There are two ways to describe what “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” is about. One is, What if someone actually tried to use their celebrity sex pass? The other is a parody of “The Wizard of Oz.” Which came first?
Definitely the former. Adapting the broad strokes of “The Wizard of Oz” as a template was kind of our second step. The first was this idea of a celebrity pass and where might that go, and how might that bring us into this fun, whimsical version of Hollywood.
The whole script revolves around the pursuit of Jon Hamm. Was he always the celebrity it was going to be?
We worked on various versions of this for a long time, but once we got to the point of actually making the movie we realized that the convergence of Jon Hamm’s image in the world and also him being so incredibly funny—plus somebody we know and have worked with before [on “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp”]—and the pairing with John Slattery, who also has all those same traits, and then the way that they’re perceived as a pairing on “Mad Men.” It just felt, like, you can’t do better. So we wrote it for them and then prayed that they would like it when we sent it to them. We did not, admittedly, have a massive Plan B.
How did that work, getting them to both be in it?
I called up Jon Hamm and said, “Hey, I’m going to send you this thing. No expectation that you’ll like it, but we hope you do.” And I said the same thing to John Slattery. They both quickly were, like, Let’s do it!
It’s funny to see Jennifer Aniston in this movie—she’s someone you worked with, too, on “Wanderlust”—in part because there’s a “Friends” episode involving a celebrity sex pass and Isabella Rossellini.
I honestly didn’t remember that until you said it now.
Oh. Well, she’s dating Ross, and they make a list of five celebrities that they can sleep with, but Ross takes Isabella Rossellini off at the last minute. Then she walks into the coffee shop, and he tries to hit on her, but she’s no longer on the list.
Oh, that’s so funny. I had no idea.
Well, anyway. You said that you and Ken started with the idea of the celebrity sex pass. Do you have thoughts on those in general? Have you ever had one?
I don’t recall having one. But I don’t think any couple who does it is serious. It’s a way to have a funny conversation about what you like or don’t like. But I don’t think it’s ever actually a real thing, which is the whole point of this movie.
You seem to have a kind of dial you can turn, from heightened comedy that’s realistic, something like “Role Models”—unlikely to happen in real life, but it could—to complete fantastical absurdity, like this movie. “Wet Hot American Summer” is somewhere in between. The summer-camp characters are of this earth, but then there’s the scene where they go into town and do hard drugs out of nowhere.
You’re right, there is a dial. When making a movie for a big studio, for a wider audience, the dial is a little over to this side. “Role Models” was a project that had been in development without me, and then when we came on board—me and Ken and Paul Rudd—it was layering in our sensibility on top of a more mainstream package. I think the reason that movie worked on that scale was exactly that. We honored the conventions that we were working in, but then added a little bit of our thing, just to give it an extra edge.
What’s an example of something that you added?
The idea that they dress up as Kiss at the end. We took most everything in the movie and turned it into something that felt funny to us, and that’s always the barometer.
For something like “Gail Daughtry,” which goes more into the realm of the implausible, how do you hold on to something real, just to ground it?
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