Vacation Friends, brought to you by 20th Century Studios, arrives on Hulu on August 27 to make you laugh until you cry. The comedic adventure follows two couples whose vacations become intertwined and change their lives forever: the upright Marcus (Lil Rel Howery, Free Guy) and Emily (Yvonne Orji, Insecure) and the carefree Ron (John Cena, F9) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner, Palm Springs).
Just after getting engaged, Marcus and Emily meet some brand-new buddies on their trip to Mexico. The fearsome foursome party it up until the awkward moment it's time to part ways and go home, but it seems like Ron and Kyla don't want the party to end. With the wedding coming up and Emily's disapproving family looming, the vacation friends may make things even more chaotic.
Orji spoke with Screen Rant about working alongside costar Howery after years of shared professional experience and friendship and discussed the understated between Emily and Kyla.
Screen Rant: Marcus and Emily are the strait-laced couple, but there's a sliding scale of strait-lacedness. Can you talk about what Emily sees in Marcus, and how you find that in Rel when you're working together?
Yvonne Orji: She sees him as a guy who's kind of a blue-collar guy, but he's also an executive. He's successful however he is successful, and she understands he works very hard. And she respects that about him; things didn't come easily to him.
I also think she appreciates how much he wants to make a good impression for her, and for her family. He wants to be accepted. He wants to be the good guy. And I think her family is making it hard because they don't respect him.
For me, playing with Rel, we've worked together in so many different ways: on Insecure and also in comedy. I respect him as an amazing talent. He's super funny and generous with his graciousness for me. When I booked it, he was like, "I'm so happy I get to work with you again." We have really good chemistry. I'm able to see him and know that he works really hard to put out really good content. And so I can play opposite him and just admire, like, "Alright, we're gonna do this. We're in this together. We've got to make this good."
Emily's father, Harold (Robert Wisdom), is like a shadow over this relationship. How does that affect you both?
Yvonne Orji: Harold has an expectation of who he would prefer his daughter to be with - like most fathers, probably. And they believe they know what's good for her. They believe, even if she's gonna make this decision, it's got to be on [their] terms. Marcus is trying his best to play along, but he's tired of it. Because at the end of the day, he's his own person, too. He's like, "This is gonna be my family; this is gonna be my wife. When do I get to be the man of my house?"
At first, Emily tries to pacify him and tell him he's overreacting. But when she sees how crazy her dad really is, it's like, "Hold up! Nuh-uh. I don't approve of you either, and I don't approve of what he's doing. Both of y'all are in the doghouse."
While your main relationship is obviously with your fiancé, this other couple comes in and we get to see a lot of chemistry there and a lot of different dynamics. I thought Emily and Kyla especially had a really nice, understated, but equally as fascinating bond as the boys. Can you talk about working with her and bringing out the best in each other?
Yvonne Orji: Yeah, Meredith is really quite talented. And there were those moments where, as a woman, as a wife, as someone who's trying to be supportive of their spouse regardless of whatever season they're going through - I think they understand each other a little bit.
Emily is kind of like, "She's a little crazy..." at first. Is she just aloof to the fact that she may be working for a doctor who's peddling illegal drugs? I don't know. But she means well, and I think that's what they find out in the end. This couple is crazy, but they do mean well, and they made our world bigger.
Finally, what is next for you after everyone gets to enjoy Vacation Friends?
Yvonne Orji: I'm still working on creating my own show. We're development right now. I have some other things that I can't say right now, but they're in the works
Vacation Friends drops August 27 on Hulu.
