- I'm Alison Brie and I'm Jeff Baena
and we're playing Choose Your Squad.
- You both are going to be casting
a brand new romantic thriller.
- We're against each other, we're each forming our own.
- Everyone on this board is from either a movie
that both of you have done or one of Jeff's films.
You get to pick five people
and you have up to 15 points to spend.
You'll find some steals in the three and one-pointers.
Technically I'd say everyone in there
should be worth five points but I had to set,
I had to differentiate it somewhere.
- I mean just for the record, looking at this board
is insanely trippy to see all these faces and I've had
a connection with them at different points in my life
and just obviously this hurts to have to narrow it down.
- Oh please, first pick, sir.
- [Jeff] I'll go with Aubrey Plaza.
Obviously I'm a big fan of her work and her as a person.
I think she's a versatile actress
who can effortlessly glide between comedy and drama.
She loves romantic comedies
as much as she loves horror movies.
- [Alison] Okay, I'm gonna choose Nick Offerman.
I feel like this is a real steal that I'm getting
away with here, given this this low point value.
But Offerman is like a Swiss Army knife
in his knowledge of the outdoors and also of comedy.
People love him, he can do anything.
He's so entertaining no matter what he's doing.
- [Jeff] I'm gonna go with Molly Shannon.
If it was up to me, she'd be in
everything I ever made. - The classics.
- I think Molly is one of the most fun people.
Her enthusiasm is contagious.
She's energetic, she's down for anything.
She's one of the funniest people
and I've been a fan of hers since ultimately "Twin Peaks"
'cause I watched "Twin Peaks" when I was a kid
and I loved it but "Saturday Night Live"
and "Year of the Dog" showed her versatility.
I think she's just an outstanding human being
and the sweetest and I think she has really good
chemistry with Aubrey, so I think we're building
towards a great thing so far, so we have eight points.
- [Alison] I'll choose Jenny Slate.
Nice to get some female energy into my squad.
She's so talented.
She really is like effervescent.
I feel like all of her roles feel like
she acts them with compassion and joy
and, like, I'm always happy to see her in anything.
I feel like my audience would be just
as excited to see her in my movie with this team.
- [Jeff] All right, I'm gonna go with Zach Woods
to get myself up to nine points.
Zach is an absolute madman, comic genius.
He and Aubrey know each other since they were 19 years old.
So they have a back history and kinda came up together
and speak the same language,
at least in terms of improvisation and comedy.
He can do no wrong.
He's insanely insightful.
He's soulful and completely in tune to people.
Just the stuff he comes up with on the fly is incredible.
So you've rated him way too low with one point.
- [Alison] I'm gonna choose Jason Schwartzman.
I've never worked with him before.
So that would be exciting for me.
I've been a fan since "Rushmore," Phantom Planet.
(Alison laughs)
I feel like he has such a unique energy.
He's really unlike any other performer
and he's very shrewd in the way that he chooses projects.
I think he has really good taste.
When he shows up in something,
I always know that I'm gonna like it because
I just consider him to be a really discerning person
when it comes to creative endeavors
and seeing him in all of Wes Anderson's movies.
Like there's just always something
a little unexpected and that's exciting.
- So I'm gonna go with Adam Pally.
I love Adam Pally.
His sense of humor is dangerous and chaotic
and I think I always appreciate chaos,
especially in my movies and I think his self-deprecation
and self-awareness is a real fun element to add.
Additionally, he also knows Aubrey from back in the day.
So they have chemistry.
He knows Zach from back in the day.
I can't think of a funnier combo of Zach and Pally together.
I haven't seen that in real life.
I can only imagine what that would be like.
I think he'd be an incredible leading man.
I think Zach's obviously a great leading man.
I think their chemistry and sort of
whatever the opposite of chemistry is,
sort of like, repulsion could be really magical.
Also I think he's rated way too low.
I mean I'm gonna advocate for everyone in the ones
and threes, that's ridiculous the way they're rated.
I think they're all incredible.
- Definitely.
To support that, I'm gonna choose Alia Shawkat.
She's so talented and such a complex performer.
I loved "Search Party" so much.
She just brought a devastating humanity to her character
and really kept everything so grounded in reality.
I feel like no matter what she's in,
if things are going off the rails around her,
she's so grounded.
I love even like the tenor of her voice
and she's another very unique performer.
I think that the cast I'm assembling,
they all are just so unique, such unique little gems.
- So I have 10 points.
I'm gonna go up to 13 points by choosing Ego.
This is the first chance I've had to work with her
but I've been a fan of hers since "Saturday Night Live."
I think she's hysterical and having spent
more time with her while shooting and since shooting,
I'm really blown away by her mind
and I think she has a lot to show
and I think she's only getting started.
It's only a matter of time until she blows up big time.
- All right, this is where things get tricky
'cause in a way, I just wanna spend it all.
I'm gonna choose Ayden Mayeri.
I can't believe it took me this long to choose her.
She's a real, this is another kind of stealthy steal.
Ayden is so fricking funny and such a fun person.
I love her, I love her personality.
She worked with my husband Dave on "The After Party"
which was sort of how we came to discover her for this.
He recommended her for the role
and Jeff and I met with her over Zoom
and we just were like "Yes, we're in."
And then after working with her on this,
Dave and I cast her in our movie,
"Somebody I Used to Know" that we shot a few months later.
I just want to keep working with her
and knowing her for the rest of my life.
She's such a joy to be around and truly can take one line
and make it the funniest thing in the scene.
She's gonna be new for a lot of people
and I'm really excited to, like, introduce people
to her and her work because she is hysterical.
- [Jeff] All right, this one's easy.
I'm gonna go with Debby Ryan.
Alison and I met Debby for "Horse Girl"
and were blown away by also her self-awareness
and self-deprecation and come up with crazy like new takes.
I mean, I would love to put her in everything
just like I kinda have been.
I would love to see her with that combo
that I'm putting together so far.
- [Alison] I'm gonna go with Fred, Fred Armisen.
- [Jeff] You have to.
- Fred makes me laugh like to a fault.
It's a problem of mine where I think Fred is always joking
and I feel like every person I talk to
says this where like Fred can do anything and it's funny.
When Fred's trying to be serious, it's funny.
Fred can just be standing there.
Like forever, I imagine him
in "The Little Hours" in that little wig.
Like he's so fully committed to whatever bit
he's doing and takes it to sort of like
weirder places than you might have imagined.
Like he brings something more
to the character than we might have even thought
and he's just such an all-star.
- And this is very much a "Sophie's Choice"
situation between Gelman and Ben.
I love them both dearly.
I'm gonna have to go with Gelman this time.
I feel like with this cast, Gelman would slot right in.
Gelman has the ability to play high drama and then also
is one of the funniest people you've ever met in your life.
Also insanely committing to his role but he draws
from a rich theater background while also going
old school UCB with Aubrey and Zach and Pally.
So they have their shared history
and Pally and Gelman are a really fun combination
that I got to play with on "Joshy"
and Gelman would steal scenes
and I think in this crew that I have put together,
I need someone to just kind of be a disruptor and be the guy
in the scene that sort of just like is the focal point
of intense either humor or compassion or drama.
I think you get it all with Gelman.
I think he's underappreciated.
He should be worth 10 points.
I think he's a comic genius.
I have to go with Gelman
'cause he's sort of like a spiritual soul brother.
- All the better for me because I get to snap up
the tasty morsel that is Ben Sinclair
and I'm happy to do it.
I also think he runs,
you're talking about comedic frequencies.
Like Ben's frequency is unlike any person I know, you know?
He's the chill guy but he's spiritual and he's so artistic.
Like his artistic perspective is vast.
I really enjoyed, this was my first time
meeting him and working with him on this
and I think he brings a wealth of knowledge
to everything he does because he's worked so much
in different capacities, writing and directing
and producing and all that stuff.
While at the same time, I think he does still exist
in a bit of a dangerous space as well.
Like he can be a bit of a wild card.
Oh, it's "A Beautiful Thing"
and that's the title of my movie.
- I would go with "Sexual Oregon"
and so it's a little bit of a pun
and the movie is about an Esalen-style retreat
that all of these people go to
looking for themselves and finding each other.