Nick Kroll is a man of many talents and, judging by the plethora of characters he created and fleshed out over the three-season run of "Kroll Show" - characters like Fabrice Fabrice, Dr. Armond and Oh Hello's Gil Faizon, to name just a few - he's a man of many faces (or is it personalities?) as well.
"Kroll Show," Kroll's baby - a sketch show built entirely on characters he's incubated in his mind during more than a decade as a comedian and writer - may be ending, but according to Kroll, the next step of his career may just be beginning.
Kroll, who has appeared in bit roles in various film projects during his career such as 2011's "A Good Old Fashioned Orgy," 2010's "Dinner for Schmucks' and 2009's "I Love You, Man," recently made his first major foray into motion pictures, starring alongside Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and fellow comedian and "Kroll Show" writer Jason Mantzoukas in the millennial-targeted "Adult Beginners."
The plot of "Adult Beginners" - story developed by Kroll, screenplay written by Jeff Cox and Liz Flahive, directed by Ross Katz - focuses on Kroll's character Jake, an overly confident, freewheeling entrepreneur. When we meet Jake, he is seeking investment capital through every possible avenue for a Google Glass-type product. Due to a manufacturing snafu, Jake loses his money along with that of all of his investors, many of whom are his "friends" - in reality, sycophantic hangers-on who dump Jake the moment his product goes under.
Instead of continuing to crash on his friend Hudson's couch - given life by "Community's" Joel McHale, who didn't get big laughs but played the perma-bored, ultra-wealthy character to a T - Jake returns to New Rochelle, N.Y., to shack up with his sister, Justine, played by Byrne and brother-in-law Danny, played by Cannavale, who are living in and renovating Jake's childhood home with the plan to then put it up for sale.
In short order, Jake becomes Byrne and Cannavale's "manny" for their son Teddy, leading to a jarring change of perspective for Jake and a realization that there's more to life than the money and success he had so doggedly pursued.
After a recent screening of the film at Angelika Film Center in Manhattan, Kroll and Mantzoukas entertained the audience with a rowdy, oftentimes rambunctious Q&A session which offered a rare glimpse into the sincerity that drives the mad mind behind Liz G., C-Czar and Bobby Bottleservice.
Kroll, who has three siblings, all of whom have children - "I just left them at a dinner as I have my whole life," he quipped - said the inspiration for the story - which he originally wrote three years ago - came from a desire to explore his own experience as the self-absorbed baby of the family living a no-strings- attached life.
After completing the screenplay with the help of Mantzoukas - Kroll and Mantzoukas take hikes together in California during which they'll bounce ideas off one another and work out the creative kinks - along with "Nurse Jackie" alums and Brooklynites Cox and Flahive, Kroll and Co. sought out Byrne.
"Rose was the first person we attached as my sister, and when I first sat down with Rose she was saying to me like, 'I actually weirdly think that the part of my husband would be really perfect for my boyfriend, it feels like it was written for him.' I said, 'Who's your boyfriend?' She said, 'Bobby Cannavale,' and I was like, 'Well, we wrote the part for him,'" Kroll said.
"Genuinely had written it for him because Liz wrote for Bobby on 'Nurse Jackie' and also had done a bunch of theater and playwriting with him."
While a dramedy is certainly something of a departure for Kroll, he said that it was the opportunity to do more - to try his hand at a different form of creative expression - that really drove him to see the project through.
"The more dramatic stuff was the newest stuff for me to be able to do on film, so whether it was the arguments with Bobby or the emotional stuff with Rose, where we're watching the video of our mother who has passed away, that was exciting just because I haven't had a chance to do that kind of stuff," said Kroll.
"Luckily in making the movie, basically every day we had some either dramatic stuff or I was able to work with people I know or admire."
Kroll spoke at one point of the overlapping nature of writing and acting - two seemingly different media which have come to occupy a very similar creative space for the notorious ad libber and improviser.
"What I've learned is that, for me, writing isn't necessarily sitting in front of a computer alone in a room, typing. It's very verbal," he said. "So a lot of the writing I do it was either in my writer's room at 'Kroll Show' or on the phone with the writers of 'Adult Beginners' and talking it out or going on a hike with Jason and talking through stuff."
Kroll, who grew up in Rye, N.Y., said that Westchester and, more specifically, New Rochelle, made sense for the story because he wanted to take Jake from a middle-to-upper middle class home to schmoozing in New York City with the wealthy elites - a group fans of "Kroll Show" will be delighted to learn Kroll termed "rich dicks" - and back again.
"The thinking was, of my character Jake, who was a middle-, upper-middle class, but aspired for more and finds himself running with Joel McHale and kind of a rich dick crowd and so, I liked that idea that he could have been around a bunch of different people."
Of course, Mantzoukas and Kroll couldn't quite help the proceedings from devolving into child pornography, fetish jokes and the post-bathroom wiping process for women at points, but that's to be expected when a pair of sadistically funny people are given free reign with a microphone and captive audience.
Luckily for fans of the now-defunct "Kroll Show," when questioned about whether or not there were futures for any of his various characters on the show, Kroll seemed to perk up.
"None of the characters on the 'Kroll Show' are dead except for Armond, and even he lives on," he said. "I think there are various formats and mediums for characters to continue on. Specifically, John Mulaney and I are doing 'Oh Hello,' Too Much Tuna guys here and there."
While Kroll wouldn't commit to anything firm for his "Kroll Show" characters other than the continuing saga of Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland from time to time, he did say his biggest hope is that the characters can endure.
"I think the idea of ending the show where we did was hopefully the characters can continue to live on," Kroll said
While Fabrice Fabrice and Gil Faizon will likely live on for fans of the show, Kroll sounded the most serious tone of the evening when discussing the hard work, perseverance and grit it took to see "Adult Beginners" through its three-year life - from a gestation period in his mind on through its release into the world.
"This movie has been the culmination of a number of years of work for me and that's really enjoyable and gratifying to see the final product and also incredibly stressful and difficult and has required a lot of time to do it," Kroll said. "I'm a big believer in controlling your content as much as possible, really nobody was going to just off the bat three years ago make me the lead of a dramedy.
"So, part of doing this was to try to be able to show people that I could do different things because I wasn't going to get that opportunity on my own."
