Cyrus Q & A (SXSW)

Well, if the film didn’t have audiences laughing enough, The Brothers Duplass held a Q and A session after the movie with the two stars John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill. From the moment they walked onto the stage the audience was laughing at the comedic responses from the questions being thrown at these two actors. Mark and Jay started joining in on the act when asked would you work with these two guys again, Jay replies, “ No, we hate them.” The crowd roars in laughter as as John adds, “ I’m a prostitute! I’m turning tricks for the highest bidder.” As things started settling in a few good questions came up.

How is doing a film like Cyrus different from the acting and improv in an Aptow picture?

John: Well in ‘Step Brothers’ we put nuts on a drum (pause for laughter) This one…go ahead Jonah.

Jonah: That was a good question. I will say the only difference was that the movies you see me in are usually a bigger comedy type film. There were no moments where I was trying to be other than just genuine, as apposed to genuine while trying to still be funny. While in the other comedy films you have try to carry the movie as normal character while lacing in jokes intertwined within that character, and a movie like this it is purely being honest and taking it where that goes. Mark and Jay laid out a very genuine platform to walk on.

You had a script when you started how much did you add to it once you started?

Mark: We started with a very traditional script, but as we always know once we are on set things get added. It is our belief if you have the actors read through the lines and re-say those lines and say new stuff. That’s when you get gold.

Jay: It really is a torturous process. It sounds fun but actually it is an enormous amount of work. And it’s about having those tools at that moment to keep things good in the scene and these guys are just unbelievable at that, and they are incredible to work with.

Mark: We knew what would be important to keep this movie going, which is of course the smart little jabs from Cyrus to John, but it was in the middle of one take that Jonah adds, “ Seriously, don’t f**k my mom.” We never would of written that or thought of that and we knew his instincts would make that character work.

John: I think that should be the tag line for the poster. “Seriously, don’t f**k my mom” -Cyrus.

At the end of everything John C. Reilly asked the audience if there was anyone out there that wanted to be a filmmaker?

“ You could go through the scheduling, and go through the storyboards and get everything exactly perfect, but you can also go out there and shoot just because you want to. If there is one thing I can say, it’s if you want to shoot a film just do it. And these two (Mark and Jay) they aren’t like normal first time major picture directors. Most of them if something goes wrong they get flustered and the crew members are waiting around for storyboards. These guys were cool and kept cool when a pressure situation would happen, and I tip my hat to them.”

The crowd gave Mark and Jay a standing ovation as they made it to the paramount theater on a Saturday night for an outstanding new comedy, as John C. Reilly said: “I tip my hat to them.”