‘If it scares you, it’s good to dive in’
Comedy The Overnight rests on serious themes such as growing up and body issues
In the comedy The Overnight, a foursome of Generation Y hipsters set up a play date for their two young sons, then explore the limits of sexual freedom in their relationships in one crazy night. The risky project was irresistible to star and co-producer Adam Scott partly because it took him far from his work as the unfailingly droll love interest of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. And also because he identified with the film’s underdog lead character.
“I found it really funny but I was also moved by stuff that I had never read before,” he said recently. “You know, male body issues, the male ego. A friend of mine called it a horror movie where sex is the monster. From the moment I read the script, there were things about it that really freaked me out, like the nudity. Those are all good reasons to do something. If it scares you, it’s good to dive in.”
Scott is a parent, like the character he plays, and finds that “the only people we (he and his producer wife, Naomi Scott, who managed this project) meet nowadays are either at work or through our kids. There’s a lot of truth to that, that’s where a lot of our social life lies. All we do is work or hang out with our kids. I thought that was a really sharply observed part of the script.”
He also feels that like the film’s characters, grown-ups with children and busy lives feel that “our periods of reinvention are behind us. I think that was always a vital part of life when you could go somewhere new. New job, new school, whatever it is, and be around a bunch of people who don’t know you. You can be whoever you want. You can’t just stop doing that, stop changing quite so much, when you settle down, get married and feel you have to be a rock for these people.”
The film was shot with a cast of four over a mere 11 days. Without preproduction preparation, the actors hit every shot fresh and loose, he said.
“I feel like rehearsing is counterintuitive. There was lots of improvisation sprinkled throughout, which is really healthy, a good way to keep a set alive and keep the actors engaged.”
It also helped the story move between passages aimed at light entertainment and moments when Scott’s character painfully discusses his neurotic shortcomings.
“The comedy was a great delivery system for these things I had never seen in a movie,” Scott said, especially since his character’s nude swimming scene proves that not all men are created equal. “I really just connected to that guy and how he feels. You know, when I was in junior high school I was an overweight kid and I feel like that is a tough age to be outside the social circles you want to be a part of. Especially at that age it affects you strongly for the rest of your life. So I feel that this guy has let this issue kind of colour the way he feels about himself for his whole life. And then everything changes this one night. I thought that was kind of fascinating.” The Overnight is playing in Toronto at the Varsity.