Interview - Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore from 'Miss March'

If you've never seen The Whitest Kids U'Know, you aren't alone. They were primarily an East Coast thing until they wound up on Fuse and then later IFC doing their sketch comedy. Even though it's cable, it's not like IFC is exactly ESPN. You still have to hunt it down. But the two ringleaders of the Whitest Kids, Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore, have given themselves and their show a blast of mainstream word-of-mouth with the new comedy, Miss March, which opens in theaters today. The Big Picture had a chance to talk to Trevor and Zach when their nationwide bus tour - promotion a movie about a nationwide road trip - passed through Phoenix. Big Picture: As newcomers to this side of the business, was this project always a co- star/co-write/co-direct kind of thing for you guys? Zach Cregger: Yeah, that's the way it was from the beginning. There was a script written for us and brought to Fox. Fox asked us if we wanted to rewrite it, and we did. We rewrote it completely. There's nothing from the original script. The only elements from the original story that we kept are coma, playmate, and Playboy Mansion. Was there ever any friction from the studio on the way the script turned out of the stuff you guys were shooting, especially since this was your first film? ZC: No, Fox has been great. They never tried to reign us in at all. Trevor Moore: It's weird because we don't have anything to compare it to, movie-wise. We've worked in television, but everybody else we know that has worked in movies have said, "So how are the executives?" And we're like, "They're awesome! Their notes were awesome." We were really lucky. ZC: And they know what they're getting. They hired us because they know what we do with our show. But in fairness, this movie isn't that much like the show. ZC: No, it's different. But things are pushed a little bit. TM: But not being crazy fans of the road trip sex comedy genre, when we took the script the idea was, "We can have this genre but make it something that we would want to be involved with, tailor it more to our show's sensibilities." I think it is a little darker than a regular road trip movie, but it's also kind of sweeter in some ways. On the TV show, we talk about edgy subject matter but we do it with a childlike wonderment, so it doesn't feel too dark and heavy. I think the movie does that, too. The genre, especially with smart movie fans, brings with it certain baggage. Road trip sex movies are rarely that distinguishable from each other, because there are certain things the audience expects to see. How difficult was it for you guys to work inside the genre to make something that's different than a road trip movie, and how has it been selling that concept to your hardcore fans? TM: I watch the message boards and stuff like that, and the comments from the trailer have been overwhelmingly positive, and they've been positive at the screenings, too, but there are those comments like - "Another road trip movie?" And you wanna say, "No, no, you've gotta see the movie." You've produced a bunch of great viral videos for Miss March that really don't have anything to do with the movie, and I suspect that a lot of their purpose is to ingratiate this film to your base of fans. ZC: Right. They're very funny, by the way. But how important do you think the online video stuff is to the movie, particularly because it's not a huge blockbuster? Has the reaction been really strong on it? TM: We'll see (laughs). ZC: God knows. I mean, that's what got us here today. YouTube put is in these chairs. So, you can't underestimate it. One of my favorite things in the whole movie is Craig Robinson's character, Horsedick.MPEG. Was that character something that came into the picture pretty early after you guys started re- writing it? TM: Pretty early, yeah. And it was really just coming up with the name...and that's who the rapper is. And a very subtle moment that I really liked is when you guys are listening to the radio and here's this wanna-be rapper you knew in high school who now has his song on the radio, but it's the radio edit...although they still announce the artist as Horsedick.MPEG. ZC: (Laughs) I know. Well, things loosen up in the future. ***** Be sure to read our review of Miss March.