Excitement & Exhaustion: An interview with the cast of Project X

By Josh Stadtner

Project X, a crazy lovechild combination of Superbad and The Hangover, comes to theatres this Friday. Combining a group of typical high school looking trying to throw the biggest party ever with production ingenious of Hangover director Todd Phillips and Hollywood’s notorious action man, Joel Silver, Project X provides raucous and relentless laughs.

I recently spoke with Project X stars Thomas Mann , Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown . Hilarity ensued.

Josh Stadtner: Which scene was the most fun to shoot?

Thomas Mann: The scene when the cops come and everyone is hushed in the backyard.  When they leave, Oliver yells, “Till the break of dawn!”  And the crowd becomes electric.  It was amazing.

Oliver Cooper: My favorite part is anywhere at the end because it’s like an action movie.  We went Scarface on that sh*t. It’s actually really intense. I remember I was trying to memorize my lines [for the final scene] and I was horrible at it! I just couldn’t do it. We did like nine times. I sweating so badly…I was so nervous. But in the end it actually helped the anxiety of the scene.

J.S. : Is that what you filmed first?

Jonathan Daniel Brown: No, we shot the whole chronologically. The school scenes weren’t [chronological], but the party itself was done in order because the house gets trashed throughout the movie. The house was a set on the Warner Brothers lot, but it was a real, functioning house for the most part.  You can’t really go back when sh*t gets destroyed.

T.M. :  It was cool because the party and destruction was happening in front of us, but at a day-by-day pace.

J.S. : That must have been a tiring process.  How did you guys hold up after so much partying?

O.C. :  I was exhausted.

T.M. : It was a mixture of exhaustion and excitement.

J.D.B. : My sleep schedule has never recovered. I still go to bed at three or four every day! It’s really unhealthy.  I have this FOMO thing after filming Project X.  You know, fear of missing out?

J.S. : That must be a Southern California thing.  What was the audition process like?

J.D.B. :  The audition process was a two-month period of hell.  I was pursing stand-up, so this was a game changer.

T.M.:  Yeah, there was this other two-week waiting period where I thought it was dead. It was like an emotional roller coaster.

O.C.:  I auditioned late so mine happened pretty quickly.  But I still had to go through the same stuff just in three weeks.  I remember in one week, I auditioned five times, sometimes twice in one day.

T.M. :  Then on the final day, they had the three of us come in and meet Joel Silver and Todd Phillips.

O.C. : Joel Silver is the king of action.

J.D.B. : Todd’s name is everywhere because of his comedy chops but Joel Silver did Lethal Weapon and The Matrix.  But basically, we met with them one by one and then we sat on the couch together, awkwardly getting to know each other.

T.M. : We were sitting there thinking, “Wow, this is what Hollywood is like!”

J.S: How much of it was ad-libbed?  

J.D.B. : A little bit, but most the stuff we changed was done in rehearsal.

T.M. : Yeah, on the day we mostly stuck to what was on the page.

O.C. : I guess it depended on the scene.  If it was small, like if we were playing video games, we didn’t have to get the exact lines.  But most of the stuff is scripted even if it was changed by the day or by the hour.  If Todd Phillips was there, anything could change.

J.D.B. :  Nima Nourizadeh was a very open and creative director.  His energy on the set was very helpful.

T.M. :  His style and coolness mixed with Todd comedic expertise was great.

J.D.B. : Sometimes he would just let us go out and mingle with the extras.  That’s how we did a lot of our preparation.  We just got to know each other basically.

J.S: Did you guys ever get uncomfortable or awkward?

O.C. : Not really.

T.M. : Woah, hold on! The dancing was really uncomfortable.  We couldn’t have music playing during the scene because there was some dialogue, so we had what’s called a “thump track.”  It just provides the beat, so we danced to that.  But it was basically silence and it was awkward.

Project X opens March 2.