What's new

Interview HTF Exclusive Interview with Colin Jost (Staten Island Summer) (1 Viewer)

Neil Middlemiss

Premium
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2001
Messages
5,320
Real Name
Neil Middlemiss
HTF_Interview_Banner_Colin_Jost..png


As co-head writer and Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live, Colin Jost knows a little something about funny. He performs stand-up when he’s not busy with SNL, and, at the request of SNL producer Lorne Michaels, wrote his first feature Staten Island Summer.


Tapping into his life growing up on Staten Island, Jost penned the comedy as an ode to the people and places that formed his youth. Set at the Great Kills Swim Club, and featuring a young lifeguard enjoying his last summer before heading off to Harvard, Staten Island Summer enjoys a number of expected elements – beautiful girls, romantically challenged boys, and trouble seemingly at every turn. But among the adolescent – and funny – humor are a number of welcome twists on expectations and a richly comedic cast that delivers.


Colin spoke to Home Theater Forum from Chicago where he was in town to perform standup. Staten Island Summer is available now from Paramount Home Entertainment from your favorite digital retailers and will be debut on Netflix starting July 30, 2015.

MV5BMTUzOTQwNDA0OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDE1NDQxNjE@__V1_UY1200_CR113,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg
7a1930516fa3c2c2206d38dcb8688e1d174b19ba.jpg


HTF: Let me jump right in. I saw the film last night and had fun with it. I just turned 40 this year so I honestly wasn't sure how it would resonate with me. But I'll tell you, it did resonate. Often, when we think back to our childhoods and the times we romped around our favorite haunts as we were oblivious to the larger world, we sort of look at it through a warm lens. That cocoon that we existed in when we're young where nothing of the outside world has really entered in yet. That's what Staten Island Summer felt like to me, a warm ode to how you look back through your lens. Only it had dick jokes and weed. Is that how you entered the project, to fondly look back on your childhood?


Colin Jost: [Laughs] Yeah, definitely. I think I went back to that swim club like two years ago-- whenever I started writing it. And I just realized how much I love that place and how much time I'd spent there and how all my friends were there. And [that time growing up] is a stressful time. You're trying to figure out how to talk to girls, you're trying to figure out how to fit in and make friends, and succeed and get out of your hometown. And then when you go back, you realize that was a cool moment in your life. That was a special time before you had to worry about things like a job or seriously dating someone or eventually marriage or things like that. It's a simpler time, and when you look back on it you realize, "Oh god, that was like-- that was an awesome time in life."

1a2821134d014b9e38209f048f15d1ca.jpg


HTF: You play with some themes that we've seen before in these kinds of comedies. But what I think I appreciated was that I was half expecting the buff guy (Anthony, played by John DeLuca) to be the jerk of the movie, and he wasn't. He was a bit of a jerk, but he ultimately was one of the good guys. And it was the weasely fellow that was at the ultimate foil that the group had to overcome. Did you play around with those archetypes or was that just how you saw it when you grew up?


Colin Jost: Yeah. I wanted everyone in the film to be some version of someone I knew from growing up because I wanted there to be strong characters. But I didn't want anyone to be a cartoon character. I wanted them to be real people that you might know someone that's like them or who's exactly like them. John DeLuca's character in the movie, Anthony-- that's a type. That's a kind of guy who's a showboat, but underneath that there's a lot of vulnerability. He's worried about, "What is his life going to be? Is he going to pass the exam and get to join the Navy?" He also is kind of bragging in front of Mary Ellen (a fellow lifeguard), but clearly really loves her on some level. And, I don't know, I just like the idea of him, looking brash and full of bravado, but actually just wanting to impress her on some level.


HTF: There was a really marvelous cast in the film. Everybody was doing great and had fun with their roles, but it was fun to see great supporting players like Jim Gaffigan and Bobby Moynihan, and the chameleon that is Fred Armisen, and Will Forte there. Talk about what it meant to see that cast assembled for the film that you'd written that you was playing pieces of your life, or at least twisted versions of what you grew up seeing.

Staten-Island-Summer.jpg


Colin Jost: It was pretty cool. I feel very grateful that we had that cast because they're good. Like you said, everyone in it is a great performer. And everyone brought something to the movie and improved the script and just were great. And so it was cool, on a personal level, I felt really happy that they were involved with the movie. And, I think for people I grew up with too, it's strange seeing people that they know, who are famous, playing full-on ‘Staten Island.’ I mean my mom was insanely flattered that Kate Walsh played her. She was like, "Oh my god. She's incredible. I'm so happy. Great, great choice." And my dad got to be a stand in for Jim Gaffigan in one scene. His arm is in the movie, and he's very happy about that [laughs.] It was a good experience, and I was happy to bring all those people and that whole cast back to my hometown. And it was exciting to see people on Staten Island run up and talk to them and show them a lot of love. That was good.


HTF: Even the film is really beautifully shot. It stood out to me, and it gives the film an elevated sense. The colors really pop. And there's great cinematography, solid direction by Rhys Thomas. How much did that sort of dream-like color pop quality come from what you had down on paper? And how much came from the other creative forces on the film?

staten_7.jpg


Colin Jost: Well Rhys Thomas, the director who works at SNL, he makes tons of short films for our show and trailers. And makes those look phenomenal in such a short period of time. He brought such a good style to the movie. And Tony Wahlberg, the DP on it, did an amazing job in such time -- we shot the movie in 21 days. They were moving so fast. Plus dealing with outdoor weather and rain coming in. There were times we were shooting in a pool and it was 40 degrees outside. They did a phenomenal job of making that look like a $20 million movie, and it was shot for $4 million in 21 days. They deserve all the credit for that style. The thing Rhys and I talked about was the way I wrote it, we wanted it to look timeless. Just in the sense that we didn't like the idea of making it too modern looking, but we also didn't want to get a period piece. We didn't want to set it in the nineties and have people dressed in different kinds of clothing. We just wanted it to seem like it could be any time in the last 20 years. And that's kind of what Staten Island is. It looks like it could still be in the '80s or '90s, but it also has everything that's modern. That's sort of the aesthetic we wanted. And he just did a great job of making it look beautiful.


HTF: You've had a really fascinating career. You're, relatively speaking, a young guy. Though you may not feel that way for all the work that you put in. But who do you pay attention to, what do you watch for, in the comedy space, to help keep you and your writing sharp? Or do you find it's enough when you're collaborating with writers and performers on Saturday Night Live or watching others doing stand-up to keep your material relevant and sharp?


Colin Jost: I think a nice thing at SNL is I try to watch as much as I can comedy-wise. Also, I watch things that are kind of darker comedies, like "Better Call Saul." Now, "Last Man on Earth," with Forte. I like that kind of comedy show because it feels very different than sketch comedy. But also, I think you just look to whenever new people come on the show. Having Pete [Davidson] and Leslie [Jones] come and join our cast at SNL last year, you just see very different new voices and so you learn from that. It expands the way you think or write, and you're writing for new people, and that's cool. I think it's just the more you can aim to make something new, the better.


HTF: Obviously, you have to do a lot of writing. How do you handle an off day when it's just not coming to you?

screen-shot-2015-07-01-at-41101-pmpng-20d643b90b5e7705.png


Colin Jost: It's every week. It's hard. There's not an exact trick. I think the more you can be trying every day, it makes it that you don't have to succeed every day. You could have days that you just don't have it, and it just doesn't work, and you have to just keep moving. The nice thing about SNL, and what helped me for movie writing too is, you have to be resilient. You have a great week at SNL, but then you still have to go back to work on Monday and start over. But on the other side, if you have a terrible week, you can go in the next Monday and you can start fresh and have a new chance. That's important. For movie writing, my friend and I, Rob Klein, who is one of the head writers at SNL with me, we wrote three movies together that never went anywhere, and we kept thinking might get made. And so when I wrote this one, I knew I wanted to take advantage of that opportunity because it's so hard actually get a movie made.


HTF: Last thing I want to know, what's the thing that most surprising about you?


Colin Jost: I think the thing that seems to surprise people the most, and I guess maybe seems less in character, is that I surf [laughter]. Half the people are like, "You surf? That's weird." I guess I don't have maybe that look. But that's something I've really gotten into, and just got stitches on my face from actually. But that's the thing that's the most out of the rest of my world, and probably why I love it, is you're just out in the ocean. And you don't really have to worry about anything, except your fellow surfers in the way of sharks.


HTF: Well, thanks for speaking with Home Theater Forum today. Really enjoyed Staten Island Summer and I wish you all the best with it your stand up, and of course your continuing career with SNL.


Colin Jost: Thank you. Thanks for taking the time. Good talking to you, Neil.

Screen-Shot-2014-05-27-at-8_16_09-PM.png
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,734
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top