As the comedy makes its way to Netflix, Me Time director John Hamburg opens up about Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg's close bond on set. Me Time is Hamburg's latest directorial effort after the 2016 Bryan Cranston and James Franco comedy Why Him?, though he previously collaborated with Hart as a screenwriter on his 2018 film Night School with Tiffany Haddish. Hamburg wrote Me Time as well as produced it in collaboration with Hart and Bryan Smiley. On top of Hart and Wahlberg, the cast includes Jimmy O. Yang, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Andrew Santino, John Amos, Anna Maria Horsford, Seal, and Nine Perfect Strangers star Regina Hall.
The film follows Sonny Fisher (Hart), a suburban stay-at-home dad who suddenly finds himself with some "me time" when his wife and kids are out of the house for the weekend. During this time, he decides to reconnect with his old buddy Huck (Wahlberg), though he quickly comes to regret it. Huck lives a very different life from Sonny and drags him into a variety of wild escapades that will push him entirely out of his comfort zone.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to sit down with Hamburg for an exclusive interview about Me Time. He revealed that Wahlberg and Hart's onscreen bond exists because of their real-life dynamic on set, as there were "a lot of high jinks." He acknowledges that sometimes as a director (his other projects include Along Came Polly and I Love You, Man) one has to fake the fact that the leads are friends even if they hate each other, but in this case, it's entirely genuine. He says that their warm, laugh-provoking banter provided for "an easygoing, good time." Read his full quote below:
A lot of high jinks. Sometimes, when people ask that question, you have to lie because the costars don't really like each other. But these guys loved each other. They just cracked each other up. They knew each other a bit beforehand, and instant chemistry.
Mark would always, as his character Huck, would call everything stupid. And that buzzword just made Kevin laugh every single time. And Kevin's the funniest guy on the planet, so he would crack up myself, Mark, Regina—everybody else. It was just an easygoing, good time. Which is what you want for a comedy.
Me Time is the first time that Hart and Wahlberg have collaborated on a project, but it sounds like it won't be the last. When Hart bonds with another performer, he makes a habit of working with them time and again. One of the most notable is that of his ongoing collaborations with Dwayne Johnson, which began with the 2016 action-comedy Central Intelligence and continued with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle the following year, a cameo from Hart in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Jumanji: The Next Level, and this year's animated project DC League of Super Pets.
It remains to be seen if Me Time will spur a similar string of collaborations, which will likely depend on how well the film does on Netflix. Studios will generally only want to greenlight more big projects featuring the pair of them if this one can rack up viewership numbers, and given the streamer's recent films The Gray Man and Jamie Foxx's Day Shift have performed well, it seems possible it could prove a hit. In spite of its largely negative reviews, Netflix is already reporting Me Time as the No. 1 movie of the day, so if this holds true for the next week or more, the chances will grow ever more likely.