Tyler Treese
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ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Buddy Games: Spring Awakening director and star Josh Duhamel and stars Kevin Dillon and Dan Bakkedahl about the comedy sequel (watch and read more interviews). The trio discussed the filming process and critic reviews. The movie is set to release in select theaters on May 19 and digitally on June 2.
“Faced with their biggest challenge yet, the gang sets out to honor a lost friend only to find themselves in the middle of where it all began — Spring Break — where they learn their old school ways of partying hardly compete with today’s generation,” reads the movie‘s synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Josh — you start the movie, Dax Shepard’s Durfy is dead, and you take some hilarious digs at method acting early on. What are your thoughts on method acting? Some ridiculous stories come out about it, and it seems like people are just covering themselves being dicks.
Josh Duhamel: I’ve tried that. I’ve actually tried going method before — it is a dark place. I’ve had situations where I had to be crazy for the episode of whatever. You’ve got to sit in that space for it. It’s hard to pull yourself back out of it. You can’t bring that, you know, you have
Kevin Dillon: And you can’t bring it home with you.
Josh Duhamel: I thought that they did a really funny job of sort of encapsulating that. But yeah, I haven’t worked with a lot of method actors. I have nothing against it. Whatever it takes to get there, you know?
Dan, a real highlight in both of these movies is your chemistry with Nick Swardson. What about him as a comedic actor makes you play off him so well?
Dan Bakkedahl: In the first movie, I thought I was going to have to kill him. Like, literally. I was at his throat, he was at my throat — constantly. And then in the second film … I don’t know what happened. We got on the same plane together and it was like a love story the whole time. I think it’s that he and I are very similar in a lot of ways, but we have a little bit of a different way of getting to the same place that creates that chemistry. We have so much in common that it’s almost too much. It’s like, if we were married, it wouldn’t last. That’s why we just stay friends. [Laugh].
Kevin, Buddy Games just seems like the most fun movie to film. What really stood out about doing all the different games this time? The sets looked like a complete blast.
Kevin Dillon: Yeah, it is. This is the most fun you could have while making a movie. I’m lucky. I had Entourage — that’s as much fun as you could do in a TV show, and this is as much fun as you could do in a movie. It was a blast. The sets were great. It was tough. I mean, the hours were tough — I’m not going to lie, but I mean, guys get hurt. You get a little banged up, but that’s all part of the fun. I mean, I caught a shiner at one stage. I had a piece taken out of my nose — in both movies, too!
Josh Duhamel: Same part of his nose in both movies!
Kevin Dillon: Dan got jacked up on numerous occasions. Caught Covid. It was crazy, it was fun, [and] I can’t wait for the third one.
Josh, when we previously spoke, you said that the ultimate “fuck you” was getting to make this movie after the first Buddy Games was blasted by critics. Can you speak to the need for this type of comedy? We don’t really see them made that much.
Josh Duhamel: Yeah, I knew as soon as I put pen to paper on the first one that I was going to get skewered, but you know what …
Kevin Dillon: I didn’t know we got blasted. I’m just finding this out.
Josh Duhamel: Well, you think they’re going to like this?
Kevin Dillon: No, they aren’t going to like this.
Josh Duhamel: But you know, to me, again, I don’t care. I just wanted to make a movie that people were going to love and laugh at and think is a little naughty and do things that that they go, “Oh my God, I can’t believe they just went there.” And that was the intention. But also, at the heart of it all, it’s really about friendship. It’s about camaraderie. If you don’t have something grounded to sort of start from, it doesn’t work.
I think that these guys do a great job of keeping the comedy grounded, and a lot of it comes from that. A lot of it comes from real scenarios rather than some sort of over-the-top set piece that nobody’s going to buy. Listen, I do these movies because I want to make people laugh. It’s something that I think is going to be relatable, and at the end of the day, fuck them if they can’t take a joke. [Laugh].
Dan, we get to spend some time outside of the Buddy Games this time around. There’s a nice real element of togetherness with this group. What did you like most about just that exploration of friendship that we see throughout the movie?
Dan Bakkedahl: I’ve got to say, when I read it, and I saw that it was going to be Kevin and I on our own for a long period of time there, I was really excited about that because I thought, “Well, Now we get to dig into these relationships a little more.”
Josh Duhamel: “And I don’t have to be around Nick!”
Dan Bakkedahl: Yeah, well, but then the thing is I loved Nick in the second movie, so what am I going to do? But I think that what was really cool is it’s like … after we wake up after the party and I know what’s going on with Doc, I know what he did last night — we all have that friend that it’s like, “I watched you act like an idiot. I’m the one person in the world who’s allowed to make fun of you for that, and I’m going to do it until you physically assault me.” [Laugh].