The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Dave Franco makes directorial debut with ‘The Rental’
Dave Franco talks home-share paranoia in directorial debut ‘The Rental’
For Dave Franco, the inspiration for the psychological thriller “The Rental” bubbled up from the paranoia that crept into his thoughts each time he booked a homeshare rental.
“I think about how the country is divided as it’s ever been, and no one trusts each other, yet we trust staying in the home of a stranger simply because of a few positive reviews online,” says the 35-year-old actor who cowrote the screenplay and makes his feature directorial debut here.
“I wanted to explore that disconnect, where we are all aware of the risks of staying in a stranger’s home but we never think anything bad will actually happen to us,” Franco says.
That disconnect was even present on location on the rugged Southern Oregon coast during the making of “The Rental.” Franco and his actress wife Alison Brie, who stars in the film, stayed in an AirBnB while shooting a movie about four people in deadly peril during their weekend in a home share.
“I will say my paranoia has reached its peak since filming the movie,” Franco says. “Now every time I stay in a rental home, I’m not thinking, ‘Are there cameras in this house?’ Instead, I’m thinking, ‘I know there are cameras in this house.’ It’s just about whether or not I’m going to find them.”
Franco, whose acting credits include such films as “Now You See Me,” “Neighbors,” and “The Disaster Artist,” traces his passion for filmmaking back to his teen years working in a Palo Alto video store, taking his pay in unlimited free movies because at 14 he was too young to legally be on the payroll.
“That became my film school,” he says of the job that exposed him to such favorites as “Fight Club” and “Being John Malkovich.” “I remember watching those films and realizing how weird and experimental you can get within the medium.
“It just opened my mind and made me start really thinking outside of the box. It really informed a lot of my choices since then, where I’m drawn to projects that are at least attempting to bring something new to the table.”
He broke into the movies as an actor, but in his 20s jumped at the opportunity to make short films for the website Funny Or Die, writing, directing, acting, editing on the projects.
“I could take huge risks because the worst thing that could happen was that no one would watch them,” Franco says. “But because I was taking big swings, and making unique choices, I gained a bit of a following. And over time, I realized that my videos that went viral had more viewers than the independent films I was watching.”
He’d wanted to direct a feature for years, but only after coming up with the story for “The Rental” and collaborating on the screenplay with Joe Swanberg did he realize that this was the one.
“After I saw I knew these characters and this story more intimately than anyone else, all my nerves went away,” Franco says of slipping into the director’s chair. “I got excited because I had such a strong vision for what I wanted to do with the film.”
In “The Rental,” two couples head out of town for a weekend on the coast. Michelle (Alison Brie) and Charlie (Dan Stevens) are married. Josh (Jeremy Allen White) is Charlie’s younger brother and Mina (Sheila Vand) is his business partner.
They’re met by the caretaker (Toby Huss) who seems a bit weird and aggressive but the weekend unfolds quietly. That is, until domestic tensions between the four escalate along with paranoia about someone watching them in the fog — or in the house.
“Our intention from the beginning was to create a tense relationship drama where the interpersonal issues between the characters were just as thrilling as the fact that there was this killer stalking them,” Franco says. “At its core, the movie really is about the characters and their relationships, and then we sprinkle these horror elements on top to accentuate what they are going through.”
Vand might be bestknown for the title role in the artsy black-and-white vampire tale “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” though here — as a human in full color — she’s working with a broader emotional palette.
“She has this inherent strength to her but also can show such vulnerability when the scene calls for it,” Franco says. “That was the perfect duality for Mina, who is strong-willed but can crumble at any time.”
Stevens, known for “Downton Abbey” and “Legion,” was cast for his ability to play a likable, if slightly villainous, character.
“Certain actors an audience immediately turns on when they start making unethical choices, but Dan has so much fun with
these types of roles that you can’t help but root for him even when he’s making horrible decisions,” Franco says.
White’s main work is on the Showtime series “Shameless,” and in “The Rental” his character walks a fragile line between rage and tenderness, Franco says.
“Obviously I’ve known Alison for a while,” he says of his partner of eight years whose credits include “Mad Men,” “Community,” and “GLOW.”
“She’s unique in the way that she’s able to balance heavy drama with moments of levity. It’s really impressive to watch how seamlessly she navigated between conflicting emotions.”
As for the experience of directing his wife in scenes of great peril?
“Weirdly, it all felt normal,” Franco says. “I think she had a really great time because she doesn’t typically get to act within this genre.
She was having fun with the fact that horror movies tend to play with such extreme emotion and it gives the actors freedom to just really let loose and have fun.”
The house in which most of “The Rental” takes place is located on a cliff above the ocean in Bandon, Oregon, and in its beautiful isolation it becomes almost a character of its own, Franco says.
“The vibe of the area was perfect because there’s so much natural beauty but at the same time there is something ominous about the jagged coastline and the fog and the fact the house was truly in the middle of nowhere,” he says.
“When I first scouted the house, I stayed the night in one of the bedrooms, and I remember everything changed when the sun went down,” Franco says. “There are so many large windows, like you’re in a fishbowl, and so I felt very exposed and vulnerable.”
The setting — and a piece of advice from producer Sean Durkin, who directed “Martha Marcy
May Marlene” — also let Franco take his time revealing the deadly secrets lurking just outside the frame.
“He gave me the confidence to make a horror film that doesn’t rely on jump scares,” Franco says.
“Instead, I wanted to set a very specific tone with the music and visuals where as an audience member you believe that something scary could happen at any moment, but the movie takes its time to draw you in.
“And then when it finally takes its punches, they land really hard.”
Franco says he and Brie have stayed busy during quarantine for the coronavirus pandemic.
They wrote a romantic comedy together, inspired by classics such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless In Seattle.” He plans to direct her in it when that’s possible.
Franco’s also working on a biopic about oftmocked rapper Vanilla Ice, with himself in the title role, taking a similar approach to “The Disaster Artist” biopic in which he starred with his brother James Franco.