Ike Barinholtz is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He was initially a cast member on MADtv from 2002 to 2007. Barinholtz moved onto projects like The Mindy Project and Eastbound & Down. On the big screen, he is most known for his work in Suicide Squad, Neighbors, and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Now he will be starring in Blockers, which comes out on April 6, 2018.
Screen Rant got a chance to talk to Ike Barinholtz on press day, where we discussed how much fun it was to work with director Kay Cannon again, how much of the film was improvised, and what the truth was behind the butt keg scene.
A movie like this is amazing. It’s such a nice change of pace for me because usually I’m on the superhero beat, so watching something like this just sitting back and relaxing is so nice.
Ike Barinholtz: There are no superheroes in this movie.
No.
Ike Barinholtz: Everyone is stupid.
John Cena is close enough.
Ike Barinholtz: He’s pretty close. He’s pretty close, but even he’s an idiot in this movie too. It’s nice to have a movie where everyone is kind of actively making bad decisions and supporting each other.
Which is funny actually. For a movie that has so much hijinks, it actually has a lot of heart.
Ike Barinholtz: It does. They kind of figure that out. You know, originally the movie was kind of it was definitely more male-centric. It was about three dads and their kids and stuff.
Really?
Ike Barinholtz: Initially. Years ago. These guys, the Kehoes, wrote the script years ago and I remember when Seth and Evan first started coming to me with it. They were like, “Listen. We want to kind of make it about these three young women who are embarking on their prom night and we want to make Leslie Mann the center between you and John.” And then when I heard Kay Cannon was going to direct it, I was like we have a chance to make a different kind of - for a lack of better word - sex comedy. And I think she managed to walk that line. She kind of nailed it.
Yeah. I was surprised. Obviously I knew going in I was super excited for this movie. I knew going in it was going to be hilarious, but I was a little surprised about how much of a coming-of-age story it actually is. And how relevant it is with these girls in high school and stuff. And your character, Hunter, has some deep moments, which is really surprising.
Ike Barinholtz: He does, right? I mean, at first, I think the fear is that if you’re just playing the wild one, who’s kind of like the crazy guy who messed up and stuff, I think the bad version of that is where he doesn’t really have any soul and has maybe a slightly redemptive moment at the end. But I think working through the drafts with Kay and Seth and Evan, we really wanted to A) Hunter is the one who has good points early on. He’s like, “What? We can’t snoop on our kids.” Right? And then to give him this kind of storyline where he has this daughter who, it’s a coming of age story, but it’s also a coming out story, and to have them have that connection at the end, you know, when I read a version of what we shot, I got emotional about it and I was really glad to kind of be able to have a little more depth.
Absolutely. And you show some dramatic chops at the end. I thought I was going to start tearing up at the end.
Ike Barinholtz: Nothing would have made me happier if people started crying at the end. If you can watch a movie where John Cena gets a 40 up his asshole and cry a little bit at the end because of the message, I think we’ve done something right.
I was talking to John yesterday and he was saying that throughout the whole duration of every script he read about this, it always had the butt chug scene. What parts stuck out to you the most out of every iteration of the script you read and had anything deviated that didn’t make it to the final cut?
Ike Barinholtz: Hm. Let me think here. To me, it’s less of a scene and more of one of the story points of the movie, which really intrigued me when it was brought to me, which is I have little kids. I don’t know if you have little kids.
No.
Ike Barinholtz: One thing I’ve learned in life and we already know this, but it is crystallized much more when you’re a parent. For better or worse, your friends in life end up being your kid’s friend’s parents. So, that concept was just happening to me right now and I was very taken with that. The fact that these people, you know, you have your friends from high school and your friends from work. You know what I mean? And then your neighbors. Then you have this other group of people where your only connection is your children. So, I loved how we kept coming to that and Hunter’s kind of areas of fear. Right? One is I f***ed up with my daughter and her mom and Hannibal as Frank. It’s so funny. Him and June are so funny. They are going to be the ones that are the real parents. She’s going to forget about me. And also, I’m not going to have these kids anymore because our kids are leaving and they are going their separate ways. So, that feeling of pressure for Hunter was always in every draft for me. Things like the butt chugging scene, that’s one of those things where you look at it and go that’s going to work. It’s going to work. It’s going to be hilarious. I think that’s something that Seth and Evan know very well. Whether it’s the airbag in Neighbors, they know the value of dropping a giant physical gag in a movie. It’s kind of catnip for people.
It’s funny that you talked about that because I have a lot of friends that are parents and they always talk about how, now that you’ve mentioned that their friends are their kids friends, but I’ve heard that’s completely true. Not only that, but it’s almost like high school all over again for them.
Ike Barinholtz: It’s so crazy. It’s like the same pressures we felt in high school. Like, we have a friend. My daughter has a friend and they had a birthday party and they just made it boys and I remember saying to my wife, “I can’t believe they didn’t invite the girls.” You know what I mean? Of course, they didn’t invite the girls. Like I had birthdays with just boys, but you have the same pressures. Those same kind of slights, whether real or imagined, that you had in high school. It’s just now that you’re older. In high school your excuse can be I’m 16. I’m riddled with acne. My self confidence is not what it’s supposed to be, but when you’re an adult, you should have that. But you don’t. You’re still in high school.
So, if I were Kayla’s prom date, I would be terrified if John Cena was running after me and throwing me around. Do you have any fun or crazy prom stories from your own?
Ike Barinholtz: Well, I do. I remember, I grew up in Chicago, and one of the things that I was happy to see kids still doing or I guess not happy was after prom you get a hotel room. And I remember I think it was our junior year, junior prom, and I had figured out a plan to get booze and I told all of my friends, “I got it. Tell me what you want. Give me money.” And I called a big liquor stores. I think it was Sammy’s Liquor? I can’t remember. And I placed a big order. I didn’t place it under my name, but I placed it under the name of my late grandfather. I don’t know why. And then I went there and I saw a guy in the parking lot who looked of age and I said, “Hey. I’ll give you 20 bucks if you go in and pick up this order for me.” It was a perfect crime. My friends showed up at the hotel room and there were literally 100 bottles of Zima and Boone’s Farm and we had it all ready to go. And about two months later, my dad came home and was like, “Hey. I ran into Freddie Rosen today. Told me something interesting. He said my dad ordered $200 worth of alcohol a couple of months ago, which was funny because my dad died in 1986.” So this perfect crime that I thought I had gotten away with, I ended up getting busted.
It always catches up with you.
Ike Barinholtz: It always catches up with you. It always catches up with you.
So, I know you’ve worked with John and Leslie before.
Ike Barinholtz: I have not worked with Leslie before.
You haven’t?
Ike Barinholtz: I have not. I’ve worked with John before. I am a huge fan of Leslie.
Oh, interesting.
Ike Barinholtz: Yeah. Leslie has always been one of my favorite comedic actresses and my wife’s. She is one of the people that me and my wife agree on that is just one of the funniest. So, when I heard that they were circling her wagons to place Lisa, I got really really excited. And she is hilarious.
Now how much of what you guys did is actually on screen in terms of the script and how much improv made it?
Ike Barinholtz: I think a lot of improv made it. I think, you know, in comedies like this where it’s real people in real situations, there’s going to be improv. Right? We’re just kind of now in this comedy culture where you want jokes. You want new alts and stuff. You want to hire actors that are capable of improvising and are capable of improvising in character on story and there was a lot. Kay Cannon, who I have known for years, we both come from the Chicago improv scene, so she knew kind of how I rolled. And she said to me and John and Leslie, “You know, I’m going to give you guys free reign.” And I think we always tried to get the joke on the page a couple of times, but we just, I think a lot of the stuff you see up there is stuff we either came up with in the moment, some we either wrote or we improvised just because these situations which are so live and eventful, you need that real reactions and those real things that you can only just come up with in the moment. So, there’s quite a bit.
Now, as an actor, I’m sure you learn something new about every single role you play, so what is it about Hunter that you can learn and take on with it with whatever project comes up next?
Ike Barinholtz: I mean, macroly, don’t get divorced. [laughs] But I think one thing I learned is I think it’s important to go in and trust the process. You know what I mean? There were moments where I was like, “I don’t know if this will work.” But if you have a good director that knows what they are doing and you have good producers and you have co-stars who are willing to make themselves look stupid, trust the process and I think you’ll end up with something that you’ll know it’s going to be funny, but you’ll end up getting this kind of richer layer of it which is kind of more deep and about our relationships with our children and parents and stuff.
Now you’ve talked about the improv a little bit. Was there anything that you guys did where you were like, “Wow. That take was good,” but then it went into a different direction?
Ike Barinholtz: Yeah. I’m sure if I went back and thought about some of the specific moments. You’ll still second guess it. I’ll have to see it again to remember specific moments. I know there’s one line that we improvised. I think it’s still in the cut. It’s so stupid and it’s so not on story, but it’s where I compliment John’s wife on the richness of her coffee soy milk and that’s why I love Kay Cannon. Because even though that has nothing to do with the story, she recognizes that it’s funny and it’s, it kind of lets the scene breathe for a second before we get into the, “F*** you. You’re a bad parent!” moments. Right? So I think those moments I am really grateful that I had Kay in there fighting for those, just kind of random funny true moments.
It also seems so real too when those things are in there.
Ike Barinholtz: I think that’s great. That means Kay did her job where she just really kept us in the moment and by not just, a lot of times directors will be like improvise! And then they’ll just be like just do the written. In editing, just put the written down. But it takes someone like Kay to recognize that moment is strange and I want it in there. It takes guts.
MORE: John Cena Interview for Blockers
Key Release Dates
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Blockers
Release Date:2018-04-06
