You may have heard—since it’s been posited as such pretty much everywhere—that Richard Linklater's newest masterful cinematic joyride, Everybody Wants Some!!, is a “spiritual sequel” to a certain beloved, '70s-set high-school stoner comedy in the Linklater canon. The year is, after all, 1980, we're back in Texas, and doe-eyed freshman Jake (played by Blake Jenner) is moving into a college baseball house, joining his teammates on a wild romp through the first weekend of freshman year before classes begin on Monday. But in many ways, it shares some connective thread with Boyhood too. It explores—in a poignant, evocative way that lends it depth beyond its obvious hilarity—those final moments of freedom after boyhood and before adulthood. When you can still be anything you want to be, and you can figure it out in a den of sin that's heavy on booze, babes, and ball, and light on anything resembling accountability.
We talked to six of the twenty-something actors, who confirmed what we suspected all along: This film was just as much fun to make as it is to watch.
GQ: I'm curious how all of you got involved with this project.
Temple Baker ("Plummer"): Somebody forwarded me an email they had sent out to the University of Texas intramural softball captains: “We are looking for handsome and charismatic 18- to 23-year-olds with a background in baseball.” One of my friends I guess saw “handsome and charismatic” and forwarded it to me. Not going to unpack that one too much.
I had a couple drinks beforehand. I go in and the first question is, like, “What’s your name? How tall are you?” And the next question was, “So do you have any funny stories from college?” Oh, actually, yes. You know when you’re just sort of in the zone, one story rolling into another story rolling into another story? I think they were just like, “Who are you?” So then I walk out and yell my buddy, “Dude, get in there. It’s so easy. It’s hilarious. I just rocked it.” He walks out, like, three minutes later all pissed off. And he’s like, “Dude, you fucking asshole. All they did was ask me about you.”
Wyatt Russell ("Willoughby"): For me, it was just like, “What was your college like?” It was very generic. And I was a pretty straight-laced kid when it came to school and college. I didn’t smoke weed, I didn’t really even drink that much. I mean, I drank and had fun, but being on the hockey team*, you can’t go crazy. I think Temple was more geared toward finding that guy.
*Russell played hockey at both the college and professional level.
J. Quinton Johnson ("Dale"): My professors told me about this general call for a new Richard Linklater baseball comedy, and I always had more of an athletic build, even when I did musical theatre. They said, “They need athletic males to play college [kids], you should definitely submit for this.” And I [was] thinking, “This is Richard Linklater. How could a random kid doing musical theatre...” I was doing Oklahoma! at the time.
Tyler Hoechlin ("Glen McReynolds"): I had actually heard about the project, and I checked in with my agent about it and found out that they actually weren’t going to see me. I think they thought I was a little bit too old, trying to find guys more college age. But I felt like this was something that I was absolutely meant to be a part of, and so my manager and I had a conversation. He said, “Look. Watch Rick’s documentary [Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach]. If something resonates with you, then write an email and we’ll see if we can get it to him.”
[In] the first fifteen minutes or so, there was a phrase that Augie [Garrido, longtime University of Texas baseball coach] had said about three times already that was actually the motto that I had written under my hat all through high school and college*, playing baseball: “Whatever it takes.” So I sat down and wrote an email out, and I didn’t go back and proofread it. I just sent it to my manager. I was like, “Man, I’m not even going to check it twice. That’s just what it is.”
*Hoechlin played college baseball at Arizona State and UC Irvine.
Quinton Johnson: I kind of was scared doing the interview, just because they were asking me questions about party life and college life, but I wasn’t that guy. They were like, “What’s your sports experience?” I was like, “I’m more of a basketball player. Not really a baseball player.” And they were like, “Would you go out to wild parties and things?” And I was like, “No, not really. That’s not really me.”
Wyatt Russell: We did a skills video. Mine was so janky. All my friends were at a festival, so I had to go to my brother’s house. He was the only person I knew who had baseball gloves, and my seven-year-old nephew filmed me, so it’s, like, the worst video of all time. [laughs] He’d follow the ball back to my brother. And then Ollie would be like, “No, just Wyatt! Leave it on Wyatt!”
Temple Baker: I went out and grabbed one of my buddies with a camera and my little brother to film me doing some batting practice. One buddy of mine was like, “Wait, what are we doing?” I was like, “Just don’t worry about it.” And now he’s, like, bragging: “Hell, yeah, I’ve had footage seen by Linklater. What’s up?!”
Blake Jenner ("Jake"): I had to go to the batting cages twice to just make contact with the ball.
Tyler Hoechlin: I was the guy that was out of town when they needed it. So I sent a link to YouTube that had an at-bat of mine when I played UC Irvine against LSU in the super regional.
Temple Baker: Tyler has such a sweet swing.
Glen Powell ("Finnegan"): This movie is basically designed to make Tyler Hoechlin look pretty damn cool. I’ll tell you that much.
Temple Baker: I thought there was no actual chance I’d get it. The last time I’d acted was in the fourth grade or something like that. I left, though, and they’re like, “Okay, don’t cut your hair, don’t shave.” But I had real-life stuff to do, so I get my hair cut. I couldn’t look like a bum. So when I do get the call, they’re like, “Hey, Linklater wants to meet with you. By the way, you didn’t cut your hair or shave or anything?” And I was like, “Aw, shit. Like, a little bit.”
One of the things that's so great about the movie is that the characters all feel genuine, like maybe the distance between the actor and the part aren't wholly disconnected. Obviously, that's the point of good acting. But how much of you is in each of your characters?
Quinton Johnson: When I first read the script, Dale was really underwritten, in the sense that there wasn’t much there for him. And the character in the script was not like mine at all, so I figured there was no way I was going to be cast in that role. But after reading in the callback with Rick, the role was like completely rewritten—way more dialogue, way more presence—and [I] come to find out: after I sat down with Rick, he had tailored the whole draft of the script to the guys he knew he wanted to be in the film.
Wyatt Russell: I think Willoughby is much more like a lot of my friends or some people I know that are still playing. And in so many ways, you get locked into a way of life, and it’s scary to go outside of it, because you’re kind of a bigwig in that world. And then you start to realize: I’m a pretty big fish in a small pond. And eventually you just can’t live in that pond anymore; you’re immediately thrown into the ocean. And a lot of those guys just freaked out because you’ve lived in a bubble your entire life. You’ve always been told, “You’re the best,” you’re great at a sport, and we as a society sort of put our athletes on a pedestal.
Quinton Johnson: That’s what it is in college with anything. You come from being the best in wherever you are, but you have to come to this new level. Some people have a hard time adjusting to that, and it’s those who can adjust that ultimately succeed. I sat with Rick and talked about, “You guys aren’t the all-stars you thought you were back wherever the fuck it is you came from. If you want to really succeed, you have to mentally toughen the fuck up.”
Glen Powell: When Rick and I were talking out Finn as a character, one of the things that I think we kind of broke is that when they’re talking about college, even me, everybody looks back on that time in their life with a certain fondness and a certain prism. And it doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. There’s a sort of revisionist history that goes along with your memories. Finn is who you say you were, but you weren’t: the guy who has the best lines, the guy who knows how to ride a bull, the guy who’s the best on the dance floor, the guy who doesn’t get butthurt when girls turn him down. That’s who we all wish we were. But at the same time, we’re all a little bit more vulnerable.
Who of all the guys do you think was most like their character in the movie? Who was acting the least?
Wyatt Russell: It’s either Forrest [Vickery, who plays "Coma"] or Brumley [played by Tanner Kalina].
Quinton Johnson: [laughs] Umm… man. I think I’d probably have to give that one to Tanner. A lot of people watch that movie and they think, “There’s no way that kid is actually that goofy.” But, no. He’s actually that goofy. It’s so awesome. And I think that comedy works so well for him in a way that it wouldn’t work for anybody else. Because at first I was like, “There’s no way this kid is being this goofy. He has to be trying to be goofy because he wants us to like him.” But no. You spend time with Tanner and he is just genuinely goofy, and that’s the coolest thing ever.
Wyatt Russell: Yeah, probably Brumley. He is young and new and full of piss and vinegar, and he wants to please, and he’s really happy all the time. [laughs]
Quinton Johnson: It was definitely Tanner bringing Tanner to the circumstances that Rick set up for us. And that created such a standout character just because it’s so different from the dynamic of these in-your-face masculine guys or these top dogs. He just played that so well, and there’s no one else in the movie like him.
Glen Powell: It was so funny how he really did embrace his chump-ification to a degree that nobody else did. He loved being the freshman that everybody else picked on. It was so funny. I mean I’m trying to get him on SNL right now. He would kill it. He’s built like a major-league baseball player, but he’s got this baby face. If he realized his strength and his size, he would beat any of us up, but he’s got the temperament of a sheep, so he’s easily taken advantage of, which is funny. He loves it.
Were you guys fans of Dazed and Confused? That's the obvious and popular comparison. And it does feel like maybe there's a little bit of Wooderson in each of you.
Temple Baker: Okay, so this is kind of funny. I went to a school called Austin High. Everyone that went to Austin High knows Dazed and Confused was based on Austin High. Especially after I went to [college], everyone was so sick of it. People would rip on me all the time, like, "Oh, yeah, Temple, hey, did you hear about [the school] Dazed and Confused is based on?" So I go in and I’m meeting with Linklater, finally, and he’s like, "Oh, you went to Austin High School, huh?" I was like, "Yes, sir." He was like, "This is that high school that thinks that Dazed and Confused is based on it, right?" I’m like, "Uh, yes sir." He’s like, "You know that’s not true, right?"
I’m like, "Honestly, sir, that’s completely valid and I sort of suspected that, but what I will tell you is that I’m going to walk out of here and tell every single person that you personally confirmed to me that Dazed and Confused was, in fact, based on Austin High."
Glen Powell: It is funny how there is a Wooderson in just about every character. And I think everybody has their Wooderson moment. I would probably say Willoughby would be Slater. “Martha Washington, man! She was a good lady!” That whole thing. I just love that whole section. And really only somebody like Wyatt Russell can pull of the dialogue he pulled off in that scene. I thought that was amazing.
Blake Jenner: I love Wyatt Russell’s perspective, his character Willoughby’s perspective in this movie. I love how he says, “Embrace your inner strange.” I love the scene where we’re all chilling and he’s talking about the Mayans and the Druids and all that stuff. He’s got that intellectual part of Wooderson down. I want to hang with Willoughby, man. I want to invite him over to my house. I want to make some lunch for him, and I want to just chill and get inside of that head.
You guys spent close to three weeks on Richard Linklater's ranch, just hanging out, running through the script. What was that like, when you all arrived on that first day?
Wyatt Russell: It was unique in that all of the people had no idea who each other were, and we got to the ranch at the same time, and we also had a small amount of time to really get to know each other. On the first day you're like, “What a cool bunch of dudes!” And then by the third day, you’re like, “Everybody is the best!”
Glen Powell: It’s so rare you put twelve strangers together in a room and have them become best buddies. It’s crazy, you know?
Tyler Hoechlin: It was instant. The first day we got there, we all played a game of touch football. Rick was all-time QB. And it was amazing, man. I haven’t been with a group of dudes just hanging out, playing football, talking sports, just shooting the shit in such a long time, where that’s all you’re there to do. It’s like going out and playing college ball. It was just much more creative.
Quinton Johnson: He has a true bunk-bed setup. I mean it’s this huge house, twelve guys. I think there were probably four sets of bunk beds. So eight guys could sleep in actual bunk beds. And then he set up some blow-up mattresses on the floor. And then there was one room, like off a separate wing of the bunkhouse that had a nice, large bedroom. And we all said the first night that the guy that snored the loudest would get that room. I have bad seasonal allergies, and I mean—the fall was coming around, there was a lot of pollen. All the guys unanimously were like, “You get the other room.”
Glen Powell: [Rick] kept coming up to me during the course of the camp: “Are you getting along with everybody? Is there anybody you don’t like? Is there anybody that you think is going to be a problem?” And I was like, “Naw, dude, everything’s great.” I found out on Dazed and Confused that there was really, really clique-y, mean set. And he was like: “I’m not doing that shit again. You all have to get along. Even if onscreen you guys are all talking shit to each other and even if there are rivalries that exist, you all love each other." And it’s [a] bro-mantic film through and through.
Wyatt Russell: You felt it. You’re like, “I think this is good.” You can’t ever really tell. But you can feel the energy and I kept thinking, “I hope the people watching are going to be able to feel the energy that’s in the room right now.”
Glen Powell: It really did feel like every team I had ever played on. It’s because every single guy in there kind of represents a type of guy you’d find on a sports team, and every single one of these guys is an athlete, so it’s all very comfortable. It felt like we had known each other for so long. And then when you put all those personalities in a room, they’re all crazy creative. That’s when I think the magic of this movie emerged. You get people that get along and that like each other and are rooting for each other and collaborating together, and you get them in the same room.
It was a serious dude crew you guys must have had out there.
Blake Jenner: Our first time going out, we were so hairy. We went to this restaurant and I think everybody was a little shocked to see a big band of dudes—hairy, hairy dudes. I think everybody was a little scared.
Glen Powell: This is when we'd just shaved our mustaches and crafted them into the handlebars and the muttonchops and all that stuff. So we’re all rolling around together and we’re so proud of it, we roll into Güero’s Taco Bar. To see ten guys with mustaches and muttonchops roll up to anywhere as a group is kind of a shocking thing to see in this day and age. You’re like, “Okay, are we about to get robbed? Am I going to be in an unsolicited tickle fight? What’s going on?”
Blake Jenner: There's a part of the movie where we’re all jumping in the water. After we shot that, we get in our robes. We’re all in like white robes and we get into this white van. We’re driving down and we see a car with some people in it. We roll down the windows and we all show our faces, and we’re hairy dudes in a white van with white robes, and needless to say, they were a little freaked out.
Glen Powell: I was crying I was laughing so hard, because this girl could not have seemed more shocked. It was literally like, “Open the door, open the door.” And the side door opened, and it was just all these bearded, mustached dudes in robes. Literally like right next to her. She was terrified. All her alarm bells, everything her dad ever said to do if you see a van full of dudes with mustaches and white robes. “This is what my dad warned me about. This is it.”
What did you do on Rick's ranch, when you weren't running through lines?
Temple Baker: The pool is awesome, the baseball field, the pitching machine, the basketball court, one of those slack line things, which I found out are pretty much impossible. Shuffleboard, pool, Skee-Ball. I got really fucking good at playing Skee-Ball. When else are you gonna get good at Skee-Ball? But I did. So I would go to Rebar [a bar in Nashville, where Temple went to college], I would hustle. I’d lose on purpose and I’d [say], "Let’s play the next one for for tequila shots." And smoke him. Beat him by 800. It’s like, "Thank you, Camp Linklater."
Quinton Johnson: There’s this one thing we did that I think kind of solidified this movie for me. After lunch one day we were all swimming and spur of the moment, we started tossing this football around the pool. We got this idea to do a twelve-man toss, alley-oop, throwing a football around the pool, splashing in the pool simultaneously. And then the last guy would throw the ball through an inner tube on the other side. We spent probably two hours doing this. All of us were like, “We’re not doing anything else. If Rick comes out here and says, 'Time to read a script,' we’d be like, 'No, we’re going to finish this, and then we’ll come read the script.'"
Glen Powell: It’s so weird, because that is the essence of a sports team, and I think the movie really encapsulates that, the essence of a sports team is being able to compete with stupid little things. You take it so seriously because if you’re good at competing in the stupid things, you’ll be great at competing at the great things, right? Hunched over a foosball table or a ping-pong table or just keeping the ball up in the air for an hour with all these guys, those are the kind of things that I would say is built in all of us. We’re all extremely competitive people, and we get such joy out of winning. And winning with each other.
Blake Jenner: There was a ton of fuckwithery for sure going on, definitely. A few of us would have free-style rap battles at the end of certain nights during the portion of time we were living with Rick. And there were pranks. We put a spider on Will Brittain [who plays Billy Autrey]. A dead spider. He woke up and freaked out.
Temple Baker: I think Tanner actually put the spider on him, but it was 100% a Glen production. Like, that was very much Glen’s idea to put the spider on Will. But of course Tanner got the brunt of it from Will. It was pretty entertaining.
Glen Powell: Yeah, I convinced Brumley to put a giant spider on Will Brittain’s chest while he was sleeping, and Will Brittain woke up and nearly—I had to separate them. It was the only time. It was like, “Oh, shoot. That was great.” There were a million, million funny stories. Some of them I won’t sell my boys out for, unfortunately. There’s the stories I can tell and the stories I can’t.
Did anything out of all that "fuckwithery" make it into the movie that was not originally in the script?
Glen Powell: We thought this Manitoba Moose* was, like, the funniest insight. I think one of the guys was late to rehearsal. We were just playing cards. And that came out of us literally one-upping each other on what you had to do if you lost this card game. And it got to even the point where Rick was thinking about filming a post-credits section of Brumley walking up to the tundra and then getting under a moose and then just cutting to black.
*In one scene, the guys sit around playing a card game called "O Canada!", which has seemingly zero rules. Brumley, an unknowing freshman, plays a hand that they deem a "Manitoba Moose." The punishment for playing that hand? You have to go fellate a moose.
And anything that didn’t make it that you hoped would?
Glen Powell: I’ll tell you what miffs me that got cut out. Do you remember the "average cock" speech?* It’s genius. By the way, Rick is the most brilliant man. So... the "average cock" speech. [At the end] he says that technically by the time he actually shows it to them, they’re going to find out he’s being quite humble. But they cut out that last part. So now I just have a smaller-than-average package! “Rick, what is that going to add, like two seconds to the movie? Do we have to cut out that section?”
*Finn likes to browse parties, telling groups of women about his "average cock," hoping that they will find this to be a nice change of pace from most guys, who can't ever stop talking about how well-endowed they are.
There's a fair amount of boogieing that goes on in this movie. What were your dance lessons like out there? Rick told us about trying to make it clear to you guys that disco was a form of foreplay.
Glen Powell: Imagine us in this office space. And he brings all these girls in there, and he’s basically like, “All right. Find chemistry with one of these girls.” So you just kind of dance with each one, but it’s in this really stale environment. There’s nothing sexy about it. Imagine dancing in a State Farm office. But he really was pushing the idea, like, “Get up on her! This is sexy. This is you showing your body and showing off your assets and how you move that will lend her brain to other ponderings.”
Temple Baker: Very, like, porno lighting with those fluorescent lights. Very casting couch looking. It's a Friday morning, I had a pretty late night the night before. I was like, "Oh my god. This is brutal." And we’re in there, it’s hot, and they're just blasting from this old school boombox, blasting Prince. They’re just like, "Alright. You two." The dance instructor just kept yelling, "Be more sexual! Be more sexual! Be more sexual!" It started to turn into a competition.
By the end, it was everyone was so sweaty and it was just so grimy. The first three girls I danced with were like, "Yeah, you smell like alcohol." I was like, "Oh, God. This is horrible. I’m a disaster. I’m a disaster on wheels."
Quinton Johnson: I think for me it was nothing but fun, because I had a musical theatre background. And for a lot of guys, I think it was fun. There were a couple of guys who I think stressed out about it a little bit. But you know, again it was all in good fun. It was a good old party.
Tyler Hoechlin: You know you’re with your best friend when you find yourself trying to break them apart on a daily basis. That’s kind of what we all got to—even if we were giving each other hell, that just meant that we were getting closer. It wasn’t like, “Yeah, man, that dance looked good today. You’re really doing a good job.” Yeah, you’re being friendly but, “Man, you look like an absolute jackass today. What the hell are you doing? I don’t even know how to describe what you’re doing.” That’s when we knew the group was getting close.
Temple Baker: But there was one day when I was there dancing and I was between Quinton and Ryan [Guzman, who plays Kenny Roeper]. Ryan was, like, in all the Step Up movies. And then Quinton can dance even better than Ryan. And I’m just like, I've had enough. And I turned my foot to the side and stomped down. I was like, "Oh, I’ve got a sprained ankle" and just sat down for a while.
Glen Powell: [Rick] was talking about how a lot of athletes and jocks these days, they’re very shy people. They don’t get on the dance floor, and they don’t tear it up. We’ve all played on sports teams, and I would say a lot of athletes are rowdy, but back then, dance was more of a masculine thing. The way you dress, the peacocking in your dance moves, it was all very much a part of the game and the courting process. Dancing, clothes, hair. It was all there.
Blake Jenner: [Rick] was there throughout the whole process of coaching us from certain slangs all the way down to the handshake. And I’m a big bro-hug kind of guy; I love celebrating with a big bro-hug. It just feels safe. But he was letting us know, “You guys are the hugging generation. We were all about this high five.” We used to call him Rick-apedia because he just knew everything.
What was that like, being relatively young actors and getting to work with Richard Linklater?
Temple Baker: He’s just a fucking genius. It’s ridiculous. There there are so many people that are intelligent in X amount of ways, but they don’t have emotional intelligence or they don't understand art. He is intelligent in every way. It was the coolest thing that’ll ever happen to me. I was literally sitting in Human Sexuality* one day, and the next day I’m doing a movie by my all-time favorite director.
*Baker was a student at Vanderbilt University when he got cast as Plummer.
Quinton Johnson: But that’s Rick Linklater for you. When he finds it and he thinks you’re ready, you don’t really contest that. You just do it.
Blake Jenner: He gets everyone, I feel like. He’s like the intellectual Hannibal Lecter.
Glen Powell: Rick is one of the most emotionally intelligent people I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I feel like he’s got a weird gift to be able to see people’s personality and energy. He really is the other member of the baseball team. There’s no separation. Rick was one of the boys the whole time. He was on the baseball field with us, he was in the game room with us. By the time we got on set, you never really feel like you’re working with one of the greatest directors ever while you’re working with him. And then he executes, and you go, “Holy crap. We just made something awesome.”
Tyler Hoechlin: It’s such a great thing to see someone who by all means has an incredible career and could very easily walk on the set and be like, “Do it exactly like this. Do that exactly like that. Make that.” Obviously he knows what he wants, but he’s so giving in the creative space of making the film, allowing us to have so much freedom to find out who these guys were. And not only to find out, but to be encouraged to do so. To be like, “Hey, this is the guy. I cast you in it for a reason. I want you to bring what you see in this character to the character.”
Temple Baker: He sent us this email beforehand titled An Invitation to Collaborate and Create. It just basically said that the script he wrote is fine, and it’s good, but if that’s the movie he made, it would be a disappointment to him. And he’s saying that we need to bring ourselves to the movie. Starting off a job with that sort of support from your boss—I don’t care what kind of job it is, could be delivering beer—when you feel like you’re a part of something, that’s just the best incentive there is. It’s like, sort of what Willoughby says in the movie: Find the space between the notes. And he creates a framework for you to discover, so you find yourself within what he gives you. I think that’s a very important lesson. You gotta be able to find yourself in whatever you’re doing.
Tyler Hoechlin: I think the idea of right and wrong never existed on our set. Those were never two words that were used, and I think that’s such a great and healthy thing because it encourages everyone to try something, and you’re never like, “Oh, maybe the director is going to think that’s wrong.” No! It was like, “We’ll just try it, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll find what works better.” But it was such a creatively encouraging place to be in.
Glen Powell: It’s about the movie we’re making, and we’re making this thing together. So all ideas are welcome. Obviously not all ideas are going to be included, but the idea that: let’s dick around. There were little touches like that. Where Brumley sucks the cream off my finger, that was something that Rick and I talked about like ten minutes before we shot it.
It's hard to look at those party scenes and not be like, You know, they might really be partying here.
Blake Jenner: It was non-alcoholic beer. We’re trying to party, but we’re also professionals, so we aren’t trying to get too rowdy. We’re still on the job.
Temple Baker: That also sort of shocked me. But then someone was like, "Yeah, dude, do you really want to chug, like, ten beers in a row?" I learned that early on at the Jolly Fox, the first time we were shooting there. I was like, "Oh, that’d be funny if I was chugging beers continuously." So I chugged three beers the first take, and they’re like, "Yeah, you gotta do that for, like, ten more takes." And I thought I was gonna die.
I think that’s part of the appeal of the movie, 'cause it’s a very over the top, college party movie. But I mean, it’s not, like, Project X or American Pie. That never happened anywhere in the entire world. Don’t get me wrong, American Pie cracked me up. But it becomes about something totally other than real life. This film, yeah, it’s ridiculous, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I think the craziest thing that happens in any part in the movie [is] when Nesbit [played by Austin Amerlio] skates on the mattress [down the stairs]. I mean, he’s like a pro skateboarder or some shit. I couldn’t do that if you gave me a million tries.
Tyler Hoechlin: I haven’t felt that locker-room aspect in a long time, and I think when you talk to most [former] athletes, that’s probably the thing they miss the most. The locker room and the dugout and things like that. It’s that feeling that you’re waking up every day and a bunch of people are all working equally as hard toward the common goal. That’s a special thing. To feel that again was definitely a return to the glory days for me. That aspect of it was definitely dead-on. Rick did a good job of kind of cultivating that from the beginning.
Wyatt Russell: Things happen in sports and in college that aren’t always viewed by others as endearing. It’s very difficult to get that across to somebody. But what everything ends up entailing is the spirit of a good team and of good people on a good team, and what he got onscreen was all of the best parts of it. One weekend, this very innocent weekend. All the fun was done in innocence in a way, and really, that’s what it felt like. He captured the feeling, and that’s what you need to do in movies. It was spot on.
Temple Baker: It’s been so rewarding to hear from all my friends going to see this, like, "Oh, man, that made me feel more than I thought." Ninety percent of the texts I’ve got have been like, "Fuck, dude, that made me miss college so bad." It was fun to be back in that mindset. That Plummer mindset: "Alright, here we go. I’m the king of the world. This world is here for me to live in it." You know? Thank god that sort of feeling goes away eventually at a certain level. It would be a disaster to have a bunch of Tyrone Plummers walking around.
Did he ever sit you down and really tell you what this movie was about, or what message he wanted to get across? Because for as much fun as it is, it feels like there's something more profound there.
Quinton Johnson: He was breaking down the stereotypes. You know, there are a couple of reviews that say: These bros get to be heroes. Finn said it, like, “Our true asshole-ish nature starts to emerge.” But it’s not that two-dimensional. We are thinking ahead, and we are thinking about other things. And you know, at times, we’re still baseball players. We’re around girls, and yeah, all we talk about is baseball because we have our insecurities just like anybody else. You see that in flashes throughout the movie. But there are always just conversations about people and human beings. And that’s what Rick makes movies about.
Tyler Hoechlin: It’s not a group that people really feel sorry for. Nor should they. I don’t think collegiate athletes want that. But it was an interesting thing to experience. Because yeah, I’ve played with plenty of guys who were very, very intelligent and driven by other things and aspired to other things. I’ve had guys who were incredible players who could have been professional players who actually said, “No, I’m only going to play through college because I really want to pursue this." So it’s definitely a stereotype that’s there, and I’m sure it will always be there.
Glen Powell: After going to college, you have a lot to say about college. That’s kind of how Rick felt, too. That experience, the four years, while you’re in the middle of it, you don’t really realize what it is until all the sudden you look back. “Whoa! Those four years! There were no rules!” There’s no supervision, there’s literally no accountability for the most part, and you just go. It’s a really, really interesting part of life that I think Rick has captured better than anybody on film.
What's the thing from a 1980 college experience that you wish maybe you could have in your own life?
Blake Jenner: Well, it’s actually a question of what I wish we had less of: It was really cool to shoot a movie that was pre-cell phones and pre-a lot of distractions. It’s a nice little message to live in the now, and that kind of made me jealous of how disconnected everyone was. You were really in your own universe back then, and your crew was your crew.
Glen Powell: These guys were all about chasing the fun, but you didn’t need to post it on Instagram or Twitter and show people that you’re having a good time. You just did it. You didn’t need to constantly be in touch. As soon as you left the house, nobody could find you.
Tyler Hoechlin: I loved the fact that at the discos, no one had a phone. You didn’t need pockets for your phone. You were there to dance, you were there to hang out and have a good time. There was no, “Well, is there something better going on down the street? Let me check Instagram and see who’s posting." Or "Let me check someone’s Snapchat." I think pretty much everybody left their phones in the trailers. And we would not go back to the trailers. You’d be on set for hours with no distraction from the phone or what was going on on the outside. We were just there. And I think that’s why it was such a special experience. Everyone remembers the whole thing. Everybody was there for it.
Glen Powell: It was the best. Literally I cannot imagine a better film experience. I was trying to tell all the young guys: Enjoy this moment, because it doesn’t get any better than this. It really doesn’t. I’ve done a lot of movies, and this is as good as it gets.