Aziz Ansari tells Keanu Reeves why he's the perfect "angel" | 'Good Fortune' Interview

And I'll forever be saying chicken nuggies now, too. Chicken nuggies. Cookie chicken nuggies. Hello. Hi, Tracy. How you doing? We're good. How are you? I'm really well. Better for speaking to you. Congratulations on Good Fortune. Thank you. It was giving me, like, heaven can wait, trading places, but very, very super entertaining. As these, you know, this movie is examining mortality and, you know, questioning life's choices. So what was the catalyst for you to explore these themes right now? Well, I really wanted to make a comedy. And, you know, when you look at that, I was watching some of these older films that kind of dealt with some of these issues of wealth inequality, class. And they were comedies, movies like Sullivan's Travels or My Man Godfrey. And I thought it'd be fun to do that kind of movie with, you know, today's environment. And that was kind of the fun of the movie. And then, you know, I love all these angel movies, movies like Wings of Desire, It's a Wonderful Life. And so I was like, OK, what if you take that kind of It's a Wonderful Life thing and the guy rejects what the angel's saying? That'd be fun. And then you start coming up with this angel character. Oh, OK, what if he's not supposed to do it? What if he's supposed to stop people from texting and driving? Ooh, what if it's Keanu Reeves? That'll be great. And it was great. So great. So great. Keanu, I'm not trying to step on your toes, but with all due respect, I played the angel Gabriel in my grade four Christmas nativity pageant. Wow. So, yes, I did. Were you in charge of stopping people from texting and driving? No, I wasn't because they didn't invent those phones yet. But obviously your wings and your performance was way beyond I could ever imagine. But I have to talk to you about what attracted you to this role. Was it, you know, working with Aziz and Seth or was it just being a celestial being? Yeah, no, it was a wonderful, beautiful script and wonderful role. And the journey that this angel takes, I thought, is very touching. And it was a lot of fun to play, you know, a kind of ancient innocence that goes into the kind of discovering kind of the senses of humanity, being human, and learning, trying to be a part of, you know, he wants to be, he wants to do more. And through that kind of effort, kind of bungles it, becomes human, and then through this journey, comes out with some wisdom. I think that he can share with all of us, which is friends, laughter, friendship, and overcoming challenges, not giving up. Absolutely. And I'll forever be saying chicken nuggies now, too. Chicken nuggies. Aziz, you've been wanting to work with Seth for a while. So how did having a friend who started in comedy, went to directing, help you with your directorial debut? Well, you know, I had a lot of experience doing this kind of thing when I did my series on Netflix, Mastered On. So that was almost like a training ground to get ready to do this movie. And Seth was the first person I showed the script to, and he was on board right away. And he's always been such a generous collaborator in terms of his advice and mentorship. And I'm just so glad that he was a part of this. And he did such a wonderful job as Jeff. And, yeah, I love working with him and think he's such a great actor. Keanu, we heard that you snapped your kneecap. Yeah, I fractured my patella, a vertical fracture, because I fell. During filming? Yeah. What did that look like? It looked like this. I mean, like the scene. No. It was in your dressing room. It wasn't while we were filming. Oh, okay. Yeah, I tripped on a carpet. That's fair. And spiked my kneecap. It's a f***ing rug. That's fair. Sorry. Well, are you feeling nicely now? Yes, thank you. Great, great. And Aziz, Keanu playing an angel, I mean, how did you come across as perfect casting? Aw. It just, you know, even when the first trailers started coming out, I saw people like, oh, this is the perfect casting. And it just worked out perfectly. You know, his name came up, and I looked at the script and started imagining him doing it. It really made me laugh, and I started looking back at his old comedies, things like Parenthood and Bill and Ted, and I could see that, you know, Keanu is very funny playing these characters that kind of have this sweetness, but this naivety and this kind of innocence, and then just imagining him doing it really made me laugh. We met and got along, and he seemed to understand what I was trying to do, and it just worked out. It was one of the funnest characters I've ever gotten to write for because Keanu was so dialed in, and we really understood who Gabriel was. And then it just became like, oh, what can we have him do next? What about him using the internet for the first time? Oh, he's going to be obsessed with looking at photos of baby elephants. And it just became a really fun character to just do stuff with. It's interesting because, you know, I don't think we thought about it at the time, but when you look back, Keanu's done a lot of characters that are ancient, like Berserker is like, I don't know how old he is. He's like really old, right? And then Devil's Advocate, Devil's dad, Constantine. Fantastical characters. Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting, it's such a cool little additional piece in his filmography, and I did a Keanu film festival before we met, and it was such a joy to watch all these movies, and I'm so proud that I'm able to put one on the shelf. Amazing. Thank you so much. I have to shout out my fellow Virgo queen, Kiki Palmer, too. Oh, we love Kiki. Thank you. Congratulations.