Interview: Will Arnett Professes His Love For "Titanfall", Manages to Seem Even Cooler Than Previously Suspected

He's played it, after all, and we spoke with him about it.

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Image via Complex Original
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We've been to our fair share of cheesy celebrity endorsement events, but Microsoft's recent Titanfall play session with "Will Arnett and friends" was not that.

The difference is simple: Will Arnett is actually a gamer, and Xbox is his console of choice. You could tell he was enjoying himself by the way he rushed back to his controller the second our interview was over.

And if you need visual proof, the dude's bonafide game face is visible in the photos as well. You can't fake that level of concentration, and after playing a few rounds together we can confirm that he knows what he's doing.

Read through the Q&A below for Arnett's thoughts on Titanfall vs. Call of Duty, playing Batman in The Lego Movie, and an Arrested Development video game.

You know, having seen some of the game footage, I was like, 'Wow, it just looks so futuristic and so complex,' but the gameplayis so excellent, so intuitive, so quick, and it responds so well.

Complex: So this is your first time playing Titanfall?
Will Arnett: That was my first game, yeah. 

What do you think?
It's incredible. I know Vince [Zampella] and Jason [West, heads of Respawn Entertainment] and I'm not surprised that it's as good as it is. I've been fans of theirs since Modern Warfare

So you're a big gamer?
Yeah, that's right.

That's how you got involved in with the Titanfall event??
I think from a bunch of different channels, yeah. But just because I'm a legit gamer and Xbox is sort of my console of choice.

What do you think about Titanfall compared with Call of Duty?
There are plusses and minuses to it, you know? Like, Call of Duty is great for what it is, and if that's what you want—you know, I play a lot of MP with my buddies, and that's great, and I look forward to switching it up and playing something a little different.

You did Batman in the LEGO Movie video game as well, right?You've worked on a couple games before.
I did some 'miscellaneous voices' for Modern Warfare 2, yeah. And then a few years ago we created some content—well dumbdumb did, my production entity that Jason Bateman and I have—we created a comedic series based on actual game footage from Modern Warfare and created our own team and created our own show.

You're actually my favorite Batman.
Is that true?

That's actually true. I saw it twice this week. I've met Michael Keaton, but you're my new favorite.
Well I'm a big Michael Keaton fan.

So am I. He doesn't have his own song, though. Could you put out a whole album as LEGO Movie Batman?
That's not a bad idea. Do albums still exist?

Maybe a Spotify playlist. What was working on that like?
I think that, you know, in working with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who wrote and directed it, we wanted to create a Batman who—if you look at the whole canon of Batman, what we're left with was they got more and more serious as they progressed. And we decided we want to take that even further and have him take himself even more seriously.

And he's not really a dick. He's a superhero and he's Batman and he knows that he's Batman. He's self-aware of who he is, and he's like, 'Hey, listen, I'm Batman. So I'm kind of doing stuff.' And we wanted to do that in a way that was funny, and in the end ultimately a good guy, because he's not totally un-self aware. He recognizes that Wild Style is a great girl and she should be with Emmett.

I was just so excited that within a week of the movie doing so well after it premiered we already had the sequel, you know?
Yeah, yeah.

Was that something you were aware of beforehand?
I'm aware of very little.

They tell you where to be and then you're there?
Yeah, that's pretty much how it works. So I'm excited. Whatever they want it to be, and whatever they want me to do, I'm game.

How do you find the experience of doing the voice acting for a movie vs. a game? Especially when you're doing the same character?
In a lot of ways it's a lot more restrictive doing it for a game because you have to meet certain criteria, you know—within the context of the gameplay, this character has to say X Y or Z, based upon sort of variables. So in that way you can't just kind of let it all hang out as much, you know? It's still fun. You still get to play that character.

Do you want to do more games?
No, I want to do less games. I want to play more games, but do less work on games. It's a lot of work.

Out of everything you've worked on, what do you think would make the best video game adaptation?
Probably Blades of Glory.

That's a great answer.
That'd be a great video game, right?

What about if you continued Arrested Development where it left off after season 4, but as a video game?
That would be fun too. It would be kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure. Not a lot of superheroes involved.

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