RLJE Films will release SPREE, In Theaters, On Demand and Digital August 14th
Meet Kurt (Joe Keery), a 23-year-old rideshare driver for Spree, who is so desperate for social media attention that he’ll stop at nothing to go viral. He comes up with a plan to livestream a rampage as a shortcut to infamy – coining his evil scheme “#thelesson”, he installs a set of cameras in his car and begins streaming his rides. Wildly miscalculating the popularity that would come from his lethal scheme, Kurt’s desperation grows as he tries to find a way to overcome the plan’s flaws. In the middle of all this madness, a stand-up comedian (Sasheer Zamata) with her own viral agenda crosses Kurt’s path and becomes the only hope to put a stop to his misguided carnage.
Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko, and written by Gene McHugh and Eugene Kotlyarenko.
The film features an all-star cast led by Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”) in his first film feature leading-role, Sasheer Zamata (“Saturday Night Live”), David Arquette (Scream franchise), Kyle Mooney (Brigsby Bear, “Saturday Night Live”), Mischa Barton (“The O.C.”),Frankie Grande (“Style Code Live”), and John DeLuca (Teen Beach Movie franchise).
RLJE Films will release the thriller film SPREE, In Theaters, On Demand and Digital August 14th.
Blackfilm.com correspondent Ellen Wanjiru recently spoke with Sasheer Zamata about SPREE and the role of perception.
Aside from the comedy aspect, what drew you to the role?
Sasheer Zamata: This whole project was a new type of venture for me. I come from a comedy world so it was exciting to be part of something that is more of a thriller or horror and has comedy elements to it. So I was excited to try something new and excited for the audience to see me do something new.
Your character Jessie has a love/hate relationship with social media; she gets the need for it but she also sees the dark and obsessive side. What was Jessie’s anchor for staying behind that line for as long as she did?
Sasheer Zamata: Honestly, these apps are set up to be addictive and a lot of people get admiration, adoration and love from their phone. And I think Jessie was really feeding into that culture of getting direct feedback from her audience, and eventually she realized this is not a healthy way to exist. I think for a lot of people it’s hard to realize that because it feels good to have someone say they like the way you look, or they think that you’re funny, or they want to be you, it’s doesn’t mean it’s healthy and these aren’t even my friends or people that really love me. And I think that Jessie had to kind of learn that lesson the hard way.
I feel as though Kurt (played by Joe Keery) and Jessie were destined to meet to disrupt each other’s realities. What would you say their connection was?
Sasheer Zamata: That’s a good point. I do think they were destined to meet because you’re really watching two different trajectories with social media at the same time. With Kurt, you can see the worst case scenario and how negative the relationship with social media can be and then you’re seeing Jessie who built her career on social media and now she’s realizing that this may not be what she wants anymore. So she’s going away from it, whereas Kurt is diving head first into it and it’s so interesting that they’re crossing paths. Kurt says something in the movie about being inspired by what Jessie said on stage and he ends up misconstruing what he’s perceiving— that’s the dangers of social media because you can present something to the world but people can perceive it however they want. They can read what you’re saying and totally get the wrong idea about who you are as a person or what you’re trying to say. So I think people need to be careful about how they’re consuming stuff and also what they’re saying.
All the action took place inside of Kurt’s car, and real cell phones and go-pros were used in the car during production. How unique was that shooting experience?
Sasheer Zamata: It was so unique. I’ve never done anything like that before and it was really cool. They made it feel so real because there were no actual film cameras around, there were just phones and go-pros and he’s holding a phone and I’m holding a phone. I think that made it feel more like we’re actually talking in the moment vs. we’re on set and we’re performing for a movie. And a lot of thought went into the choreography of it because I had to perform and hold a camera and make sure that everything that’s supposed to be in the shot, is in the shot and move and talk at the same time. It was interesting to think of multiple points of view while I’m performing.
One of the many things I enjoyed about this film was how realistic it looked and felt. And that has a lot to do with how it was presented in almost real-time and with “live” viewer comments on screen. How did that impact what you as an actor brought to the screen?
Sasheer Zamata: It really helped me because it felt real, because we were really outside and really in a car or in someone’s home and holding the phones, it felt scary. It was nice to be able to tap into this character because she was really living it while it was happening. I hope the audience can connect with that because I feel like Jessie is the audience’s perspective; she’s also new to everything that’s happening so I’m hoping that the audience can connect with her journey as she’s discovering all this crazy shit, and ride with her.
There’s a scene where you do something incredibly daring with a phone charger, which made me feel like I was watching that moment happen to you in real life. What was that experience like?
Sasheer Zamata: I’ve never done anything with fight scenes or getting really physical, so it was really fun to do that. I want people to really react audibly to this. My first time seeing the whole movie in front of an audience was at Sundance, and people were gasping and laughing at parts that I didn’t even know were funny when we were filming them. It was so fun and I want people to feel all of that while they’re watching and have fun.
My favorite line in the film is, “If you’re not documenting yourself, you don’t exist.” That’s such a powerful statement. Do you think there can be a healthy balance with the human need and fixation of being seen?
Sasheer Zamata: I think if it is a fixation, it’s not good. I know people who exist without social media and they seem so happy. I think there are ways to have a healthy relationship with social media, but people just maybe need to think about what they’re getting out of it. We’re very much on auto pilot—all my friends have that app so I guess I’ll get that app, I’ll post things and comment but we don’t even know why we’re doing it. If you’re doing it because you genuinely want to share your pics with your friends, or you’re a food critic and your showing your work, that’s great. But if you’re doing it because you want to be famous or you think it’s going to give you love, that’s something you need to analyze.
What did you think about the ending of the movie and how your character made out?
Sasheer Zamata: There’s kind of a big question mark at the end because yes, I did some bad ass stuff and it seems like evil has been defeated but I also take advantage of the audience and people’s perceptions of things and I’m also benefitting career-wise from this horrible thing that just happened. It’s interesting and there’s so much happening in the last few minutes and so I hope that it makes people excited to talk about it and the morality of that.
SPREE premieres in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on August 14th. What can the audience expect?
Sasheer Zamata: You can expect to be scared and excited, you can expect to laugh, you can expect to really think about your relationship with social media and also other people’s relationships. I hope you come away from it willing to grow in some way.
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