As a Hollywood multi-hyphenate, Andy Samberg reads – and rejects – many scripts. But after about 30 pages in “Palm Springs,” he started to think the answer was going to be a rare yes.
“I get things all the time, and sometimes I get great things,” said Samberg. “But I don’t get very good things very often in which I think I would be good, and I would like to spend more than two years working, which basically means when you take a film as a producer. . “
In the romantic comedy, Samberg plays Nyles, a wedding guest who cares about the devil with a secret who, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and a sly smile, saves the reception with a toast for the ages. But when an encounter with Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the bridesmaid, goes awry, the consequences surprise them both.
With “Palm Springs”, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, the Golden Globes, a “visual poem” by the Bash Brothers and the first Lonely Island tour to fill its calendar, 2019 was Samberg’s busiest period since its days “Saturday Night Live”. So he was happy at home earlier this year when the pandemic locked him up for real. Calling from Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, independent musician Joanna Newsom, and their 3-year-old daughter, Samberg explained the 10 things that help each day to feel like the one before it.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. “Crip Camp”
There was a camp on the East Coast to which people with disabilities were sent as children and adolescents in the 1970s, and it was magic for many of them. The documentary tells them about these incredible images and follows their path as they get older and learn how they can and cannot get used to society. Many end up in Berkeley, where I grew up. So it was really fun, not only because the story was cool, but also to see pictures from that era.
2. “Watchmen”
I remember watching the first episode, and I was like, “I don’t know what this show is.” And then, at the end of it, I thought, “It could have been one of the best television seasons I have ever seen.” It was just so creative and so inspired and so bizarre, while directly addressing some of the social issues in our country regarding race and policing – even if it was set in an alternate universe with wacky jokes.
3. New music
“This is what it is” by Thundercat: I was already a fan of Thundercat, then I met him at a party last year, and he was really a treat as a guy. He said to me, “I am currently working on an album. You should check it out when it comes out. “So I was like,” You got it, Thundercat. “
And of course, it’s fantastic. I put it on when I want to get creative. And “Dragonball Durag” is just a jam, and I love the video. As a connoisseur of comedy, I can say, “I may be covered in cat hair, but I still smell good” is one of the funniest lines of this year in any song.
“RTJ4” by Run the gems: They are so stupid. It’s really, really protest music, and I listen to it too while I vacuum the house. So it’s versatile this way.
“Women in Music Pt. III” by Haim: They are our friends. But I would have said that I liked the record anyway. They clearly push their limits. This one, less aspiring, more dancing with my child.
4. “Dark”
Oh my God. It is one of the strangest and densest shows I have ever watched. There is something exciting in the fact that many people watch “Dark” in German with subtitles. I feel there is so much less resistance to something like that now, hopefully, in our country. This speaks to the Reddit television generation, where people want to hatch conspiracy theories and guess what things mean.
5. “Queer Eye”
It’s one of the most vital shows, for me anyway. It’s this rare thing that is fun and funny, and you want to see the makeover aspect. But they say it in the title: it’s so much deeper. They find people with whom you are immediately there and rooted. There is such an emphasis on kindness and thoughtfulness, self-reflection and growth. And some scenes with Karamo [Brown], where he talks to people through their personal struggles – I just feel like if you really put your energy into something to try to improve it and make it more meaningful, it can actually work.
6. “Heat waves in a swamp: the paintings of Charles Burchfield”
I find myself going through it a lot and getting carried away. There is a surrealism that I like, and I don’t know how Charles E. Burchfield would feel about it, but that takes me to the place of the covers of the old books of “Lord of the Rings”. There is something supernatural and fantastic that really opens my brain when I look at it.
7. “Portrait of a lady on fire »
It blew me away. And I feel like it’s a good film for men to energetically understand how when they show up, it can really make a difference. It’s not a spoiler to say that. You let yourself be lulled into this incredible space where there are no men for a long time in the film, then a random guy appears. He is a character of nothing; he’s there to run a race. He is not an imbecile or bizarre. But he just sitting there eating slop, you’re like, “Ugh, what is this guy doing here?” Get him out of here. It ruins the atmosphere. “
8. Early music
“Everything for you” by ET Mensah & the Tempos: It’s a genre that is sometimes called Highlife – a more traditional music from Ghana, mixed with “western” instruments that had become available in this region at the time. I listen to it a lot from front to back. It makes everything happy and cute.
“Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky: My daughter has been obsessed with “The Nutcracker” for over a year, and we still listen to her. It’s his “Frozen”. And I will say this: “The Nutcracker” has firecrackers.
A tribe called “The Low End Theory” against “Midnight Marauders”: My boyfriend Chester sent me a cold text: “Midnight Marauders or Low End Theory?” It started as a joke. It was Father’s Day, and I was like, “I can listen to anything I want” and I put “Low End Theory” and started exploding it around the house. Then he texted me and I listened to both a lot, trying to decide if I could choose. And I really can’t. So it’s more fair to say that it’s crazy how good these two albums are, and they still hold.
9. Bourbon Bramble
At the end of the day, it’s good, if you can, to drink something until it’s not too much. And one of the drinks we found during the scouring of the recipes was a Bourbon Bramble, which is really delicious. I was told that I must pay tribute to my wife’s changes. It doubled the bourbon and amplified the lemon. And those two things made it something that I think you could perhaps say is a little bit too sweet in something that we found euphoric.
ten. “Fanny at Chez Panisse” by Alice Waters
Whenever I can talk about Chez Panisse, I like it because it is the pride of Berkeley and also because it is probably my favorite restaurant on Earth. And Alice Waters is one of my heroes. This was given to us after the birth of our daughter, as it takes up the fundamentals of the farm-to-table idea – eat the freshest, let the ingredients speak for your food – and apply it to really simple dishes that you can make for and with children. We made corn muffins, carrot and parsley salad, and I think maybe she thinks she does more than she does. We help her more than she thinks, but we are not about to tell her that it is. We just want her to feel inspired and emboldened to do it and to feel that she can do things. It’s damn cute.
