PROJECT X directed by Nima Nourizadeh, written by Matt Drake and Michael Bacall from a story by Bacall, with Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown and Kirby Bliss Blanton. A Warner Bros release. 88 minutes. Opens Friday (March 2). For venues and times, see Movies.
Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown do not look like the sort of guys who could lay waste to a suburban home. They’re just three nice kids who happen to play those characters in the teen comedy Project X.
In a boardroom at the Royal York, the trio are enjoying the first day of their press tour, talking about comedy (they all agree Norm Macdonald is a genius), the 3-D upconversion of The Phantom Menace and the current wave of found-footage cinema.
Project X is itself a found-footage movie purporting to be the record of a suburban Pasadena house party that spirals spectacularly out of control.
“I’ve never been a fan of found-footage, but it works in this movie,” says Cooper, who gets the breakout role of alpha party planner Costa.
“I was definitely scared going in, [because] I didn’t know how it would play out. Comedy’s harder in found-footage. Watch The Hangover or Superbad. It’s got beats, cuts – they can really time it well.”
Brown, who plays the nerdy JB, chimes in.
“It forces you as an actor to be as authentic as possible. You can’t be obvious.”
“Some of the funny stuff that I remember doing never really played out in the movie,” says Cooper. “I mean, it didn’t play, or it was cut because it was too character-y.
“On the other hand,” Brown says, “there’s stuff that we didn’t know was funny that turned out to be hilarious.”
Mann, who plays shy lead Thomas, says director Nima Nourizadeh was good at gauging all this.
“He captured moments that were spontaneous that we didn’t even know we were doing. That was just part of his wanting to make it feel authentic and raw.”
If the experience of shooting Project X was strange, watching the finished product was even weirder.
“It feels like you’re at the party just observing these characters,” says Brown.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, I don’t know what I just did,'” Cooper admits. “I’m such an asshole in this movie.”
“Honestly, you are the perfect asshole,” Brown quips. “But we know you’re [really] a nice Jewish kid who loves Greenblatt’s Deli.”
The result is a movie with a chaotic, almost infectious energy – though not all the actors were able to enjoy it at the time.
“We were out on that set having so much fun,” Mann says. “It felt like this real party we were having, so it was hard to come down and be the guy who was stressing and worrying.”
“That’s why he’s a good actor,” Cooper offers, “because I was never worried about that. I was just like, ‘Oh, there’s a flame-thrower? I should probably be scared at this point.'”
Interview Clip
Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown and Thomas Mann on shooting Project X in an actual standing house:
normw@nowtoronto.com
