On June 21, Rooftop Films screened No Hard Feelings (2023) at the Lower East Side’s New Design High School. The feature starred Jennifer Lawrence as Maddie. Andrew Barth Feldman played Percy. Gene Stupnitsky directed the sex comedy.
In the film, a down-on-her-luck woman named Maddie lost her childhood home. She answered an advertisement to “date” a wealthy, awkward nineteen-year-old boy named Percy. His parents posted the listing on Craiglist. They hoped to get their son out of his shell before college. Due to the boy’s anxiety, his dates with Maddie didn’t go as planned.
After the special presentation, Ronald Gladden spoke with Feldman. To learn more about the film’s production and Feldman’s character, read the interview transcript below.
Ronald: For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ronald Gladden. I’m from the Amazon show Jury Duty by Gene Stupnitsky, and I am so excited to be here tonight. We have a hilarious and brilliant screening of No Hard Feelings, but, before we get into that, I do want to introduce our special guest tonight, the star of the film, Andrew Barth Feldman.
Andrew: Hey everybody, thanks for being here. Wow.
Ronald: Welcome.
Andrew: Welcome to you. Thank you for being here, it’s great to see you.
Ronald: You as well. The first question I have for you, Andrew, is: can you describe this film to us in three words?
Andrew: Two – dark, funny.
Ronald: That’s a great answer.
Andrew: Thank you.
Ronald: So the next question is: what made you want to initially do this film?
Andrew: Oh man, I mean the easy answer is obviously like — there was no walk here for me. It wasn’t like I was in movies and was like ‘Hey, guess I’ll do this one’ like Jennifer Lawrence is doing this excellent comedy. But the script, the first time I read it, after my first audition, it’s the funniest script I’ve ever read, not that I’m the arbiter but Jen agrees and this character was really, really, I was riding my wheel after him, I was so connected to him and I wanted to take on the myriad of challenges that came with playing him.
Ronald: Yeah— and by the way, for those of you who haven’t seen it, it is very funny. I will agree the script is great. That leads me to my next question: can you tell me about your character and do you see any similarities between himself and you?
Andrew: Yeah. 100% yes. So firstly he’s this very sort of — [to the audience] you’re going to watch the movie in a second — but he’s this very antisocial, nervous, but very kind, sweet young man, and yes I think we’re very similar. I’m a much more social person, he would never stand up here and talk to you but I think the engine of anxiety drives both of us. But also like, he’s very sheltered from the world, there’s a lot he doesn’t know how to do and I didn’t know how to ride a bike before this movie. Like, for real, I had to learn how to ride a bike for this movie, so that’s the kind of stuff I didn’t know how to do the same way a person doesn’t know about the world he’s venturing into.
Ronald: That’s a great behind-the-scenes fact right there. I didn’t know that coming into this.
Andrew: There you go. I had to go to Central Park with my friends and my friends who are the same age as me had to teach me how to ride a bike.
Ronald: That’s great. So obviously I’m a huge fan of Gene’s, having worked on Jury Duty, but truthfully I never got to meet him though, so what I’m curious [about] though, is what it’s like to work with him.
Andrew: He is an incredible director. He was throwing alternate lines at us constantly. The version of the movie you’re about to see is the funniest version but there are a hundred other versions of different jokes and things he would throw at us on the day. He was so collaborative and wanted to know about how I thought of Percy as a young person as a representative for Gen Z and yeah, he’s one of a kind and so weird, but brilliant.
Ronald: Weird, but brilliant, we love to hear it. So, comedy is obviously a new genre for you. Were you nervous going into this and how did you prepare for this?
Andrew: I think it’s been something I’ve been so hungry to do for so long – I was in the show Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway which, [turns to face the crowd] — oh, a smattering of recognition — people don’t remember how funny it is, it is a very funny show. You take away a lot of sadness and emotion. But yeah, I love shtick, like I love physical comedy, and this movie has so, so much of it, and also Gene’s script is so funny that to deliver these jokes you just kind of have to tell the truth.
Ronald: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That totally makes sense. So my question is: what’s the funniest thing to you that happened on set?
Andrew: Ooh, there’s a shot in the movie where we’re walking with dogs on the beach. The first time we did it, I had these two big dogs, and we were running. As soon as Gene calls “action,” the dogs take off. I fly through the air from the weight of the dogs pulling me forward and land on my face in the sand and I’m so mad it’s not in the movie. It just happened because the dogs were too heavy and then Jen had to take the big dogs and I took the little dogs.
Ronald: That actually leads to my next question. Were there any moments outside of that that were just so good that didn’t make the final cut but you wish they did?
Andrew: Oh yeah, that same day we went to another thing with dogs, we’re washing the dog – that’s in the movie – but Gene, over the mic goes, ‘and now, Andrew, let the dog lick you in the mouth’ and I did, right away, and he was like, ‘I was joking, why would you do that’ and I was like ‘well you better fucking use it in the movie, man’, and he did. I put my life on the line for this movie.
Ronald: Exactly. So, Andrew, is there anything, before we start this movie, that you’d like to say to the audience?
Andrew: Happy summer solstice. I just really hope you get to look at each other and be like, is this really happening, just laugh, that’s the best thing about this movie, we get to laugh together in a theatre, which we haven’t really done in a long time, so I hope you have that experience tonight on this cool rooftop. Thanks so much for being here, everybody, I hope you enjoy the movie.
