I’m curious about that creative partnership you just touched on. You’ve both worked together for a long time and with that in mind — how did the two of you come together as a comedy duo?
Kevin: Arlen and I started as a duo in 2005. I had no gray hair. Since then, it’s been something that we’ve kind of stuck with. There was a time when that was our main focus, and we were touring seven months out of the year and really getting out there, doing tons of live performances. There are times now when we still get together to do a run at a festival once a year, but other than that, our creative partnership has morphed into this new phase.
We get to apply the skills that Arlen has accrued through cinematography and directing — with the skills that I’ve accrued by writing scripts and learning to produce. I think it’s interesting how things grow and evolve over time in ways you didn’t necessarily see coming.
Arlen: That’s a great summation of our creative marriage.
Arlen, seeing as this your first time directing a feature film — although you’ve done a lot of documentary, narrative, short, online, commercial, and animation work — I’d love to know what some of your goals were throughout this particular debut. What sort of direction were you able to give your actors, who are so suited for both comedy and drama and how did they take it?
Arlen: My goal going as a director was to empower the actors to give the best performances they could. Knowing that I had so many great comedic actors, there’s a level of confidence that you’re going to get great moments from them. Like working with Colin Mochrie, there’s no concern that he’s not going to give you anything less than comedy gold.
But it was also really exciting reading the script and knowing that there were those dramatic scenes for the entire cast. Whether it was Colin, Amber, Luke, or Kate. They were going to get to do something that was a little outside their comfort zone.
“…working with Colin Mochrie, there’s no concern that he’s not going to give you anything less than comedy gold.”
My focus was making sure that they felt like they had a safe space to to do those scenes and to stretch themselves.
To have as much time to kind of give the performances that they do give. That’s the heart and soul of the movie I think. I’m happy I got to work with all of them, and that they are all shining in the way that they are.
Kevin, you did an interview this year with Screen Daily, and when discussing your real relationship with your own brother that inspired the one between Michelle, Andrea, and Mark in the film — you said, “We use comedy as a shared language, and that’s what’s at the heart of this (How to Ruin the Holidays) whole thing.” I’d like to dig down into that and see what makes comedy so universal in your eyes. How does your experience in live performance influence all that great comedic timing that peppers your script?
Kevin: Comedy is a way of diffusing tension that’s healthy. It brings people together because when people laugh together, they’re indicating to each other, “Yes, I’m on your page. I’m with you. I get it. We’re understanding the same thing right now.”
A lot of times, tension is the absence of that connection, right? It’s a moment where people might think, “Are we on the same page? Are we connected? Are we getting along” Laughter is our very human way of coming together in the face of tension.
As far as live performance influencing the script… Improv is the best writer’s training because it allows me to unfold a scene as if I were performing it with a group. I can begin to see directions that shine and potential missteps.
As you mentioned, on the written page, there’s a lot of improv. How much improvisation was there on set? If any?
Kevin: There was some in the main block of production, but we were pretty tight on time. We didn’t always have as much time for improv as we wanted. However, with the kind of cast that we had, it was going to happen anyway. And so a lot of great lines snuck in. Then, we did get an extra day of pickups outside of our main block, and we were shooting with Henry (Zebrowski.)
We got in touch with him and said, “Let’s go have some fun.”
