Interview With "Is This Thing On?" Stars Will Arnett & Laura Dern

The Next Best Picture Podcast

Tv & Film

4.2 • 542 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Is This Thing On?" is a 2025 American comedy-drama film directed by Bradley Cooper, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Will Arnett and Mark Chappell, loosely inspired by the life of British comedian John Bishop. It stars Arnett and Laura Dern as a middle-aged married couple facing an impending divorce when Alex (Arnett) finds new purpose in the New York comedy scene, while his wife, Tess (Dern), confronts the sacrifices she made for their family. The film premiered as the Closing Night film at the 2025 New York Film Festival, receiving positive reviews for its writing and direction by Cooper and for performances by Dern and Arnett. The two lead stars were both kind enough to spend some time talking with us about their work and experience making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which will be released in theaters on December 19th from Searchlight Pictures. Thank you, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to The Next Best Picture podcast, and this is Dingell Howitt's interview with the stars of the film Is This Thing On?
0:07.1	Will Arnette and Laura Dern.
0:08.8	Another one?
0:09.8	Yeah.
0:10.4	One up.
0:11.6	All right, Alex Novak.
0:12.8	Downstairs in two minutes.
0:14.3	That's me.
0:15.9	Well, you better head down there then.
0:17.9	Where?
0:18.5	Just straight behind you, down the stairs.
0:24.6	Uh-huh. I am. there then. Where? Just straight behind you, down the stairs. How you? How you doing?
0:26.6	You see the light? Just get off, alright?
0:28.6	There you go. Just talk to them. Have fun.
0:32.6	Just talk to them. Have fun. I think I think I'm getting a divorce.
0:52.7	I think I'm getting a divorce.
1:02.0	What tipped me off was that I'm living in an apartment on my own. Yeah. And my wife and kids don't live there.
1:06.0	That was probably the biggest clue.
1:11.6	Not exactly sure what happened.
1:16.6	Came home from work one day.
1:19.6	Someone said, is this thing over?
1:22.6	Pretty sure it was her.
	...

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