Interview: Andrew Barth Feldman on How His NO HARD FEELINGS Character Relates to DEAR EVAN HANSEN

Andrew Barth Feldman is taking over the big screen this summer, starring in the new comedy No Hard Feelings alongside Jennifer Lawrence.

The new comedy film follows Maddie (Lawrence), who discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy, helicopter parents looking for someone to "date" their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy (Feldman), before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.

Playing Feldman's parents in the film are Tony winners Laura Benanti, who hosted the Jimmy Awards the year he won, and Matthew Broderick.

BroadwayWorld sat down with Feldman to discuss his transition from stage to screen, working with Lawrence and the star-studded cast of the new film, and how he related this character to Evan Hansen.

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Well, congratulations on the success of the movie. I want to go back to when you first got the call to do it. What was your first reaction?

I had this sort of long drive after I'd gotten the call. I was on the Long Island Railroad when [Gene Stupnitsky] and [John Phillips] called me to tell me. Then, I had this really long drive. I was driving to the Hamptons. Just this sense of sort of floating came over me. Just beginning to get a glimpse of my life sort of changing forever.

Did you feel any pressure? How did you approach this and what was your first way of stepping into this?

I mean, I definitely felt some pressure setting in, but doing Dear Evan Hansen was the greatest pressure of my life and that was mostly something I put on myself because I loved that show so much. I was so young, I felt the need to prove something. I knew I wanted to handle the pressure differently than I did then. It was all there and really heavy. I kind of begin and end every day with being like, "Hey, this might not go well. I might do a terrible job. I might have done a terrible job today. I might do a terrible job tomorrow, but I'm certainly going to do my best." And that is absolutely all I can ask of myself. I tried as much as I could to take the pressure off and everybody was always really supportive. The days that were most successful in that where I really didn't feel the pressure are far and away the best scenes in the movie, that I'm a part of at least.

Tell me a little bit about your character. Did you relate to him at all?

So Percy is anti-social, fearful of the world that he's about to enter going to college, young man, but he's also very kind and sweet and he's a lot to give to the world, but because of bullying, because of his parents' expectations, he's really, really sheltered. I did relate to that. There are wires in my brain and pieces of my heart that are very similar to Percy's. I like to consider myself a smart person. I've been much more outgoing than Percy, but it took me a way longer time to like learn how to tie my shoes. Things like that were always way harder for me. I had to learn how to ride a bike, or sort of re-learn, for this movie. So I really did feel that same sense of, I don't know if I'm equipped for the world I'm about to enter, I'm trying to break this bubble, but I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get out there, so maybe I should just lay off. I think we sort of have the same engine.

From some of the description that you gave, did you find any similarities between Percy and Evan Hansen?

Definitely. There's similarities between me and Evan Hansen. The common denominator there is me. So absolutely, I think they're both pretty anxious. They're both pretty nervous guys that manifest in very, very, very different ways. I don't know that Percy would have handled Evan's situation differently, and I don't know that Evan would have handled Percy's situation differently.

You were working hand-in-hand with Jennifer Lawrence throughout the film. So what was it like on set with her?

Oh, it was so, so joyful every day. I think like the great surprise and wonder of doing this movie is that we became really close friends, she is one of my best friends. So we were playing board games and always hanging out in between shots and scenes and stuff. We're pretty excited to finally hang out more, not as like work friends, but like as real life friends.

I feel like there's so many people on the internet and everything who are always saying that Jennifer Lawrence is the coolest person. She just seems so fun and relatable. I love that you got to be the person who's like, "Yeah, I actually did get to hang out with her and she's really fun.

Yeah and it's just as awesome as everybody thought it was going to be! It's amazing.

I spoke to Laura Benanti a few weeks ago and she was saying how great it was to have your little family in the film be Broadway veterans with her and Matthew Broderick. What was it like working with them as your parents?

Oh my god. It was a dream come true. Laura posted the Jimmy's when I did it. So that was this really crazy universe moment, like this really, really wonderful gift to get to do that with her, for her to be my mom, which is crazy. Matthew, I have idolized since I was very young and to get to pick his brain and talk to him, not to mention he is so funny in this movie, it was a total dream.

Everyone seems to be very excited to go see this movie to just enjoy and have fun with low emotional stakes. What is it like to let loose and film a movie that's like as fun as this one?

Oh my God, it's amazing. Like Gene and John, our writers, are two of the funniest people on the planet and they're constantly throwing alternative lines at us. We were laughing so hard every day. There was no pressure to like really get into a particular headspace.

That said, the movie's funny because the lines are truthful and so we had to tell the truth, which meant that the emotional stakes for Percy are very high, you know, this is kind of his worst nightmare and his biggest dream in a lot of ways that he goes through in this movie. It's a huge roller coaster for him. I would have to go there so that hopefully the audience doesn't totally have to go there but can dip into his emotional journey a little bit.

As an actor, how do you approach something like that where it is comedic, but you also want to ground it in this sort of emotional sense?

I mean, the pressure was not on us to get the comedic timing right and say the funniest thing. The funniest thing has already been written. It's our job just to just to say it as a person would say it and it will be funny because of the circumstances and because of the body that it's coming out of. I think there just had to be a real awareness of what my body looked like in that space next to [Jennifer's] and that's why things I'm saying are funny.

Looking throughout the past couple of years, it's been so amazing to see your transition from stage to screen. What have you sort of enjoyed the most about that transition?

Wow, I mean, it is a crazy thing. In theater, you're gonna say a line in a show in the context of the entire show every night, and then you're gonna do it again tomorrow. You get to go home and say, "I didn't really like how I said this today, but I really liked this, so I'm gonna fix this tomorrow, but I'm gonna try to do this exactly the same." And then you mess that up, and it's like this is high wire act.

In film, you're gonna say a line 17 times today and then you're never gonna think about it ever again. And that might be your whole entire day. It's out of order and all this stuff. It is a totally different muscle. But to have the chance to be quiet and small and also try everything, you know, I didn't have to be my own editor. I could trust that Gene and our editor, Brett, would get the right, the best version of it that I gave on that day would end up in the movie. There are probably three different Percys that could have been edited, like fundamentally different characters, based on how I was reacting to different situations and different takes. That's a very liberating surrender.

We do, however, miss you on stage and on Broadway. Do you have any interest in returning to the stage? Is there something in mind that you would maybe want to return to the stage in?

Oh, I'm desperate to. I mean, I am in no way resistant at all. It's just gotta be the right thing. The same way if I were to take another film project, it's gotta be the right thing. I refuse to let my career be guided by just like, "What is going to be the biggest project? What's going to be the biggest move?" As opposed to what the story and character that I care so much about. Theater as a form is something I care so much about. So I'm writing, I'm constantly writing theater and I am desperate to get back, hopefully originating something. That would be a real dream.

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Watch the trailer for No Hard Feelings here:

Andrew Barth Feldman Photo Credit: Stephanie Diani
No Hard Feelings Photo Credit: Macall Polay, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment