Rahul Kohli was worried he screwed up his new movie 'Next Exit' with an ad-libbed line about diarrhea
- Rahul Kohli opened up about his latest film "Next Exit" during a recent interview with Insider.
- In the drama, Kohli plays a man ready to commit assisted suicide as part of a scientific study.
Rahul Kohli is beloved by fans for his unfiltered and hilarious social-media presence, but the actor revealed in a new interview with Insider that he was worried his no-holds-barred sense of humor would ruin his new film "Next Exit."
In the film, directed by Mali Elfman and starring Kohli and Katie Parker, the "Midnight Mass" actor plays Teddy, a British expat living in America who's ready to commit assisted suicide as part of a controversial scientific study in California. On the way to San Francisco, Teddy meets Rose (Parker), also a study participant, and the two develop an unexpected connection.
Kohli told Insider that there was "room for ad libbing" during filming, which caused some problems for the actor.
"I did struggle with knowing what the line was, because with comedy and ad libbing, you want to do the funniest line possible," Kohli explained. "But sometimes that's not appropriate."
In one scene, for example, Teddy and Rose sit down to chat with Rose's estranged sister and her husband. The moment is very tense, but Kohli couldn't resist adding in some comic relief with an improvised line.
"Teddy's trying to get her out of it and he says, 'I'm not well, we need to go,'" the "Haunting of Bly Manor" actor recalled of the scene. "And then [Rose] says to suck it up. And I said, 'You can't suck up diarrhea.'"
"As an improv? Great. But too far," Kohli continued. "I worried that I fucked the movie up."
The actor expressed concern about another ad-libbed line of his (during a scene where Rose allows Teddy to drive their car, Kohli improvised the line, "You want to die twice?"), but ultimately agreed, along with Elfman, that the film needed comic relief in certain moments.
"Just because you can do it, or you can be funny, should you have?" Kohli said of his ad-libs. "And it's about finding the right tone. But upon watching it a few times and seeing everyone's reactions... they needed that."
Elfman, who also wrote the film, told Insider that the improvised lines in "Next Exit" were "brilliant."
"These actors came prepared. They knew every single line, the way that I'd always dreamed of," the filmmaker said. "And then we also got to play."
"Next Exit" had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10. You can watch the trailer here.