Summary

• Nuked explores relationships in the face of looming disaster, blending humor and heart with a star-studded cast and character-driven story.
• Director Deena Kashper praises the cast for finding the balance between high-stakes intensity and interpersonal comedy in the film.
• The ensemble cast of Nuked shared insights on their characters, their experiences on set, and the importance of character-driven storytelling in film.

Nuked, which recently premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, follows a group of college friends reunited for the birthday party of married couple Jack and Gill who decide to host a cannabis-infused dinner party at a lavish estate. However, things take a shocking turn when they are alerted to an impending nuclear missile attack. Extremely high and terrified they seek shelter. But tensions rise as the marijuana lowers inhibitions and secrets are revealed that could change the course of each of their relationships forever.

Pitch Perfect's Anna Camp, Justin Bartha, Lucy Punch, George Young, Star Trek: Lower Decks' Tawny Newsome, Ignacio Serricchio, Maulik Pancholy, Stephen Guarino, and Natasha Leggero.

Screen Rant interviewed Nuked director Deena Kashper along with Camp, Newsome, Punch, and Leggero about their new comedy. Kashper discussed her love of character-driven stories and praised the cast while Camp contemplated whether her character would have been honest if not for the life-threatening situation. Newsome shared the fun of being in a romance movie in the midst of the comedy and drama while Leggero explained her approach to the role of Chef Sasha. Newsome also talked Star Trek: Lower Decks and Starfleet Academy.

Nuked Has "Of The Most Fantastic Casts, And They All Did The Work"

Kashper explained how she found the balance between the high intensity of the life and death stakes with the comedy of the interpersonal relationships in Nuked. She praised the cast's ability to capture the characters and follow the objective of each scene which naturally found the right tone for each moment.

Deena Kashper: I think we all talked about this, that we rode a very fine line the whole time of tone. The most important thing, I think, throughout was just staying grounded. Playing everything for the honesty of what's at stake in the scene, but not worrying about what's funny and what's scary or what's dramatic. You just focus on your objectives in the scene and what your character wants, and then the tone will naturally kind of show itself.

So I'm lucky to have these amazing women that you see on the screen here. I was just really fortunate to get one of the most fantastic casts, and they all did the work, and I just kind of watched. I was like, Good job guys. Good job. You did it. Nailed it. So you got to get really gifted actors, and then it happens.

Anna, how does this wake-up call really help your character reconnect with her husband after her newfound career has caused a little bit of a rift?

Anna Camp: I've been thinking about this movie a lot, and relationships and honesty and how you really shouldn't wait for a catastrophic event to be honest with the person that you're supposed to be the most honest with. It definitely serves as this catalyst for truth. On the final night where you think you're going to die, are you going to be fully honest? I just saw the cut the other day, and I actually don't know if my character would've said something because the way in the storyline, he finds the birth control and he decides to say something.

So honestly, I don't know if Jill would've even brought it up. It's really Jack, that's the one that divulges the information that he is found out. But yeah, I mean, it's just such a great question and a great way to look at life. Be honest now that way you'll be able to really fully grow with your partner, because if you're not, I don't think having a truthful relationship is possible.

Tawny Newsome On Being In "Our Own Little Pocket Movie Inside The Movie" With Ignacio Serricchio

In almost all of the characters face relationship struggles that rear their head when the couple thinks they are going to die. However, Newsome and Serricchio's characters have a much more romantic subplot as the ones who got away from each other. This life-or-death moment opens their eyes to what matters most.

Tawny Newsome: It does kind of feel like Ignacio and I got to be in our own little pocket movie inside the movie, which is lovely because I think what I've done most in my career are ensemble comedy things. It's my absolute favorite genre of anything to do. I just love different elements all playing their unique little roles, and when our powers combine, create this sparkly weird thing. So to get to have a little carve out within one of my favorite genres was just extra delicious and I think it all hung together well.

I think we all look like really good friends, which I love, all of our little in jokes and stuff. A lot of that stuff was just born out of spending so much time together in that wild -ss house made of bricks that I assume was an original location for Beauty and the Beast at some point. And because we spent so much time in this weird circumstance, we did become a little gang. I think you really feel that.

Natasha, I love how seriously, Chef Sasha takes everything with how she approaches this culinary niche that she has mastered. Can you talk to me about your approach to the character and making her stand out in every scene she's in?

Natasha Leggero: Yeah. I feel like the way Deena wrote her was just very fun, but she's also an artist, and I think she does take her food incredibly seriously. I wonder how much of a sense of humor she has about it. I think she's just very serious. I have never met a happy go lucky chef. They're all brooding, dark, serious, on the lower level of the Dante's... They're just so serious. I mean, she's not that heavy, but she definitely is just incredibly serious about what she does.

And Deena was so fun to work with, very collaborative. I think she really wanted all of us, but my particular experience was just to make it my own, how I saw the character. She worked with me and let me improvise a little bit. That was my approach to work with someone really cool and open. You're so humble, Deena! She's like, all I did was just let them do their thing.

Deena Kashper: It's all in the casting. You got to cast amazing people and then you just sit back and take credit. You're like, I was really talented.

Natasha Leggero: I have never seen a man say that, Deena, can you imagine a male director being like, All I did was sit back and let them do their thing?

Deena Kashper: No, I haven't.

I loved how no one could do anything right for Chef Sasha that just got me every single time. It was great.

Tawny Newsome: I felt like she changed the rules a lot.

Natasha Leggero: She's also high. I mean, don't forget, she's got to taste the food.

Director Deena Kashper Has "Always Been Drawn To Character-Driven Film"

Nukes features an incredible ensemble cast with each cast member raising the bar with comedic timing and moments of dramatic tension. Newsome, Leggero, and Camp praised specific co-stars for their work as scene partners. Punch shared how the entire cast quickly felt like old friends and how that shines through authentically in the movie.

Tawny Newsome: Ignacio learned that song and I was not very laid back. I was kind of chef like with the song that I wrote because I really wanted the melody to do some specific things that to me were indicative of a very 20-year-old kind of punk rock angst sound. Sometimes when you write a song without knowing someone's voice, when they put it in their voice, there's things that feel more comfortable to them.

And there were a couple of things he wanted to do melodically just because it sat better. And I was like, You cannot, cannot change that note. I'm so sorry. Nice to meet you. I'm normally not this much of a nightmare, but it has to be this interval. I'm so sorry. He really rose to the occasion. We practiced all the time. He was so sweet. He'd come to me and he'd check, I made him recordings. He would always be listening to it. He was so dedicated. So I really thank him for that.

Natasha Leggero: I shared a dressing room with Tawny, and they were constantly working on the song. She was giving him some notes. He was improving, slightly. I was like, Wow, she really knows this. I didn't even realize at the time that you had written it.

Tawny Newsome: Oh, so you thought I was just being a nightmare about it because I was just being an annoying scene partner.

Natasha Leggero: I liked how hard he was working on it. You guys were both working on it constantly the whole time I was there. So that was very impressive.

Anna Camp: I really loved working with Stephen Guarino, his positive vibes, his positivity, his improvisation skills. He was always right there, so quick, so witty. I really felt like he was my best friend from college that I couldn't wait to see and party with and reminisce with. There's the section of the dance party when we're all outside, and I just had so much fun and I felt so free.

It's so great to work with actors when you just don't care what the hell you look like and you can just mess up and be stupid and silly and magic. Hopefully the camera will catch some magic if there is any. But I really loved working with him. It was great. I love working with everybody, but Stephen really made me laugh. He made me laugh a lot.

Lucy Punch: No, not one person in particular. It was really exciting to work with everyone, and I really felt like I loved how loose and free it felt. I thought that everyone brought extra that was already there in a fantastic script. It just added jokes and found new stuff and funniness and especially all the stuff which is really hard to create in a film, which is a feeling that we've all known each other for a long time and that we all really love each other.

We did all really love each other by the end of the movie, but you are doing that on the first day and trying to find chemistry with people. Even if it's, in my case with my characters negative chemistry, I didn't get on with anyone in the movie. I'm not supposed to, but just sort of creating a history really fast. And yeah, I felt that with everyone.

Deena, with this being your future directorial debut, is there something you learned from this that you want to take into your next project? And on the flip side, is there something that you learned that would maybe change your approach in the future?

Deena Kashper: Wow. I mean, I learned so much, but I think the biggest thing was it just reiterated how important it is to cast actors that you can trust with your work. The way I like to work these amazing actresses I've alluded to is I really like to develop the characters with the actors and then empower them to own that character and run with it. For me, I think I just learned that it's all about finding the right actor or actress for that part and then just entrusting in them to fly. I will forever work that way.

These amazing actors all just helped me reiterate that belief. In of what I wouldn't do again. That also is a long list, really long list. I think it's all a learning process in filmmaking. I think the biggest thing is that it takes a village to make an independent film. I'm really grateful for everybody who stepped up. I will be more cognizant of that early on in the process just to be patient knowing that it's a very long road ahead because I'm not a patient person by nature working on it. But I think just knowing that I can settle into that, that it'll happen, just rest in it. But I'm just really grateful to be here.

And I want to say again, these actresses are just the most fantastic in this film and I hope everybody can come and see how they just brought it jelled. This was a super fast 18 day shoot. That's probably another thing I learned a lesson about, but it was a very fast 18 day shoot and they were willing and able to work nonstop and bring it every single day and it translates on screen.

I can't imagine shooting a movie in 18 days. That's crazy impressive.

Deena Kashper: Yeah, and we had a couple of snowstorms in Bentonville too. That was another thing I learned. Check the weather, really check it. Don't assume just because you're in the south, which I should have known because I lived in the South, that you'll be all sunshine. Not they have snow. They have snow in the South.

I love how intimate and character-driven this movie is, especially in kind of the world of everything being IP nowadays. Can you talk to me about the importance of this kind of indie movie with character driven story in comparison to the superhero stuff that has really taken over the box office?

Deena Kashper: I mean I think there's room for all of us. I should preface with that. I grew up loving film, so I love all film. I have a lot of different favorites, but I have always been drawn to character-driven film. I think indie filmmaking thrives when characters are strong and three-dimensional and just jump off the screen. So I think it's really important that we have films like this where people see themselves represented on film.

I think that was the most rewarding thing was test screening this for audiences and seeing that every person in the audience had a different character that was either their favorite or that resonated with them. That's really the hope in filmmaking is that people see themselves portrayed on screen that they feel seen and heard. And so I think that's probably the most important thing is that these characters seem real. And somebody goes there and is like, Oh my God, that happened to me. That's my life. That's me. So that they feel like that they're being seen.

Anna Camp: That's beautiful. You're great director, Deena. You're so humble. But you really were our fearless leader and you trusted us. I'm super thankful that you did.

Tawny Newsome: You should direct some Marvel, I think,

Deena Kashper: Me and Patty Jenkins. That's it. Taking it over.

Tawny Explains How Lower Decks Allows He To Lean Into The Silliness Of Star Trek On Starfleet Academy

Newsome explained how playing Mariner on Lower Decks, which leans into the absurdity and comedy of Star Trek, influenced her as a writer on Starfleet Academy. She credits Lower Decks for making it clear that some of the best Star Trek can come from the more ridiculous storylines.

Tawny Newsome: Oh, thank you. Sorry to everyone else whose eyes are just like, you hear sci-fi sh-t and everyone's eyes just gazed over. Playing Mariner has been the gift of my career. There's no greater role than her ever, ever. She's everything I want to be and more. So writing for Academy, it's been interesting. Playing Mariner has given me, I was a lifelong Star Trek fan, but Lower Deck was Star Trek's first foray into hard comedy. That's such an honor to be the number one on the first time my beloved franchise is attempting comedy and the fact that it worked and they let us do it for five seasons and let us crossover into live action.

It was just such a proof of our showrunner, Mike McMahon's vision and tone. It's also just such proof that Star Trek is the weirdest franchise on Earth and can truly handle the strangest tonal shifts. So that's what I really bring to Academy is I'm the one in the writer's room banging the f-cking gong, being like, Nope, Star Trek is strange. It does not matter that our last episode was all about the Brutalities of War. The next episode definitely can be a madcap farce. We have 60 plus years of the franchise doing that, so deftly and crazily. That's what our fans love and crave. I can point to examples of it.

So whenever anyone in the room is like, I think this is a little too out there or it's a little too goofy, I just pull out my Rolodex of either Lower Deck episodes that did it weirder or Ferengi episodes from Deep Space Nine that did it wilder. And usually then people go, Okay. They kind of can't argue with the receipts of it.

Anna Camp Debunks Rumors Of Pitch Perfect 4

Although Rebel Wilson teased a new Pitch Perfect in the works, Camp was quick to deny these rumors. Although she did share what she would like to see with Aubrey if there were to be a fourth movie and joked with her Nuked co-star Newsome about writing it.

Anna Camp: I don't think [Pitch Perfect 4] is in development unfortunately, but if we did get a 4, I mean at the end of three, I was a doula. I was wanting to become a doula. I don't know if anybody ed that. So I would like to see what Aubrey, if she's really delivering children into the world and singing acapella to them as they come out of their mother's bodies, you can print that. And I hope that the writers see it and that we make it. And that is all I have to say on that.

Tawny Newsome: What if you could be reincarnated as a baby?

Anna Camp: Listen, can you help write it? Can we get you? Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.

About Nuked

A group of friends gets together for a cannabis-infused, technology-free, dinner party only to learn a bomb is headed right for them.

Check back soon for our other Nuked interview with Justin Bartha, Maulik Pancholy, George Young, and Ignacio Serricchio.

Nuked premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on June 13 and is currently seeking distribution.