“Friendship” director teases Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson's bromance breakup from hell

With his upcoming movie Friendship, writer-director Andrew DeYoung hopes to break new comedic ground in the "complicated," awkward, and slightly "pathetic" world of middle-aged men and their platonic relationships. The first-time filmmaker knows this space well, having experienced his own man breakup during a difficult time for friendships of all sorts.

"I wrote it in 2020 during the pandemic," DeYoung tells Entertainment Weekly. "The seed of the idea came from feeling rejected by someone who I thought was going to be a new male friend, and I caught myself spinning out, and I thought that was really pathetic."

Starring his friend Tim Robinson of I Think You Should Leave fame and veteran bromance actor Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man), DeYoung describes the comedy as "basically a breakup story between two dads, like a friendship breakup story between guys." He adds, "I don't think I've seen that, and it's really funny and relatable and happens a lot."

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, fans of Robinson's unique, cringe-inducing blend of humor reported feeling right at home with his big-screen leading-man debut. Still, DeYoung says he did not set out to write the film with Robinson in mind.

"As I wrote, Tim came to mind, and he's a friend, so I started to kind of write towards his strengths, and thankfully, he said yes when I sent it to him," DeYoung says. "It's nice to hear that those people seem to be connecting. I certainly wrote this movie to stand on its own and wasn't trying to be an extension of Tim's aesthetic or voice, but it's nice that there's a crossover there, it seems."

Given his friendship with the actor, DeYoung is in a unique position to answer a common question among Robinson's fans: How closely does his real-life personality resemble his characters'? "We can't hide who we are in our work," the director says with a laugh. "So, for sure, there's so many elements of who he is as a person in his work. But he's the nicest, kindest man, and so present and attentive and really cares about comedy...I think that's why his work is so good. He really holds himself and the others around him to a high standard, and he certainly elevated the script by bringing his own aesthetic and point of view to it."

Set in the fictional East Coast town of Clovis, Robinson and his wife Tami (Kate Mara) "are very much a middle-class couple deep in their comfortable routines. Craig looks forward to the next Marvel movie while Tami is focused on her growing florist business," explains the director. Their lives take an unexpected turn when Rudd's Austin moves into their neighborhood. ["He's] a local weatherman with a rock band. I think of him as a modern Marlboro man," DeYoung adds.

Craig, "who works at a company that helps other companies make their products more addictive," first meets his irresistibly cool new neighbor when he returns a misdelivered package. From there, he becomes obsessed with inserting himself into Austin's life. While DeYoung is hesitant to give too much away, fans of Robinson's work can probably imagine how this budding friendship turns sour. "Craig does something strange when they are hanging out one night, which causes Austin to no longer want to be friends," teases the director.

DeYoung had planned on casting Austin with an actor known solely for his dramatic work, but when a creative partner suggested Rudd, he says, "I was like, 'Oh my God, he is perfect.' He has a foot in both worlds. He can do drama so well and serious stuff so well, and then also he's such a goof and matches Tim in such a beautiful way."

With the role of Tami, DeYoung stuck more closely to his initial instincts of surrounding Robinson with actors not normally known for comedy. "To be honest, I get kind of let down by most comedy movies because it feels like when there's a bunch of comedians, that sells out the emotion, or it's so easy to sell it out." In fact, the filmmaker believes part of what makes Robinson's humor so compelling is his dedication to his characters. "I think that's why Tim's comedy hits so hard because he commits with such furiosity," he says with a laugh. "He's so ferocious in his commitment to the absurd. So, that's why I tend to gravitate towards more traditional drama actors. Kate was one of the first people that was pitched to me, and I met her and immediately was like, 'Yeah, you're perfect. Let's do this.'"

Fortunately, being surrounded by non-comedians did not hinder Robinson's improv process. In fact, despite working extensively in the field, the Saturday Night Live and Second City alum prefers to stick to the page. "What's interesting is, Tim doesn't like improv. Of course, there is improv in the movie, just naturally little ornamentation and stuff. And Paul is exceptional at it, so naturally, they do it, and it did make it into the movie, but for the most part, it's pretty much on the page outside of a few things that Tim and Paul brought."

Surprisingly, Robinson's preference for adhering to the script also applies to his work on his sketch comedy show, I Think You Should Leave. "Oh my God, he and [co-creator] Zach [Kanin] are so meticulous about the writing on that show," says DeYoung. "Of course, on the day, when you're shooting, inspiration strikes, so they're looking for that to be like, 'Okay, what could be funnier here?' But it's amazing to see how when they go in, everything is so precise, yet in the performance, it feels like they're improvising because, number one, it's well written, but the performances are also so honest because they know the ins and outs of what they're trying to do."

It's that commitment to the absurd that had Mara teetering on the verge of breaking character during their scenes. "With Tim, she broke a lot because a lot of these themes are so stressful and so serious in the scene," the director explains. "What I find funny is how stressful it is. And she's such a brilliant, dramatic actor that Tim's commitment would sometimes make her break, which makes me feel so happy when I'm like, 'Oh, if she's laughing in the scene, something is working.'"

Friendship hits theaters in 2025.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly