LIFE INSPIRES FILM
Cha Cha Real Smooth finds heart in mother-daughter connection
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Apple TV+
For awhile, working in film seemed like an impossible goal for Cooper Raiff. Like a lot of dreamers, the 25-year-old actor, writer and director had ideas, but no clear path to realizing life as a moviemaker.
Just a few years ago, Raiff, who writes, directs and co-stars alongside Dakota Johnson in the Apple TV+ coming-of-age dramedy Cha Cha Real Smooth, was driving for Uber Eats.
“It wasn't great,” the low-key Dallas native says in a video call from New York City. “It's not super fun to drive around getting food for people. But it's been so great to make movies. It's what I wanted to do.”
But it was a chance tweet sent to Jay Duplass (Netflix's The Chair) that turned things around for the college dropout.
“I made a movie with my two best friends and I put it on YouTube and tweeted the link to Jay, who is my favourite filmmaker of all time, telling him, `I bet you won't click this link and email me after.'
“Then he emailed me and we met and he became my mentor and he helped me make my first real movie (S---house) ... Dakota Johnson watched that movie and I think that's why she wanted to work with me.”
The new movie, which is available to stream on Apple+, revolves around a directionless college grad (Raiff ) who lands the perfect job of being a “party starter” at the bar and bat mitzvahs for his younger brother's (Evan Assante) classmates. Living home with his mom (Leslie Mann) and stepdad (Brad Garrett), he finds his life changes after he strikes up a flirtatious friendship with a soon-to-be-married mother (Johnson) and her autistic daughter ( Vanessa Burghardt).
Johnson not only co-stars, but produces the project as well. Raiff said that she also acted as a “script buddy” when he was writing the movie.
Raiff tells us more about his unlikely success story.
Q
Where did the story come from? Were you a party starter?
A
I was not a party starter, but I went to a service and a party every Saturday in seventh grade and there was one party starter there named Vince. He was 40 years old and he was the best party starter ever. He's also the only party starter I've ever met.
Q
I heard you pitched the idea to Dakota Johnson without a finished script. When she tells you she's interested, but you don't have a finished screenplay, what kind of pressure results from that?
A
I pitched it and the meeting went well and we were all excited to make this movie and at the end of our conversation, she said, “I want to read the script,” and I was like, “Oh, great. Let me just make sure it's good.” So, I went away and typed up 50 pages and told her the second half needed some work. Then I quickly finished that up and I sent it all to her in two weeks ... I think I always write best when I'm under that write-it-now pressure. It's when I do my best work.
Q
Your 2020 independent film S---house was the movie that made people take notice of you. What if that didn't work out?
A
Uber Eats, probably. I would have kept doing Uber Eats and I would have tried to find a way onto a movie set doing something. I really wanted to be a part of making movies, so I would have tried to figure out some way into that.
Q
There's a scene in the movie where Johnson's character Domino says to your character Andrew, “Do your 20s.” That line is going to mean different things to a lot of people depending where they are in their lives. Some viewers are going to hear it and think, “I didn't really do that.” What does it mean to you?
A
It's scary because I'm in a place right now where I can kind of figure out who I am in my 20s. My life is not defined by anyone but myself ... Domino didn't have her 20s to herself because she had a kid and her life in her 20s was defined by that experience. So it's going to mean a lot of different things to the people who watch it.