On the TV show you obviously tried to do eight pages a day and a limited amount of takes. On the movie you have a lot more time. Are you guys doing the same amount of takes? Are you doing a lot more?
Kevin Connolly: I think we do some more complicated, bigger shots. And the page count is lower, but we’re trying so hard to make the movie seem bigger.
Kevin said 3 ½ pages a day. That still sounds like a lot for a movie.
Kevin Connolly: Kevin doesn’t know anything.
That’s a lot for a movie.
Kevin Connolly: No, no. It’s not a lot for a movie at all. It depends what kind of movie. I mean it’s probably not a lot for Wolf of Wall Street, but for a normal studio movie, 3 ½ to 4 is usually the sweet spot.
I’m curious about the script. When you got it, was it a 90-pager? Was it 120? Was it a long one?
Kevin Connolly: It was a little bit of a long one. Size, I think like 125 pages.
What have you taken away most from Doug as a director?
Kevin Connolly: Look. I’ve learned a lot from Doug. Doug is all about the words. He’s performance driven, and that’s the most important thing to him, which I’ve learned. It’s a good thing to learn.
Your relationship with Ari in the show, he is always giving you a hard time and is real mean to you. In real life, does he kinda kid around with you, give you a hard time?
Kevin Connolly: No, no. Jeremy and I know each other..
I’m sure you’re fine, but he doesn’t give you a hard time…
Kevin Connolly: No, no, no. he’s far more kind in real life than on the show.
He’s also kept in touch with you guys?
Kevin Connolly: Of course. All the time.
Who is the one who tries to get everyone to break and who does break the most?
Kevin Connolly: What do you mean? Break how?
Like laughing.
Kevin Connolly: Oh, Kevin. At least three or four times a day. He’s hilarious. He’s personally my favorite character on the show.
He has a lot of great one-liners and just the way he acts about situations. How much is that on the page versus him just improv’ing a line here and there that just ruins a take?
Kevin Connolly: It’s all on the page, but it’s on the page because Doug hears his voice and puts it on the page, if that makes any sense. That’s what great showrunners, writers do, they hear their character’s voices and they put the words in their mouths.
Has there been a scene when you guys were filming that just was not working where everyone came together, tried to figure it out?
Kevin Connolly: It’s usually something we try to address the night before or time leading up before that. We try to have all the problems settled before we actually get to the set.
So you do a read-through for the movie?
Kevin Connolly: Yeah, a read through, or like I’ll call Doug, “Hey, I’m looking at this scene. This is weird. What do you think of this, that?” His phone is open 24 hours a day to talk to me.
