By George & Josh Bate
Stand-up comedy as therapy? It’s difficult to envision how getting up on a stage and trying to make strangers laugh could prove cathartic, but that’s exactly what happens in director Bradley Cooper’s new heartfelt and relatable dramedy Is This Thing On?.
Loosely based on the life of Liverpool comedian John Bishop, the new Searchlight Pictures film, which hits theaters on December 19, stars Will Arnett as Alex Novak, a father left despondent when his marriage with wife Tess (played by Laura Dern) amicably comes to an end. Struggling to navigate his new, lonelier way of life, Alex impulsively chooses to participate in an open mic night at a comedy club, a decision that proves enjoyable and even therapeutic.
The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to attend a press conference with writer, producer, and lead actor Will Arnett and co-stars Laura Dern and Andra Day in which the actors discussed working with director Bradley Cooper, how Will Arnett developed the story from the ground up, the camaraderie between actors, navigating difficult scenes, and more.
Is This Thing On? is loosely inspired by the true story of Liverpool comedian John Bishop, who is known for his relatable stand-up work delivered in an unmistakable Scouse accent. “[Bishop] told me a story of how he became a stand-up,” Arnett recalled. “And I really connected with the idea of this guy who finds something that allows him to start speaking his truth at a time when his life is sort of cratering, and what it does for him and his connection to his wife…Stand-up allows him to access stuff and allows them to sort of reimagine who they are later in life.”
Arnett then brought the idea to his long-time friend Bradley Cooper. “So, I sent it to him, and he call me a week later,” Arnett said. “And he said, ‘I want to direct this, if that’s okay.’ I probably should have made him sweat it out and say, ‘Let me think about it’ [laughs].”
From there, the film quickly came to fruition and gradually saw Arnett take on a number of roles in the production. “It wasn’t really by design [to wear so many hats],” Arnett stated. “I first came across this idea and started writing it….Then once Bradley came on and he sort of solidified that and said, yes, I want to make it and I want you to be Alex Novak and I want you to produce it with me. So all those hats, I didn’t choose them myself. They just happened to be thrown on my head.”
Much of Arnett’s on-screen work sees him navigate the aftermath of a divorce with his character’s wife Tess, played by Laura Dern. The Academy Award winning actress delivers an equally impressive turn as a woman despondent with her marriage and curious to explore her identity beyond the family she has created. With Cooper and Arnett at the helm, Dern felt comfortable bringing ideas to the table and discovering the character organically. “We’ve experienced writer/directors who are very protective of their baby,” Dern stated. “And you come in, they want to be collaborative and they want it to, of course, be the best film, but it can be challenging to navigate on both sides. And Will was so cracked open and willing and loving in allowing our discovery of something he’d already presented to us. And then to have Bradley as our filmmaker….I think it speaks to who he is as an actor and that he bring as a filmmaker, that commitment as his vocation really sets the standard for all of us that we’re never going to stop to make sure the words are the truest, the characters are the truest, and therefore then our relationship.”
Also starring in the film is Andra Day. The Grammy Award winning R&B singer-turned-actor was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, but plays a decidedly different character in Is This Thing On? Day plays Christine, who is the wife of Bradley Cooper’s stoner character Balls. Arnett, Dern, Day, and Cooper’s characters are all part of a friend group (alongside Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle’s couple).
In one of the film’s more unique scenes, Day’s Christine begins to sing “Amazing Grace” while making breakfast at a vacation home shared by the other characters. Over time, the other characters come into the kitchen and slowly start joining Christine in singing the song but never make a big deal out of their impromptu performance. The remarkable scene was surprisingly not scripted and, instead, the result of a late-night idea from Cooper. “Bradley called me the night before and was like, ‘What do you think about singing ‘Amazing Grace?’ I’m like, ‘I hadn’t thought about it. Let’s do it.'” Day continued, “It’s the moment where we don’t need to talk. We don’t need to figure out what we’re doing or entertain each other. We were just in flow….I think for the audience it added 10-15 years to our friendship. You realize they’ve been around and this is what they do and they’ve done it forever.”
Another striking scene in the film occurs in an antic as Will Arnett’s Alex and Laura Dern’s Tess disclose more than they ever have with one another. Dern identified the scene as the most challenging to film as it explored both characters’ pain so deeply and had the two say the things to one another human beings rarely, if ever, say. “The movie says that things that I think people really relate to,” said Arnett. “Even if they don’t actually say them. They’re probably thinking them.”
Throughout the film, Arnett’s Alex Novak discovers stand-up as a way to process his life stressors, in particular the divorce from his wife. The stand-up scenes are purposefully awkward as they show the amateur comedian navigate an activity he has never attempted before, yet somehow feels drawn to. We had the chance to ask Arnett if the stand-up scenes in the movie were scripted or improvised. “Great question,” Arnett said. “They were all scripted. We spent a lot of time. I went and I did prep for all the stand-up stuff that Alex does
at the Comedy Cellar this past winter every night. It was really important to try to track Alex’s development as a stand-up from the first moment he goes on to really capture what that’s like to the second moment and how it’s affected by his emotional state, all those things. So it had to be specific, but it did take a while.”
Arnett continued regarding the stand-up sequences, “It was all scripted. There are some moments that happen in there that are real because we loaded audiences in that were paid background performers, but we didn’t instruct them or give them any direction, just react the way you would react. So there were moments of reaction between Alex and the crowd, but certainly it was scripted because we needed to really track where Alex goes, not just as a comic, because the story’s not about him becoming a comic, but where he’s going emotionally through this journey.”
Usually films with the craft of Is This Thing On? take a while to come to fruition, but Cooper’s third directorial effort was actualized far quicker. The film wrapped production in April 2025 after just 33 days and, less than six months later, it premiered at New York Film Festival. “It was just the fastest turnaround I had ever experienced,” Day reflected. Dern elaborated, “I think I’ve never seen an editor like this…an editor who asks us to watch various cuts of the movie and anyone who has a note, anyone who has an idea, if he does not agree, he has already tried yoour idea. He tries everything. No stone unturned, that has been sort of the motto.”