Preschool’s Josh Duhamel & Michael Socha on Pushing the Envelope in New Comedy Movie | Interview
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Preschool director and star Josh Duhamel and star Michael Socha about their new comedy movie. The duo discussed some of the film’s themes, Duhamel’s approach to comedy, and more. Preschool is out now on Digital.
“In London, two dads (Josh Duhamel & Michael Socha) set their sights on the last open spot at an ultra-posh preschool. What begins as a simple application, snowballs into a wildly escalating rivalry packed with big-hearted laughs, outrageous one‐upmanship, and surprising consequences. As schemes spiral and families get pulled into the madness, both fathers discover what they’re really willing to do for their kids—and what it means to be a parent,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Josh, congrats on Preschool. Your previous two movies that you directed were very raunchy. This is more of a family comedy. How was it maintaining your voice and your approach to comedy, while also making sure you weren’t relying on anything too outrageous this time around?
Josh Duhamel: Well, I appreciate that question, actually, because one thing I do love about the first two is how we just didn’t pull any punches. We just went for it. Because that to me is my favorite kind of humor. I love Todd Phillips, the Farrelly brothers, and Judd Apatow. I love all those dude comedies.
This one, yes, is set more for everyone. It’s a little bit more universal, but at the same time, I still wanted to push the envelope. I think whether it’s the “Everybody Toot” song or some of the stuff the monkey does in this movie. I feel like sometimes it’s good to just really, if you’re going to go for it, you sometimes just gotta go 100%. But yes, I did have to pull back quite a bit from what, what I would normally do.
Michael, there’s also an interesting element of class in Preschool. Your character isn’t as privileged as Josh’s character currently is, and it’s caused him to really hyper-fixate on his child’s future. What did you find interesting about the good nature of your character really manifesting in a negative way in this situation?
Michael Socha: So, one of my favorite scenes to film was the bit where he’s sort of up against the panel of the school, and it just sort of explains where he’s at with it all. I think that is my character’s sort of anchor, the reason why he’s doing everything. The reason why he’s got this attitude towards school is because of the past that he had had difficulty finding, and he was always trying to punch up. He was always trying to get out of there, I suppose, the class that he was in.
But it just ruins a relationship. That beautiful, pure loving relationship with his son on the back of his wants, desires, and ego. I mean, I suppose class is a thing that applies in a lot of different countries, different cultures. I think from the beginning of recorded history, class has always been something that someone’s tried to sort of get up and work their way up, but that’s what expense, you know what I mean? Who really cares? I suppose it’s easy for me to say, being in a very privileged position and a place where we sort of have access to a lot of things. But I think with regards to Brian, it’s just I just wish I could sort of, at the beginning of the film, go, “Stop being an idiot.” But then there’d be no film, and then I wouldn’t have got paid, and I wouldn’t have met lovely Josh. So I’m glad that that’s his issue.
Josh, I did want to ask you about this. How was it casting the two wives? Because while these two men are definitely idiots, their better halves have this air of dignity and class, that your two characters do not show throughout most of this film. So, how important was it to find the right actresses for those roles? Because I thought they were both great.
Josh Duhamel: Yeah, they’re both terrific actresses. Antonia Thomas and Charity Wakefield. They are, they are the common sense. They are the grounding force in this movie for sure. The original script, they didn’t have a lot to do. A lot of eye rolling at their stupid husbands and sort of marching out of the room, like in a huff.
But I told them early on because they were so good, and I learned a lot from these two because they both put themselves on tape for the part. I was like, that is something that I need to do more of as an actor because that is it showed me right off the bat that these two really understood the characters really wanted to do it. They were both perfect for it. I thought that Michael and Antonia were so good in this movie together. And Charity was fantastic too. I got very lucky. But yes, they were the ones who sort of they’re the ones who bring sort of the reality check to this movie because these guys definitely needed it.
Michael, you get the legendary James Cosmo as your on-screen dad in this film. That’s a legend. How was it getting to work with him? That had to be cool.
Michael Socha: Yeah. Amazing. I’ve seen him on so much, sort of growing up, you know what I mean? He’s been around, and he’s done some amazing things, and he’s an amazing actor. Just to see him find himself on set with a legend like that, it’s one of those days that you’re like, “Oh, okay.” Also, it’s such an amazing character. It’s just, OK, James Cosmo is really into the Bigfoot suit. It’s just one of them. Yeah. Brilliant.
Duhamel: He really embraced the whole Bigfoot thing. I was like, “Oh, God, is he going to do this? He was in Braveheart. Is he really going to put on that Bigfoot costume?” But he did. He was such he was so lovely. What a sweetheart.
Josh, you have focused on comedies for all three of your directorial films. Are there any other genres that you’re looking to direct in the future, or maybe something that you haven’t been able to do as an actor?
Duhamel: You know, I never know it until I see it, until I read it. I just really enjoy comedy because it’s so fun. We had the best time making this movie. And just coming up with how do we make this? How do we not only just ground this first, but then find the humor from that? I got very lucky having Michael as my counterpart in this movie, and the women, Charity and Antonia. But we just had a great time figuring out what it is that really is going to make this movie resonate. To me, comedy is what I like to watch. That’s probably what I prefer to do more than anything.
Thanks to Josh Duhamel and Michael Socha for taking the time to talk about Preschool.
Source: Comingsoon.net