Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger

Interview By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore aren't exactly two names you'd expect to be headlining a major Hollywood comedy. For two seasons now, they've starred in The Whitest Kids U' Know -- a sketch comedy series first on FUSE, now on IFC, which got its start as a club at New York City's School of Visual Arts.

The show has achieved cult success, and the sketches are popular online, but there's hardly a blueprint for turning that sort of buzz into movie stardom -- at least until now.

"We were not not looking to do a movie," Moore says. "When we started the show, I think as a group, we kind of all wanted to. But this was a situation where Fox Atomic actually approached us. They had seen the show, and they had a script that someone had written for us that was called Playboys.

"The script was very...well, the only thing we kept in was: two guys go across country to go to the Playboy mansion. But we didn't really like the script and we weren't really crazy about doing a road trip sex comedy farce, because it's been done. So we kind of looked at it as a writing exercise, where we tried to make a movie within the genre, but also tried to make it a little farther out there."

In the movie, Moore plays Tucker, a sex-crazed young man with the energy of Jim Carrey. Cregger plays Eugene, his straight-laced friend who's terrified of sex. During the interview, though, Moore is the serious one.

"One of the first ideas we had when we decided to redo the script," Moore says, "was instead of making it just about these two douche bags trying to get laid at the Mansion, we'd make them come from opposite ends of the spectrum. One guy is completely obsessed with Playboy and promiscuity, and the other guy teaches abstinence at school and is terrified of sex. But they both put sex up on a pedestal, and it negatively affects both of their relationships: Eugene is terrified of sex, and he won't take the next step with his longtime girlfriend, and Tucker is obsessed with sex, and because of that, he won't accept that he's found the girl that's probably perfect for him.

"So then it's about coming in towards the middle and finding where you should be. Once we had figured that out, then that made the rest of their personalities fall into place. And then, just putting them in different situations, it's like, well that's obviously what this character would do."

Since they both get a credit on the script, I ask them who the better writer is. Cregger quickly says it's Moore, but Moore hedges. "On the TV show, there's more room for people to come in with their own ideas about the sketches. There's more leeway where one particular person really owns the sketch. With the movie, it's really different because you're working on it so long, that you can't really do that. You have to be on the same page about everything."

Despite the Playboy subject matter and Hugh Hefner plastered all over the TV ads, they didn't originally plan on putting him in the movie at all.

"We didn't want to involve Playboy," Cregger says, "because we didn't know how much they would want to get creatively involved with, you know' It's a big company, and they're so iconic, that they might have their own interests in how we portray them. So we shot it, different mansion, we faked it, and we cast Robert Wagner as Hugh Hefner. And he did great. He nailed it, he was really funny and solid. But when we tested the movie, the tests went really well and people liked the movie, but at the Hefner reveal at the end, you could hear an audible letdown. Everybody knows Hef from The Girl Next Door, he's a famous dude, he's an icon. And people were just like, 'I know Hef, why can't they get Hef' He was just in that other movie." (The House Bunny.)

"It made the movie seem cheap," Moore adds.

"So we took the movie to Playboy and showed him the movie, and we lucked out because he liked it," Cregger says. "And he had zero real notes about how to change it. He was cool, he was just really chill."

"We smoked a joint with him before the scene," Moore says.

"Yep, he ripped that bong so hard."

"We're joking, for the record."

"I'm not."

Although a Hefner cameo ended up being included, don't expect any cameos from any other members of the Whitest Kids -- they decided they didn't want to confuse brands, especially because they all hope to move forward on a Whitest Kids movie soon.

"Yeah, that's what we want to do next, " Moore says. "We don't want to talk about what the idea is. We've had the script for a couple of years, we've been working on it. And we're pretty close to going out with it, so we don't want to talk about it quite yet."

"But it'll be crazy," Cregger says.

"It's Jurassic Park 4," Trevor says. "We want to do Jurassic Park 4."

If Miss March turns out to be a success, will the duo abandon the show for more movies and bigger paychecks'

"The show's the highest priority, I think," Cregger says. "I mean the movie's cool and a big deal and all that shit, but the show, you just get to be so free and put anything on the screen. And it's rare to have that ability. Most shows, you have so much structure, but with us, anything we can think of, we can put up on the screen. So as long as we're still allowed to and they're still letting us, I think we have to keep doing it."

"But also," Moore adds, "By the end of every season, I think everybody has a feeling of like: all right, I'm done, that was it. It's such an exhausting schedule. But then after the months go by, there's this realization that you'll never have this much freedom in your career again. That's always kind of the siren on the rocks. You have to do it again."

"As much as it sucks," Cregger says. Then he laughs at himself for whining. "Well, it only sucks because we have no choice but to work to the bone." I wonder aloud how fast the turnaround time is. "It's fucking retarded," he says.

"We do one hundred sketches over five weeks," Moore explains, then yawns -- as if the mere thought it makes him tired. "We shoot upwards of twelve to seventeen pages a day."

By comparison, Cregger says, "Most TV shows shoot five, and most movies shoot two and a half." Not that they had that luxury on Miss March. "We had twenty-eight days to shoot. Which isn't horrible, it's not indie, but it meant we had to shoot four or five pages a day."

So while shooting the show, where do they look for inspiration when they've run out of ideas but still have to pump out dozens of sketches before the end of the week'

"Monty Python is the collective answer," Moore says. "I think it's the one thing everyone would be in unison on. Monty Python was a huge deal to me as a kid, because I came from a very conservative family when I was a kid, and I couldn't watch The Simpsons -- or even The Smurfs, because there was magic in it. But I could watch Monty Python for some reason, which was way more subversive. It even had nudity in it sometimes. But also, Letterman."

He laughs. "It was weird, I couldn't watch The Simpsons, but I could watch Letterman. I think it was more about whatever my parents thought was funny."

Cregger, on the other hand, cites The Simpsons as one of his biggest influences. "Seasons two through seven were just incredible. That's what I quoted all the time. But when I was in junior high, I got into Adam Sandler's CDs. They're just the filthiest things in the world, but I also came from a really conservative house, so I just have the best memories of listening to them on headphones with my friends in the house, just crying laughing. It was so wonderful, just having this dirty little contraband comedy thing. And I think that's kind of what I hope the show is to some kids out there. It's a really dirty show, but sometimes that makes an impression to kids."

With the interview wrapping up, as a throwaway, I ask them what they would think about a Miss March sequel. At first, they laugh it off.

"If this thing, somehow, makes hundreds of millions of dollars and the studio was like, no, you're doing a sequel -- that would be the only way a sequel could happen," Moore says. "At it's base, it's about two guys learning how to deal with sex, so once they learn it, it's over."

But then Cregger jumps in. "We could do a new lesson. Like gun control."

They both look at each other, then immediately start riffing on what the plot would be.

"This time, Eugene loves guns, and Tucker is terrified of guns," Trevor says. "And Tucker gets attacked by muggers and realizes he needs to have a gun sometimes."

"And Eugene's like, 'see''" Zach adds. "But then Eugene shoots somebody in the head by accident, so he learns a lesson, too."

"Maybe we can make it as a short," Trevor suggests.

"Now I want to," Zach says.

"And we can get Hefner to come back."

"No, we'd have to get Charleton Heston."

"He's dead."

"Oh yeah. Well we'd get Robert Wagner again."

"He'd probably say no. He'd be like, 'No way, you guys burned me last time.'" ❏