Making a Hot Rod
SNL Vets Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer Mix Stunts and Comedy with First Big Screen Endeavor

I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down with Saturday Night Live regulars Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone and series writer/director Akiva Schaffer about their first feature film comedy Hot Rod. I didn’t know about the trio’s long history together as “The Lonely Island,” had never checked out their website and viewed some of the obscenely popular comedy short films.  

But sometimes not knowing anything is the best way to experience one of these conversations, and by the time the twenty minutes we had together sitting in downtown Seattle’s Hotel 1000 were over I could swear we'd only been conversing for a handful fo seconds before it was done. This was an interview that seemed to just fly right by, Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer easily three of the most endearing and fun group of guys I’ve ever had the pleasure to get into a dialogue with.

(Note: This was a roundtable interview with another critic so I can’t take credit for all of the questions. Half are mine and half are his; which is which I leave for you to figure out on your own. Also, there are one or two minor spoilers, so if you want to go into the film completely fresh I suggest you read this interview after you return from the theater.)

Star Andy Samberg, producer Lorne Michaels and director Akiva Schaffer on the set of Paramount Pictures' Hot Rod

Q: Typically, for Saturday Night Live actors their first foray into features is as a popular character first developed on the show. The Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World, Superstar, these are all movies based on skits from the long-running program. That’s not the case with Hot Rod. 

Andy Samberg: Yes, it is. I mean, we didn’t write the original script, but it definitely has our [personality].

Akiva Schaffer: It’s ours, but it is also other people’s as well. It’s shared.

Samberg: But it definitely feels like it has our tone. It doesn’t feel like an SNL character movie. Well, because, I mean… it’s not. [Samberg emphasizes the words “it’s not” and rolls his eyes in his signature style, everyone in the room breaking down in uncontrollable laughter as he does so] If it did, that would just be weird.

Shaffer: [trying to talk over the laughter] And, the credit for that, by the way, goes to Lorne [Michaels] because he’s the one who didn’t wait for [Andy] to make whatever character popular and then make a movie out of it. He had [Pam Brady’s] script, he’s the own who owns it over at Paramount, and he’s the one who brought it to Andy first and then later to all of us and saw that this was the one we should do.

Q: Which is interesting, because it gets you wondering if Lorne is different to work with on a film set then he is when you’re working with him on SNL?

Jorma Taccone: You definitely get to know him better, I’d definitely say that. Just because there are so many people in our world, I mean writers and performers, that you just become just a mass of people so he has to always get your attention.

Shaffer: The difference between making the show and making a movie is also the difference with everyone’s relationships with each other because making a movie is more relaxed. I mean, that show is so crazy. You have to put together 90-minutes in about four-and-a-half days and everybody is crazy, we’re all crazy there. Everybody’s out of their mind. Nobody’s sleeping.

Basically, if you ask if someone is different there then they are [anyplace else], literally you would say, “Yup, they’re pretty different.” So, on the movie set [Lorne] was different mainly because he was just way more relaxed. He’d be showing up on-set right after an early morning walk and be like, “How’s going guys?” Very conversational. Very relaxed.

Taccone: We’d get to go to dinners. We’d get weekends off.

Shaffer: [the trio smile as they collectively recollect] At SNL there is no downtime.

Samberg: There is no chit-chat at SNL.

Shaffer: It can be intense.

Samberg: At SNL, you are working.

Taccone: It’s funny, too, because [Hot Rod] was like a 43-day shoot and we were just trying to pack everything into those days so you would think it would be like super stressful, but compared to the show…

Samberg: [interjecting] Even a tight movie shoot is way more relaxed then making SNL.

Q: Because, you did make Hot Rod in-between seasons, if I am not mistaken?

Schaffer: That’s right.

Taccone: We were pretty much working on it from the day that season ended to the day we came back [to New York].

Samberg: Yeah, that’s right.

Shaffer: We weren’t shooting that whole time but we working; trying to get the script and everything right.

Samberg: We flew back to New York the day before the first day of [SNL].

Taccone: That was a Sunday and we went back to work on that Monday.

Samberg: [sarcastically] The bastards! [room fills with laughter]

Shaffer: [stops laughing] Yeah, it was a pain… but [proudly] it was worth it!

Q: You feel that way now, but when Lorne first brought you Pam Brady’s script, Andy, what went through your mind?

Samberg: [unhesitatingly] I loved it. I haven’t read a shit load of scripts, but I have read a bunch. We [Akiva, Jorma and I] were reading scripts just to get an idea even before SNL. This was one of the first times after I started reading a script within ten pages I was like, “Oh man!  This is crazy! I like this.”

This was in a way where I recognized it wasn’t just funny and well-crafted, it was in a way like this was for me. You know what I mean? Like this fits really nicely. Like it was our brand of humor.

Schaffer: The thing that struck me when [Andy] told me about it was that, with most of these kinds of scripts somebody’s parent gets sick and the [protagonist] has to do the right thing to fix them. This one has that, but just like everything it does it has it and is also making fun of it really hard because [Rod] only wants to make his dad better so he can kick his ass. [everyone starts giggling]

That’s what kind of goes through the whole movie. Hopefully, it has all the necessary evils of this kind of comedy, the necessary clichés, but they are all turned around, made fun of and pointed out for how dumb they are.

Samberg: The whole movie is built to reward people for their knowledge of movies and pop culture.

Schaffer: That they recognize that this moment is happening, and then they see that we are also aware that it is happening and we know it is kind of silly that every movie has that kind of moment, and then we make fun of it.

Taccone: We’re giving you the moment and then we’re undercutting it, but trying to do it without insulting your intelligence completely. 

Schaffer: A good example of that is the march that turns into a riot. 

Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg in Paramount Pictures' Hot Rod

Q: I was just going to ask you about that! That just came out of left field. [room fills with laughter] And what was with the dude holding the TV at the end? 

Taccone: Yeah, that was an extra added little bit now wasn’t it?

Shaffer: [still laughing] That was basically improv. We thought it would be funny if he was holding something, so I told the props person to bring something – anything – over and we had done like four take and we were covering it with a bunch of cameras so I knew I had gotten the shot. Then I was like, wait a second, let’s try one [with the prop] and see how it feels.

So, we did the exact same shot only I told [Bill Hader] he was carrying this television.

Taccone: It was so hard to keep a straight face on that one.

Samberg: That was hands down the hardest time we had.

Taccone: Oh my God. Oh yes. It was painful. He was so funny.

Q: But, that couldn’t have been the only time. It had to be unbelievably difficult to keep a straight face while making this movie.

Taccone: It’s when people go off script and improvises something, that’s when it always gets interesting.

Shaffer: But that’s also when you get an honest reaction. If it was just what was written at a certain point it’s like you already know when the joke is. But when there is an improve moment… [Shaffer raises an eyebrow]

Samberg: There were a lot of takes when [Akiva] was like, “Cut!” and we would all just breakdown because you’re in these ridiculous situations and taking it really seriously. But, it is the moments when you’re not actually on camera you get to reflect and it’s like, “Oh yeah, we’re shooting a grilled cheese and a taco fighting on a Heaven set. That’s weird!” [everyone starts laughing]

Shaffer: It’s actually amazing just how unfunny something like that can get. After a few hours and you’re trying to get the background to look white and the smoke machine is getting too think. But then, if somebody could just walk into the room out of nowhere just to see what we’re doing you’d be reminded just how funny it is.

Q: I kind of hate to admit it, but that line that Isla Fisher says, something like “in prison rules I would take the taco” just kills me. I started spitting out popcorn in the middle of the theater I was laughing so hard. I just thought that was the funniest line I’ve heard all year. It’s just the way she says it. It’s perfect.

Samberg: Yes! We got one. [makes an enthusiastic motion with his arm as the rest of us start laughing again]

Taccone: It’s just so deadpan, too.

Samberg: [sarcastically] It’s pretty racist. She could get in trouble. [Taccone and Shaffer can’t stop giggling] 

Isla Fisher and Andy Samberg in Paramount Pictures' Hot Rod

Q: Switching gears a little bit, talk about the music in the movie a little bit. I remember watching the trailer and the first thing I heard was Europe and “The Final Countdown.” And then, when I’m watching the movie and listening to the songs I’m thinking to myself, “Isn’t that from that album, too?” 

Shaffer: [laughing] That’s pretty good. It’s a ten song album, as you probably know, and our goal was to use every song off of The Final Countdown other then the actual song “The Final Countdown” which, you might have noticed, is not in the movie.

Taccone: But it is in the trailer?

Shaffer: In the trailer it is.

Samberg: The song gets a used a little too much so we didn’t want to use it. But, it works in the trailer, I think.

Shaffer: We ended up using eight of the ten songs [in the movie]. The only one we didn’t use was “Carrie” because it was like the love ballad and it is an awesome song but we just didn’t find the right spot for it.

Taccone: But we were very close to renaming Denise, [Isla’s] character, Carrie so we could still get it all in there.

Shaffer: [the room starts to fill with laughter again] we honestly did think about it.

Samberg: There was a whole montage of her walking around the city planned just so we could put that song in the movie.

Q: If we’re going to talk about the music, I have to ask about the Footloose montage. Who had that idea? Was that something that was actually in the original script or was that something you guys came up with?

Shaffer: We had always wanted to do something like the where house scene from Footloose about someone who is just sooooo angry they have to let of steam.

Q: But in the middle of the woods?

Samberg: Sometimes you just got to punch-dance out your rage. [everyone loses composure for a few moments while Andy just sits there and smiles]

Taccone: And I just still love when it cuts to that pommel horse.

Samberg: Hey, there’s just a pommel horse cut into a log. What’s odd about that?

Taccone: [trying not to laugh, continues his thought] Which is also just a complete ode to Footloose.

Samberg: There are scenes where it is so clearly not [Kevin] Bacon. The dude is just like, stacked, and he’s wearing a unitard and you’re like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who’s that guy?” And then he like does the run-and-jump stuff and it’s right before you see the gymnast’s chalk fly everywhere.

Shaffer: [breaking in, all three getting excited as they reminisce about Footloose] And then there is the perfect High Bar just hanging in the rafters.

Taccone: They’re Parallel Bars.

Shaffer: But the one where he goes up high, where he does all of the spins and where he comes off and you see all the chalk, that’s a High Bar. Just like in the gymnastics events it’s a men’s High Bar.

Samberg: I’m surprised they didn’t use Rings, too.

Shaffer: And then there is also this remarkable bendiness to it, too. Everything in the where house is steel and then there is like this one bar has some bendy give to it.

Samberg: [everyone in the room clearly starting to lose it at this point] What they should have done, and while it would have been too Naked Gun they should have just turned it into some track and field thing where he does a javelin and then a pole vault and then turns into like a long distance runner.

Shaffer: [regaining his composure and trying to put things back on course] It’s all hindsight. Every movie, it’s all about the hindsight.

Q: When you have jokes like these ones, when you have comedic homage that is this blatant, when do you know you’ve taken the joke as far as it will go?

Taccone: That, actually, is what I love about the riot scene. When everyone falls behind us that’s like one joke, and then when they all start singing that would be enough of a joke right there, but then they all start breaking out into this riot and you’re like, “Oh my God!”

Samberg: There’s the payoff! [chuckles] I mean, we’re fans of taking things a bit too far and then going just a little bit further. That kind of humor has always kind of appealed to us a lot.

Shaffer: Your fall down the hill could fall under that description.

Samberg: Exactly. It’s like the first shot in Spaceballs where the ship keeps going forever. Or, we were just watching Big Top Peewee with that kiss shot that goes forever, and then the music stops, but then they keep going and the music comes back in!

Taccone: That’s the longest kiss shot in history. It’s like a minute and a half.

Shaffer: The camera fully pans out and then widens and it is just out there for a long time, and then the camera starts to come all the way back

Samberg: [completely cracking up as he thinks about it] It’s just so good!

Taccone: Dude, I got to see that again.

Q: That being the case, don’t you Andy wish you could have copied that scene with Isla here? Granted, that one wasn’t exactly short, either.

Samberg: [actually blushing a little bit] Uh… yeah. That moment did go on for a while.

Taccone: [chuckling] But not nearly long enough.

Samberg: But then there was how bad of a kiss it was. We decided to just go for the epic Armageddon style kiss and let it get awkward.

Taccone: And that’s one of those moments, too, where the romance is happening and you want to give the audience that moment of the kiss, but then you still always undercut it. Do it badly. See what doing it that way looks like.

Q: Talk a little about the non-kissing stunts in the film. Is it true that Andy had never ridden a moped or anything like that before the film?

Samberg: That’s right. I’m notoriously bad with anything that has wheels. That’s been my thing since I was a kid. So I had to start from scratch. I could ride a bicycle decent, but that was it.

We’d gotten an awesome stunt coordinator, Nick Powell who did Gladiator and The Bourne Identity and The Last Samurai, and he’s just amazing. He started with me two or three weeks out from shooting and we just trained everyday on the moped and he even got me up onto a real motorcycle with gears and everything.

Schaffer: [sarcastically] That’s very impressive.

Samberg: Well for me it’s a big deal. [he emphasizes the last word as if it were the most important one he’d ever uttered in his entire life giving Shaffer a wickedly silly grin causing him and Taccone to start laughing uncontrollably] It was important.

Seriously, though, he also choreographed all of the fights and all of the stunts in the movie. He was bad ass. I owe him a lot for not making me look like an idiot.

Q: And, it isn’t making stunts look good that is hard, it’s making them look bad where the danger is. Isn’t that right?

Samberg: That’s right. It can be dangerous.

Schaffer: And we have this thing where, also, we’re not huge fans of putting tons of computer graphics in the film when it is not necessary. We wanted everything to look very analog and real.

Taccone: Kind of homemade, like you could really be hanging out with these guys. Just make things look they way they would actually look like they are trying to be hilarious rather then letting things be the way they really are.

Samberg: They way [Akiva] was describing it early on was, “Found, no staged.” Like if most of it was shot on home video, just on high quality home video-like film.

Andy Samberg prepares for the big jump in Paramount Pictures' Hot Rod