‘It’s what I wanted to do’
How Cha Cha Real Smooth director Cooper Raiff went from Uber Eats to a Us$15-million deal with Apple
For a while, working in film seemed like an impossible goal for Cooper Raiff.
Like a lot of dreamers, the 25-yearold 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 Apple’s coming-ofage 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 movie, which is currently available to stream on Apple TV+, 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 at home with his mom (Leslie Mann) and stepdad (Brad Garrett), 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.
Cha Cha Real Smooth (a title that riffs off of DJ Casper’s dancefloor staple Cha Cha Slide) was one of the buzziest films to play at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the audience award. Apple, which pushed its 2021 Sundance acquisition CODA to a best-picture Oscar win in March, took notice and dropped US$15 million to buy the picture.
With the film available to stream now, Raiff gave us the blueprints to 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? What was your Plan B?
A. Uber Eats, probably. I would have kept doing Uber Eats and I would have tried to find a way on to 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. Your film is streaming and this is a movie I would have liked to see in a theatre. What do you think the future of cinema is?
A. I love streamers because they are giving small movies big platforms. But I think people are always going to want to go and see movies with strangers in a dark room. That’s how I fell in love with movies and I think that’s why people like going to movies. If we take that experience away, I don’t think people will like movies anymore. I don’t think theatres are going anywhere, but God bless the streamers like Apple because we wouldn’t have a home without them.
Q. There’s a scene in the movie where Dakota’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 on 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, yes, it’s going to mean a lot of different things to the people who watch it.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is streaming now on Apple TV+.