Rashida Jones Interview For ‘Our Idiot Brother’

Every family has one: the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together. For sisters Liz (Emily Mortimer), Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), that person is their perennially upbeat brother Ned (Paul Rudd), an erstwhile organic farmer whose willingness to rely on the honesty of mankind is a less-than-optimum strategy for a tidy, trouble-free existence. Ned may be utterly lacking in common sense, but he is their brother and so, after his girlfriend dumps him and boots him off the farm, his sisters once again come to his rescue. As Liz, Emily and Natalie each take a turn at housing Ned, their brother’s unfailing commitment to honesty creates more than a few messes in their comfortable routines. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned’s family comes to realize that maybe, in believing and trusting the people around him, Ned isn’t such an idiot after all. ‘Our Idiot Brother’ hits cinemas August 26th. In the film Rashida Jones plays Cindy, the girlfriend of Natalie (Deschanel).

Can you tell us a little about the story of the film and you character Cindy?

Rashida Jones: Idiot brother is about……an idiot brother (laughs), but then revealed to be somewhat of a sage of sorts. His idiocy, weirdly, ends up being a good thing for his siblings. Even though he messes up their lives, they come to realise how he makes their lives better. I play Cindy, I’m Natalie’s girlfriend – played by Zooey Deschanel. I am a lawyer, I’m a very stable force in Natalie’s life, we’ve been together for a while, we live together, with lots of other people, but nonetheless we live together (laughs). I’m also a buddy to Ned, I’m a big supporter of Ned. I kind of encourage Ned to take control of his life in a way. Ned is really a well meaning guy.

In a film like this with family in the mix, what was it like working with people you’ve worked with before, and also a number of your friends?

Rashida Jones: With Paul Rudd, for sure it was beneficial to be working together again. A: Just because I enjoy it so much. B: Because even though our chemistry is a different type of chemistry than in ‘I Love You, Man,’ it’s good to have that base. I think we know each others rhythms. I think it’s always good to work with friends, it makes it so much less stressful. Familiarity is so hard to fake – I’ve definitely been in situations where the first day you meet somebody you’ve gotta make-out, that is so awkward. Being friends with Zooey for such a long time, that provided its own awkwardness, for our kiss, but definitely less awkward than never meeting somebody before.

Paul Rudd is so good for this part because he’s so likeable anyway, it’s definitely something a little different. He often plays characters more knowing. This character really lives in his own world, he’s a fairly happy person, a sensitive happy person. But he brings this ease to it which makes it kind of hard to be mad at him – which makes it more challenging for the audience. It’s been so fun, everyone was hilarious.

Your characters look really stands out…

Rashida Jones: The look is very special, me and Jesse Peretz, the director, wanted the character to look like a certain girl he knows – who is a lesbian and lives in the big city. He also wanted to make sure it wasn’t, it didn’t feel cartoonish, and that it felt authentic to what she does for a living, where she lives and all that. So we came up with this idea of kind of preppy, slightly ironic – but not too ironic, suits, I wear shorts with my suits, and those glasses – which were amazing (laughs).

They are quite awesome.

Rashida Jones: The glasses are, at first when I saw the movie I was like, “There’s my glasses!” That was all I could think about for the first two scenes I’m in. Then I started to settle into the me with the glasses. I felt like they disappeared after a while.

For me tolerance is a big theme in this film.

Rashida Jones: Yeah, I feel like this movie is nice because it’s messy. Everything’s just not all hunky-dory, lets move forward. It’s gonna be tough, family is super annoying, and they can definitely destroy. But also they are there to teach you lessons, hopefully make you a better person, make you stronger, make you more tolerant and make you more loving – hopefully this film leaves you with that message. Tolerance and patience, we all have family members who, if we chose to, we’d prefer not to spend the majority of our time, but we’re forced to because we have blood between us. I think everyone has those challenges with a sibling or a parent. You have to hope they can respect your boundaries.