• Interviews

• All
• Music
• Cinema
• TV
• Comic Books

Jun 19, 2015 Jason Schwartzman By Sarah Winshall

The Overnight follows two couples through a transformative dinner party-cum-sleepover. Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling are Alex and Emily, a happily married couple new to Los Angeles and looking to make new friends. Lucky for them, they soon meet the eccentric-but-friendly Kurt (Jason Schwartzman) at the playground and he invites them over for dinner. Although their kids hit it off immediately, making new friends as adults proves to be a little more challenging. Like a Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice for contemporary audiences, the film features an unconventional and open-minded take on the universal crises of adulthood, sex, and marriage.

Adam Scott talks about getting the project off the ground: “Mark Duplass brought my wife Naomi and I the script a couple of years ago because we’d been looking for something to do together… We thought the script was wonderful. I liked it because it scared me… the nudity freaked me out.” And rightfully so; the film features quite a bit of full frontal nudity. But, Scott adds a bit of wisdom: “I think if things are scary then you should do it.”

“I don’t like being naked but I wanted to do this because I think the script was so good,” Judith Godrèche says of playing Kurt’s French wife and would-be seductress, Charlotte. “There’s this moment where you’re like it’s really good, so well-written, so funny, and then there’s a moment where you’re like ‘Hey girl, take off your clothes.’”

Ultimately the cast was able to overcome any embarrassment, in part because the cast and crew got along really well. According to Jason Schwartzman, “We got lucky, all the actors got along. But also the crew, it was a good gang of people. It was a small group of people in this house in Hollywood at night for 11 days… Something about those 11 or 12 nights was a very good experience.”

This film is particularly unique in that it toes the line between raunchy sex comedy and introspective, relationship-driven indie. Although the film features a scene where the two men [spoiler alert] waive their penises around like helicopter propellers, it also explores more sensitive issues as well. Adam Scott identifies it as a specific thing that happens to people, usually in their 30s, “a time where you kind of say, ‘OK, this is who I am.’ Especially if you have kids or get married… You’ve put your roots down and you are kind of defined by all these things.” But in the film, “that all gets turned upside down in a matter of hours and [the characters’] view of the world and the way the world sees them is kind of turned upside down.”

For Taylor Schilling, the film is about, “[getting] to know yourself a little bit more. There’s a larger acceptance personally of who these people and… that thing that happens when you kind of dive into the hairier places, you can emerge stronger.” She adds, “It feels like there’s a real core of kindness in the movie and I’m excited for people to see it.”

***

The Overnight is now playing in theaters. For more information about the movie, check out its website.