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Duhamel and Socha spoke to ComicBook about school admission woes, auditions gone wrong, hilarious brawls, and Harvey Dent. Here’s the trailer for the comedy, which is available to watch now on digital.
CB: This feels like a movie you could sit down and watch with your family.
Josh Duhamel: That was the idea. The stuff I have done before, directing-wise, maybe not the best family sit-down. I still wanted to push the boundaries. It is a PG-13 movie, but at times we definitely pushed the limits. But this is one of those directing movies that is a lot of work. It’s all-consuming. To have a cast like I had, a crew like I had and an editor who did an amazing job… It’s fun to finally get to show it to the world.
As dads, how close to home did this subject matter hit? Have either of you experienced that anxiety or pressure to get one of your kids into a school?
Duhamel: I just went through it. I’ve got a 2-year-old and a 12-year-old and it’s real. That’s why I think this movie resonated with me. I couldn’t believe this movie hadn’t been made because it’s such a prevalent thing, especially for new parents in Los Angeles or New York or Toronto. The pressure to get your kid into these high-end schools start in preschool. Just that, in of itself, is funny. When you step back, and any parent who is in the middle of this crazy process, this movie will give them the chance to look at it and go, “Oh my God. We were way over the top.” That was really the idea behind it and give some perspective on what’s actually important and what’s not.
Michael Socha: Of course, you want your kids to go to a school that is encouraging and nurturing, and you just hope and pray they enjoy it. I am sort of under the impression that kids that want to learn will learn no matter where they are. My school was mayhem, but there were still academic successes that left it. I wasn’t one of them, actually. If they fancy it, yeah, and if they don’t, they can do something else. This is going to sound quite serious but we couldn’t really explore our arts at school. You had drama. You had music. You had dance. You could only do one of them, but what happened if you enjoyed all of them? There’s no room for creativity in the majority of schools, unless you are going to pay thousands and thousands of pounds a year for certain schools, which a lot of people can’t afford. My attitude to learning is if they like it, they like it. If they don’t, let’s figure it out.
Both your characters scheme to one-up each other throughout the film. How competitive are you guys in real life?
Duhamel: Oh, I think I am pretty competitive. You kind of have to be in this business or it will eat you up. My answer is yes, I am a competitive person. Sometimes to a fault.
Socha: I am not. If I think I am good at something, then I am competitive. I am and I am not.
There’s almost a parallel between this movie with Hollywood. There’s that pressure to nab this one spot left for the child. For movies and television, you audition to land that coveted role. Have you ever done anything extreme to get a part?
Duhamel: Oh gosh. Yeah, I told a joke. It was actually a Disney movie. I thought it would get a big laugh. It was a bit off color. It was about a fireman inside the station, having a good laugh. So, I decided to add a joke that did not land. In fact, it went over like a lead balloon. The casting director called my agent and said, “I don’t want to see him anymore. The joke was absolutely terrible.” I guess you have to take risks. That was one of those that didn’t work out so well for me.
One moment sure to elicit laughter is when you two get into a physical altercation. Can you talk about filming that sequence and putting the fun into that scrap?
Duhamel: We did a rehearsal for what we thought the fight should be. We both agreed that these are two guys that don’t fight. This is not a slick, Hollywood, John Wick situation. These are two dudes that have no business being in a fight, actually fighting each other. We had a lot of fun, sitting in that room and choreographing what might happen next. On the day, you never have as much time as you hope for, so we really had to be efficient and figure out how best to hit all these different points that we wanted. It was not a highly-choreographed fight, as you can probably tell. But we did have some moments. Remember when you kneed me in the nuts and your head came up under the chin and cut my lip? Remember that?
Socha: Remember when you dislocated my leg? I wasn’t going to talk about it, but you start getting pecky, Josh. I was going to shut my mouth, but…
Josh, one of your credits includes Jupiter’s Legacy, but that’s not the only comic book character in your back pocket. You also voiced Harvey Dent in the animated Batman: The Long Halloween. What interested you about that character and did you ever audition for a live-action version?
Duhamel: Never auditioned for a live-action version. But of all the superhero characters, Batman would probably be my favorite. I’m not a huge superhero fan. But the Harvey Dent/Two-Face one was one I always found interesting. I had a lot of fun doing that.
Preschool is available to watch now on digital. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
