Do we like Will Arnett?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Nothing harmful turned up and there is some real good, but the record on his causes and views is thin.
Will Arnett is Toronto-born, the son of a well-known Canadian business figure, and he grew up near Yonge Street. He told the Globe and Mail he was asked to leave Lakefield College School, saying he was simply told not to take part in any further curriculum. He then spent years finding his feet before Gob Bluth in Arrested Development made him a name.
From there it was an Emmy-nominated run on 30 Rock, the voice of BoJack Horseman and Batman, the Netflix show Flaked, and the SmartLess podcast with Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2019. This year he got his most serious acting notices yet in Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On?.
The scandals are small. In January he told The Romesh Ranganathan Show that heavily tattooed people are often “truly boring people”, then noted there are exceptions, and the clip resurfaced in February to some online mockery. In February he also called an unnamed famous comedian a “rank” guest on SmartLess, saying the hosts cut the chat after ten minutes. Rude, perhaps, but hardly a crime.
In June Jason Bateman asked him a very personal question about his ex-wife on the SmartLess podcast. Arnett refused, asking whether Bateman was “looking for clicks” and telling him it was “none of your f–king business”. Whether that's boundary-setting or a grump moment depends on how you hear it. In a December Rolling Stone chat he called speculation about his relationship with Amy Poehler “just made up”.
On the harm test, we came up empty in a good way. Searches for anything he's said or done against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, health or the planet found nothing, and no endorsements or donations to harmful causes either. His recent work is mainstream: Is This Thing On? with Bradley Cooper and Laura Dern, plus SmartLess. The caveat is that he doesn't say much on politics, so the pass rests on a clean record rather than loud good deeds.
The good stuff is quieter. He has hosted a major fundraising gala for a Toronto hospital in his hometown, and he appeared in a 2020 televised benefit for Canada's front-line workers and food banks. Bradley Cooper credits Arnett with having a hard conversation that helped Cooper change his life around 2004, which says something about the kind of mate he is.