In Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Ed Helms has a goatee. This much is certain about the latest effort from mumblecore virtuosos Jay and Mark Duplass, to be released on Mar. 16 in American theaters. The rest remains to be seen.
Helms plays Pat, the titular character's brother (portrayed by Jason Segel). He admits, “A lot of people have goatees for a lot of reasons and some of them are good reasons and some of them are bad reasons. Pat has it for bad reasons.” Pat clings to this goatee as his last vestige of youthful edginess, but don’t mistake this midlife crisis as a setup for the classic dysfunctional comedy that Helms is often known for. “It’s more, sort of an honest look at dysfunctional people than most work I’ve done,” Helms explains, “This movie doesn’t shy away from the kind of painful aspect of a dysfunctional life.”
Moviegoers can certainly expect a bit of a departure from the Ed Helms character that fans of The Office and Cedar Rapids (and The Hangover to an extent) are accustomed to. That said, pinpointing Jeff, Who Lives at Home on the comedy-drama scale poses an interesting problem. The same can be said of the last Duplass brothers’ movie, Cyrus. Cyrus no doubt suffered from misleading advertising (some also contend it suffered from being a bad movie), which portrayed the movie as the strict comedy one would expect from its two leads, John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill. The Duplass brothers appear to avoid making strict genre films, and this can often be hard to convey in a two-minute trailer. It may be best when watching the trailer for Jeff, Who Lives at Home to take it with a grain of salt.
That said, Helms does promise viewers one thing: “a sort of realism but with a really nice comedic touch to it.” The authenticity of Jeff, Who Lives at Home, as is typical in Duplass films, comes not from the script, but from the willingness to throw it away. Helms explains, “[The Duplass brothers] wrote a fabulous script. Like, down to the word, it is a wonderful, compelling, hilarious and moving script. That said, they were the first ones to say, don’t say a word of this. So, we improvised almost every line of that movie, and it was really exciting.”
So what can audiences expect from Jeff, Who Lives at Home? Well, regardless of one’s opinions on the Duplass brothers or the mumblecore genre, the film promises to showcase what Helms and Segel can do when given the freedom to improvise. Helms, for one, is incredibly proud of the result, admitting, “I think Mark and Jay got something out of me that I didn’t necessarily know was in there as a performer.” Apart from that, look forward to ruminations on destiny, love, and family. Oh, and there will be a lot of crash zooms.
Want more Helms? Fly to LA this May. He will be performing at the Third Annual LA Bluegrass Situation a festival that he produces, May 3-6.
Or, just watch The Office.
Chatting with Ed Helms
Recently Ed Helms spoke with North by Northwestern and our buddies at nuCH1.
Ramona Roy, North by Northwestern: How do you think audiences will respond to this more serious side of you when they’ve only really seen you in comedic roles before?
Helms: Oh, well, I can only hope that this movie is well received. I’m insanely proud of it, I’d still call it a comedy, I think it very much lives in that world but it’s more – it’s kind of a more dysfunctional – it’s more, sort of an honest look at dysfunctional people than most work I’ve done.
Usually it’s – this movie doesn’t shy away from the kind of painful aspect of a dysfunctional life, whereas my character on The Office is arguably very dysfunctional, but you don't really see the pain very often. It’s played for comedy.
This is a little bit more played for reality and I hope that it resonates. I mean, I can – it’s up to audiences, obviously, to decide for themselves, but I’m really proud of it and I hope – I think that Jason Segel just is a genius and we had so much fun working on this thing and I hope that it resonates for people.
So, it might be a little bit different than what people expect, but I hope in a good way, like, kind of a nice little – a nice treat, if you will, a little twist on the expectation.
Tom Mason, nuCH1: As you mentioned, you have a very strong comedic background, but I was wondering if you had, before this movie, any experience with dramatic acting or dramatic improvisation?
Helms: I don’t know if that – certainly not dramatic improvisation. I don’t even think I could have told you what that is before working on this movie. I don’t know that dramatic improvisation (troops) are selling out theaters. I’ve never heard of that.
But, I – no, to answer your question, not – I hadn’t done a lot of drama. I mean, in high school I was in All My Sons and that might be about the most dramatic thing I’d ever done. I know I was in a production of (inaudible) in college and that’s as dramatic as it gets.
But, those were just sort of one-off things that were almost for me, just kind of a little experiment. I really had no interest in drama and I have always just wanted to do silly comedies and you know, I wanted to be in Ghostbusters and Vacation and – you’re too young to know what those movies are, but Animal House and Fletch and all that Caddyshack. Those were my formative movies. So, I was never really drawn to drama.
And this movie, I think, kind of – it’s not drama, I wouldn’t call this movie drama, I would just call it, like, in a sense that sort of realism but with a really nice comedic touch to it.