I'm not going to use this to knock on When in Rome, especially since our own Jenni Miller already did that. Well, to be fair, she did it a lot sweeter than I would have. It's a cute romantic comedy idea that just doesn't work. However, one of the hapless souls who has their love life screwed around with in this movie is Will Arnett, and we loves us some Will Arnett. It feels like he's just a few steps away from headlining movies on his own, paired with some straight guy or girl. Or better yet, appearing with his wife Amy Poehler. (Watch them together in a Parks & Recreation episode.)

Most people know Arnett from his spin as Gob on the awesome Arrested Development, which will hopefully, finally, eventually be getting a movie soon, but he's held his own in some smaller comedies, including the underrated Let's Go To Prison and The Brothers Solomon. We talked to him about When In Rome, the Arrested Development movie, the other project he's working on with Mitchell Hurwitz, video games, and more. Read on after the break for the full interview.

Cinematical: So how did this role come about? Was it simply like your agent was like, "We got a script?" Did you know the director? How did this happen.

Will Arnett: No. I actually didn't know Mark. Yeah, they just said they are meeting on this. "He is meeting people. He wants is going to be in New York and he is going to meet this guy and this guy." I went and talked to him and he kind of said, "Hey, here is this thing" and he laid it out. It appealed to me on a number of levels. One, of course, shooting in New York. [laughs] And then shooting in Rome. You know, because we live in New York, so that was like ... every time they are shooting a movie in New York, you have to think about it, like, "Yeah, that sounds great." Then you are like, "Are you sure you like it or are you just doing it because it's close to home?"

And then, shooting in Rome, that was also attractive. But also to do it, this comedy, with these people that I know and like, Chris and Dax, John, all these guys who I know and have a relationship with and really enjoy. That, to me, is almost like the most important thing these days. Maybe I am getting older. I am going to be 40 this year. And it is like life is too short to work with a-holes.

Hey, that's a good quote!

It really is. F-ck it, man! I'm sick and tired of pretending I like people, you know? I really am!

That is refreshing honesty. Which is something you never hear in this industry. It's built on lies, practically.

Oh, God. All the goddamn time. So it was fun. They were such nice people, and nice to me. And also, Antonio, this pseudo Italian character, if you can call it a character, he is kind of a positive guy in a lot of ways; optimistic. He is kind of living this inauthentic life, but he wants to do something more. And for me to be able to play a character that is not a complete asshole, that in and of itself was really appealing

When you met with him, did he ask if you could speak Italian, or did he make you try to bust out with an Italian accent right away?

No. He didn't hold my feet to the fire. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know...part of me is like, "Oh, God. I wonder if it is just ridiculous" I hope I was able to string a couple scenes together that made sense, with that accent. But, you know, again, it is actually a guy who is playing a guy, so that is the only saving grace.

I think it was believable enough that when you actually revealed he is masquerading as Italian, we were surprised.

Oh, good. Well that is good!

Yeah. We wondered if you took language classes or something.

I will take that as a W. As in, it worked.

We just talked to Michael Cera recently for Youth in Revolt, which is about to come out, and we had to ask him about Arrested Development. It seems like no interview with any of the cast members are complete without them. He said, to his knowledge, Mitch hadn't started working on the script yet.

Well, that is not entirely true. There are pieces there. There is just not a completed script yet. But I know it is something that Mitch is working on, because he and I have been working on this script ...

Something separate?

Yes. Mitch and Jimmy Vallely and I have been writing a script of a new TV show for the last nine million months. And so I know that the script is ... it's not completed, but there is work being done.

It's in progress.

It is absolutely in progress. And it is something that we intend to shoot this year, in fact.

Good.

Yeah, yeah. I am sure it is frustrating for some people who are fans. Other people who have to listen to people talk about it think like, "Who gives a crap?" But I will say that for the people who are interested, we are actively trying to get there.

I'd say it would be more frustrating for you guys. It's like, 'Well, we have so many questions about this. Where were all you folks watching the show when it was on?' I mean we got canceled.

Well, it is funny. Like, at the press conference I said, "I look forward to answering the questions about the Arrested movie," which seems to be the way things go. I have gone and done a few other press things with friends of mine who have fielded that question for me who aren't even a part of Arrested Development. They are like, "I know that you probably have a question for Will about the Arrested movie ..."

"Let's go ahead and take it for you now." It's coming sometime.

Yeah. [laughs]

I was reading that you had sort of self described yourself when you were younger as a bit of a bad boy, getting in trouble, smoking, drinking, etc. You are a dad now. Has it really changed your life, that whole thing?

Without question. Well, my life changed almost 10 years ago when I kind of gave up that aspect of my life and decided to kind of make a change. I hope I didn't characterize myself as a bad boy. I don't think I was a bad boy. That conjures up an image of a tough guy from Rumble Fish or something. I was not necessarily that, unless you ... maybe like a much more mediocre looking Ponyboy. But I was, you know, not a model student or a model son. In fact, there is an old friend of mine who used to refer to me as the model son because I did get in trouble a lot for drinking and acting up and stuff. But now, yes. I have a different view. I think that is growing up, right?

Sure.

I will be 40 in a few months, and that, fatherhood, has certainly changed my view, although I am one of those people who would read articles or interviews ... I remember being 25 and seeing interviews with actors or whatever talking about their kids and starting a family. I thought like, "God, who cares dude? Shut up!" And now I go, "Oh, I get it!" You have a different perspective. There is no way around it.

Well 10 years ago, which you mentioned, was also around the year 2000 when you sort of had that frustrating season with pilots that didn't get picked up. If acting hadn't turned for you and caught on, would you have pursued something else? Was there something else you thought about doing?

I probably would have seriously considered ... I probably would have pursued a serious career in alcoholism?[laughs] No, I don't know. Is dirty old rummy still a profession?

You could have brought it back! Was this during the days when your father was the CEO of Molson?

Well, no. Yes, it was during that time.

I read that and I was like, "Wow, if I was in college and my dad was president of a beer company..."

That was in my 20's. But if I had been in college, forget it. But you know, I hung up my gloves right when he was there and that probably saved my life.

Since you have given up the hard life, like drinking and everything, do you have a guilty pleasure now? What do you do when you have free time?

Xbox.

I read that you like to game.

As embarrassing as a childish exploit as it may seem, it is really, for me, very ... I derive a tremendous amount of pleasure from playing video games. I didn't really play a lot as a kid. It is strange that later in life I have found it. But I do enjoy it. And it is something that we have now started to ... you know, I have actually started kind of making some stuff. I am in the process of making machinima videos using existing animation, and also working with companies like Infinity Ward, who makes Call of Duty. We are now working in concert with them to create original content using the blueprint of their game and using some of the characters from their game, and doing it in a comedic way. We are actually in the process of making those right now.

I know you have done a lot of voice-over work for animation. Have you done any games?

I have. I did a game last year called Matt Hazard. And I did a voice in the new Call of Duty 4 - not credited, really.

The one that just came out?

The one that just came out, Modern Warfare 2.

Just like background soldier #7 getting shot?

Yeah. It was things like, "Grenade!" All that kind of stuff. I did that. And my friend Justin Theroux and I, who are good buddies, I mean who both like to play, we approached those guys, because they played with us online, the guys from the company. And we said, "Look. When the new game is being put together, if you want some voices, we will do it." They were like, "Yeah." And now Justin and I are working with them as we put together this new venture.

Do you play in a group with other others?

Yeah. I play with a bunch of other actors. We have been playing together for a long time. I actually play with, from Mad Men, Ryan Cartwright. He plays with us in our group. I play with guys from The Office, guys from SNL ... god, virtually like every NBC show out there. Anyway, but we also play with lots of friends from home. We play with a good friend of our's nephew, who is like 14, he is in our group and he destroys us all.

Yeah, it's humiliating to get taken out by a teen.

And his little buddies up in Vancouver ... we will go through like a week where we ban them from playing with us because they just destroy us too much. And then will pop on and are like, "Hey, do you guys mind if we play with you?" We are like, "Get out of here!"

What do you guys tend to play?

We primarily play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. That is our number one game. It is outstanding.

That is a vice right there.

Really, that is it. I say Xbox, but I really mean Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2. At any given time, you might have four guys from LA playing, a couple guys from New York, a couple guys from London. We have all these English actors and comedians who play with us.

And honestly, as a married father, it is kind of the perfect social life in a way, because you are at home. You know, it is the new bar. You are not away. First of all, you aren't hammered. And secondly, you are home. So in a lot of ways, it is the lesser of all evils. So my wife doesn't mind that much.

But you have like 12 year olds calling you a douchebag.

All the time. Or, "old douchebag" in my case.

Exactly. Which I guess wasn't present in the bar.

No. [laughs]

Being married to Amy, would you say your home life is pretty normal? Are you guys constantly trying to crack jokes in the home? Or is it like, "Well, we are married. We are like every other couple you would probably see."

Honestly, we would bore you to tears like any other couple would. It is boring. I mean it is not boring in the sense that we are bored at home, but it is not like a barrel of laughs. Our house isn't a comedy club.

What, it's not a variety show?

[laughs] No. By no means.

Do you have like a pet project you'd like to do? I know you have been in some serious roles. We have seen you as an FBI agent in The Sopranos and some other roles. Plus you're going to be in Jonah Hex.

You know, I don't really have a plan, per say. Jonah Hex came up. It was a great opportunity and I was so happy that they included me in that project. And for me, it was something different that I got to do. And who knows? I don't feel like I have anything to prove in that sense. Again, I am kind of over it. It doesn't really matter. I am not here to say, "Oh, I need to show everybody, or I need to try to get some kind of serious accolade." That is not important to me. I really just want to, like I said, work with people that I enjoy and do stuff that is fun and makes me laugh.

And that is why we have spent a lot of time working on this pilot script that Mitch and I have been working on. But it has been such a fun process. It has been so ... it has probably been, maybe next to Arrested Development, the most gratifying experience. And in a lot of ways, more than Arrested, because we have been creating it together. That has been the most gratifying thing, just having that input and, as we laugh, creating this show. It has just been the best.

Would you just be a creative force behind this, or would you be acting in it as well?

Yeah. We have created this character that I would play. And Mitch will direct and we will do this thing. Yeah, it has been super, super fun.

That's interesting, because at one point you had started to break out and do movie roles, and you said it would be tough to go back to television. But it sounds like you are having a lot of fun working on this project.

Absolutely. I mean it is always just tough. It would have been very tough to, immediately after Arrested, go back and just do any other TV show. It had to be right and something I felt comfortable in. I have so much, obviously, faith in Mitch and Jimmy Vallely, for that matter, that doing this was just an absolute no brainer.

If you guys did start going this year, are we talking like for a 2011 release?

I suppose. Or like a January, yeah.

Like this time next year possibly.

Yeah. But you know, it is pretty low-fi.

That's true. There's no big CGI element to Arrested Development.

Absolutely. It is not going to be a big budget. We are not doing our Sex in the City $80 million budget at all. It is the other way, the other direction. You know. We are going to be a couple of handheld cameras and existing light. It is going to be the Dogme version of Arrested.

Right, where you get like one prop and natural lights. So what is next for you? I mean I know you have Despicable Means, Jonah Hex. What else is coming up?

Other than Jonah, which we wrapped in December, I didn't work on anything else, because I have been writing seven days a week.

How has it been, making the adjustment to writing?

It's been good. By the way, it is not entirely true. I am also doing a series for Channel 4 with David Cross in the interim. I should mention that ...

David Cross will be happy you mentioned it.

Well I mean no disrespect, but it is one of those things I forget to mention. I will go over and do in London, and we are going to do a few more episodes of that, which I am really excited about. David wrote an awesome show and he is just ... I f-cking love David to death. He is the funniest. So I am going to do that.

But writing, I was kind of a little ... not resistant, but I wasn't sure how much I wanted to do. And Mitch was the one who really encouraged me to do it and kind of pushed me, and said, "No, no, no. You should do it. You should do it. You should do it." And I was like, "OK, but you should do it." He was like, "No, no, no. Come on. You are going to do it, too." And I was like, "Oh, OK." Thank God for him. He has been right all along. It has been just the most gratifying experience for me.

Do you guys sit in a room together or do you work on stuff on your own and send it to him? Or do you do both?

You know, we do a little bit of both, but mainly we are in a room. Yeah. It's the three of us. It's me, and Mitch, and Jimmy Vallely. We just hammer it out. Or not.

Do you guys have a title for it yet?

Well, we have a couple different titles, so I don't want to reveal my cards just yet. You know what I mean?

Are hoping to shoot the pilot later this year?

Yeah, within the next two months. Yeah, so we will see. I mean who knows. But like it, and the people who we trust like it, our friends and stuff.

Well, thank you very much for your time, and we look forward to hearing about this project. It was a real pleasure talking to you.

Hey, the pleasure is mine, man.