ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The movie "I Don't Understand You" starts with a couple in Los Angeles making an audition tape.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU")
NICK KROLL: (As Dom) We see the adoption process as an amazing opportunity to look at our whole lives and think about how much joy our child would bring.
ANDREW RANNELLS: (As Cole, imitating buzzer noise). No, we can't say our child.
KROLL: (As Dom) What?
RANNELLS: (As Cole) No, you have to say the baby or your baby.
KROLL: (As Dom) OK.
RANNELLS: (As Cole) You can't just assume that it's our child already, so...
KROLL: (As Dom) OK.
SHAPIRO: Dom and Cole want to adopt a baby. As they film their appeal to the birth mom, they try earnestness...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU")
RANNELLS: (As Cole) And we know that choosing parents for your child is a very complicated decision, so we just want to thank you for considering us.
KROLL: (As Dom) Yeah.
SHAPIRO: ...And silliness.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU")
KROLL: (As Dom) Please give us your baby.
RANNELLS: (As Cole) Please.
SHAPIRO: And with that as the opening scene, the movie gallops off in a surprising direction. Dom and Cole fly to Italy before a baby arrives, and their dream vacation becomes a disaster, as the movie becomes a horror comedy with a staggering body count.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU")
RANNELLS: (As Cole) OK, but this has to be the last one.
KROLL: (As Dom) Absolutely. I don't want to do this anymore.
RANNELLS: (As Cole) No, this can't be, like, a thing we start doing in LA.
SHAPIRO: Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells star as the married couple Dom and Cole. And they told me that audition video was based on something that two of them created as a sort of sizzle reel for the movie.
KROLL: It was sort of a way to sell the idea of Andrew and I as a couple - the vibe, the sort of tone of what we were trying to go for. And we shot that together. And it was obviously very fun and became so kind of fun and useful that then we put it into the film itself - not that actually sizzle reel...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
KROLL: ...But a version of what we had shot.
SHAPIRO: You two have collaborated on a lot of projects together - the animated TV show "Big Mouth," the Broadway show "All In." I think this is the first time you've played husbands. Do you find your off-screen dynamic is sort of that of a married couple, even if one of you is actually married to a woman in real life?
(LAUGHTER)
RANNELLS: It was. I mean, it is in a lot of ways. And the thing that was a real gift of our partnership as we were making this was that Nick and I are both pretty even-keeled, but, you know, we were working under some sort of, at times, some rather extreme circumstances in terms of a lot of stunts and at night. And I really feel like we took turns getting impatient. And anytime that I started to get a little tense, Nick would bring me a snack.
SHAPIRO: Aw.
RANNELLS: Nick would make me laugh. And I hope that...
SHAPIRO: And Andrew, what would you do when Nick got impatient?
RANNELLS: Well, I would - he liked candy, so I would, you know, get him some candy or maybe, like, a little espresso. We didn't murder anyone, which I think is the big, key point. Nick and I did not actually.
SHAPIRO: That's a win.
KROLL: Yeah.
RANNELLS: Yeah. But yeah, I think that our friendship really grew in the course of making this because it really did reflect, in some ways, what this couple was going through.
KROLL: I agree. I would just add that, like, we did switch back and forth. The dynamic between Cole and Dom, the characters that we play, is one seems slightly more grounded and one is a little more prone to diving into...
RANNELLS: Hysterics.
KROLL: ...Hysterics.
RANNELLS: (Laughter).
SHAPIRO: Right.
KROLL: And I would say that Andrew and I sort of alternated in those roles with each other, depending on who needed it most that day. And I really do think it translated into the film.
SHAPIRO: See, I was wondering if filming it in Italy was kind of like an Italian honeymoon experience off camera, but it sounds like off camera, maybe it was closer to the nightmare than the movie itself depicts.
(LAUGHTER)
RANNELLS: Well, in a lot of ways - I mean, we did start in Rome, and we did a lot of, like, really beautiful, like, walking down the street and in front of the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. And all of that was all really fun and beautiful. And then it very slowly crept into the reality of what we were filming. So we did get a little of both, but we had some good dinners. We had a lot of carbonara.
KROLL: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. The writer and director couple are, themselves, married, David Joseph Craig...
RANNELLS: Yes.
SHAPIRO: ...And Brian Crano. Were there any moments on set that you felt like the two of them were reflecting the spousal dynamic that you were playing onscreen back at you?
KROLL: The truth is that it's largely based on their experiences. One, they were trying to adopt a child and had - were scammed. They were truly scammed.
SHAPIRO: Oh, really?
KROLL: Yeah, like our characters...
RANNELLS: Yeah.
KROLL: ...In the film - and when you meet us at the beginning of the film, our characters are, you know, a few months out of getting scammed. They think they're going to get a baby that they've been trying to adopt, and it turns out that some person had falsified these papers. There was no baby.
SHAPIRO: Oh.
KROLL: And that really happened to David and Brian. And they also had a nightmare vacation in Italy, where they got, like, stuck in a ditch and sprayed with mud, and everything went wrong.
SHAPIRO: I had no idea this was so grounded in reality.
KROLL: Yes.
RANNELLS: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: It seems so far-fetched.
KROLL: I know.
RANNELLS: Except, Ari, for the murder - once again...
SHAPIRO: Right.
RANNELLS: ...David and Brian, as far as we know...
SHAPIRO: As far as we know.
RANNELLS: ...Did not murder anyone...
KROLL: Yes.
RANNELLS: ...On that trip.
KROLL: They merged these two things that really happened to them into a movie. And really, in the film, Andrew and I are - find out that we are going to be able to finally adopt a child - Amanda Seyfried's child - not actually Amanda Seyfried, the actress, but she plays...
SHAPIRO: Bummer.
KROLL: I know. We would have...
RANNELLS: I know.
KROLL: We would have killed everybody.
RANNELLS: It's a cute kid.
KROLL: So we find out during the trip that we're going to be able to adopt her baby, and so we are now on a mad dash to get back. And really, the movie is a metaphor for what you will do to get your child. If you're a couple, in the case of David and Brian, like, you'll do anything to finally have that opportunity. And David and Brian found a very clever way to express that in raising the stakes just a little bit.
SHAPIRO: There was one question that kept popping into my head as the plot kind of becomes more and more absurd and things go more and more off the rails. And I don't want you to take this the wrong way.
RANNELLS: OK.
SHAPIRO: But the question I kept having was, how did this get made?
(LAUGHTER)
RANNELLS: It's a great question. It's a great question. And, you know, honestly, I'm not sure if we have a succinct answer to that.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
RANNELLS: It's not your typical rom-com. It's not your typical...
SHAPIRO: It's not your typical anything.
RANNELLS: ...Horror film. No, it's not. It's - you know, one of the reasons that I was really excited about it is that it didn't really fit into the normal, like, gay genre of film or queer cinema. Like, it also didn't really - I couldn't find anything that also looked like that in that canon, so that was exciting. And I have to imagine that all of those pieces together, that it was - everything's just a little off center on this film, and...
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
RANNELLS: ...I think that's what perhaps attracted the kind folks that gave us the money to make this film.
SHAPIRO: The movie's out now. "Big Mouth" is about to end its eight-season run. Do the two of you now have to go back to just being ordinary friends, or do you have some other plot up your sleeves to work together?
RANNELLS: I would solely work with Nick for the rest of my career if that was an option.
KROLL: (Laughter) I mean, if it was, like, a Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney situation.
RANNELLS: Mickey Rooney.
KROLL: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Do I even need to ask who's who?
KROLL: (Laughter).
RANNELLS: Am I Judy? I might be Judy. Depending on the day...
SHAPIRO: There's a little Judy in all of us...
KROLL: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: ...I think.
KROLL: Yeah.
RANNELLS: And my weight fluctuation...
KROLL: (Laughter).
RANNELLS: ...I guess I'm maybe more of a Mickey. Yeah.
KROLL: I mean...
RANNELLS: (Laughter).
KROLL: ...God willing, we'll get back to the studio system, where we're under contract...
RANNELLS: Oh.
KROLL: ...MGM for 40 years, and we can just keep making movies together. And maybe there will be room for "I Don't Understand You 2."
SHAPIRO: "I Still Don't Understand You."
KROLL: "I Still Don't Understand You."
RANNELLS: "I Still Don't Understand You."
KROLL: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: You're welcome.
RANNELLS: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: You can have that for free.
KROLL: Thank you.
RANNELLS: Thank you. Thank you very much. You heard it here.
SHAPIRO: Andrew Rannells and Nick Kroll star in the movie "I Don't Understand You," which is out now. You guys, it's been so great talking to you. Thank you.
RANNELLS: Thank you.
KROLL: Thank you, Ari.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEAN MARTIN SONG, "THAT'S AMORE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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