Stoner-comedy Nuked held its World Premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival this week at the Village East Cinema. The Knockturnal spoke with the film’s Director, Writer, and Producer Deena Kashper, and several stars of the film.
The premise of Nuked is that for Jack and Gill’s 40th birthday, they surprise their college friends at a rented mansion for an unplugged technology-free dinner party. With everyone’s phones confiscated for the evening, Jack and Gill treat their friends to a five-course cannabis-infused journey–with emphasis on the cannabis. Even more hilarious is the fact that the five-course meal is prepared by an herbal chef, Sasha, played by the hysterically talented comedian and actress Natasha Leggero.
Right when the THC kicks in, however, someone glances at their phone to discover a nuclear bomb is headed for Los Angeles and everyone may only have 30 minutes left to live. You’ll have to watch the film to find out what happens next.
Nuked stars Justin Bartha and Anna Camp as Jack and Gill respectively, who also served as executive producers on the film. Justin Justin Bartha teased, “[Nuked is] an ensemble adult stoner comedy.” He continued, “It’s like ‘Oppenheimer’ for stoners. It’s a fun movie about the end of the world and trying to be in a relationship.” We also asked Bartha about a potential National Treasure 3.
Not only did Deena Kashper write Nuked, but she also directed and produced the film. Kashper shared that the inspiration for the film was the infamous 2018 Hawaii bomb scare. “That’s when there was a guy who worked for the Hawaii government who sent out a text alert to the entire state saying ‘there’s an incoming missile, and it took 38 minutes for that next text that said ‘nevermind, my bad.’” Kashper continued, “that inspired me to explore our dependency on technology and how we’ve lost human connection through that.”
The hilarious Natasha Leggero spoke with us about playing a THC Chef. “She is just like a perfectionist.” On researching for the role, Leggero joked “In terms of being a chef, I am very untalented but I’m really, really talented at smoking weed…and so I was able to bring that into my dishes.”
Check out our full interviews from the Nuked World Premiere below!
