Andy Samberg on Brooklyn Nine-Nine: "It's So Far Beyond What I Imagined Happening for Me"

Andy Samberg said it plainly: "When I was 8 years old, I decided I wanted to do SNL and that was pretty much all I thought about until I was actually o…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On September 3, 2013, FOX hosted a press conference call with Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg and show creators Mike Schur and Dan Goor ahead of the series premiere on Tuesday, September 17 at 8:30/7:30 Central on FOX. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton was among the journalists on the call and asked Andy two questions.

I'd like you to speak a moment about how you feel about your success — starting from SNL, going into the movies, and now you're a lead character in a terrific sitcom. Tell me how that feels.

It feels more and more impossible every time I do something new. When I was 8 years old, I decided I wanted to do SNL and that was pretty much all I thought about until I was actually on it. So everything from the point I got to audition, really, has been icing. I'm incredibly grateful for it all and to be able to have done movies and to have done SNL and now this. It's so far beyond what I imagined happening for me. I thought that I would probably try and do standup for a while, unsuccessfully, and then get a different job and be sad. Yeah, it feels incredible. I feel incredibly lucky.

You mentioned earlier that you're handed a script every week. Is there any room for spontaneity or ad-libbing — because you are very funny and you do come up with a lot of very good things on your feet?

Absolutely. We try and do as many takes as it takes to get as-scripted exactly how we want it, and then we'll do multiple takes where we just go for broke and try different stuff. There is always a writer on set and a director-producer on set and that week's director on set and the whole cast on set, many of whom are trained comedians and writers as well. So even if we're going off of a scene that's written, if we feel it's not totally clicking, we'll brainstorm and come up with alts and give ourselves as many choices in the editing room as possible.

On leaving SNL for Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

It's better in that, for me anyway, it's much less stressful because the hardest part of SNL was having to create something new every week. And with this I have basically just scripts handed to me every week that are already great and a bunch of jokes that are already written, which is the hardest part of comedy in my opinion. So in that regard it's been a lot less stressful for me. Certainly the hardest part changing has been waking up early versus staying up incredibly late with SNL, which is much more my element, but I'm adjusting nicely.

On Amy Poehler as inspiration for the transition:

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I took a cue from Amy Poehler in terms of feeling confident about making this decision. Not just because she segued successfully out of the show into a show, but because she literally did it with the same guys.

On working with Andre Braugher:

As an actor, I am completely in awe of him. This is a Juilliard-trained, Shakespeare in the Park heavy. He knows exactly how to play drama and has so much experience in that regard. So I'm learning from him every day watching how he approaches things. As a person, I think he's fantastic — he couldn't be warmer. So many people have this impression of him that he is very intimidating, but I haven't really seen any of that. He's been nothing but warm and collaborative and interested and interesting. Comedically, he gets better every day but he really started off great. Because of that gravitas he has and that actual acting training, I feel like our characters play perfectly into our experience leading up to this point. He's able to ground scenes and let me sort of act like a maniac all around him like a yipping little dog in a way that has, so far, been really funny.

On Jake Peralta being more autobiographical than expected:

I'm finding more and more parallels between Jake and I as the show goes on. He's based more on me than I realized.

On how long he could fake being a real cop:

Well, it depends on if it's an area near any college kids because that's who recognizes me the most from SNL. But assuming no one had ever seen me anywhere else — I would say maybe 30 seconds. Not that I'm not taking it seriously, but I don't want to belittle how much training and how much work actual police officers put in. I can pretend like I know how to fly a plane, but we wouldn't be in the air very long.

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