PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 25: Andy Samberg of ‘Palm Springs’ attends the IMDb Studio at Acura Festival Village on location at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival – Day 2 on January 25, 2020 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
  • Interviews

HFPA in Conversation: Andy Samberg Always Wanted to Be a Comedian

Golden Globe winner and host Andy Samberg was eight years old when he knew he wanted to be a comedian. In high school he filmed sketches with home video cameras and later on he studied filmmaking. After forming the comedy trio The Lonely Island with his friends he got a job on Saturday Night Live. Seven years later he was ready for new challenges. One of them was a lead role on the police procedural comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine from which he won a Golden Globe.

“You walk on that stage in front of everybody and they see you and they can’t ignore the fact that you are someone who is working in their business. Everyone in the business is in that room or watching.  So no matter what, even if it doesn’t make everyone watch the show and even if it doesn’t change people’s minds about who you are and what kind of creative person you are, your fame goes up,“ he says, explaining to HFPA journalist Barbara de Oliveira Pinto how winning an award can change a career.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine brought him to another challenge: producing. After producing the TV films 7 Days in Hell and Tour de Pharmacy, shows like Party Over Here, Alone Together and PEN15 and the mockumentary comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping he starred and produced a romantic comedy Palm Springs. The romantic comedy follows two strangers who meet at a wedding and get stuck in a time loop. It premiered successfully at the Sundance Film Festival and was bought by Hulu and Neon.

Palm Springs was an insane amount of work because it was a real indie and real low budget and we were very excited how it came together. We were hoping just to make our money back or maybe make a little bit. Then our Sundance screening went really well and the sort of initial round of reviews came out. They were very positive and we got offers from a few different places.”

He went to dinner with his team. “I started drinking because we were so happy about the screening and then I was told to stop drinking because we’re going to go have meetings with people like in two hours. It was like midnight and we had these meetings and people pitched us on what they thought they would do with the movie and we talked about all kinds of facets. And then it basically just turned into the negotiation part and we left that to our lawyers and to our agents and they would just sort of update us but the negotiations went on all night long.”

How is his creative process? “I like a little bit of privacy, but privacy with collaborators, if that makes sense. I like a closed office with a few people that I am working with to get momentum and a rhythm going.”

Listen to the podcast and hear what is his first childhood memory; how was his childhood; why he watched I Love Lucy as a kid; what kind of student he was; what professions other than comedian he wanted to pursue when he was eight years old; when he started to work with Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone and formed the group The Lonely Island; who recommended them to Saturday Night Live and how he figured out he got the job; does he believe in fate?; why he left SNL after seven years; why working on Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been rewarding; how he deals with fame and criticism; how he balances his work and private life; does he have mentors ?; and how was hosting the Golden Globe gala.