Comedian and actress Noël Wells premiered her film “Mr. Roosevelt” at SXSW this year.
The indie flicks stars Noël Wells as a struggling 20-something who moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. When a loved one falls sick, she returns to her college town of Austin and reunites with her ex-boyfriend played by Nick Thune and his “perfect” and intimidating girlfriend played by Britt Lower. Check out our exclusive interview with the cast and crew:
Q: Can you describe the writing process of this film?
Noël Wells: The evolution of this, I had the idea for the character for a long time and I’ve been writing scenes over the years and then I had written a version of the script a couple of years ago and it was really funny but not there as a movie yet. And then when I solved the problem it was a matter of what the movie was going to actually be which was hinged around Mr. Roosevelt, it was just a matter of me sitting down to write it. Writing’s really hard for me but it just becomes collecting ideas throughout the day and writing notes to yourself and once day you just have to sit down and put it all in one place which is hard.
Q: Coming from your improve background how much of this film was improv and scripted?
Noël Wells: It was really tightly scripted but we were working with such great comedic actors that they can help but put in a button that’s usually pretty brilliant. So anytime somebody just gives you something you have to use it. I think some of the really big laughs in the movie were people just saying something spontaneously and that’s one of the most rewarding parts of the whole process. We have this script; we have this story and then every once in awhile somebody injects something that I could have never come up with on my own and then it becomes a collaborative process. I’m not a huge fan of riffing even though Andre’s amazing at it. The scene outside the house, after we wake up together- a lot of those things were him just saying stuff and me just rolling with it. It’s become this lazy thing in comedy, “oh the script’s tight but I’ll just hire a comedian to improvise my movie for me,” and it gets exhausting to re-write people’s stuff. You want to be a perform and do the best you can but it’s nice to be contained and explore that container.
Q: You shot on film, did that make it even a tougher process?
Noël Wells: It made it tougher for everybody else. I think it took a long time for everybody to get used to it. The camera department had to be on their toes. People hadn’t shot on film for a while so it took about three weeks for everybody to run very efficiently. I think there was a lot more pressure on the actors. We shot as much as we would digitally, there just wasn’t a lot of room for a lot of riffing. We shot 22 days. 20 in Austin and 2 in LA.
Q: Is the film autobiographical?
Noël Wells: Yes, I’ve been telling everybody that everything that has happened in the film has happened to me in some way. But all of it’s fictionalized, it’s not like me giving you the story of my life because it’s a character and things need to be heightened and thing have to happen in different ways to make the story work.
Q: Is Mr. Roosevelt real?
Noël Wells: I do have a friend in my life named Mr. Feeny and he got really sick and I left him in Austin and I had all this guilt. It was the first time I realized how. You take it for granted how he’s always going to be around but in the movie something worse happens to him.
Q: How did you get involved in the project?
Britt Lower: I met Noël when she first joined SNL. We have the same manager. She moved to New York and I was living there. Kirsten set us up on a lady date and we sat in Bryant Park and drank wine together. I got to go to her very first screening at Saturday Night Live. We haven’t seen each other in a while and I heard about the script through Kirsten and I was just so excited for Noël because it’s an amazing story.
Nick Thune: I was brought in last minute. I think I might have been the 20th person they offered the role to but it seemed like a no-brainer to take the job. For my wife and son it seemed crazy that I would leave for a month, “I was like hey, you’re going to be a single parent for a month and I’m going to go party in Austin and shot a cool movie.”
Q: How was it to have an actor-director in this film?
Nick Thune: I didn’t like it at first but then it became weirdly comforting. Usually with other actors you can talk shit, just let anybody at work. You are kind of a team. With Noël, there was no hanging out with her. It was fun to watch her make the world and then it made it more important to give her what she needs.
Britt Lower: It was a less-selfish experience as an actor because everyone is on the same team and you know Noel has seen this film in her brain so you let got of some of the control that you want to have in your role and you are like you know what I’m going to be in the flow of this art making machine that we are in.
