LOVE ARTS NEWS: Aziz Ansari Calls '30 Minutes Or Less' Car Chases 'Easy'

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Aziz Ansari Calls '30 Minutes Or Less' Car Chases 'Easy'

Aziz Ansari and Nick Swardson share their action-hero dreams at Q&A session.
By Eric Ditzian

Aziz Ansari and Nick Swardson
Photo: MTV News

WEST HOLLYWOOD, California — The bar was set super high Friday night (June 3) during MTV's final Sneak Peek Week screening. Since Monday, we'd been showing early looks at some of the summer's hottest films and having crazy chats with the various casts. Take, for instance, the moment "Horrible Bosses" star Jason Sudeikis launched into a filthily hilarious explanation of the "The Twilight Saga": the vampire story as told by a "Star Wars"-obsessed, mind-in-the-gutter comedian.

The pressure was on Friday, and the guys from "30 Minutes or Less" -- stars Aziz Ansari and Nick Swardson and director Reuben Fleischer -- were more than up to the task. Their upcoming action/comedy, it should be said, served as quite the warm-up act for the crowd at the Pacific Design Center. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as a beer-guzzling, joint-sucking pizza delivery boy who gets sucked into a harebrained scheme, hatched by slackers played by Danny McBride and Swardson, to rob a bank. Eisenberg's character, with a bomb strapped to his chest and only hours to complete the heist, enlists his pal, a teacher played by Ansari, to help out in the crime. Things do not go very well, to hilarious results.

The part represents Ansari's biggest onscreen role to date. "This is the first time I've been around the whole movie," he said. "Usually I'll be around for a few minutes, and then they're like, 'Just say something about your penis and get out of here!' "

It was all new for Swardson, too, who cracked that perhaps he has the makings of an action-hero career. "Maybe I'll be the Predator!"

Is launching such a career as easy as that? According to Ansari, at least, the car-chase portion of action flicks is a breeze. "Car chases are pretty easy," he said. "You're like, 'Oooohhhhhhh!' OK, let's get another one. 'Whooooooooa! Look out!' "

On second thought, though, maybe these guys aren't cut out to inherent the cinematic thrones of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. It just takes so damn long to shoot one of these flicks, Ansari said. After production wrapped on "30 Minutes," he added, "I watched 'Fast Five,' and I was like, 'How did this movie not take 20 years to make? Did Vin Diesel start making this when he was 5?' "

Though Eisenberg and McBride couldn't make the Q&A, the duo did tape a message for the crowd. "I sent my family a similar taped message at Thanksgiving," McBride confessed.

Said Eisenberg, "We hope you liked the movie. But if you didn't, by this point it's on you, because you're still there."

As the laughter rolled in, no one seemed to be complaining about spending their Friday night at Sneak Peek Week.

Will wizards, vampires or dream thieves steal the 2011 MTV Movie Awards? Find out June 5, when the 20th annual show airs live at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Tune in at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT that night for the "America's Best Dance Crew" finale and Movie Awards pre-show, loaded with live action from the red carpet, exclusive movie clips and a special edition of "After Hours." To get into the magical movie mood, it's Sneak Peek Week -- five days of exclusives and interviews with the casts of "Fright Night," "Horrible Bosses" and more. Check out everything there is to know about Sneak Peek Week, the Movie Awards and the pre-show at MovieAwards.MTV.com!

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