Youd think a tour bus outside a noisy dance club in August would be a terrible place to do an interview. But the air conditioning is running, and inside the bus the Friday-night thrum of the Hoxton barely registers.
So I sit down with Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski and director/co-writer Max Joseph to unpack the moral quandary at the heart of their new movie. We Are Your Friends stars Efron as Cole, a young DJ trying to find his way in the dazzling entertainment culture, and Ratajkowski as Sophie, the woman who knocks him off his axis.
This is a movie about people figuring out who they are, and realizing they dont have to be empty and vapid. But they have to start by being those things. Did you have any trouble finding your way into the characters?
EMILY RATAJKOWSKI Doesnt everyone ruin their lives constantly and do things that are good and bad? I guess thats why theyre likeable. Theyre real people you can relate to.
ZAC EFRON Its fascinating to watch characters who are put under immense pressure and make selfless choices. I think thats Coles journey. To find himself, hes forced to stop following his friends and really search for who he is and what he wants.
MAX JOSEPH One thing that Zac and I talked a lot about, especially in regards to his character, was sampling. DJ music obviously has a lot of sampling in it, and I think one thing all the characters in the movie are doing, especially all the younger characters, is sampling different lives for themselves. Over the course of the film, they discover who they are and what their own voices are telling them.
The movie certainly shows us how they could be tempted to make bad choices. Cole and Sophie live in a pretty tempting world.
RATAJKOWSI A lot of people have been saying this is a movie about success and fame and money, and thats absolutely not true.
JOSEPH I think with social media and Instagram, people are able to see whats over the fence of everyone else, and it all seems within reach. Especially in the Valley, which is right on the other side of the Hollywood Hills. When youre rubbing elbows with celebrities, fame and fortune and success seem so easy and so attainable, and these kids you see them ignoring certain paths just cuz they want to find the shortcut to success, which is definitely where Cole and his friends are at the beginning of the film.
I think you learn through the trials and tribulations of maybe pursuing that that its more complicated. It requires hard work. And the shortcut might actually take you down the wrong road.
See our review of the film here.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
