In that case, it was running into your ex with their new lover while on vacation.
When did you realize you were going to make a sequel and was that an idea already floating around?
Im not sure if you have a daughter or Seth has a daughter…
I have two daughters, so the story really spoke to me, a story about daughters.
I think the story in this one is a little more complicated and interesting in that way.
I notice that you have about five writers credited on this.
A lot of times when people see so many writers on a movie, they get nervous.
But it seems more like a TV writers room.
Is that how it worked out?
Honestly, all of the movies I worked on are very collaborative.
So, it always ends up being a big collaboration I think.
Yeah, we kind of passed it around.
Was it hard to work from that without making the same movie twice?
We wanted to do justice to that story, so that was certainly complicated.
And then we ended up going all the way to 11, so I was excited about that.
I think were ready for women to be completely crazy or just as bad.
We had a whole fistfight between Zac and Seth on the first one that people thought was really funny.
[laughs] For some reason, I dont understand.
Probably cultural critics will be able to figure that out eventually.
She did play Hit-Girl and that was one of her first roles where she was killing people and swearing.
I forgot that shes been in a lot of R-rated movies before this.
Can you talk about casting her?
Shes so funny, and inKick-Assshe was great, and I loved her inHugo.
What about bringing back some of the guys from the first movie besides Seth and Zac?
That was something that we knew from early on.
That was an interesting decision to makeI wasnt expecting that.
and I said, I dont know, thats a really good point.
It just seemed like a natural place to go.
It created this interesting emotional story between the two of them, I thought.
Do those things always end up on the DVD as extras later?
When they put stuff in the commercials thats not in the movie?
Oh, I dont care.
That seems like the right move.
I think if they were more like the girls of Kappa Nu, I might like those movies more.
A lot of times when they have someone watching a movie in a Universal movie theyll watch aBournemovie.
Was it hard to get that?
Yeah, both studios must have spin up the numbers and decided it was going to make everyone money.
Thats the only way that could have happened.
That is something I think about.
Ive always had as many friends who are women as friends who are guys.
I like to make movies about couples and married couples, and how men and women interact.
That is what my area of interest is.
So yeah, that is something that interests me more than just one gender.
The firstNeighborsis really all about parenting.
So yeah, its my artistic interest, I would say, more than one thing or the other.
I know you haveStorkscoming out later this year, so how has it been going into animation?
Is it very different or is it just another bang out of collaboration?
Its really different, and yet Im bringing the stuff I learned from live-action into animation.
Ive done a lot of improv in the recording booth.
I have Andy Samberg.
Ive also tried to make a movie thats legit funny.
Its a great premise, one of those How come no one has ever done this?
premises, which is cool.
When I thought of it, I was like, Really?
No ones done this?
It opensDumboand then thats it basically.
The movie is really turning out awesome.
NOTE:The next portion of this interview contains a smallspoilerabout a callback for one of the gags fromNeighbors.
Although its in one of the commercials, its funnier if you dont know about it in advance.
Especially the case of the airbag gag which is a really funny moment but it seems very dangerous.
Oh, yeah, thanks.
You would definitely die if that happened.
That would kill both of them.
