Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: How Adam Devine, Zac Efron forged film's brotherly dynamic

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates centers on two party-hard brothers, Mike and Dave Stangle (Adam Devine and Zac Efron), who turn to the Internet to find nice dates for their sister’s wedding in Hawaii to help keep them in line — but it turns out the dates who make the cut (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) aren’t all that tame. The brotherly dynamic is, naturally, a key part of the film, and Devine describes that dynamic as one that reflects reality.

“I think it works well because of the person I am,” the Modern Family and Workaholics star jokes. “If I was as handsome as Zac Efron I would be a total monster, and I feel that’s sort of our characters in this movie as well. Mike is the big brother and he flexes that muscle as much as he can, but Dave is a little smarter, has a little more on the ball, is better looking, girls like him more. He’s got everything going for him when Mike doesn’t and is a little jealous, but doesn’t want to admit that.”

It appears Devine himself has been withholding a similar sentiment from Efron. “I’m jealous of you, Zac,” he quips. “I don’t want to admit it.”

Director Jake Szymanski (7 Days in Hell) recalls their connection on set as being immediate. “People believe they’re brothers,” Szymanski says of his leads, who knew each other going in and worked together on a Workaholics sketch in support of Neighbors. Rehearsing and improvising, and staying in the same hotel for three months helped too. “It’s crazy when you’re talking about a God-like being like Zac Efron that anyone is his brother, but it really works with them. They instantly got along.”

As for Plaza and Kendrick, they got on as the aforementioned seemingly sweet dates who prove to be just as, if not more, wild than the boisterous bros. “We were almost cheating because those guys are real-life friends and have already done stuff like call each other up and been like ‘Hey, do you want to go to Mexico for four days?’ and they leave the next day and go,” Szymanski adds. “They already had great chemistry and it got even better when they went into character.”

Written by Neighbors’ Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates also features Stephen Root, Sugar Lyn Beard, and Sam Richardson. Catch the debauchery when it tears into theaters on July 8.

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