Don’t Think Twice

By starrymag | August 1, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Four years after the premiere of his debut film, Sleepwalk with Me, comes Mike Birbiglia’s second flick Don’t Think Twice. While the former is set against the backdrop of stand-up comedy, his most recent project takes place in the world of improv. His quirky dramedy explores how fame and competition can shake even the strongest of friendships and make even the most confident of people start to doubt themselves.

 

Keegan-Michael Key, an improv veteran, had no problem stepping into his role. Key plays Jack, an actor who makes it big on the fictional comedy sketch show Weekend Live, which complicates his relationships with his friends. “It’s second nature now,” Key says. “I’ve been an actor for twenty-eight years. Being in front of people is like breathing or being like a fish in water.”

 

Kate Micucci plays the less lucky Allison and was a bit timider noting, “Improv terrifies me. I can go onstage and not have a plan when it’s just Riki [Lindhome, of comedy duo “Garfunkel and Oates”] and I because we have each other’s backs. But when you go onstage with some of the best improvisers in the entire world…Gillian [Jacobs] and I were looking at each other like, ‘this is like playing in the NBA.’”

 

With eight-time Emmy nominee Key, The Chris Gethard Show’s Chris Gethard and MadTV and Inside Amy Schumer writer Tami Sagher among its cast, it sort of is the NBA of improv. Key likens the excitement to what he felt when he found out he would get to work with Sagher to the excitement of hearing “Key and Peele” was getting picked up. “She’s one of my improv heroes,” he gushes.

 

Although most of the actors had never met before this movie, both Key and Micucci credit a rehearsal period before shooting began as the reason the chemistry felt authentic. “The great thing with this movie is that we all came out early and got to rehearse. Some of the logistics changed as we shot that and worked out a lot of kinks beforehand,” Micucci says. “We all really became friends,” Key agrees.

 

There were other unique elements to the filming process as well. Key notes the camera placement during a few scenes offered some challenges that hopefully paid off. “There’s a camera running around that gets right in front of your face during a scene that you’re improvising. They wanted to have a seventh member of the group on stage with us to give you guys an idea of what it’s actually like to be up there.” And some people actually were there. Micucci tells us that the six of them truly went to New York City theaters and performed as the film’s comedy group The Commune together.

 

Considering the movie takes place in the world of improv, there was also a nice balance of scripted and unscripted moments. “Most of the improv shows are heavily scripted because a lot of important plot points are being made in the scenes,” Key reveals. “We would improv for ten to fifteen minutes, then they’d start shooting the scene. There are little moments of improv sprinkled throughout the movie.”

 

“Ultimately with the lines, I would say ‘say the line or say whatever feels right,’” says Biribiglia, who acts as star, producer, director and writer of the film. “I ultimately want something that feels true more than I am amused by hearing my words come out of someone else’s mouth. I don’t want it to feel like actors, I want it to feel like people.”

 

Birbiglia also lets us in on some of the challenges that wearing multiple hats created. “It’s challenging, it’s time-consuming, it’s all-engulfing,” he says bluntly. “But when you have a really clear vision for something and you let all the crew and cast in for that vision, they want to contribute. Everyone is looking out for everybody. There are pros and cons to directing yourself. Pro is you’re keeping your cast and crew lean—there’s this small group of people keeping with this vision. The con of it is I’m spread pretty thin at certain points. There’s give and take.”

 

Birbiglia isn’t the only one multitasking either. Micucci, who plays an aspiring artist in the film, actually drew most of her character’s cartoons. “Sometimes Mike would say, ‘Can you make something that has this theme to it?’ But those were all mine. Just as I was drawing they would film me. I was really excited when Mike wanted to make my character an artist. There’s something about cartooning that’s sort of similar to improv—there’s not a plan. There’s not an, ‘I know the punchline.’ It just kind of happens.”

 

Micucci also speaks briefly about musical comedy, which is something that shot her to stardom. She says her popular, often music-based YouTube show “Garfunkel and Oates” was a complete, happy surprise. “I’ve always been fascinated with musical comedy. There’s so much work to make it sing. It’s like figuring out a math problem. You have to figure out how to land that joke and what note to hit and there’s a lot of factors that go into [it]. That problem solving is such a fun time.”

 

A not-so-fun problem? Figuring out your passion. “When I was eighteen years old I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all,” Micucci says. “I was thinking about being a toy designer, but I wasn’t sure and I was really shy and I wasn’t ready to go to college at all. I wanted to be with my parents and play board games and stay home.”

 

She goes on to explain that sometimes revelations happen at the most unexpected of times and places. “We were standing in line at the Today Show with a sign that said, ‘It’s my 18th birthday,’ and Ann Curry came up to me and said, ‘What do you want to do?’ and I panicked. At eighteen years old that question used to make me want to cry. You’re not supposed to know when you’re eighteen. I froze and I think she could see the terror in my eyes when she asked me that question and she was so cool. She was like, ‘It’s just important to have a goal, even if it’s not what you end up doing. It’ll take you to the next thing.’ I know that sounds like a funny thing to say, but it really clicked with me.”

 

The cast also shares their own advice about following your dreams and there seem to be three recurring themes: be open, be happy, and redefine your definition of success. Key encourages everyone to figure out what their “brass ring” is, whether that be raising children to be outstanding members of society or being the best manager at McDonald’s. Whatever you do, he says you shouldn’t do it alone. “Adopt yourself into a group and have a community. We’re humans and we’re such social creatures. We need each other. Really take the time to figure out in your mind what it’s like to be fulfilled—maybe you’ll tell yourself a new story. If you know it in your heart, you don’t have to achieve a certain thing. If you act, you’re an actor. If you write, you’re a writer. If you dance, you’re a dancer. I believe that to be true. Be ever curious, because there could be another dream that fulfills you beyond your wildest imaginings.”

 

Micucci expresses a similar sentiment. “Be realistic and enjoy the smaller successes,” she urges, noting that painting and writing songs alone can at times bring her just as much joy as performing onstage. She says making sure you have control over your own creations and being able to self-motivate are also vital skills at times. “The balance is hard,” she admits. “Follow your gut because there may be something else that’s also interesting to you and the thing that you think might make you happy. There might be something else two degrees to the right. It still might be related. Be open.”

 

Jealousy, success, confusion: the themes of this movie are universal. The film tells a coming-of-age story that everyone—regardless of age, race, gender, or career path—can relate to so it wasn’t hard for the cast to identify parts of themselves in their characters. Key reveals that he even told Birbiglia, “You have written a movie about my life and we have never met,” thankfully minus the intense jealousy his character faces.

 

“There’s a piece of me in all of the character in some degree,” Birbiglia says. “I wish I were Samantha. I have some of the ambition of Keegan’s character, which you have to in order to direct a film. On my worst days, the bitterness of Miles, the entitlement of Lindsay, the stunted/frustrated artist of Allison and the sadness of Bill. I have all of these parts and facets of me. It’s all a story that came to me. I needed to tell [it] because nobody ever makes a film about how life isn’t fair.”

 

Micucci recalls an instance at a recent Q&A for the film in New York. “People were crying which made me emotional. A girl stood up with her comedy partner and I was like, ‘I am her and she is me ten years younger.’ I think it just works so well and is effecting people in the way we thought it would.”

 

It’s clear this cast is extremely proud of this movie. Birbiglia is taking the film door-to-door, going to a whopping thirty cities in order to talk about it. “I like films from the 70s and 80s they used to make you feel and laugh,” he says. “I feel like, because I love those movies, I want to make them.”