David Wain Directs Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston in 'Wanderlust'

The mad genius of David Wain can currently be seen on every media platform available. On Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, you can see his work as writer-producer-actor on the cult TV series "Children's Hospital" or hear him voicing the Warden on their animated series "Superjail!" His award-winning webseries "Wainy Days," which details his wacky dating adventures, is in its fifth season on My Damn Channel and a DVD of the first four seasons has just been released. And hitting theaters this week is "Wanderlust," an offbeat comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston that Wain directed from a script by himself and Ken Marino. Marino, who co-wrote "The Ten" and "Role Models" with Wain, also appears in "Wanderlust" as Rudd's jackass brother—a character not too far removed from his "Role Models" stepfather.

Wain started out his career as part of the influential comedy troupe The State, whose members such as Marino, Kerry Kinney-Silver, and Joe Lo Truglio continue to overlap in each other's works. All three appear in "Wanderlust," which finds Rudd and Aniston joining a free-loving commune led by Justin Theroux after their high-octane NYC lives fall apart. Wain says the film addresses a thought we all have, a wonderment about chucking our lives and starting anew. "Who says you have to live the way we live in our society, what if you just ran free?" Wain posits. "This film is about two people, just like all of us, who make that decision."

Back Stage: This is your fourth film with Paul Rudd and you obviously collaborate with a lot of the same people; do you write with actors in mind?

David Wain: Mostly not. In this movie, we kind of had Paul and Justin in mind, but that was it. Our practice is generally not to write for specific actors, even though we go to a lot of the same actors over and over. First we write the movie, and we think about the cast later.

Back Stage: At what point did Jennifer become involved?

Wain: Once we had a script into shape that we really liked, we brought it to Paul. Paul came onboard as actor and producer and then we went to Jennifer. We certainly weren't expecting her to say yes, but we're so thrilled that she did.

Back Stage: Why does Ken always end up playing such an asshole in your films?

Wain: Because he's an asshole. A huge asshole. (Laughs) No, he's just good at it. He relishes it and find the fun in that and it's a fun thing to write and play. We actually didn't know he would always play that part. We didn't think about it too much until we got too casting and I said, "Okay, you'll play that." It was already written. But we auditioned for most every role, even if we ended up giving it to somebody. It's just part of what you do, you give everybody a chance.

Back Stage: As an actor yourself, do you think you sympathize with actors auditioning for you?

Wain: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Auditioning is a horrible process. It's just a necessary evil; I can't think of a better way to evaluate actors. I've never been good at auditioning. Most every role I've ever gotten was because I cast myself or somebody who knows me well cast me. Luckily, I have me to cast me!

Back Stage: What are some of your worst audition experiences?

Wain: I've had so many bad auditions. For a while, I was doing a lot of commercial auditions, which are the most soul draining because you go in and wait all day to say "How's it going?" Then you leave wondering if you were the best one at saying that one little line. Or sometimes they make you do these weird improvs for no reason. Or you'll go into auditions where people are eating lunch or clearly not paying attention or clearly don't care. Or you'll painfully screw it up and ask to do it again and they'll say, "No, no, we got it!" So I try to be as fair and empathetic to actors in auditions. But it's hard on both sides. When you're seeing 30 people a day, you don't want to waste anybody's time if you're sure they're wrong for it.

Back Stage: Your films have grown in budget over the years, but you still do non-budget things like "Wainy Days." Do you find the bigger budget helps, or does necessity breed invention when you have the small budget?

Wain: Necessity breeds invention a lot. "Wet Hot" was under $2 million, "The Ten" was about $4 million, and then it jumps way, way up for "Role Models" and "Wanderlust." They're different animals, but the actual making of the movie is very similar, really. No matter what the budget is, you're still working with the DP to figure out where the camera is going to go and working with the actors. The process is very similar, you just might get more time or paid more. But it doesn't affect how funny it is.