Jason Laurits’ new film Loves Company is the perfect parody for today—taking a familiar concept of meeting one’s favorite celebrity and upping the ante. Having Rachel Dratch and Jack Plotnick in the leads and a unique sense of humor is a recipe for comedic success. And it’s a big swing for writer-director Laurits, who’s making his feature directing debut.

Laurits spoke with TVBrittanyF.com to talk all about the creative process behind his debut feature. He also delved into working with his stars and what he learned through the entire Loves Company experience. What stands out to him both on and off-screen?

Brittany Frederick: This is the first feature-length project that you’ve done. I’m curious how you settled on that. Was it just that you wanted to move up to feature-length films now? Or was it that this idea demanded being a longer movie?

I thought my first two shorts were not proof of concepts. They just stood on their own as shorts. I thought maybe I need to do a proof of concept short for one of my feature scripts, and this was the one I chose.

I talked to a few filmmakers who had done features [that] I had met at film festivals with my shorts, and they were like, just do it. Do the feature. That money that you had saved to put into the third short? Start trying to get the ball rolling with a feature. It wasn’t enough to make the feature, but it could get things going at least.

And so I went on this path of like, all right, I’m going to do this. I don’t know how and I don’t have the money, but I’m going to set a date and just sort of work toward it. And somehow. I made it happen. Piece by piece, it [got] put together and was able to do it.

What was it about Loves Company that made it the script you chose? What excited you about the idea?

It was a lighter, funnier script. It was a parody [with] familiar themes from other movies and parodies, so I thought that was a good access point or opening point for my work, as somebody that no one knew. I liked the story itself—how I took a concept that was out there and turned it on its head in parody.

From the creative side it was that, but it was also, you do have to look at the budget and be practical on one end and go okay, out of all my scripts, which one could I do on a really low budget? For this film, a majority of it took place in a small house, and [it] didn’t seem to have too many locations or too many asks.

Your two leads, Rachel Dratch and Jack Plotnick, both have their own writing experience. What were the conversations that you had with them while making Loves Company? Were they giving you ideas?

It was definitely collaborative. They were both wonderful. I had never worked with anyone who was a name. I’ve worked with fantastic actors who’ve done great work. But these are people who have been in the industry for a long time and whom people have seen and love and know. As a first-time director, it can be a little intimidating working with someone like that.

But both Rachel and Jack—and the whole cast—[were] just so wonderful and supportive and patient with me as a director and offered great insight into how to go about [building] characters. They were always open to my notes and really knew how to take a suggestion I had and take it to a whole other level with their own extensive history of doing this.

How would you describe the movie? Are there particular elements of it that stand out to you, now that it’s done?

It’s based on a familiar premise, but then it will completely do a surprise 180. And that’s all I’ll say about that! [Laughs.] It’s a comedy, and it’s quirky, it’s fun, it’s a little offbeat. Coming from someone who’s a big fan of people like John Waters, and that sort of underground scene, that’s what I find funny a lot of times.

When I was editing this film with my editor, Kate Emerson, when in doubt, we went with “What’s so stupid that it’s funny?” Let’s just do what makes us laugh—not intellectually, but just stupidly, like little kids. The movie I wanted to make was that sort of just gets-in-your-gut sort of laugh.

With that said, I think we made, especially for the budget that we had, a really sophisticated-looking film. My cinematographer Josh Bagnell and my art director Sara Nyquist both did an amazing job getting this beautiful look to the film that I feel elevates it. And so it’s this nice pairing of the highbrow of the visual and a clever storyline, but also some lowbrow, fun humor that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

What’s going to make you consider Loves Company a success, especially being a first-time director? Do you set goals for yourself or is the reward in finally crossing that feature-length finish line?

That’s such a hard question, because I feel like when you make a film and you are in the midst of it, or you just finished it, [you’re] in this weird space right now where you haven’t sat with an audience. I don’t know how it’s going to be received. I’ve watched it a million times, and I’ve torn it apart mentally in my head a million times. I have no idea how it’s going to land. I’m told it’s funny, I’m told it’s good. But humor is so subjective, right? We’re already in a very subjective art form, and throw humor on top of that, which is even more subjective and personal.

I feel like right now, to answer your question, okay, I made the film. That feels great. I made a feature. I don’t discount that as nothing. That’s something… But I think that I hope to look back one day, once all the dust settles, and I can catch my breath.

What I’m doing now with some of my shorts, having been away from them, and now going back and watching them a year or two later, [is] being able to really sit down and watch it without all this stuff around me in my head. Is just to hope that the vision came across, the humor came across. [That] it was something that people could relate to, but at the same time was something fresh for them to be excited about.

Is there anything else that you want to say to the audience as Loves Company goes out into the world? Or anything else that resonated with you across the journey of making it?

I want to say something about Rachel Dratch, because I feel like she is this very underrated comedic actor that a lot more people love. Every time I tell someone that she’s in my film, the response I get from people is how much they love her. I think we’re going to look back at her long career and all the wild swings and directions she took, and [she’s] almost like a Catherine O’Hara to me.

I remember having this conversation about [Catherine O’Hara] years ago, before Schitt’s Creek, and just thinking she was so underappreciated. And then she finally got her due with Schitt’s Creek and a lot of things after that, even though she had done a lot of wonderful things before. My favorite movie of all time is Waiting for Guffman. I feel like Rachel’s in that category too, where she’s one of my [biggest] comedic heroes of all time. And I’m sensing from a lot of people that they feel the same way.

We all know her from Debbie Downer and a lot of the SNL stuff. But what appealed to me about her was, I saw this short that she had done called Marcy Tries Something New on YouTube. And it was a different side of her—still funny, but also really endearing and lovely. That really made me see her as Antoinette and [I] begged her to do [Loves Company], because I just thought she had all these levels of comedy, but [would] also be able to bring a depth and a sensitivity to the character that maybe we don’t get to see when she does sketch comedy. I just love her, and I hope that people will appreciate this sort of different direction.

Learn more about Loves Company at the film’s website. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jason Laurits.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.