Nick Kroll leads ensemble comedy Adult Beginners

Known for his colorful and crazy characters ‘Fabrice Fabrice’ and ‘Bobby Bottleservice’ on his Comedy Central television series Kroll Show, comedian, actor, writer and producer Nick Kroll makes the transition to leading man in the film Adult Beginners.

Going from a comedic to a dramatic role, Kroll (who recently spoke with the Banner) said, “My goal in whatever project it is, whether it’s a crazy character in a TV show or a more grounded character in a movie, is to always create a three-dimensional character. The basic tools are the same. It’s just a question of levels; tuning the dial up or down. It was really fun and exciting to be able to do something new and stretch my legs a little bit.”

Kroll, who created Kroll Show, can also be seen on the FXX series The League, in which he stars as the character Ruxin. In 2013, Kroll received the Just For Laugh’s Breakout Comedy Star of the Year award in addition to being named to Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch. He’s recently been named to Billboard’s Next Gen comedy issue and GQ Magazine’s 15 Funniest People Alive. Kroll also has appeared in the films Little Fockers opposite Ben Stiller, Dinner for Schmucks with Paul Rudd, and Date Night opposite Steve Carrell and Tina Fey.

Adult Beginners centers on Jake (Kroll), a young entrepreneur who abruptly leaves Manhattan and lands at his pregnant sister’s (Rose Byrne) home for three months in the suburbs after his business crashes and burns, only to end up becoming the nanny to his three-year old nephew Teddy. Directed by Ross Katz, who produced Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, the film is a tender and sweet dramedy that explores sibling relationships, what it means to be an adult and what it means to start all over again.

Kroll, who originated the story, worked on the film for a couple of years with writers Liz Flahive and Jeff Cox, with Rose Byrne in mind for the role of Jack’s sister Justine. Kroll, who knew Byrne a little bit from working together on the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek, where she played Russell Brand’s girlfriend, approached her about the character.

“My sister role was kind of the most important thing. You have to start there and we went to Rose first,” said Kroll, on casting her for the film.

After seeing her in the 2011 monster hit Bridesmaid, Kroll was blown away by her performance.

“We thought she would be someone who could handle the comedy and the drama and everything in between.”

Like Kroll, the Australian actress is the youngest of four and they connected on what those sibling relationships are like and “how complicated and nuanced they can be,” Kroll said. They sent her the script and she said “yes.” “It’s not always the case that the first person you offer, the perfect person in your mind, to have the person in the movie say yes.”

Byrne recommended her boyfriend and actor Bobby Cannavale for the role of her husband Danny. Coincidentally, Kroll and writers Flahive (who had written for Cannavale on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie) and Cox had written the part of the husband for Cannavale.

“His character originally was named Bobby and it was by coincidence that she [Rose] was like ‘I think he’d be great for it,’ ” Kroll recalled.

Once Byrne and Cannavale were locked in, Kroll was able to use his personal network to cast the rest of the movie, which include Saturday Night Live’s Bobby Moynihan, comedians Mike Birbiglia, Joel McHale, Jason Mantzoukas, and The Good Wife actor Josh Charles.

The comic-actor, who hasn’t had a lot of time to do stand-up comedy in the past year or so, has been successful in making the transition from comedy to drama. He attributes it in part to his versatility. “I think it’s fun for me as a performer to just be able to be versatile. There’s no part of me that’s like ‘now, I’m a serious actor.’ An ideal career to me is a diverse one.”

Adult Beginners is in theatres nationwide, available on Video On Demand and on iTunes.