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CINDY PEARLMAN
NYT Syndicate
Andy Samberg never believed that babies were brought by the stork, as far as he can recall.
"My parents gave me a Where Did I Come From book," the 38-year-old comedian joked."They just casually left it out on top of a stack of Playboys.
"At some point, of course, we had the requisite conversation," he added."On Telegraph Avenue. I wandered around asking, 'Where do babies come from?' I heard, 'Come over here, young lad.'
"Actually, it was last week that all of this happened!"
He was talking about the facts of life for a reason: Samberg was up early on a Saturday morning at a hotel in Beverly Hills to talk about the animated comedy Storks, hitting multiplexes on September 23.
In a light-blue-checked shirt and faded jeans, bracketed by white athletic shoes and round, wire-rimmed glasses, the skinny, bookish-looking Samberg looked more like a grad student than a busy actor/writer/singer/producer.
His nerdy appeal is, however, the secret to the success of his hit Fox series 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine', the fourth season of which will debut on September 20.
Samberg returns as Jake Peralta, an immature but nonetheless insightful NYPD. detective who works in Brooklyn's 99th Precinct, under the supervision of the no-nonsense Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher). The show was the brainchild of Dan Goor and Michael Schur, who also created Amy Poehler's hit 'Parks and Recreation' (2009-2015).
'Brooklyn Nine-Nine's' season premiere finds Jake and Holt still in Florida under the Witness Protection Program, with only one link to their former lives US Marshal Karen Haas (Maya Rudolph).
"I'm really excited to start this season," Samberg said."There's just something that clicks when I get back on that set. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this show. I expected it to be exciting in the beginning and then it becomes a gig, but this is not a gig. I love the creativity I've found here."
The fourth season will feature a crossover with 'New Girl' on October 11. The characters of the two series will meet on 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine', and the story will conclude on 'New Girl'.
It's one more way to explore the characters, Samberg said.
"The more the writers get to know us, the more we can throw things into the mix," he said."It becomes a cross-pollination of styles and vibes that makes really interesting comedy."
On the set, he said, improvisation is encouraged.
"We do what we call a fun run, where we stick to the script," he said."Then we do another where we get to improv."
Almost five years ago now, Samberg recalled, the show came together almost too easily.
"Dan and Michael had this pitch for a police-precinct comedy," he said."They called me one day, pitched it and that was pretty much it.
"I was a huge fan of their show 'Parks and Recreation'," he added."I knew Amy had said yes to that show in a pretty similar way. It was 'Hey, we have this show. Can you be in it?'
"That was the easy street we walked down."
During the casting process, Samberg participated in"chemistry reads" with prospective cast members.
"It was the first time I had ever been asked to do it," he said."The cool part was that I didn't need to be terrified all the time ” I knew that I was actually in this show. So I spent the time being hyper-aware, trying to make other people feel comfortable.
"The right people won the parts," he said."There was no doubt about it."
Storks is an off-the-wall comedy in which the baby-delivering birds have moved on from delivering tykes. Now they drop off packages like an avian Federal Express.
When a mixed-up order for a baby girl appears, however, the best delivery stork, Junior (voice of Samberg), must scramble to get the little girl to her family. He's joined by Tulip (voice of Katie Crown), a teenage girl who lives in the stork factory because, back in the day, the storks couldn't find her address.
The film also features the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Kelsey Grammer and Keegan-Michael Key.
"This movie is a great way not to talk to your kids about where babies come from," Samberg said."I think it will play well around the globe, because there's a universal condition called 'Let's not tell our kids about that.'
"For the next few years, anyone with a little kid is off the hook from having the real conversation."
That said, he insisted that the film does have a message, and an important one.
"The message is, you've got to find your flock," Samberg said."The movie has a sweet theme that says there are so many different families out there."
Voice work is often a lonely business, but Samberg said that he wasn't always alone in the sound booth.
"I did a lot of my vocals with Kelsey Grammer, who plays my evil boss," he said."You could find the tone and rhythm of it together, the same way you would with a role where you were acting on camera. I also did a lot of vocals with Katie Crown, because our characters are on this journey together to return the baby and we basically talk over each other."
He smiled.
"I preferred to be alone, but that's the way she wanted to do it," Samberg joked."Of course, the minute one of them left the booth, I said to the director, 'Hey, they're in the bathroom. Hurry! Let's do my part now. I want to start making weird left turns.'"
As a kid growing up in Berkeley, California, with two sisters, Samberg was by his own admission the class clown.
"All I wanted to do was comedy," he said,"and I didn't really care how. I did go to film school, even though I wanted to perform comedy. I did that so I could write stuff for myself to act in. I just wanted to make my comedy happen in any way possible."
The high point of his week was always Saturday night.
"My dream as a kid was to be on 'Saturday Night Live'," he recalled."After that, I thought, the rest would be icing."
Samberg attended the University of California at Santa Cruz for two years before transferring to New York University, where he graduated with a degree in experimental film. He then moved to Los Angeles with childhood friends Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, with whom he formed the song-parody group Lonely Island.
Their comedic shorts took off on the web, which won Samberg an audition for 'Saturday Night Live'. He became a featured performer on the show in 2005, and continued in that capacity until 2012.
Taccone and Schaffer were signed as writers for the show, which also aired their Lonely Island parodies. They released a debut album, 'Incredibad', in 2009. Lonely Island boasts more than 1.62 billion overall views on its YouTube channel and three platinum singles.
On his own, Samberg has become a triple threat as an actor/writer/producer. He has appeared in numerous films, including I Love You, Man (2009), What's Your Number? (2011), Friends with Benefits (2011), That's My Boy (2012), Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012), Grown Ups 2 (2013), Neighbors (2014) and the recent Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016).
"I want to add to the mix fake rapper," he said."You call that a frapper."
Samberg also added"husband" to that list in 2013, when he married singer/actress Joanna Newsome. That and making Storks have gotten him thinking about fatherhood.
"I would be a terrible dad," Samberg said."Hear me out. I would operate from the place of 'Let's do it, because it would be so much fun.' I would live by the creed of 'The more irresponsible, the better.' I'd say, 'Son, let's just blow it off. That's our motto!'"
And if that son someday wanted to become a comedian?
"The only advice I'd ever give him is what I tell people now who ask me for advice on how to make it in this business," Samberg said, turning serious."I say, 'Do what you're most passionate about in life. Just do it. Do it as much as you possibly can. If you have to work a crappy job, do it when you don't have to be at that crappy job. I worked on my comedy at the job. That's really not cool, but I did it. I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I did standup. I was specific about what I wanted.
"That's the thing in life," Samberg concluded."Be specific about that one thing. The other stuff will just form around it."
