Griffin Dunne has been back in the zeitgeist with his recent memoir, “The Friday Afternoon Club,” as well as his recollections about his uncle John Gregory Dunne and aunt Joan Didion that appeared in the bestseller “Didion & Babitz.”

Now, fresh off his guest appearance on “Only Murders in the Building,” his acting is back at the forefront as he stars in the new movie “Ex-Husbands,” with a role in Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing” to follow this summer.

He burst out in the 1980s with “American Werewolf in London,” “Johnny Dangerously” and “After Hours,” and his career endured numerous ups and downs before reviving in “This Is Us” in 2018. (That career includes at least 10 roles alongside his “After Hours” co-star Rosanna Arquette, who divorces his character, Peter, as “Ex-Husbands” begins.)

Dunne spoke recently by video from his East Village apartment in Manhattan. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Q: What appealed to you about “Ex-Husbands”?

A: It reminded me of the movies that influenced me as a kid in the ’70s that had character development and relationships and a lot of humor and heartache and dashes of irony. I also could relate as the divorced father of an adult kid whose parents have passed away, so I recognize the life transitions.

I was able to bring my life experience of experiencing the ups and downs with a sense of humor. My biggest worry initially was that the character would succumb to self-pity or be a sad sack, but the director, Noah (Pritzker), wouldn’t let my character drift into such a place.

Q: The movie poster for “To Be or Not to Be” holds special resonance for your character in the film. Do you have one like that in your life?

A: (Dunne takes his computer into another room to show a poster of the 1957 film starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, “The Sweet Smell of Success.”)

Q. What is it about that movie that speaks to you?

A: The cynicism about the media and the machinations and the power the character wielded. But I love just about any movie that films a lot of exterior New York scenes. I saw it pretty soon after I came to New York and it just blew my mind. It was an early part of my film education.

Q. The humor in “Ex-Husbands” is low-key, while in “This Is Us” you have a dry but cutting humor, and in “Johnny Dangerously” you played looser and wackier. Do you have a preference?

A: I wish people would take more advantage of my absolutely silly side. I’ve got a manic Marty Short inside me that is just dying to burst out. I would be thrilled with something really broad; people who know me have seen me just slip into absolutely ridiculous characters, and I’d love to play one of those people throughout a movie.

But my strength is being kind of funny in sad situations, with my humor coming out when situations are in chaos. On “This Is Us,” Nicky was traumatized, suicidal and diabetic, but despite how damaged he was, he had a heart with a real need for connection and he was quite observant, so really funny remarks came out of his mouth.

Q: When did you feel like you knew what you were doing as an actor?

A: I studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and I was a young, snobby actor who was only going to do theater, although I threw that moral out the window relatively quickly. I tried too hard and I pushed as an actor in auditions and acting class. But I got really lucky because I was hired to co-star in “American Werewolf in London” and on the first day on the moors, everything I learned and prepared for went out the window. David (Naughton) and I were young, with little experience, but director John Landis showed absolute faith in us, so I didn’t second guess anything.

I dropped everything and thought, “All I have to do is listen and just say the line back.” It sounds simple, but it took me a long time to get to that. That was eye-opening, learning I didn’t have to try so hard.

Q: After that, you worked with Michael Keaton in “Johnny Dangerously” and Martin Scorsese in “After Hours” and you were hot. Then you were not. I know you were dealing with trauma after your sister was murdered, but was there something else?

A: I had a very ambivalent relationship to fame and success. I was brought up around fame and it was a treasured commodity in my family.

Q: Ambivalence is almost too positive. In your memoir, you wrote about turning away from fame.

A: It looked a little scary to me. I’d seen what the business does when it is done with you, what it did to my father once it had no use for him after he committed the most heinous crime of making a movie that lost money. He lost all his money and fled in shame just as I was entering show business. So I think that accounts for why whenever there was heat on me as an actor, the next thing I would do would produce a movie like “Running on Empty” without a part for me in it. … Which was confounding to my talent agents.

Q: Recently you’ve been on a roll again, starting with Nicky on “This Is Us.”

A: After I did “I Love Dick” there was this period of silence in my career, so I began studying Chekhov with a visiting Russian teacher. I’ve never done Chekhov — I’d never really even understood Chekhov. But while reading a play called “Ivanov” I suddenly got it. This character is just like me — funny and sad, tragic, pathetic and brave, emotionally available but all over the place. I stopped worrying about acting jobs and got lost in Chekhov’s world and embracing my own age and life experience. Then out of the blue, “This Is Us” calls and when I’m reading the script I say, “Nicky is just like Ivanov.” It was wonderful.

Q: And then you were back in the conversation as Professor Dudenoff on “Only Murders in the Building.”

A: When the show aired, I happened to be in Lisbon and people went crazy, saying, “What does Dudenoff have against Portugal?” But I didn’t get it so I just smiled dumbly. Finally, I called John Hoffman (the show’s co-creator) who said the other characters had quoted Dudenoff as saying things like, “Why would anyone go to Portugal when you can go to Spain?” That showed me how closely and passionately people were watching the show.

Q: Next up is Darren Aronofsky’s thriller “Caught Stealing,” which will have those New York location scenes you love.

A: It’s a very New York movie. Darren lives about 150 yards from me here in the East Village. It’s a cool part — I’m playing a coked-up bartender in the ’90s. I was very aware of the bars and bar life here at that time. I have a photo of me but I’m not allowed to show you yet. But I’m dying to — you’ve never seen me quite look like this.