Jon Heder talks about his new movie Funny Thing About Love, making feel-good films, and gives an update on a potential Napoleon Dynamite sequel.
Funny Thing About Love is a new rom-com starring Jon Heder. The film follows a woman who takes her boyfriend home for Thanksgiving only to find her family is scheming to get her to reunite with her lost love. Funny Thing About Love is now playing in theaters.
Screen Rant spoke to Heder about what drew him to the film, feel-good movies, and an update on a Napoleon Dynamite sequel.
Screen Rant: How would you describe this film?
Jon Heder: It's a rom-co. A little Hallmark-style - it's like a Hallmark movie with comedy in it, actual tried comedy, and it works. It's an ensemble piece with a lot of funny actors at a big family gathering around Thanksgiving during the Thanksgiving break.
Everyone seems to be playing a bit of a version of themselves. Do you feel like you're a bit of Charlie?
Jon Heder: Oh, 100%. One of the things that drew me to it, I didn't realize until after I took the role, I was like, "You know what? I've almost been waiting for this." In real life, I'm a dad, I'm married, and I have not yet played a dad. I think every actor out there at some point is like, "At what point do I start playing a dad?" just, age-wise and everything. I was like, "No, finally, this is what I get to do."
And so, all that I connected with, and Charlie's kind of a big kid who was still obsessed with his childhood, and that's very much me. I love my job. I loved my childhood. All the things that kind of made me when I was a kid, I'm obsessed with now. All the Thundercat, GI Joe, Star Wars talk. That was me.
This is a wholesome feel-good movie. What's your favorite feel-good movie? What's the one you put on after Thanksgiving dinner that relaxes you and clears your mind?
Jon Heder: After Thanksgiving, I'll probably go play video games, maybe. This Thanksgiving, we just watched Dumb and Dumber right after because my younger brother had that tradition. So I feel like, "You know what? I'll join you in this tradition. We'll watch Dumb and Dumber." But I don't know if I have a go-to. I guess from the 90s when I was a kid, I watched Cutting Edge a lot. I loved Cutting Edge. I don't know why. It's random. But that's a great one.
What does it feel like to be that for people? Because Napoleon Dynamite is a comfort favorite movie for a lot of people.
Jon Heder: Oh, it's sweet. We're the fattening comfort food. That's great. We've got high caloric input.
It's great. I never really saw that coming until realizing, "Oh, a lot of people told me it's [their] favorite holiday film." I was like, "It's not a Christmas movie." It's like no. Christmas time is, you watch Christmas movies, but you also watch your go-to something that you like watching with other people, and that's really cool.
I realized Napoleon kind of had that party feel. People, when it first came out, would go see it with their family members, and they bring more and more family members to the theater. And I was like, "Oh, yeah, that is like the holidays." You just want to sit down and watch something that maybe you've seen 100 times, but you don't care because that's what the holidays are about, reliving those fun old memories.
My dad and I have these movies we always watch, and one of them is Blades of Glory. It cracks me up. I wonder what Jimmy MacElroy is up to today?
Jon Heder: He's still probably eating Skittles and working. He's probably coaching little kids now. Don't they all end up coaching, but still trying to relive the glory days?
Was it not weird when Jay Z and Kanye used a part of that movie in their song?
Jon Heder: We were out bowling last night with the cast of [Funny Thing About Love] and that song came on. My buddy was like, "Dude, this is the song!" I didn't even recognize it, I don't even know the song that well. But I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's right." It was just a very random little anecdote. "Oh, you're in that song. Oh, cool. All right." I don't know what it has to do with the song at all.
I think it was like a year ago, you mentioned that you'd be open to a Napoleon Dynamite sequel. I feel like that has to happen at some point. Has there been any movement on that?
Jon Heder: I mean, everybody's talked about it. I don't know if there's been any more steam gained over the last... It's been the same for the last 17 years since the movie came out. Wow, I just came up with that. Yeah, who knows? Who knows?
I always tell people I don't know if the world of Napoleon is dead. I think there's some, whether it's an animated show - I mean, we did an animated show - but I think another one or something. I don't know if the world of Napoleon's dead. That's all I can say.
I love that you embrace it. Sometimes I talk to people that have that thing and they want to get away from it. You still seem very much in touch with everyone, you do Q&A’s all the time. I love that.
Jon Heder: Well, thank you. Yeah, it's fun. I love Napoleon, it would suck if that movie was not good. And I really like it.
As someone starring in a rom-com. You've been married for about 20 years. What’s your biggest go-to advice?
Jon Heder: I think it's described pretty well in the movie but loyalty and it really is putting aside your pettiness. My biggest piece of advice is just to learn selflessness. It's not sacrificing what you like, it's not about that. It's more just realizing, "Don't sweat the petty things.... and don't pet the sweaty thing."
But really, it's so easy to get hung up on the tiny little things. You focus on the big and what you love about them and you keep going in that direction. Especially after so many years of marriage, it really gets better. It gets better because if you stick to it, and you really just focus on what's amazing, you find so much happiness that way.
That's good advice. I keep using the word wholesome to describe this movie because it does feel like a very wholesome movie. What do you look for in roles these days? What's something that sticks out for you that's important to you?
Jon Heder: Every project I do, I want it to be different. It's got to be interesting. It can be a mix of the project is interesting, or maybe the role is really fun, or maybe the people I get to work with. Brooke White, who plays my wife in the film, I had worked with her on a project before, on one of her music videos, and she reached out to me, and I didn't know anybody else, but I loved working with her. I thought it'd be fun to work with a few of the other cast members I kind of knew of.
And then sometimes, certainly the wholesomeness of this film, I love. I love wholesome. Having kids and having stuff that I can recommend to my parents as, "Hey, you guys love this movie. It's very wholesome and sweet." But I think after doing something like Napoleon, where we didn't really set out to make something wholesome, but we have had years, years, and years of people telling us how this is their favorite family film, and they love it. That is an important thing to me. I love having that element in a lot of the work I do. Not everything I do, but it's a really fun one to have.
Funny Thing About Love is now playing in theaters.
