This was an interesting one. WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS is a film about a struggling DJ (Zac Efron) trying to pull his life together enough to take his career to the next level, with the help of a superstar DJ (Wes Bentley) and his assistant/pseudo-girlfriend (supermodel Emily Ratajkowski, in her first starring role). The film comes courtesy of director/co-writer Max Joseph, making his feature debut after several years as an experimental documentary movie maker. The film seems less interested in diving headfirst into DJ culture and is more interested in the personal life of Efron’s character—what’s pushing him forward and who’s holding him back.
After pulling himself out of the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL world, Efron transformed himself into a full-on movie star, with such early roles in HAIRSPRAY, Linklater’s ME AND ORSON WELLES, 17 AGAIN and LIBERAL ARTS. In more recent works, he’s given us a range of performances, including ones in PARKLAND, THE PAPERBOY, AT ANY PRICE, THAT AWKWARD MOMENT, and the hit comedy NEIGHBORS, for which he’s about to start shooting the sequel. Look for him next year opposite Robert De Niro in DIRTY GRANDPA and Adam DeVine in MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES. And it was just announced that he would be co-starring with Dwayne Johnson in the big-screen version of BAYWATCH.
Although she’s been modeling since she was 14, Ratajkowski received a whole lot exposure being one of three naked/scantily-clad (depending on which version you saw) models in Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video a couple years back. In the last year, she’s turned her career toward acting, beginning with a high-profile supporting part as Ben Affleck’s mistress in GONE GIRL, as herself in ENTOURAGE earlier this year, and as a femme fatale in IFC’s “The Spoils Before Dying” mini-series. And while she looks quite fetching in WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS, she also does a credible job pulling off some of the film’s more dramatic moments.
I met with Max Joseph, Zac Efron, and Emily Ratajkowski at a Chicago club after a screening of WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS, which seemed appropriate, given the film’s subject matter. After making my way past the lone line of people waiting to get in, security, and one velvet rope after another (clearly, I was out of my element), I entered the more or less private room where we chatted. Please enjoy…
Capone: Max, you came out of documentaries. Was it important for you to take that extra step to really capture not just that reality of the DJ scene but also just the [San Fernando] Valley scene?
Max Joseph: My background is oddly in creative non-fiction. It’s not exactly documentary, but a lot of short films about different subjects, which can fall into documentary sometimes. But in all of it, you have to get things right. You have to fact check them, and the challenge is always to make something and be true enough to your subject that you don’t alienate the insiders of the subject, and the people you’re introducing to the subject feel welcome, and you’re inviting them to learn about something. So you’re always kind of riding the line—you don’t want it to be too insider-y, but you don’t want it to be too dumbed down either. Whether that was the promoter aspect of the film—we did a lot of research on that—the Valley aspect of the film, the DJ aspect of the film. It was important to get all those things right.
Capone: Did you find, as you were shooting, that you were changing things up to capture elements that maybe you hadn’t thought of for the script? Or did you not have that time and luxury?
MJ: Yeah, these guys will tell you, the script was always changing. Even on the day, if something didn’t sound right or if someone made a funny comment, if the makeup person said something funny… The line “All that was missing was a hashtag,” someone on set, one of the music supervisors, had said that off hand, and Wes Bentley heard it and was like, “I think we should use that.” And I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” It’s very collaborative, and I think the script is a blueprint. It’s just a guideline.
Capone: What about the DJ scene makes it the right setting for a coming of age story for a fully grown man? He has to get to a point by the end where he needs to become an adult to survive.
Emily Ratajkowski: I think generally, the more specific you are with storytelling, the better people can relate to it, which is the funny thing about art or movie making. Like with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, it’s a really specific world, like the Valley is with electronic music, or disco in Brooklyn, or whatever other parallels you want to draw. In some ways, it makes it more relatable, which is incredible. And electronic music fits with the ideas of synthetic music, synthetic people, about technology in our lives. It works for this generation because it’s so specific to this time period, right? Disco was really in the ’70s; electronic music is something you haven't seen really before now.
Zac Efron: I think the Valley was the right spot, the perfect spot for this movie to take place. I lived in the Valley for four years before I eventually moved over the hill. I’m never home, anyway, so I still go to the Valley if I have to go out. These people are here. I know them; I’ve met them. A lot of my friends are these guys. Max and I had shared a very, very similar experience during a period of time in our lives in the Valley, and it was actually those characters that drew me to the script the most, and Max wanting to portray this specific story of growing out of these kind of friends and moving on.
Capone: I don’t know how much you knew about DJ culture before you got involved with this film, but what appreciation for what they do did you take from this experience? I thought it was just about spinning records and finding samples, but composition is like a huge part of their process. We see a lot of you building the songs and tracks. Talk about the artistry you came to appreciate from making this film.
ZE: It reminded me of the first time you see somebody really good at ProTools. When I was younger, I would go to the recording studio and record, and I always wondered how these guys know how to do so much so quickly. It’s such advanced programing. It looks like what used to take 100 guys at NASA to do, they do on one screen. It’s incredible the ear it requires to manipulate sound and make something authentic. It’s like the new Bach or the new Beethoven. It’s crazy. They have every sound at their disposal and they’re making really cool stuff.
MJ: It’s art. The computer, in some ways, makes it easier, and in some ways it gives you so many options that it’s just daunting and overwhelming. I think constraints increase creativity. We didn’t have a lot of money or time on the movie, and I think that because of that we all pulled together more and were more creative about things. When you don’t have any constraints, which sometimes is what electronic music is, you can do anything. It can be stifling. So I give them props, these guys.
Capone: Most of your scenes involve Wes Bentley, who I think is one of the most criminally underrated actors who has been working for so long. What do you learn from being around somebody like that and just watching him? As an actor, what do you pick up from him?
ER: I agree with you. You see Wes in so many things. Actually, it was funny, on the plane back from London, I watched INTERSTELLAR, and I was like, “Wes was so great in this movie, and I never knew he was in it.” There are so many examples of that. And I really liked the ease and confidence he had on a set with a lot of young people, a lot of first timers. It was my first lead, it was Max’s directorial debut. And Wes really didn’t try to come in and be the senior person, but certainly he led by example.
ZE: Yeah. He kind of was my James [the mentor character’s name] in a way. I think it was fun to work with him. He really listens. He was very present. It was amazing, when he got cast, I hadn’t seen a lot of his work, but since then, I’ve educated myself and seen so much of it. And then after that, I saw the film, and I think he honestly steals the movie [laughs].
Capone: A little bit.
ZE: He really does. I’m so stoked that he did and is a part of it. I’m just honored. He’s the greatest guy.
Capone: Emily, in the last year, I’ve seen you in movies, in “Spoils Before Dying" on TV, which you were great in. It seems like you’ve made a concerted effort to be an actor, but not someone casting directors drop into scene because it’s you. You’ve actually tried to find parts that are substantial. But when you decided to make this jump a couple of years ago, what did you do in your life to make that transition.
ER: The reason I started modeling was because I was a theater kid and loved acting, so for me, this has been a return in a lot of ways. The reason I stopped acting is because I didn’t like the material I was getting. As a 17-year-old girl who was modeling, I was getting offered the bitchy girl in high school, the cheerleader on the Disney show. I just couldn’t do it. I had a conversation after GONE GIRL with David Fincher where I said, “I realize I’m not good in things I don’t like.” And he was like “Duh.” [laughs] And that’s easy for someone like David Fincher to say, but it was a big revelation for me. Not only do I think I can only be good in things I really care about, but also it’s just about fulfillment. Look, there are a lot of things I want to do in my life, and if I’m going to do acting, I might as well be proud of the things I’m putting my time and energy into.
