If you’re going to hell, you might as well go there laughing.
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed the comedy style of Alison Brie (Mad Men, Bojack Horseman) , Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Rec, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) , Molly Shannon (SNL and basically everything else), Fred Armisen (SNL and Portlandia), John C. Riley (Stepbrothers and Talladega Nights), and Nick Offerman (Parks and Rec and The Founder) with the power of God? Now you don’t have to. Presenting The Little Hours, a nuns gone wild dark comedy set in the 14th century.
Written and directed by Jeff Baena, The Little Hours follows a young ward (Dave Franco) on the run from his Master (Nick Offerman) after some serious indiscretions with the Mistress of the castle. By chance he stumbles into a priest (John C Riley) who is in need of a new gardener for his convent housing Plaza, Shannon, Brie, and Kate Micucci. A whirlwind of hellish antics ensue right with the bishop (Fred Armisen) comes to pay them a visit.
The Knockturnal’s own Nicolette Acosta was lucky enough to get to sit down with most of film’s cast and director and get exclusive answers on filming, process, and what makes the perfect satanic ritual.
Nicolette Acosta: Congratulations on the movie. It’s wild, it’s fantastic. I went to Catholic School, it gave me some PTSD flashbacks, I can’t lie… Where there any nuns, real life or fantasy based, that kind of gave you guy’s inspiration for your characters?
Alison Brie: Not me. Ladies?
Aubrey Plaza: Jewish, Mc Jewerson sitting over there.
AB: Jewy Jew bug over here, is like not me. I just made it all up!
Molly Shannon: I had a nun that taught first grade, but she was like an unhappy nun, she later left the convent, and mine, the nun in this movie is very devout and sweet, and very devoted to God, so…
AB: Although she is having a secret relationship…
MS: She is…
AB: …so maybe there is a tie in.
MS: Yes, yeah your right, you make a good point.
NA: It’s like a three-way with God so…
AB: That’s right… She’s cheating on God with God.
MS: Yes, yes, exactly.
NA: Speaking of making things up, the movie is so wild, but also some of it comes out so naturally like it’s the way you guys talk. How much of the script was there, and how much of it was getting on set, playing around, and having fun?
AB: The whole concept of the movie, was there, and there was an outline for the movie, but there was no actual script, so everything was sort of improvised and also at the same time Jeff Baena our director, knew what he wanted us to say, and what he wanted from each scene, so it was a very collaborative process, it wasn’t like “normal improv”, where people think of like, “I’m gonna think of the funniest button for this scene!” You know, it was much more like, what’s the goal in this scene, let’s all talk about it, let’s all think about the dialogue and give some examples, and then we would lock into what we were doing and kind of stick to that.
NA: Cool. So fill in the blank in this sentence: The most important part of a satanic ritual is ________________.
AB: Nudity.
AP: Dagger.
MS: Blood. I wasn’t there though, but that’s what I’ll say…
AB: I was barely there… in the outskirts….
AP: A positive attitude.
NA: Satan needs to feel welcome or else he doesn’t want to come to the party. So, with everyone in the cast, not the actors, but the characters… If you had to screw, sacrifice, or save the soul of, who are you going, top 3?
AB: Ohhh… What are they? This is like f–, marry, kill, but its what, screw, sacrifice, or save the soul of? I have to look at the poster… I feel like, I want to say that I would obviously screw Massetto [Dave Franco]…
MS: Her husband…
AB: … my husband, I would sacrifice Kate Micucci’s character, because she just goes so insane in the movie, I think it just like, you know, just for her own good, I would do it…. And I would save the soul of Fred Armisen’s character in like a reverse way, where I feel like he needs to get in on a little bit more of what we’re talking about…
NA: A little bit of that potion…
AB: Let loose a little bit, yeah…
AP: I would probably screw you (to Alison Brie)…
AB: Yes!
AP: …because we didn’t get to, and we planned…
AB: …that’s true, we did plan an elaborate backstory for our characters…
AP: …we planned on it, but we didn’t get to…
NA: There are no deleted scenes that lead into that?
AP: No… but…
AB: We didn’t have time to shoot the “deleted scene” that we thought of that we knew would be deleted…
AP: Just cause my character I feel like got to mess around with most other characters…
AB: There is a slight nod in our drunk scene, to our sexual background…
AP: I would save Molly’s soul, because it’s such a special soul, and I guess I would sacrifice, John, maybe?
AB: Yeah, he deserves it… he lived a good life…
AP: He lived a good life, and he’s fine…
NA: Plus he made you double up on your crafts right there so…
AB: Yeah, yeah fuck that guy!
AP: Yeah, fuck him!
MS: I like your questions…
NA: Ok, so I have to know. The scene in the woods, I don’t want to give anything away for the people that haven’t seen it, but what was it like shooting that, it was wild…
AB: It was a crazy night! It was late, it was like, we literally shot until the sunrise. And these, amazing and bold, Italian women, were so game to be part of this crazy scene, it was just, it was kind of chaotic.
AP: Yeah, it felt real, it felt like we were really doing it, there was a huge fire, Davey [Franco] was strapped…
NA: Did Dave feel like you were really doing it?
AB: Yeah, I think he might of…
AP: Yeah no, I think he, I think he was probably, I kept thinking, that he must actually feel terrified, I wouldn’t have wanted to be strapped to that stone/slab…
AB: .. strapped down and he really couldn’t move…
AP: .. and you can’t see, and yeah it was bizarre.
MS: And did you shoot all the way till the sun rose?
AB: Yes.
AP: Oh yeah.
MS: That is wild.
NA: Thank you guys so much for your time, I really appreciate it.
Gunpowder & Sky will release THE LITTLE HOURS in New York & Los Angeles on June 30th.
