Interview with The 4:30 Movie cast Austin Zajur, Nicholas Cirillo, Reed Northrup, and Siena Agudong
by Bobby Blakey


From the first time I watched Clerks I connected with Kevin Smiths films. Sure, there are some that veered off the course of what I came to love, but they were all distinctly Smith and I love them. Now he is back with his most personal film yet, The 4:30 Movie which is a semi-autobiographical story of his teen years. I had the pleasure of sitting down with this incredible young cast to talk about working with Smith and bringing his latest vision to life.
Bobby: How did all of you get involved with this film.
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Austin: For me, I was doing a series for TBS with Kevin called Son in Lockdown and essentially was kind of a big audition for the movie way back in the day.
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Nicholas: Good old-fashioned self-tape. Sent it in as an audition and was lucky to be chosen.
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Reed: Yeah, self-tape for me as well.
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Siena: Same for me.
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Bobby: I know all of y'all have done a lot of different things, but what is different about working on a Kevin Smith film than some of the other projects y'all have done?
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Nicholas: The dialogue first and foremost. What you're having to say is very much from the voice of Kevin Smith. I think his fans will be happy to see that as fresh as this movie is, I think in his filmography, it's still certainly infused with the Kevin Smith voice and mannerisms and things like that. You know that you're saying stuff from an iconic writer, and it's definitely worded that way. So, you're just trying to make it sound like it's a part of that world.
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Austin: Yeah, I feel like trying to give it that kind of rhythm and pace that his movies have within keeping the tone of this movie, because the tone's not as broad of a comedy, even though it's still like a coming-of-age comedy.
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Bobby: All of you being younger actors, obviously didn't grow up in 80s, but you captured it brilliantly, making it feel like my childhood again. What did you do to find your place of how to act for that era of and preparation of each of your characters?
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Nicholas: I watched a 80s TV shows and interviews. There's a lot of great clips of random interviews of people in the mall and stuff like that during the 80s that kind of just gave me a perspective of time and what was hip, so to speak, at that point of time.
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Siena: I feel like I didn't have as many references as the boys did in the movie, but at least for, there was obviously things like the, “What you're talking about Willis”, that I had to learn and catch up on. Other than that, it was mainly just talking to people before filming and their experiences, my parents and the crew on set, they were reliving their childhood, so just listening to stories as well and knowing what was real for them that they saw in the script was, it really helped me.
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Reed: I feel like I was blessed because the movies at least that we were referenced, I'm thinking particularly of a scene where we talk about Jaws and Poltergeist and then there's moments where Brian David's character talks about Freddy and Jason. I'm a big horror fan, so I knew those movies inside and out before getting cast in this. Luckily things like that I felt I was able to really lean into because they're so much a part of my sort of cinematic universe as well.
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Austin: I ended up getting some Starlog magazines from 86. I think the March, April and May issues because the movie takes place on May 25th, 1986, and I just read them to kind of just really dissect the kind of the culture of what was really happening in that time.
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Bobby: I want to give all of you props because every one of your characters, and I know obviously it's Kevin's writing, but your performances made me not only believe but remind me of a lot of these kind of comedies in the 80s.
Obviously, you connect as actors on the set, but when you're trying to make people believe you've been friends for a long time, do you have anything you reach from to kind of connect with each other or is there something behind the scenes that you use for that?
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Reed: Yeah, I mean the first night that we were all in New Jersey together filming, we all went out to dinner accidentally to a very fancy Italian restaurant that had tablecloths and stuff and it was BYOB and we came in with, our absolutely cheap beer looking like fools, but moments like that, I think, really bonded us off-screen and because we started to build their off-screen bond really early in the process, it made our on-screen chemistry that much easier to find.
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Bobby: How hard is it to as actors and actresses, to weave in between the funny, the insanity, and the ridiculous, and keeping the heartfelt moments and not just in this, but other work all of you have done?
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Austin: I think for Brian's arc, he kind of had to weasel through all of it. I think it just really comes down to what the character really wants in the scene at the end of the day and just kind of like the different tactics. Man, I don't know, somebody else answer. (Everyone laughs)
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Reed: When I first found out I was cast and I read the full script, I texted Kevin because I feel like it captures two of my absolute favorite feelings in the world or maybe it's one feeling sort of tied together, but hilarity and heartbreak and how they often sit side by side. I think that the funny and the tragic are always linked and that it's hard to have full belly laughs if you don't also feel the heart of the character and the heart of a film. I think that this movie and this script does that so well.
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Bobby: Before I run out of time, this is to Reed. How much input did you get to have on that look? Because all I could think about with that hair was the bad guy Despicable Me 2.
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Reed: That is incredible. This is not the time, but I can have a whole thesis on why I think the Despicable Me theme song is one of the greatest of modern day. But the look, I went in for hair and makeup testing and our department heads, Ashley and Colleen kind of just said, we want you to look disturbing. We want to feel uncomfortable looking at you and I said, all right, baby, bring it on. I was just game for anything. Now I feel maybe I should have had a little bit more self-respect or something and been like, I want to look hot like Nick, (laughs) but instead I was like, no, make me look like the biggest freak ever and they did an incredible job with it. So, I didn't have the initial idea, but I did certainly give them the green light to go ahead for it.
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Bobby: I think that was important for your character though, because when you become kind of the voice of reason at one point, it's always more interesting to see the most ridiculous looking person be the one that has something reasonable and impactful to say.
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Reed: Absolutely.
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Bobby: Knowing that this movie is semi-autobiographical to Kevin's life, how nervous does that make you to take on those words, not just as an actor, but taking on something that's probably deeper heartfelt for him?
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Austin: I feel like we all kind of had a little bit of pressure on ourselves. For me, I'd never had to do anything like that before. So definitely makes you try to bring your A-game.
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Nicholas: It still felt like we were all on this uniform mission together. There was this focus, even off set, that we were all keeping each other in a way, in the same game. I think we all felt the same responsibility that what we were doing meant a lot to Kevin, his fans and people that will just come to watch the movie organically. We wanted to do the best job that we could on it.
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Bobby: You all did just that. I think all of you were fantastic. As a lifelong Kevin Smith fan, this is one of my favorite movies he's done, just because I connect with it. But you guys are the reason I connect to his words. Thank y'all for bringing my childhood back to the screen in a new generation of hilarity. I can't wait to see what else all of y'all do and know you're going to have amazing careers, more so than you already have. Thank you.
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Austin & Siena: Thank you.
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Nicholas: Thanks for watching. Thank you very much.
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Reed: Thank you. So nice.
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Check out The 4:30 Movie in theaters now from Saban Films.