Dave Franco On Why He “Sprinkled Horror On Top” Of A Tense Interpersonal Drama In His Directorial Debut, ‘The Rental’

Dave Franco likes to keep it in the family. He’s his own man, to be sure; he’s been deliberate about that. He didn’t lean on his family name during his early years, taking just-starting-out jobs like background extra work and online shorts. He got a break with a clutch supporting role on the final season of Scrubs (ironically enough, as an entitled, bratty nepotism case) and then made the most the opportunities it afforded him. But in the decade since, he’s sowed his oats and come back home, achieving fame on his own terms and using it to do the kind of work he likes with people he loves. He starred alongside big brother James in 2017’s The Disaster Artist, twisting their fraternal bond into something stranger and toxically codependent as the creator-stars of bad movie par excellence The Room. That same year, he appeared onscreen alongside his wife Alison Brie in The Little Hours, a medieval-set nunnery comedy with a profane streak planting it in our present.

In both instances, he felt creatively nurtured by mixing his professional and personal lives. That sense of confidence has now emboldened Franco to direct his first feature, a talky horror-drama called The Rental. A pair of brothers and their girlfriends head out for a weekend getaway, and after they hash out some of their internal tensions in Big Chill-ian fashion, things take a unsettling, violent turn. It’s a sound freshman effort; like many movies directed by actors, it allows the cast to breathe and experiment and explore their performances, yielding some great work, most notably from Brie. Working with his wife helped foster that safe environment that engenders assured filmmaking, and Franco seems to have figured his way around the pitfalls as well.

Franco got on the phone with Decider to chat about his first go as director, falling back on his coworkers/loved ones, the unfortunate side effect of his Superbad appearance, and the impending renaissance of the American romcom.

DECIDER: For starters, how have you been keeping yourself occupied during quarantine? What’ve the past few months been like?

DAVE FRANCO: Lots of ups, lots of downs. Most importantly, we’re fortunate to like our home and each other. That’s not nothing, even though it may sound obvious. But we’re both just trying to keep our heads down and be productive as possible during this time.

Does that mean you’ve been writing? I’ve found it much more difficult to get writing done while cooped up at home every hour of every day.

We’ve been doing a lot of writing, yeah. My wife Alison and I had been broadly talking through this idea for months leading up to the first outbreak and the lockdown. We never had time to really flesh it out, but once the world ended, we realized that we no longer had any excuse to not do it. We really dove into this new script and cranked it out in a pretty short amount of time, and we’ve been polishing it ever since. We’re hoping that when things start happening again, this can be the next thing we collaborate on.

That’s a good way into The Rental, in which Alison stars —what’s the dynamic like when you’re directing someone you’re married to? Is it ever awkward, that a director generally tells an actor what to do?

It was incredible. A lot of people have been tentative about asking that question, actually, which I think maybe reflects how they think of working with their own partner. But we had already worked together as actors, so we knew that we got along really well on set. I was optimistic about how it would be, even if we were working together in a slightly different capacity. It went just as well as I’d hoped, for a few reasons: she’s such a great actress, to start with, which made my job easy. She’s unique in how she can balance drama and levity, within a movie and even in a scene, going between these conflicting emotions and tones in a seamless way. In addition to that, it was comforting to just have her presence there. As a first-time director, there were plenty of moments when I’d doubt myself, and she was really reliable about being there and building me up and reminding me that we were doing some good work.

I get a sense of set being run on a very intimate small scale, with the four-person cast and all the dialogue-driven scenes. What was the atmosphere like during production?

That was the idea, we kept it tight-knit with our small cast and crew. We were shooting on the Oregon coast in a tiny town called Bandon. It was really like [noise like the auditory equivalent of rolling one’s eyes] we all became a family. Almost because we were forced to! None of us had anything else to do, and so it was fortunate that we all liked each other. That’s probably a result of how we put this crew and cast together, though. I really vetted everybody extensively, where I wanted to be surrounded by talented people, but it was just as important to me that everyone was bringing the right mindset. I wanted to work with nice people, who were ready to work their asses off. Going through this my first time, I really needed people who cared about the quality of the end result. There are some total pros who are great at their job, but also checking their watch until they can get home and see the game.

It’s easy to see a version of this film without the horror element, that’s just a stripped-down story about the relationships between the main four characters. When you were conceptualizing the script with Joe Swanberg, how did those two elements get joined together?

That was our intention from the beginning, and the reason I wanted to write this with Joe was because his strengths lie in the sort of character-relationship pieces you’re talking about. Our goal was to write a tense relationship drama where the interpersonal issues between the characters can be just as high-stakes as the psychotic killer stalking them. At its core, it’s about the people and the human element. We sprinkled horror on top, to accentuate and intensify the problems they’re already going through with each other.

This being a film about a guy somewhat in the shadow of his older brother, who’s achieved success at an earlier age, there’s an obvious temptation to project some of this subtext onto you and your family. Is there anything there?

It’s not something that I consciously put int here, sorry to say. I’m sure, on some level, there’s some cross-over between the brotherly dynamic in the movie and mine with my own brother. But I think the relationship between these characters is more indicative of where we were at about a decade ago. That was when I was still the baby of the family, and these days, we see each other more as equals.

You two worked together closely on The Disaster Artist, which had him playing a supporting role to your lead. Did that feel like a reversal, a turning point, anything like that?

It went great. I made a choice very early on in my career to distance myself from him when it came to work, because I really wanted to pave my own path. Then The Disaster Artist came along, and it finally felt like we’d fell into the right movie at the right time. I knew it would be fine, because creatively, we have similar sensibilities. But James is a great director in the sense that he’s collaborative, really collaborative, he genuinely wants to get everyone’s opinion on the scene. The rule on that film was, best idea wins, no matter who it comes from. That’s an environment where everyone feels free to contribute, because they’ll be heard. Inclusion made it work.

I always find it impressive when people can work with family or spouses. Directors talk about shooting as a tense, stressful, demanding, emotionally fraught time, and I feel like it’s tough to treat your loved ones the way you want to when you’ve got a million things buzzing around in your head.

You mean, like, snapping at someone you love, having fights?

Conflict, sure.

It’s a fair question, because yeah, it can be disastrous. I have friends I’ve written with in the past, and we’re not close anymore since that experience, because we just kept butting heads. What I will say is that I’ve had it unusually good. All my experiences once I’m on set, whether it’s with family, with Alison, or with friends, have been positive. I feel safe with these people. As an actor and director, I feel comfortable taking risks and putting myself out there. I know that if I fail that day, I’ll have people around me who won’t judge me. Having that love to count on, that’s always beneficial.

Pure coincidence, but last week, I watched Superbad. I don’t know if I had forgotten or just never noticed, but you’re in there! Do you have fond memories from that day, that being one of your early movie gigs?

I was there for the very first day of production. That was one of the first projects I’d ever gotten a credit on, but I knew it would be special, because the script was just hilarious. You could tell that right on the page. Once the movie came out, though, some people who’d seen it a bunch of times in theaters could recognize me. I’d get this on the street, people yelling, “WHY DON’T YOU GO PISS YOUR PANTS AGAIN?” That was a fun early taste of fame. It did motivate me to work more. I knew I had to get another job as soon as I can, so that I would be the kid who peed his pants for the rest of my life.

It’s general practice to end an interview by talking about the future, but that’s all in the air right now. You said you want to work on this movie with Alison, and I assume it’s difficult to hammer out plans right now. Do you feel like you’re in a holding pattern?

It feels like no one really knows anything at this point. We’re all at the mercy of COVID. There’s so little I can do, but I try not to let it get it me down. Best to focus on things I can control. In addition to this thing I’m writing with Alison, I’m working with a few other friends trying to line up as much as we can. We want to have lots to show, ready to go when the world does open up. We’re finding ways to make the days go by.

What’ve you been watching? Anything new or old that really struck you?

We recently rewatched all of Spike Jonze’s films, and I gotta say, he’s my number-one director I’d like to work with. I’ve admired him for so long. He takes these extremely inventive concepts and grounds them in a reality that makes them seem like the most logical, natural thing. You can relate to these characters in impossible, bizarre scenarios. He makes it feel universal, which is an incredible skill. As a viewer, there’s nothing I appreciate more than novelty. Show me something new, that I’ve never seen before. So many films coming out now are remakes and sequels.

For a second feature, is that the direction you’d like to move in? Something a bit more conceptual, less tethered to Earth than The Rental?

That’s something to think about. I’ll say that this project I’m working on with Alison is a romantic comedy. We love the genre. We feel like people are yearning for a smart, elevated romcom right now. Think about the classics — Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman — they’re all grounded stories, made great by the writing and acting and directing. These movies look great, they’re all shot like dramas! We wondered why nobody’s approaching this genre from the ground up like that.

Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevassse) is a film and television critic living in Brooklyn. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Nylon, Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vox, and plenty of other semi-reputable publications. His favorite film is Boogie Nights.

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