Cast and Creators for ‘Tiny Fugitives’ | Conversations at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation

This is an audience of your fellow actors, all SAG after actors. I usually like to start by asking how you got your SAG card, but I don't want to put you on the spot that way. The funny thing is you're all very young, but you're quite accomplished as actors. Do you remember your first acting job or was it school plays or where did you get started? Who wants to start? So I started in musical theater, not professionally, but just for fun, and I realized that I really enjoyed it, so I decided that I wanted to be an actress and I started auditioning just for commercials and then I got a commercial and they basically asked me to be a principal, which was really cool, and then I did theatrical auditions and I got Tiny Fugitives six months after I started theatrical. So this is your first movie? Yeah. Wow, that's great. Yes. Jay, for you? So for me, it's basically the same thing as Issa. I started out in musical theater. I was around the age of eight, so I went from Aurora Theater's children's play to the main play, which was Mary Poppins, and then I wanted to switch over to movie acting because when I was actually five years old, I was like, why does no one on TV look like me? And I wanted to make a change. So I went on to movies and then actually my first acting gig was a principal role for Superman. Oh! Yeah, and then I got Tiny Fugitives, well, like a couple of years later. So this is actually like my first film I majored in. Wait, what musicals were y'all doing? So for- You were in Mary Poppins. Yes. Yeah, okay. I also was in Mary Poppins. Okay, who all here has been in Mary Poppins? Mrs. Banks. Nice. I did one number for like a dance showcase. Which one? I don't even remember. I just remember there being a balloon. Wonderful. Step in time? Alyssa, what about for you? Yeah, I was really young. Like I think my mom put me into it. You're still really young. Just like- No, like when I was like a baby. She said that she was doing like modeling things with me. And then I remember doing a Fisher Price commercial. And then from there, I think it was like more commercials. And then I remember I booked my first TV show, The Umbrella Academy, when I was like seven. That was like my first big role. And then there was a couple more movies. And then my most big one, which I had a lot of fun on, was Tiny Fugitives. Yeah. Benjamin, for you? Yeah. You've already been a title character in a big movie. This is all old hat to you, right? I grew up in Jersey. And I lived close enough to the city where I could see Broadway shows. And I got into theater from that. And a couple years later, I got Music Man on Broadway and did some theater for a bit. And then my first role was The Life of Chuck that came out last year. And I loved film and then came to Tiny Fugitives and had a great time and a blast filming it with these guys. In which he played Chuck. I did play Chuck. So the movie is about you. One of the three Chucks. Wait, did you two do musicals? Oh, yeah. I did. Oh, I almost said Mary Poppins. I did. I did Annie. I did. Oh, I did. I was. I was like Mr. Bundles or something. I did Annie. Oh, there you go. I did. Oh, I was Tigger and Winnie the Pooh and the Aristocrats or the Aristocats. That's what it was. What a flex. She's like, I was Annie. Yeah. Sorry. If I was, I would tell everyone if I was Annie. And for you, you're sort of new to this, which is strange because you've worked a lot in the last couple of years. Yeah. I started out when I was, since I can remember doing tons of theater at home in Atlanta. I did one professional job for theater at a local theater, the Lyric, in The Wizard of Oz, in which I played a munchkin. That was really fun. I kept performing at my like theater, like kids theater club. And I always wanted to do film acting, but I had no idea how to do it. And then I, we did a production of The Drowsy Chaperone and I played the man in chair and we did that. And there was a scout in the audience that found me, got my mom's number called, and then that led into introducing to who is now my manager. Wow. Manager. Yeah. That's the role. The first time I was ever on a set was I played an extra, it was like one day for a Megalopolis Oh, wow. Which was really cool. Tell us about that. It was really cool. I think I kind of got an example of what a lot of filming would be like, because it was a lot of hurry up and wait. That's what they say. I sat there for about four hours until they called me to set. Did like 10 minutes of the scene and went home. But Crafty was good there. And then my first like major actual role was soon after Matlock, which is awesome working with the amazing Kathy Bates. That's great. That got me some really good experience. And now I'm here. Wow. Doing this. I want to hear what these two guys have to say. I know because you two are theater kids, right? You also were actors. Mine was very short-lived. I'm a little more venerated in the theater world. I like all of these lovely actors here. I also started as a kid doing a lot of musical theater, doing a lot of plays in school. Some of my first shows, Seussical the Musical was probably the first musical I was in. I did that one. Who were you in? I was one of the who's. I was Papa Who. I was the mayor of Whoville. That's a huge who role. That's someone who's destined for stardom. Thank you. Wizard of Oz, also an early one. All of that. Never marry Poppins. Continued doing a lot of musical theater into high school, into college. Then I shifted over after college to start working more in film and TV. I worked at Saturday Night Live for a few years. I was the writer's assistant over there, though I acted in a few sketches there as well, which was super fun. Really? Which ones? What's your most famous? The most famous one was called Inventing Chloe. It was, if you remember, the Anna Delvey. I saw that. Yes. I did a parody of that, an Inventing Anna parody. I was playing a version of myself, but the guy who kept getting framed for all of her crimes in the sketch. That was super fun. Other than that, still acting. In the movie is Peter. If people see... Everyone remembers Peter. Of course, yeah. A lot of similar starts to all of these people. It's great to see that people are still doing the same musicals as 20 years ago and all that. What about for you? I bailed fast. Yeah, yeah. I did one play, and then when I was young, I was in a Shakespeare company. I had the smallest role. I played Romeo's dad. I was 14, and Romeo was a six foot four blonde guy, and I played his dad. I had three lines, but I had to sit there all the time. I would just watch all the actors and how they would work. I knew I was bad, but I also felt like I had instincts of, oh, you should try this or that. I just was always a little outside of it, and then the director of that company allowed me to shadow her and learn how to work with the actors and rehearse with them and that kind of stuff. That's so cool. Yeah, you found your calling early, I guess. I always liked just messing around with friends with the video camera and that sort of thing. Even now. Yeah, totally. That's what this whole thing is. We were all a friend group first, and then we made the movie. I am curious because there's, I think, an autobiographical element to all movies, or all scripts, but I understand you both really did attend Jewish summer camp. Not together necessarily. How did you decide to turn these experiences into Tiny Fugitives? I think for me, I was writing a movie for the first time and was just trying to figure out what I felt like I had a feel for the comedic attitudes and the emotional life and what world I wanted to write in that I felt like I knew enough about to do something new. For me, that was growing up in summer camp. It just felt like a safe place that I felt like I had a lot to say. I could write as many pages as we need on this and keep pitching and different ideas. When you're doing something new, it's nice to feel like you have that support of writing from a place you know. I was talking about this earlier, but you two didn't know each other. This was like an arranged marriage. Someone put you two together? Sort of. I mean, not really arranged in the sense that we were assigned to each other, but I had a meeting with a film producer. I told him I was looking to make a movie about summer camp, and a couple of weeks later, he sent me ... I told him I was looking for a co-writer, and then he sent me this script that Jacob wrote that was hilarious. It was an animated pilot about an alien sent to Earth to report on what humanity is like. This little alien gets dropped at Jewish summer camp and doesn't know that's where he is, and is just reporting on what the world is like through this very idiosyncratic lens. I was like, this is so funny and voicey. Jacob does these online videos as a performer, and he has a really good feel for that kind of kid voice and sense of humor. We got linked up to talk, and basically talked once, and had a lot of overlap in our sensibility, and kind of on a whim, we're like, yeah, let's just write a movie together, not knowing we'd spend 15 hours a day for the next three years hanging out. Yeah. Wow. Does that feel accurate? That's incredibly accurate. Michael, I mean, I was so grateful to be called up at all, and after we had that first call, Michael sort of afterward laid out this plan where he was like, and we had met maybe 30 minutes earlier, and he was like, yeah, if you want, I want to try to write this movie, and I think we can get it produced, and this is who I think we could maybe do it with, but I just want to fit. Whatever it is, he basically in the 30 minutes after the call laid out what essentially became all of Tiny Fugitives. He had such a clear vision in such a crazy way that if I probably heard it now, I'd be like, okay, crazy guy, and hang up the phone, but at the time, I completely believed in everything, and I was so right, too, because he just- I didn't mention how long it would take, but the steps did all happen. It just takes, there was a strike in the middle. Totally, yeah. Ben grew, from the time we first met Ben, we had done two rounds of casting on the project, and one before the strike, and we saw Ben and a bunch of other kids. Almost everyone aged out, and I was looking back at Ben's first audition videos, he looks like a baby compared to where he was in the movie. We had been a fan of Ben's for a long time, from the very first audition. Jacob saw me in Oliver. I saw Ben when he was in Oliver, yeah. Before any of this, when he was, yeah, a wee Oliver. Now you'd play more of a Fagin, I think. Well, he's playing you to some extent, isn't he? There is, I mean, yeah, that's the Jacob-ness to all of it. We definitely, I think, put a lot of, who we were at camp into this, people we went to camp with, everyone's sort of an amalgamation of someone. It's kind of like Michael said, it comes from such a world that we could speak endlessly about that there's no external research you need to do. It all is just such a deep well of experience, and I think that camp, in particular, when you're a kid and you're that age, there's nowhere else that you kind of get that much ownership over your own life and over the things you do, and I think that that is really what made the script come alive and made the characters and all their active choices so alive. Did you ever feel pressure that you were playing him? Would he stand there and be like, that's not how I do it? The both of them were so collaborative about everything. I always were, and I think everyone would agree with me with this, they were so, before every shot, we'd go over it, and then there was a lot of improv that we did. I mean, we would do a take, and we'd keep rolling, and then they would just throw more stuff at us, and they were, I think Jacob and Michael were the best sort of people. I trusted them so much, and I think all of us just had a great time working with them and getting to do their crazy ideas on screen. I would just add, you know, a lot of the process, like we have these ideas of characters we want to write, but so much of the movie comes to life when you cast the people, and I think like in the casting process, more than looking at people reading the scenes, like we tried to talk and get to know the performers, and then a lot of the process on set isn't like Ben saying, can you be more like Jacob? It's kind of trying to figure out like, how do we meet these guys where they're at and put it in their voice and find what they, what's interesting about them as people and funny about them as people, and kind of like marry it to the characters. So it was a lot more of us trying to fit to them in a way than them trying to like fit into the box of the script. I mean so much of this movie hinges on the chemistry, and the two of you are so great together, like if that didn't work, the movie doesn't work. This may sound like a strange question, but was there like a chemistry read? Did you put them together? I was just about to say, when we flew out for the chemistry reads, we went to like a park. Yeah. We did with Isa. We played like camp games. We did, yeah, exactly. Like I think the, this was kind of true for the whole process, including casting, but like I tried to feather in the work amidst a lot of just like environments where they could be themselves. So like our chemistry read days, we had them come out, I had them paint each other's faces and do a lip sync battle and do an egg toss, and then we'd sit down and we'd read scenes for 40 minutes, and then we'd have lunch and hang out and talk about the movie. And then we do, you know, like I tried to sprinkle in the work, but really have it be just like, let's see what happens when they're in charge. Like the start of the audition was me going and saying, okay, here's a song or here's three songs. You guys pick a song, you guys make a dance, I'm going to come back in 45 minutes and show it to me. Wow. And I just, you know, so like it was a lot of just trying to let them figure it out amongst themselves. And then, you know, we observe that and learn from what's working and what dynamics are coming out and shape it from there. I mean, Aaron, did the chemistry between the two of you develop pretty quickly? It seems very natural. Yeah. I mean, with the chemistry reads when you do this kind of stuff, it really helps to build a bond more quickly. And it also, I think it made the movie better and more genuine because when you, as Michael said, when you let kids have the freedom and let them like explore their own like personality in this sense with their characters, that kind of leads to us developing not just our character, but our ability to really make it our own. And that also contributes to our improv and some of the best moments in the movie. So I think, yeah, the chemistry was really important. I think we developed that very early on because of how Michael and Jacob set up this whole thing. And I also love the chemistry between Jay and Alyssa. It's just, it's just. That was electric from the start. Yeah. We just had to tone it back. And we're like, not till act two, you guys, you're giving it away. Did you, do you remember the audition process? Do you, do you remember? Like it was so long ago. Yeah. So I remember auditioning in May, but it wasn't for Sophie. Yeah. So it was originally, it was a different name. It wasn't Tali. It was something else. Something else. A friend who said, please stop using my name in your movie. Yeah. We're still on very good terms and there's a lot of love between us because you changed the name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then, yeah, that was back in May. And then I remember doing one in June and then I think I did another one in July and then that was, that was the main one and I had a call back and then I remember the call back. I was, I was so nervous. I wanted to get the role so bad. And then, so we were on the call back and then Michael said, like, he was like, we're going to do improvisation. And that was like my first time doing like actual improvisation. So I was just like saying so many random things, like, I don't even remember what I was saying. I think I was just like saying like random stuff that was just coming to my head. But yeah, that, I just remember that. And then I remembered it was the chemistry read and then meeting everybody was so fun. And then me and Issa got like really close. She's like my little sister, like every day on set. They had such a big relationship. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Really good. Yeah. We like had 10 sleepovers. Like it was just like multiple in a row. We would like go to the mall. We went to Canada's Wonderland back in Toronto and then we'd like made slime together. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. We spent like every single day together. Did you meet during the audition process? No. We met actually on my birthday. Oh yeah. It was on her birthday. Yeah. And then it was, it was like kind of awkward. We went to an arcade. Yeah. Oh yeah. And then after we went to an arcade. Yeah. And then Jay was actually, you guys didn't get to do a chemistry read because we cast Jay the night before we started. Oh yeah. The night before. Wow. Last one on set. We knew that the part was. He sits. Yes. Because he's the outsider. Yes. He was, he was the last in, you know, we had been searching for a long time. We had a couple people we were excited about, but no one we felt like over the moon about. And it was, it was the start of production. We were in prep. It was like two weeks before the movie. We got on a meeting the night before and we picked someone that we were going to call in the morning to cast. And then like three hours later, one of the casting directors sent us an email with Jay's tape and was like, this just came in. You have to watch it. We flipped for it. And we were like, can he zoom tomorrow morning at 7am? And then we met, we did it again. And then you were on a plane like the next day. The next day. Yeah. Jay, how did you, I mean, did you have time to even read the script, let alone prepare to make a character? I wasn't able to read the whole script, but I remember actually getting this off an open casting call of all things. Cause like, as Michael said, it was literally last second entirely. So basically after getting the open casting call, we did the entire audition. We weren't expecting to hear back, but here I am. We also rewrote the part, like Jay's audition before he even read the scenes, he did like a little intro thing where he told us about himself and what he was into at school. And like, before he said a word of the script, we knew he was the guy. And then it was just about like writing for his sense of humor and making it more personal to him. I mean, did you have time to get to know him though? Cause you were shooting almost right away. Yeah, we, I feel like we bonded a lot. Jay's a very open guy and it was- He loves people. He loves people. People love him. Yeah. I was going to say, I remember the first time that I met Jay was, I believe, at Isa's birthday or when we were, when we were at this arcade and there was bowling. I think I was doing the bowling, nobody else was. And then Jay comes up with- That's not true. Well, we'll get into who was bowling or not in another conversation. Either way, I was bowling. And then I was, I was alone and Jay came down and sat next to me, introduced himself. We had a few pleasantries. Then after about 30 seconds, he asked me, so where's the place where you feel most at home? Jay goes deep. Jay is a very soulful guy. I go deep. Very soulful. Jay's not here for small talk. I also would just like to say something on the last day of shooting, Jay gave me like a 20 page letter and said, every day of the movie, I kept a journal of the things I learned through this process. And he gave it to me and it was so full of insight and creativity. And it was just like such a testament to his mind and the way he engaged with the process. It was like one of the things I treasured the most. It was awesome. That's so cool. He's a good man. Very. And I should point out that there are adults in this movie. I don't know. I don't know where they are today. Yeah. The funny thing is, is I was going to ask if any of you had seen Johnny Knoxville's work because it's kind of mature, but you just did this movie. I mean, I think you can see anything. Oh yeah. I, I love- Aaron loves him. Really? Can I say the name of it? What? Is it, do I- You can say Jackass. Yeah. I love Jackass. It was great. Yeah. I mean, he's a, he's a very experienced comedy actor and he has such great comedic presence and just stage presence, screen presence, whatever. Yeah. He taught, I think he taught us a lot. I think he taught me a lot. I don't know about you guys, but he taught, he taught us a lot. I think he's, he's a very great guy to learn from. I mean, was it ever, being a fan, were you ever intimidated? I mean, you work with Kathy Bates on a daily basis, so you're probably not easily intimidated. Kathy is less serious than Johnny. I, Kathy messes around more on set than Johnny does. And I mean that. Yeah. Um, Johnny was great though. He told me a lot of stories about Jackass and he told me a lot of stuff. It was great though. Yeah. You also would like buy like off market, crazy hot sauces and bring them to set and be like, bring it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I remember that. I remember that. It was like a farmer's market thing with my sister and I saw this hot sauce shop and I bought like, I was like, what's the spiciest thing you got? And they gave it to me. I paid for it and I brought it to set. Uh, he, I don't think he tried it cause I don't know. I think you guys just, but, um, a lot of the crew members tried it, the ADs tried it. Um, they were all dying. It was hilarious. Um, I remember, I remember the stunt coordinator, really big, big tough guy trying it. It was really funny. It was really funny. When you were talking about how you would have like lip sync battles, I was actually curious who, who won because a lot of you are good at musical theater. I feel it was more collaborative than battle. Yeah. I'm going to say Annie. Annie. Annie was a killer at it. Yeah. She played Annie. I mean, come on. It was like, we filmed on like, I think it was your phone and we filmed a little like music video, almost lip syncing to like a Britney Spears song. And Aaron was the lip syncer. I don't remember this. What? Oh yeah, I remember that. We had, um. You wore like a hula skirt. Yeah, there were props. I wore a hula skirt with my sunglasses in it. What? Yeah. It was awesome. I, I was, it was, I, I think I, I really didn't want to do it, but I was like, I want this job so bad. I would just give them like. I told myself, just commit, just commit to the bit. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway, so I guess it worked. He did commit. He wore like, uh, like a flower crown. I just had like a giant box of crap and was like, uh, you have 45 minutes in this box of crap. Good luck. Yes. They did great. Is this, is this for the movie or an exercise? No. This was in the, in the casting process. It was just like rehearsal basically. I honestly have a theory that you just did that so you could like run out and get like food or something. I just needed a break. And you just like left us as like an excuse and you was like, oh yeah, do this. It's a team building exercise and then you run out and get like chicken or something. Wow. That's amazing. Michael's famous chicken breaks. I mean, speaking of how he prepared, uh, when we were at the table read, which I actually wasn't booked for that. Um, what? Yeah. Everybody else was. So I was just there and I was like, Hey, I might not see you, but nice to meet you. Here you are. And I was like, I saw Seth Rogen and I was like, I have to go say hi. I was like, and you were so scared. You're like, I'm not saying hi. I was like, you have to go say hi to me. Yes. Yes. I went up to him. I went up to him. He's so well after I did. And I remember I went up to him and I was like, I was like, I love your work and I'm having so much fun and I don't even know what else I said, but he was like, I hope you haven't seen all of it. And I was like, oh, I will. I'll watch the rest of it. And I did. You're going to be in this movie. He should like prepare you for, well, he didn't know that it was like the last day of filming and one of you guys was like, Hey, I finally watched super bad. I was like, now you watched it would have been really helpful. Like a month ago, Seth was amazing. I think that's the greatest moment ever in my career. We were at the table read, um, in, we were reading, I say a joke as part of the script, nobody in the room laughs. And then from the back I hear, and then, you know, what's, you know, it's weird. Right after he laughed, everyone else started to laugh. I don't know if they were like nervous cause he was there and he was like, ah, yeah. I was actually going to ask cause everyone has a Seth Rogen laugh. Everyone has an imitation of that laugh and you did it. He is great. Unmistakable. Um, so he was an EP on the film. He's a producer. He's a producer on the film. Yeah. Wow. Did you know that going into the table read? I did. Okay. Well, yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. And it was very scary. I didn't know he was going to be there though. They were part of the film from the very beginning. They helped Jacob and I develop the script, uh, from the very start, uh, after the table read. Did you tell Issa she had the job? Yeah. Okay. I mean, we knew she had the job already. She just didn't know she had the job. A week later and my parents saw on my IMDb tiny fugitives, but they didn't tell me because I still wasn't booked. So they were like, yeah, but I didn't know that because they didn't tell me. So then I was just like, I didn't know what was going on. I was like, well, I guess we'll see what happens. Jay, you probably weren't at that table read either, were you? Oh yeah. Jay wasn't born yet. Right. Yeah. Definitely not. I'm still like a tiny little guy. So yeah. Uh, yeah, I was definitely not at that table read because I was just flown in last second, man. Like I'm looking back on it. I had one day to just pack my bags and get ready to go for like a two month trip. So in perspective, yeah, go little me. But you know what? At the table read Jay's part was played by a 50 year old man who actually plays the therapist in. His name is Rob Yang. Yeah. Alyssa. I remember filming that scene. That was so funny. And honestly, to this guy's credit, Rob, he's a fantastic, he's an incredible actor and he's really funny in the scene with Aaron as a therapist, but he was so funny in the role of Leon. I think it gave the people who were financing the movie confidence that if we could find the right voice for it, it would be a really special part of the movie. So we owe an assist to Rob and, uh, and yeah, Alyssa's part was also played by like our friend Jacqueline Novak. She read it and we just wanted people that would be able to get the humor of it. And it's hard to throw a young person into that part. These guys read, but they had been doing a lot of auditions and chemistry reads and really knew the material going into it. So, but Alyssa was cast, you were cast sooner, obviously, were you wondering who your scene partner was going to be? Okay. So I, so yeah, they gave me this scene. It was a different, yeah, it's in the movie anyway. So I remember going into it thinking, this guy's going to be so cute. He's going to be like tall and like really blonde. Like, I don't know why I was thinking that, but I was like, he's going to be taller than me and we're going to have so much chemistry and like, you know, like that crush, that crush. Nah. So I went and then I saw Jay and I was like, you know what? It's fine. Like he's just, what do you mean? It's fine. And it exceeded your expectations. Yeah. That's me. That's me y'all. Checks out, four, six, like sounds like an eight year old, looks like an eight year old, talks like a 70 year old, checks out, that's me. Yeah. I knew Jay was, everything about Jay was funny. When they send you his sizes, they're like, his shoe size is size two. I was like, that's amazing. Might have been negative two, you never know. You did such an amazing job. I think. He's so good. He showed up the first day. I remember we did the scene in the movie where we're like planning, like before the plungers and he comes in and he goes, well, well, well, and I was like, as soon as he did, I just laughed. I think your scenes are some of my favorite in the movie. I had a lot of fun plunging you in the face. Oh yeah, must've been great. That was a very enjoyable moment. Erin hated being plunged in the face. I remember you hated it. It was gross. It was like this weird gel. I think something got up my nose. It was really bad. That was a nightmare. No. I know it's acting, but still. I owe an apology to you. I was probably too like abrasive when I first met you. I like saw him. I was like, you play Leon, right? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, hi. Wait, that's abrasive? Yeah. No, that's sweet. I think it's warm. Very friendly. I remember you told me that when you first met me, you were scared of me. I remember you told me, well, at the first like chemistry read or the auditions, we were all sitting in like the backyard of this house and we're all just sitting there. I remember telling you after that, you told me that like when you saw me, you were like, that guy's scary. Scary? I think you were so serious and I was like really scared. I was nervous. I feel like I'm the least intimidating person in this entire cast. I think Jay is more intimidating. Like genuinely. Seriously. Really? Really? Yes. And I feel bad for you because you came in late and you're playing the character who is the outsider and they don't like you at first and you have to walk into that with that energy where they're all like, ah, this guy. To be fair, since I had that sort of personality, some people were like that in school, but like, you know, I just generally brushed it off. I mean, still, it was like a very fun experience. I love all of my cast mates. I love all of you guys. And I will say too, that Johnny really liked to hang out with us too. I remember like for the days that he was on set too, he came out and hung out with us and it was just really sweet. I bet he learned a lot from you all. Seriously, I talk to actors all the time who say they always learn from younger co-stars and you know, just the love and enthusiasm for the craft is so great to see. And the awesome news is this movie opens in theaters this weekend. So please spread the word. It's such a special film. Thank you all so much for coming out. Thank you all for being here. Thank you guys. Thank you.