NEW YORK, April 3 (UPI) — Stranger Things alum Gaten Matarazzo says there was a “good chunk” of improvisation in his new comedy, Pizza Movie, which was written and directed by Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher.
“I think that was an interesting approach they took, ensuring that what was on the page, they got in some capacity early on, and then they would just leave [the cameras] rolling and just feed us options that they were coming up with on the fly or they would just let us riff a little bit longer than what was kind of scheduled,” Matarazzo, 23, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“A lot of really fun takes came out of it,” he said. “But, I will say, also a lot of garbage takes that should never see the light of day.”
Premiering on Hulu Friday, the film follows best friends and college roommates Jack (Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone from The Goldbergs) through a wild night after they consume a hallucinogenic drug that keeps getting crazier the longer it takes them to obtain and eat a pizza.
Lulu Wilson from The Fall of the House of Usher plays Lizzy, a former friend that is part of a new clique now, but gets caught up in the ridiculous adventure.
“We would have new pages in our trailer. So, it was changing every day. But then, on top of that, Nick and Brian would just be like: ‘OK, now say this.’ ‘OK, now change it completely,” Wilson, 20, said.
“It was a blast. It was really fun and I think the end results [showed it] totally paid off.”
Giambrone, 26, called making the movie the “most collaborative experience” he has ever been a part of.
“They would come up towards the end of day and be like, ‘We’re thinking for this next scene this idea,’ or whatever, and then they would be curious about what our ideas were as a cast,” Giambrone recalled.
“We’re all sitting there and we could just talk and be like, ‘This thing’s hilarious,’ or something and it would be in the scene the next day. They created a really great story and amazing jokes, yet they weren’t overly precious,” he added. “They were willing to just adapt and personalize and I feel like the friendship among the three of us was really kind of shaped during the whole process.”
Mattarazzo thinks the preparation time he, Giambrone and Wilson were given before shooting began really helped them trust each other when taking big swings in the outrageous comedy.
“[McElhaney and Kocher] were able to adjust what they wanted the film to look like based on how we were growing as characters together in real time,” Matarazzo said.
“That’s very rare. Most of the time, when you jump into a project, you know how that movie’s going to end. So, there’s a little fear involved when you don’t quite know where it’s going. But I think that that ultimately helps the process, which is really fun.”
The film also explores self-acceptance and bullying through a comic lens, as all of the main characters try to figure out who they are and where they belong in young-adult society.
“Lizzy is going through something very common,” Wilson said.
“She knows where her heart is, but she also knows the kind of social politics of college and she wants to fit in and she wants to be loved and have friends. But she also doesn’t want to be seen as honestly, like what she truly is, which is like kind of a nerd,” the actress added.
“So, it’s a very real struggle that I could definitely relate to when I was in school and, I think, at the end of the day, the moral of the story is, home is where the heart is. She knows where her heart is and she knows who her real friends are. She just has to kind of fight to accept that and get there.”
Matarazzo noted that the bullying in the film isn’t just between the cool kids and the nerds or the power-obsessed Resident Assistants and the students.
It is also demonstrated in the way Jack is constantly trying to pressure Montgomery into doing things that he doesn’t want to do in his quest for them to be popular.
“It’s not really a black and white situation when it comes to the three of them as a whole,” Matarazzo said.
“It doesn’t necessarily villainize Lizzy for wanting to make the decisions that she does. Ultimately, I think a lot of mistakes are made, especially by Jack and Lizzy in that department,” he added.
“With Jack and Montgomery, I think what’s interesting is that, despite them having so much love for each other, very clear love, Jack is one of Montgomery’s biggest bullies in the movie and that’s a really frustrating thing to watch. It’s frustrating to play.”
Matarazzo said he actually felt uncomfortable at times when the filmmakers told him Jack needed to be meaner to his best friend.
“It just has to land later. There was an immediate disregard for Montgomery’s feelings throughout the process and actively being a menace and mean to Sean actually broke my heart day to day,” Matarazzo added.
“There was also something so wonderful about seeing how much good there was in the relationship as well as the toxicity that was very clear where Montgomery very much has a right to want distance there. I think it’s a really cool little middle ground.”
Giambrone assured Matarazzo he didn’t take Jack’s constant ribbing of Montgomery personally.
“it just shows further how incredible of an actor [Matarazzo] is because he really is a ‘thinks of everyone else first’ kind of person,” Giambrone said.
“So, to be mean and be so selfish, it takes someone that is so selfless in how he is. You’re a beautiful man,” Giambrone told Matarazzo, to which Matarazzo replied: “Aww, you’re a beautiful man. Love you.”