This question originally appeared on Quora: How much improvisation was done by the cast in Neighbors?.
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Answer by Nicholas Stoller, Director/Screenwriter, Neighbors
A fair amount of improv was used in this film. I always do about 20 to 30 percent improv and 60 to 70 percent scripted. I also yell out a lot of jokes that I think of and that the writers think of while on set -- so it's kind of a combination of everything.
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Answer by Ike Barinholtz, Actor, Neighbors, The Mindy Project
Whether you call it improvising or fast writing, there was a good amount. But Brendan and Andrew, our screenwriters, wrote such a great script. We only strayed from it when a line that was in the script was written in a way that didn't deliver the way we wanted it to. So, throughout filming, you'd get lines thrown out to you and people tell you to "Say this instead..." This only added to the great live feeling of this movie. Every day on set was so much fun.
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Answer by Nicholas Stoller, Director/Screenwriter, Neighbors
A fair amount of improv was used in this film. I always do about 20 to 30 percent improv and 60 to 70 percent scripted. I also yell out a lot of jokes that I think of and that the writers think of while on set -- so it's kind of a combination of everything.
...
Answer by Ike Barinholtz, Actor, Neighbors, The Mindy Project
Whether you call it improvising or fast writing, there was a good amount. But Brendan and Andrew, our screenwriters, wrote such a great script. We only strayed from it when a line that was in the script was written in a way that didn't deliver the way we wanted it to. So, throughout filming, you'd get lines thrown out to you and people tell you to "Say this instead..." This only added to the great live feeling of this movie. Every day on set was so much fun.
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