Nick Kroll Opens Up About Orchestrating John Mulaney’s Drug Intervention in 2020: ‘I Was So Deeply Scared He Was Gonna Die’

Nick Kroll opens up on “Armchair Expert” about coordinating John Mulaney’s intervention during the pandemic,

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Nick Kroll appeared on the latest episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast with Dax Shepard and got candid about orchestrating a drug intervention in 2020 for his friend and frequent collaborator John Mulaney. The intervention took place during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was so scary and brutal to go through,” Kroll recalled. “He was in New York. I was in L.A. It was at the height of the pandemic. So it was incredibly stressful to be in the midst of that, trying to literally coordinate and produce an intervention, bringing a bunch of people together — friends from college, other close friends.”

Compounding the stress was Kroll’s personal life. His wife was nearing the birth of their child, and he was in production on Olivia Wilde’s film “Don’t Worry Darling,” a project already plagued by tabloid drama. “There was no stress there,” he joked before admitting, “John was running around New York City like a true madman. And I was so deeply scared that he was gonna die.”

Kroll described the intervention process as an actual test of friendships, with blurred boundaries and forced hard truths that surfaced.

“You’re all of a sudden going back and being like, ‘Oh, that’s why I’ve had an inconsistent friend for the last X amount of time,’” the comedian explained. “It gives you both empathy for them and also a tremendous amount of anger because they’ve been lying to you.”

In one particularly raw moment, Kroll recalled a phone call with Mulaney just days before the intervention.

“I have a very clear memory of being outside of my house — someone was working inside, and we were still mid-pandemic. I just sat on the ground, on the phone with him, both of us crying,” Kroll remembered. “I said, ‘I’m so scared you’re going to die.’ And I could feel him feeling the same way, but also like — ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah…anyway, I gotta go. I’m at a new Airbnb.’”

The now-famous intervention was staged in New York City. Many of Mulaney’s friends — including Kroll, Seth Meyers and others from Mulaney’s inner circle — convinced him to come under the guise of a college friend’s dinner.

Mulaney later revealed he had been abusing Adderall, Xanax, Klonopin, Percocet and cocaine. He went straight from the intervention to rehab, where he stayed for two months.

Kroll admitted that even after rehab, the experience didn’t immediately bring peace. “When he started doing stand-up again, and all of it was about the intervention, he was still pretty fucking pissed. He came back clean, but he was mad at us. And I was like, ‘Oh… I don’t know if I love that joke about me.’”

Still, Kroll recognizes the importance of allowing artists to process pain in their own way. He added: “Everyone’s process and art is different. What makes [Mulaney] so funny and dynamic and intoxicating as a performer is that he’s giving you a written version of his life, access to elements of himself. And I myself am very guarded in certain ways.”

“John Mulaney: Baby J” was the 2023 Netflix comedy special that detailed Mulaney’s drug abuse and road to recovery. The special earned him an Emmy for outstanding writing for a variety special and critical acclaim for its unflinching honesty. In it, Mulaney calls the intervention “star-studded” and “life-saving.”

“I am grateful to everyone at my intervention,” Mulaney says in the special. “They confronted me, and they totally saved my life.”

Kroll, who is promoting the final season of Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” said he has only recently started talking publicly about the ordeal. Nonetheless, his love for Mulaney is evident.

“I don’t think people hear enough from the folks who are terrified during these things,” Kroll said. “Addicts talk about their experiences, often in brilliant, stand-up-ready ways. But there are also people in their lives who are just trying to keep them alive. That’s part of the story, too.”

Kroll and Mulaney have collaborated on various projects for over a decade, including the Broadway run of “Oh, Hello” at the Lyceum Theatre from 2016 to 2017. Their bond, though forged through comedy, was ultimately tested by crisis — and survived.

“I just didn’t want to lose him,” Kroll said. “It’s that simple.”

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