‘VENGEANCE’ B.J. Novak on Everything Texas, Whataburger and His Directorial Debut

Opening in theaters on July 29th, ‘Vengeance’ marks the directorial debut for B.J. Novak. Costarring with the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae, and John Mayer. ‘The Office’ veteran plays a New York City journalist/podcaster who travels to Texas to investigate the death of a woman from his past.

Novak sat down with BackstageOL’s Dave Morales to discuss his directorial debut, what it was like filming in Texas, and his thoughts on Whataburger.

Dave Morales: What inspired this story for you, where did this begin for you?

B.J. Novak: “It began with the idea that a disconnected shallow person (who I had too much in common with) but it turns out talking to people, a lot of people identify with this. You have people on your phone with different names that you don’t totally remember, you’re texting them all the time and you have a breakup and then you idealize them after the fact. Sort of this phone culture where you can lose track of who’s important to you. The idea that a guy like that would get a call that his girlfriend is dead, he doesn’t he’s more surprised by his girlfriend than dead. That he’s expected to avenge the death, I thought if I can make that story realistic that would be really funny and also have a lot to explore in today’s age.

Morales:  Tell me about the research that you did because you got everything that is Texas in this film?

Novak: “I really wanted to be welcome in Texas after this movie. So being here right now and premiering it at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin last night was really a dream come true and a relief. I didn’t want to make a movie that anyone felt bad about and having made the office which is set in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Scranton has conventions for ‘The Office’, Scranton is so proud the office is set there and I really wanted to do that with everything I do. So I thought if I set a movie in Texas, I need Texans to feel like ‘okay that guy cared enough’. So I spent a lot of time traveling around figuring out what town do I want to set it in, what surprises me, and how am I treated as a guy who is so clearly an outsider in this world. And that was the most interesting thing on my research is that it was an intimidating place to me, everything’s bigger in Texas, the trucks, the guns, and the people but the friendliness was something that I had never encountered in my life before. So that paradox between feeling like texas that’s a mythological scary place um to a guy from Boston to I’ve never been treated more like family on a leap of faith you know that paradox I thought is really what my character learns that heart sees the heart.”

Vengeance: BJ Novak, Ashton Kutcher

Morales: How did you figure out casting?

Novak: “I wanted it to be an eclectic cast, the same way the movie is a mix of tones and there’s surprising dynamics in the movie. I thought let’s make the cast not just great actors but actors that you wouldn’t expect to see together. So, Ashton, I had actually worked with on ‘Punk’d’, that was my first job as an actor. So it had been you know more than 10 years since I had worked with him but I knew that here’s a guy who’s really underestimated. In real life, he’s this intellectual powerhouse who’s a mega tv producer and tech guy but everyone knows him as that ’70s Show’, ‘Dude Where’s My Car’ and I needed my character to have his head spun around, to think he’s gonna make fun of people or condescend and then realize oh my god these people are smarter than I am. So I thought well Ashton’s the perfect guy to turn the movie on its head because we all see him a certain way and he’s somebody else. Then Dove Cameron just auditioned and I looked her up and I was like wait a second, 50 million followers on Instagram and since then everyone under 25, that’s the person they freak out about. But I thought well that’s an interesting piece of the puzzle and Issa Rae is you know such a high-class HBO powerhouse and Luanne Stevens was on ‘Friday Night Lights’, so she had done the Texas granny but we had to find a new way for her to do it so all these people you wouldn’t think they’d go together but that was the fun for me.”

Morales: Have you had Whataburger at all?

Novak: “I think the burger is actually the least of it, I think what really makes Whataburger stand out is the late-night menu the Dr. Pepper shake, and the sauces. The sauces make it and the burger they should call it  Whata-something-else might but I do like it a lot and I love the feeling of that place.”

Vengeance: BJ Novak, Boyd Holbrook

Morales: Relationship is at the core of this story as well, is there any dating advice or guidance that can be taken from this movie? (Can you take a date to this movie?)

Novak: “You could take a date and I think in a funny way, I mean the movie opens with me and John Mayer on a rooftop bar thinking we’re the coolest guys in the world and texting all these people in our phones that we put down from like you know Emily Tinder and things like that. I think you don’t have to be John Mayer to have a lot of people on your phone if you’re single these days. We all meet a ton of people we talk to them online and you don’t really know how deep your connection is, which is the misunderstanding that sets the plot in motion. So I think what my character learns and what anyone can learn from the movie if they learn anything about dating, is that you have to really be in the moment with somebody you can’t look at their photos after they’re gone whether it’s a death like in the movie or a breakup you need to be in that moment then.”

Morales: What surprised you about taking on the director’s duty?

Novak: “You know someone told me before I started it was actually Al Ruddy who produced ‘The Godfather’ and I met him and I said ‘Do you have any advice?’ And he said you only need to know two things to direct, what you want and how to get it. I was like wow that’s brilliant for anything in life by the way so I thought all right what I really need to do and what I really learned from the movie is that it’s a collective project. Everyone needs to be inspired in the same way so you can’t just tell a cameraman to zoom in at this moment you say ‘This is the moment I want to capture this” or the costume designer you don’t say ‘he’s in wranglers in this scene’ you say, ‘here’s a guy remember to let’s put him in skinny jeans at first because he hasn’t fit in yet’. Really getting everyone creatively on the same page is the most fulfilling thing about directing that I learned.”

Morales: How many times have you seen ‘Inglorious Bastards?

Novak: “I tend not to watch myself on screen but I’ve seen myself in gifts of ‘Inglorious Bastards constantly  because that last shot of me and Brad Pitt nodding has become kind of a classic film moment so that I’ve seen too many times to count.”

Vengeance starring B.J. Novak, Ashton Kutcher, & Dove Cameron opens in theaters on July 29, 2022.

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