The Avenue 5 Scene That Had Every Actor Breaking Character

HBO's science-fiction comedy "Avenue 5" follows the passengers and crew of the titular interplanetary cruise ship as they cope with careening cosmically off course. The 2020 series (that totally isn't a prequel to "WALL-E") is created by renowned writer/director Armando Iannucci, whose prominent credits include "Veep" and "The Personal History of David Copperfield." Earning a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, critics have middling opinions on "Avenue 5," but there's simply too much talent involved to ignore it wholesale.

Getting back to his comic roots, "Avenue 5" features "House" star Hugh Laurie as Captain Ryan Clark. The talent pool also contains Josh Gad of "Frozen" fame, Zach Woods, Andy Buckley, Rebecca Front, and more. With so many comedians in one room, it's perhaps understandable to think that things are, frankly, a bit silly at times on set. In an interview with Collider, Gad and costar Suzy Nakamura answered the question on everyone's mind and shared their perspective on a moment when the goofs were too much to handle.

When asked whether there was a moment too hilarious to keep a straight face for, Josh Gad provided an anecdote that, while the scene was left mostly unspecified, painted a familiar mental image. "There was a day where we were all punch drunk, when Suzy [Nakamura] had to scream at Andy [Buckley]," explained Gad. "We were all in the foyer, and it was a very long day and an ensemble scene, and we just kept making each other laugh." 

We all know that even professionals get loopy sometimes. It's fun to imagine what nonsense was said, but based on this information, all that's clear is that it's a scene in which Suzy Nakamura's character Iris Kimura screams at Andy Buckley's Frank Kelly. Gad went on to admit that his costar Nakamura was an anchor for their functionality and kept them all in line. For her part, Nakamura shared her thoughts on the event. "I learned to reset other actors from someone in theater, and I want people to do it for me," she said. "Once you start to go, you can't recover."

Possibly the funniest truth unsaid in this interaction is that Nakamura's character Kimura is the right-hand man of Gad's character, Herman Judd, and Kimura's primary goal is to keep Judd from, ostensibly, breaking everything he touches.