Part of Samberg’s recent maturation has involved marriage. Almost two years ago, Samberg wed singersongwriter Joanna Newsom, and for most of last winter, he squired her around town as she promoted her movie debut in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, which Newsom narrated and acted in. “I was very proud of her and not surprised in the slightest, because I’m convinced she can do just about anything,” says Samberg. He was a longtime fan of Newsom’s even before they met at one of her concerts— “I was prepared to be intimidated,” he says, “but she’s a fun, silly woman when she wants to be”—and when he talks about his wife, he’s positively beaming. “She’s just one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard,” he says. “Her songs do the thing that’s my favorite thing that art can do, which is be full of beauty and yet melancholy at the same time. ’Cause that’s what life is, really: beauty, and also melancholy.” Perhaps that melancholy so intrigues Samberg because it’s not necessarily the wheelhouse within which he operates. “Comedians are natural pessimists, OK?” explains his Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star Terry Crews. “Their job is to find out what’s wrong with everything, and that’s how they find what’s funny. Now, this is where Andy is different. He sees the bad, he notices it and doesn’t ignore it, but then he finds the great thing about it. He goes the other way; he finds the positive, and the negative stuff never brings him down because he’s thinking about how blessed and thankful he is.” Canvass his old colleagues, and that contagious good mood of Samberg’s comes up time and time again. “Oh my God, we’ve had so many laughs,” emails Amy Poehler. “We both have big, giant mouths that love to laugh.... He is a bighearted warrior. A boy king. A hot piece and a stone-cold fox.” I chat about Samberg with Fred Armisen, who suspends his Portlandia-honed deadpan to gush, “To this day, I love being around him.” Armisen recalls the late nights they spent together rehearsing Saturday Night Live, when Samberg would throw out a ribald, unexpected line that would reenergize his tired castmates: “There are things that he says under his breath while smiling, and just him doing that is enough to really shake up the scene.” Armisen pauses for a moment, lost in a swoony remembrance. “God, I love that guy a lot. I really do.”
A few days after our dinner, I meet up with Samberg on the set of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where he’s shooting the penultimate episode of his sitcom’s second season. The craft services table is overflowing with some seriously unhealthy snacks, yet Samberg refrains, choosing instead to nosh on some carrots and celery dipped in almond butter. “I had a weekend of bad eating,” he admits, blaming his temporary lapse in judgment on a few stray Sunday beers. “I’m glad to hear that you go off the wagon sometimes,” needles nearby Brooklyn co-executive producer Laura McCreary, “because every time I see you, you’re eating perfectly.” Samberg is soon summoned for his big scene. His character, Jake Peralta, must endure a dressing-down from Sergeant Jeffords (Terry Crews) and Detective Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio): Though Jake had earlier injured himself in the line of duty, he continues to overdo it, and his colleagues are concerned for his well-being. Says Jeffords, “You put work above everything else, and it’s not healthy.” The line reminds me of a candid moment from our dinner at Lucques a few nights ago, when Samberg was talking about just how packed his schedule has been as of late. “I hate it,” he admitted then. “I pretty much know what I’m doing every part of the day for the next year, and saying that out loud gives me the shits.” On set, Crews points an in-character finger at Samberg. “If you don’t figure out how to balance things,” he tells the boy detective, “you’re gonna burn out.” It’s easy to understand why Samberg himself might hit that wall. It would make sense to simply start going through the motions, conserving his energy for the next major demand on his overscheduled life instead of giving much thought to the fifth take in the eighth scene of the 22nd episode in this 23-episode season. With all the things he’s had on his plate recently, he should want to get in and out of that soundstage as soon as possible, right? Instead, Samberg forfeits his next line and pulls up his shirt, seductively flashing his co-stars with a swath of his hairy belly. Lo Truglio cracks up. So does Crews. Samberg just grins, and the show goes on.
