Is There Any Hint of Amy Poehler in the Will Arnett Divorce Movie?

Bradley Cooper is continuing his quest to win an Oscar — for something. If he couldn’t win an Oscar by making everyone low-key feel really worried about him while campaigning for Maestro, maybe he will win by directing Will Arnett in a movie about divorce. The Academy loves divorce. Unlike stories about poor people or having integrity, getting divorced is something the Academy can really relate to.

The new trailer for Is This Thing On? was released yesterday. The movie comes out October 10th. (Prime Oscar bait release date, I see you Bradley.) It’s inspired by the life of John Bishop, an English comedian, presenter and actor who starts doing stand-up when his relationship with his wife bottoms out and his life starts to fall apart around him. 

So yeah, the movie isn’t about Arnett’s divorce from Amy Poehler, but any time a famous guy has been divorced, I start to look for evidence of that divorce in his work. To be fair, I’m also doing this when women get divorced. Kacey Musgraves’ divorce album was a work of art! And while Poehler and Arnett say they’re now cool with each other, at the time the divorce was finalized in 2016, that was less so the case. The end of their relationship and their dating lives post divorce has been the subject of much gossip — there’s even this really detailed Reddit post cataloguing all of it. 

Considering all of this, it’s not hard to wonder if there’s not a bit of self-insert in the film. Already, Arnett is a bit of a typecast. He often plays sad, down on his luck, maybe has a drinking problem sort of guy. As someone wrote on X: “One thing Will Arnett is going to do is divorce a gorgeous blonde.”

But is Laura Dern a stand-in for Amy Poehler in Is This Thing On? With only a two minute and twenty-five second trailer it’s impossible to say for sure. But there are some surface-level similarities. Dern and Poehler are both blonde, for example. Also, in the clip, Dern’s character asks Arnett’s character if he’s okay; that seems like a question Poehler would ask. 

I know, those are some pretty thin comparisons, but if you seek it out you will find it!

Some people really want to take the potential divorce self-insert even further. On X, people have suggested that Arnett go on Poehler’s podcast Good Hang to promote the movie. I’m not saying I wouldn’t tune in; and it’s not even the first time that Poehler and Arnett have appeared on each other’s podcast. Poehler appeared on Smartless earlier this year with Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. 

So what do you guys say? Round two interview to help Cooper finally get that Oscar?