Superbad meets Heat. Before shooting the bank robbery scenes, he watched Heat and wanted his character to try to act like Robert De Niro in Heat, but have it come off as incredibly stupid.
- At the time, Ansari was writing a movie for Judd Apatow about a guy that was an astronaut.
Hit the jump for more.
Before getting to the full interview, here's the official synopsis and the very funny red band trailer.
In the action-comedy 30 Minutes or Less, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wanna-be criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari). As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers, and their own tumultuous relationship.
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As usual, we're offering two ways to get this interview: you can either click here to listen to the interview, or the full transcript is below. Again, 30 Minutes or Less opens August 12.
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So when youâre trying to convey that awkward fraternal bond that siblings can often have, especially twins who tend to grow up like rats in a too small sack, do you spend a lot of time together so you can practice loving and hating each other or do you just let the script do the work?
Dilshad Vadsaria: Well, I have a brother and weâre really close. So I was able to grow up with siblings and you can kind of go right into that. But Iâm not a twin, but weâre really, really close. We havenât spent too much time together.
Aziz Ansari: Yeah, the way that the movieâs structured, we actually donât have muchâ¦itâs not like the first half of the movie is just about us being twins hanging out together and then he gets a bomb strapped onto him. Our scenes are likeâ¦we donât have like us having picnics together type scenes.
Do you guys have a lot of action stuff?
Ansari: Me and Jesse have some fun action sequences that we shot last week. We shot some car chases and stuff. After we robbed the bank and stuff thereâs a car chase, which is really fun. Iâve never done any action stuff. Thereâs no car chases in Parks & Recreation so it was fun.
Fewer in Funny People?
Ansari: Yeah thereâs none in I Love You Man or anything like that so it was fun. [director] Ruben [Fleischer] really wanted to shoot it like these car chases that are in these movie like The French Connection. Weâre really in the cars itâs not all green screen so Jesseâs really doing stunt driving. Thereâs like rigs that are pulling the car and stuff. Itâs just pretty fun. The acting is pretty easy in a car chase. Youâre just like âAAAAHHHHH!!!â You know, oh let me do something different this time -- âNOOOOO!!!â Oh I got another, âLook out!â So that was really fun.
You play a teacher?
Ansari:Â Yeah, my character is a teacher.
I was looking at some of your dialogue where youâre yelling at a student about texting.
Ansari: Is it that hard to believe Iâd be a teacher?
Iâm trying to imagine your inflection of dialogue thatâs all...
Ansari: Wait. You mean because Iâve done a lot of things where I yell at kids?
Can you talk a little bit about playing a teacher?
Ansari: Thereâs only like one quick scene of me with these students and you see what heâs like as a teacher. But you know, Iâve done a lot of stuff in the sketch comedy show Human Giant. We did a lot of stuff with kids so I always find it funny when youâre just yelling at kids and being mean to them. So I was excited when they told me I was a teacher and it was fun to kind of get to play a teacher that had these little students.
Did you tap into terrifying childhood elementary school memories or anything?
Ansari:Â Most of my teachers when I grew up were like older white women. So, I couldnât really channel them.
Do you feel like thereâs a lot of freedom on the set? Like if you want to move a different way, say a different line, run something else. Do you have a lot of freedom, maybe more so than some other films?
Vadsaria: I do. I mean, my experience so far has been to stick to the script and all of that. Whereas Rubenâ¦I mean he was even writing up stuff right before we shot the last scene of the movie. Changing it up and everything.
Ansari: Yeah, Rubenâs really cool about letting us improvise and whenever we do a scene or rehearsal I kind of like think about it as âIs this working? Are the jokes right there? Is there a way to punch this up at all? I go in every scene I do just being like âAlright. Is there any way to make this better? Is there any way to change this? Are there any other jokes or anything that could help?â And itâs not just improvising like Whose Line is It. I think when people talk about improvising it turns into this silly thing like, âOh thereâs like a hula hoop there and Iâm like âOh whatâs going on here? Is this a really big ring?ââ Itâs not that at all. Itâs very focused. Itâs almost like rewriting in the moment and really thinking about the scene and any jokes I make I try to make sure itâs on story and helps the characters and makes sense with the movie. But Rubenâs been cool about - any scene we do heâs always telling me âIf thereâs anything you want to try - try it. Just try it.â The bank robbery scene we shot the other day was so fun because Iâve never done a bank robbery and thatâs like the funnest thing to ever do. You just get to yell whatever nonsense you want. It was such an amazing opportunity. It was one of the funnest scenes Iâve ever gotten the opportunity to shoot and he is always just pushing to get us to try to come up with stuff and is very encouraging when we come up with stuff he likes. Heâs always like âItâs so great.â and itâs just a fun process.
In Funny People, Randy makes a joke about how if he spins around eight times itâs like 20% funnier than if he spins around. Notwithstanding that joke, is there any intellectual process of refining jokes that you think of as a comedian or as a performer where youâre like I can actually make this a little bit funnier if I just change this word.
Ansari: Totally. Usually when I improvise stuff, Iâll improvise in a take and as the takes go on you refine that improv and rewrite it over and over again. And itâs like âOh, thatâs the best version of that.â  I think itâs when that kind of stuff works best. Even with Judd, youâll improvise like ten things and it will be like âOh, do those three again.â Like that kind of process. So, yeah, itâs definitely kind of like refining it. Itâs not like you throw something out and itâs gold.
Miss Vadsaria, Iâm curious.  You obviously have a great number of scenes with Mr. Eisenberg. Whatâs it like doing scenes opposite him.  Whatâs it like adjusting to the jazz of stammer and his line delivery?
Vadsaria: Heâs so good and so great. Obviously, everyone knows that, but heâs soâ¦thereâs this honesty in his performance all the time. Whether itâs on camera, off camera, or where ever.  So, itâs really wonderful to work off of him and to work with him on that. Weâve done all of our major stuff. We havenât done any of the car stuff. That is going to happen next week with the scrap yard and things like that so I havenât been able to do any of the action stuff yet. But itâs just so natural to work with him. I think thatâs probably the best way to describe it. There isnât much effort or you feel like there isnât much effort because heâs just in the moment and heâs just doing his thing. So itâs been great to work off of him and heâs a very generous actor because it doesnât matter whether heâs on camera or not.
Ansari: Wow Iâve had a very different experience. Um, heâs really unprofessional.  Heâs like always at craft services eating cherries and M&Ms. Iâm like âDude, weâve got to like rehearse and heâs like âWell, Iâll just do it when I need to do it.ââ Itâs just hard.
One of the easiest ways to make something funny is to make it louder and bigger. Mr. Eisenbergâs comedic sensibility is very specifically about making something quieter and slower and smaller. Do you ever find that thereâs a conflict between your comedy styles?
Ansari: No. I hope my comedy doesnât come off like itâs just about being louder.
No, that wasnât implied at all.
Ansari: No, I think whatâs great about him is I always find that the best acting for comedy is playing things very real and treating it seriously and not treating it as jokey.  Heâs such a good actor and his instinct is to play things real and thatâs always my instinct with comedy too.  So I think it works really well.  With this kind of movie, obviously itâs a comedy, but you have to treat the situation like itâs real.  This guy has a bomb on him.  Thereâs really emotional scenes and you got to really play it real and if you donât it comes off weird. I think whatâs cool about this movie is itâs grounded in things you treat real, but itâs really funny and itâs good.
Vadsaria: Also going back to that last scene of the film that we shot just to see them do their thing just works really, really well because itâs not like one is offsetting the other in a different way. They have this great chemistry where they work so well off each other that when youâre watching that from outsideâ¦it just balances really, really well and I think they do a really good job together. Regardless of whatever style. Because theyâre best friends so that works out really well.
Ruben said they were kind of allowed to do whatever they wanted in terms of casting and not a lot of notes on the script. Did you guys feel like the roles that they cast you on the page were like tailored for you guys or that he brought you in because he wanted you to take the character and do a lot of expansion on it?
Vadsaria: For me, I auditioned. I donât think he knew who I was when I walked in the room.  So, I went through the audition process and then I guess they liked how it went.  And then my chemistry with Jesse was important for this role.  But, Iâm thinking he knew who you were.
Ansari: Yeah, but I think as far as the script and stuff, whenever you have a comedy script sometimes itâs written for certain people and other people end up doing it. Who knows, but I donât know when those guys wrote the script and if it was necessarily Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari or thatâs just how it came together. So, me and Jesseâs personalities have gotten into those characters and weâve definitely brought things to it that werenât there necessarily because Rubenâs very open to us bringing whatever we have to the characters and the scene. So obviously itâs changed and I think thatâs whatâs cool about it because being able to do that stuff is always really fun.
Dannyâs dialogue - we were reading it today before we even saw him perform it - and when I read it I was like he could just say this and it would be funny. Did you feel like any of it was in any way - whether or not they thought of you for it - you read it and you were like âOh, I could do this. This is sort of perfect for me.â?
Ansari: Yeah. I read it and saw how I could make it my own and do what I do with that character.
I was curious if you had gotten an opportunity of taking advantage of any of the liberties you get in an R rated film?
Vadsaria: Yeah, this character is rather different from the character Iâve been playing for a few years.  But, in the sense of dialogue, sheâs not the kind of girl whoâs going to curse like crazy. Itâs just not who she is.  If she was, I wouldâve, but in that sense thatâs not who she is.  Itâs just a whole different experience to be on this kind of set as opposed to being on a network show and a show thatâs a bit more trying to still figure out where they are as opposed to an ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO type of deal.  So, thereâs always that fine line where youâre always trying to push and then you do something in a take but then theyâre come in and say âThat was great, but maybe you can try it this way.â and youâre like âYeah, thatâs not going to goâ and theyâre like âNoooo.â  Thatâs not really the experience on this film. Theyâre like âJust go. Just do it.â  I think thatâs the biggest difference.
With Aziz and Danny obviously being established comedians with improv skills, is it intimidating for you to be on a set like this with all the impov?
Vadsaria: Yeah, itâs a little bit of a couple of things.  Yes, intimidating. Definitely, but only because these guys are so good at what they do and theyâve been doing it.  Stand up is in my opinion the hardest thing you can do and to get up and do even a five minute routine itâs like, I canât even imagine doing something like that.  So these are really seasoned people Iâve been given the opportunity to come in and work with.  In my case, I have that in my mind, but itâs also been an amazing opportunity to work with these guys and work off of that and then to learn too.  Itâs my first exposure to something like this.
Since you guys are filming here in Grand Rapids, whatâs the big thing you do on Saturday night?
Ansari: I usually go out of town to do stand up. I go see some friends in New York.
Have you tried to do any shows around here?
Ansari: One weekend I was here and I did some shows at a comedy club called Dr. Grins. As soon as I heard the name I was like, this is going to be a classy place. Â So I did Dr. Grins.
Ansari: Yeah, I donât know how it got that name.  The night I was doing the show I was like âAlright. Iâm not going to go up there and make fun of the name for five minutes because Iâm sure everyone has tore the name up to pieces.â But then I looked on the drink menu. I was like âOk, so probably Dr Grins is a name thatâs been there for a long time and they were like âLetâs just leave it. thereâs no point in changing it now people know the name. Weâll just leave it.ââ But then on the drink menu they have drinks called Giggle Juice and I was like âAlright. Thereâs no excuse for that.  Donât need to call the drinks Giggle Juice.â But yeah, Grand Rapids is a fun town.  Everyoneâs been really nice and I think people are siked about the filming and stuff and are just really helpful and really nice. Everyone Iâve met has been like âLet me know if you need advice on where to eat, or what bars to go to.â Everyone is willing to lend a helping hand.
Vadsaria: This is my first weekend.
This film marks a pretty big first for both you guys. This is your first major supporting role in a feature and your first feature. How is this different for you?
Ansari: For me, before I had been doing these smaller projects, I would come in for a couple of days, do my thing, head out.  This, Iâm just here all the fucking time.  Iâm so tired of it. Iâm here nonstop. No, Iâm not tired of it.  But you look on the sheet and itâs like âMan, me and Jesse are in everything today. Again?â Then Rubenâs like âYeah, youâre the main guys in the movie.â  I guess that makes sense.
You were talking a little bit about your comedic styling and I wouldnât say loud or anything like that, but you are ... energetic is a word I would use to describe you. Is that something that naturally comes out of you, or is that something that you have to prep for and do you find directors are kind of looking for that out of you?
Ansari: Thatâs my personality. Iâm not quiet.  I mean, obviously someone like Randy is a little bit crazy and then Tom from Parks is a different thing and you know this character. I try to do them all a little differently and I guess ultimately my personality will come out through them in different ways.  This is really fun because Iâve never done any acting where itâs such a serious situation where itâs like weâre robbing banks weâre in a car chase.  These are all crazy situations.  I always find movies where itâs taking normal people and putting them in extraordinary situations to be interesting.  Thatâs what I liked about the script.  I canât think of any bank robbery comedy where itâs about two normal guys. Itâs kind of like Superbad meets Heat, which is a cool combo, and itâs just fun doing a normal guy thatâs robbing a bank.  When we were shooting the bank robbery, the day before I was like watching Heat over and over again and I was like âWhat if this guy is trying to be like De Niro in Heat? So I was trying to be like an idiot trying to do De Niro in Heat. I was trying to sound cool like âThink about things you love in your life.â Ruben had a folder of all these famous bank heists â Heat, Out of Sight, Raising Arizona. I just watched all of them. I was like âMan, a bank robbery sounds like a cool scene and itâs only in a few movies.â  Itâs really cool to get to do one.
Do you get some serious badass moments?
Ansari: When we rob a bank itâs fun, and itâs so fun just yelling stuff at strangers like youâre going to shoot them.
Were you doing them seriously?
Ansari: Seriously, but itâs an idiot trying to do them. Â Itâs not a guy thatâs smooth at it at all. Â I mean, you see a guy like me going, âIâve been trained in special forces.â Â Itâs like âNo you havenât.â
Itâs a comedy but the premise of this film is incredibly dark. You could do this film like a drama and it would be like The Hurt Locker or The Wages of Fear. Both your characters spend a lot of the film next to someone wearing a device that could at any moment kill them. Â How do you tap into that? Â How do you remember that going into every scene?
Ansari: You know, itâs definitely a thing.  I feel like Ruben sometimes had to be before takes like âHey! Donât forget you just robbed a bank.â and Iâm like âOh, yeah. Thatâs right.â Iâve got to make sure I remember that. Iâve got to keep that in mind because itâs definitely behind everything.  The way you deal with that stuff is that thereâs definitely scenes that are like really intense and a little more dramatic at times, and that was so fun to do because thereâs nothing like that in the other comedy stuff Iâve done.  There hasnât been an element where itâs like âThis has to be super serious and emotional and you need to be like about to cry and stuff.â  So itâs really cool because Jesseâs so good at that stuff. He did a scene where he was crying like crazy and it blew me away. I was like âOh, man.  Iâve got to figure out how to cry. That would be really good if I could do that.â So when I had a scene like that I really challenged myself to kind of like step my game up to his and it was fun.  I think we have those scenes that are very real so doesnât feel like âWhy are they not acting more intense? There bomb is on the guy.â
Ms. Vadsaria, is it tough to play a scene where you are hugging someone whoâs wearing an explosive vest or a romantic scene with someone whoâs wearing a bomb?
Vadsaria: Our romantic scene took place on a roof across from each other.  But my character has no idea whatâs going on.  My character does not know when he actually does have the bomb strapped and heâs with her â she has no idea and heâs protecting her from that because he loves her so much.  So thatâs where the stakes get really high. Where heâs come to tell her how much he loves her because theyâve been friends. All three of them have grown up together and she has no clue. Of course, she figures that out at the end, but at that point things have gone crazy anyway and thatâs what weâre going to shoot next week. She figures out somethingâs definitely wrong because she got kidnapped by some guys in gorilla masks, but she has no clue whatâs going on with the bomb until the very end.
Aziz, you were doing stand up before you did Funny People, but of course Randy has come back. Â Do you have to be careful with the roles that you take to make sure that people donât say Randy is actually you or that the one role you play in Parks & Recreation is not the defining way that youâre perceived? Â Do you strategize at all about what you take?
Ansari: To me, Randy is such an extreme. Itâs a guy who runs around and talks about getting his dick sucked all the time.  I donât think thereâs going to be a movie with too many parts like that. âOh, this guy. His best friend delivers pizza. Heâs got a bomb strapped to him.  You play a guy who wants to get his dick sucked all the time.â That wasnât what was brought forward.  No, I donâtâ worry about that.  I feel like I did that Randy character and that was a thing I did.  This movie and the other movies Iâm writing for myself - theyâre all different things.  The one thing Iâm writing for Judd now, I play a guy that was an astronaut.  Itâs all way different.  I donât worry about that.
Obviously there are not going to be a lot of other roles that require a Randy-size performance, but you donât want people to think that that is just all you.
Ansari: No. I think that unless they are really dumb, I think they know that I was playing a character in a movie.  I see what youâre saying.  I was talking to Danny and sometimes people want him to just be Kenny Powers.  Itâs an extreme character, but itâs a character and itâs not him.  Itâs him doing a character, but some people have just seen Kenny Powers and their like âOh, he must be just like Kenny Powers.â  But heâs like âNo, Iâm not like Kenny Powers.â  I think Iâve done so much other stuff like my standup as myself, Parks & Recreation, and all the other movies. I feel like Iâm not Randy.
I know you said that you canât play âSpecial Forcesâ, but now that you have a taste of the action, are you thinking maybe youâre in the scrap yard?
Ansari: I really had fun doing the car chase scene. So the next movie I want to pitch is called â120 Minute Car Chaseâ itâs just me and Jason Statham in a 120 minute car chase. Itâs just me and Jason Statham, no one else.  All the other guys got expended. Theyâreâ¦well, you remember what we said - theyâre expendable.
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For more on 30 Minutes or Less:
30 MINUTES OR LESS Set Visit Recap and Video Blog
Director Ruben Fleischer On Set Interview 30 MINUTES OR LESS
Jesse Eisenberg On Set Interview 30 MINUTES OR LESS
Danny McBride and Nick Swardson On Set Interview 30 MINUTES OR LESS