Ken Marino Says His Wild New Comedy ‘Doesn’t Work’ Without Jon Hamm and John Slattery Playing Themselves (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Ken Marino and David Wain credit Jon Hamm and John Slattery’s involvement as crucial to the success of their new comedy, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

• Zoey Deutch stars as a bride-to-be in the film, which features surprise cameos

• The movie, filmed in just 21 days, premieres in theaters on July 10 and includes a star-studded ensemble cast

Ken Marino and filmmaking partner David Wain built their new offbeat comedy around one big question: Would Jon Hamm and John Slattery be willing to make fun of themselves? Fortunately for them, the Mad Men stars were all in.

Marino, 57, and Wain, 56, attended the 2026 Tribeca Festival premiere of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass in New York City on Wednesday, June 10, alongside cast members Zoey Deutch, Sabrina Impacciatore, Joe Lo Truglio and others.In the film, Deutch, 31, plays a bride-to-be who heads to Hollywood hoping to hook up with Hamm — playing a heightened version of himself — after her fiancé cashes in his own celebrity “hall pass” before their wedding. Along the way, she crosses paths with Slattery, also playing himself, who helps her track down his longtime costar.“It was very pivotal. How pivotal? You know, it doesn’t work without Hamm and Slattery, and we were very lucky to have worked with them and known them and been connected with them,” Marino tells PEOPLE on the red carpet.Wain, who has collaborated with Marino on cult-favorite comedies including Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models and Wanderlust, says there was never really a Plan B.“We felt like we really took a risk. We wrote the script and we sent it over. We’ve worked with Jon and John both before in different things, but I sent it to them both and it was like, ‘I hope you like this, because we don’t really have another choice to play the role of John Slattery,’ except for maybe Bradley Whitford,” Wain jokes.“But luckily they both thought it was funny and were both up for doing it, and then we were off and running.”

Hamm previously appeared in Wain’s 2007 comedy The Ten, while both he and Slattery starred in the 2015 Netflix prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, which debuted as Mad Men was coming to an end that same year.With Hamm and Slattery on board to play heightened versions of themselves, Wain says the next crucial piece of the puzzle was finding the right actor to lead the film.“The other biggest element was Zoey,” he tells PEOPLE. “We weren’t sure that we would get somebody who could pull off such a pivotal, awesome central role.”Fortunately, Deutch proved to be exactly what they were looking for.“She was great,” Wain adds.

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The ensemble cast also includes Kerri Kenney-Silver, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Thomas Lennon, Ben Wang, Michael Ian Black and Fred Melamed, alongside a number of surprise celebrity cameos and reunions with Marino and Wain’s former castmates from the 1990s sketch comedy troupe The State.

For Deutch, one of the highlights of the whirlwind production was sharing scenes with Slattery.

“I could barely get through one scene with Slattery. He’s so unbelievably funny,” she tells PEOPLE of the shoot, which wrapped in just 21 days. “It was just such a joy working with him every single day.”

“The whole cast really was a dream,” she adds.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is in theaters July 10.

Read the original article on People