The League and The Kroll Show have established Kroll as a big-time comic. But his latest movie, which premiered at this year's South by Southwest festival, is a straight drama. Adult Beginners is about a man -- Kroll -- leaving his life behind to move in with his sister and find himself. Heavy stuff for an actor more known for his boorish caricatures.
"It's more of a dramedy than what I've done," Kroll told What's Trending in the Samsung Blogger Lounge at SXSW. "And yet it feels not dissimilar to what I was doing in a weird way on The Kroll Show. Whatever character I'm doing I'm trying to play to the height of that person's emotional honesty."
"The movie is about me, I'm an entrepreneur and the bottom falls out of my business." Kroll said. Losing everything, his character has to move in with his sister, her husband, and their three-year-old child. "I become their nanny."
Kroll, who has twelve nieces and nephews, felt a connection to his character on Adult Beginners.
Speaking to the name, Kroll said, "It's about people who are adults on paper, but in reality they're still kids in a lot of ways and they're still figuring it out."
Kroll's new turn as an actor is bittersweet for fans of The Kroll Show which is ending this year.
"It's a weird thing when you decide to end a show." Kroll said. "It's very nice to have people want more, and it was a great experience."
"I'm a very serious actor now and I want to be sure people understand that about me," Kroll said with a grin.