Simon Rex is who you need if you somehow end up in the wrong country

So Amalia, I wanted to start with you. The film depicts this sort of vice-like company that's producing a travel show, but then ends up faking this cultural phenomenon when they end up in the wrong country. I'm sort of wondering if you could talk about your interest in that very niche world of the media and how it sort of ended up transforming into the basis for a film. Well, it's very niche, but it's also how, like what I was surrounded with when I grew up because my parents are like very braindead hipsters, they're Gen Xers, and my dad used to collect the original Vice magazines when they first came out and he's a skater. So I've been surrounded by that culture all my life. And then obviously I went to art school and a lot of people that I knew work there. So it's something I'm very familiar with, even if it's like technically a very niche world. For the rest of you, I would be curious, what is the most egregious screw up that you have experienced on a production? Oh man. Hopefully nothing as bad as ending up in the wrong country. It's always someone's fault. I made an inappropriate joke recently in these times of being canceled that I don't want to repeat because I could get canceled again. And it was just a really innocent joke that was a sexual metaphor and the producer on the first day goes, uh, uh, uh, uh. And I was like, okay. So basically the rest of the movie, I just shut up. So that was a close call. I've never done anything wrong on set. I can't recall an experience though. I had many like funny experiences shooting El Planeta. Not necessarily **** ups because I think we were extremely lucky and everything went according to plan and everything. But obviously we were dealing with a lot of extras that weren't even extras. They just happened to be there by the time we were shooting certain scenes. So I remember one time we were shooting at this cafe and there was this old man who goes there every day. So we just let him be there. But he started farting very loudly throughout the scenes. And I think he couldn't really hear because he was kind of deaf. So that was like a funny thing to remember after the fact. I think I've seen lots of movies and or television shows when like, when they were doing a scout, they didn't really like take in all of the elements of a location, specifically like a flight path or like the entrance to a highway or like I did this movie, Bonjour Tristessa and like they went to scout before the summer and then summer started and there were so many boats and it was so loud. And for some reason, nobody thought about that. So it's like, I feel like that's not, I mean, it's just kind of a common mistake that happens a lot when scouting locations. It's like, you just don't factor in everything all the time because there's so many different elements to an environment. I had an interesting thing where I went to this cafe and this young woman was directing a movie and I was just really farting that day and I actually am kind of deaf in one ear, but I just hope that they didn't notice ultimately. Chloe, I was kind of curious, when we meet Edna, both in the sort of prologue and then when they arrive in country for the shoot, she already seems sort of completely exasperated with the team and with her job, but we don't, because of the nature of the film, get a ton of backstory about really any of the characters. I'm wondering how you imagined she arrived at this place in her career where she's doing the show, but seemingly a little bit grudgingly. Right, well, Amalia and I talked a lot about women we know that are just always searching for some sort of happiness and the answer through different spiritual paths or yoga, Pilates, whatever it is that she's really unhappy in her life for probably a lot of reasons. And I think she's just like a grumpy gal. Maybe she's perimetopausal, she's probably hormonal, I think there's a lot of things going on with this woman. But she also knows that her partner is messy, so I think even if she doesn't really know what's going on at that time, everyone sort of knows that this is the last episode, probably that the network is not going very well. She's an idiot producer. But I think late 40s is a really complicated time for a woman, especially if you're like, business is gonna change and you had had this great responsibility for so long. I think the way people look at you, the way you look at yourself, it's a very complicated second adolescence. So I think I tried to funnel a lot of that into Edna. And I think, sorry, I was gonna say, it's sort of like what you're doing is a kind of dying media that as you can see in the film, that younger characters and local characters like Manchi, which is Camila's character, or Mateo, they're not interested and they don't wanna be involved in whatever they're doing. And I think the crew knows this and that's why they're so careless and serious is because it's their job, but I don't think they really believe in that. Alex, sort of your character, I think, also walks that line between there's an element of parody in him, but there's also, there's like real complication. It would be very easy for that to be a simplistically predatory relationship that he's pursuing, but it's not that. And so I'm wondering about how you and Amalia kind of identified what you thought that it was that was motivating your character to try to sort of pursue all of these different women. What was he really after? Well, you know, it's just a really well-written script. You know, I just, I think that it was, I mean, maybe it could have been seen as more unsavory, or even though it is at times, it could be seen as more unsavory or something if it was written by someone else. But what I love about Amalia, and it's similar to how I approach things, is she kind of lives and dies by her characters. And I think, you know, not speaking for you, but I could feel in the script, she loved Jeff. Like, she loves him. She just sees elements of him that are hilarious. And, you know, it would be a disservice to the character to not completely make fun of myself, and to not make fun of him. It would be, you know, you have to be aware of how ridiculous it is so you can go there. But, you know, nothing's funny about someone being ridiculous. What's funny is someone being ridiculously sincere. And so I always saw him as someone who just really saw himself as a victim of circumstance. And that's funny. You know, someone who doesn't see the situations they get themselves in, but they really see it as, oh, this is such bad luck, and oh man, how did this happen? That's just immediately funny. So I think, I just got that in reading the script. You know, a lot of things that you need to do, a lot of talking, a lot of mining, but this character was there. Amalia wrote, I mean, he's a real guy. I met the real guy. So, and I didn't know it was based on a real guy. I went to the guy's house. This really nice person who was totally weird. And then I was hanging out with him, and he started saying things that reminded me so much of the script. I started going, holy shit, I think this is the guy my character is based on. So then I was watching the way he sat, and I was watching the way, you know, how he always takes off his shoes, and sits a certain way, and was like microdosing mushrooms while talking to me, and it just made me laugh. So I found that in him. But there's a lot, I think these characters, you could easily make fun of these characters, but there's a lot of them in all of us. That's why the movie's really good, is I think it's just a sort of icky part of ourselves that maybe we keep locked away, but this movie was a good opportunity to kind of, it was an exorcism of those parts of ourselves in a funny way. It's a satire, which is real. It's, you know. But yeah, also like a lot of the characters, I keep on saying this, but I think it's important, it's like they're very close to home for me. So I'm not like pointing a finger at them from the outside. I'm like deeply embedded in like that world, and like a lot of my friends are like this. I was gonna say, I know Molly in my personal life, but she definitely has a collection of weirdos around her. She likes the misfits. We're all here. She's drawn to the mama of the misfits. Yeah, so, you know, like there's like, I have so many friends who are like absolute ****-ups, but at the same time, they're like extremely lovable, and like, and I think that, you know, the script was like developed that way. And that's how I make most of my work. I never like, yeah, I don't like just like pointing fingers unless I'm like sort of making fun of myself at some point. Because like when you would do a scene, like there were times where it's like, I would do a scene and I'd be kind of laughing, like, isn't this dead end? And she goes, no, you know, she direct it like it's a drama. It's just when you look from the outside, and that's just, you know, we're, I guess. And it is a drama in many ways, and I think the Argentinian cast really brought that seriousness into a film, and that was all planned, and that was all orchestrated. So like the film was just like, not like this like, and serious thing. Well, you love us too, right? You love us too. Well, it's so truthful though, because I feel like with the way that Amalia directed it all, you know, we would have like a script, but she would want us to deviate from it so that every take was just as fresh and original as the last one, so that what we were all delivering was just like pure truth, you know? So, which is also why it's so funny too. And that's why you got that tattoo, pure truth, right? I don't have any tattoos. You got pure truth, like, I have no tattoos at all. You can tell them. I don't have a tattoo. Camila, I'm curious what you think you're, like what your understanding is, what your character sees in Jeff, wants out of the relationship with Jeff, and even maybe more broadly, like this group of interlopers, and then what turns her off in the end, and that makes her go, nope, I'm not in it anymore. Okay, so, I don't know. I think if you talk with every woman in this room, all of us, we... Like, every single woman we've met that have seen the film has suffered a person like Jeff in their lives, and like have been attracted to somebody like that, whether they like it or not. And I think that speaks to her character. It's like, he can be very charming. I think it's like because we see, like, the behind the scenes of the character, but what she's seeing is an extremely charming foreigner. I think what was important for me as well is that there's a, I'm from a small town, and I've been both sides of this story, and there's a desperation that comes from being from a very small place when, like, foreigners come in, and that, like, heightens the attraction, for sure. So, I think that's like, you being in a small town, these people come out and, like, pay attention to you, and there's this, like, feeling, and, like, this, like, exhalation. And she likes it small, right? She also likes it small. But I think it accelerates things, and I think that's why there's, like, all these biting relationships happen, is because you, when you have a trip like that, it accelerates the emotions a lot. Yeah, I think Munch is a strong character, but with a lot of insecurities, so she saw Jeff and said, oh my God, this guy to other countries, an opportunity to, I don't know, an adventure, you know? So, I think that it's... Yeah, totally. One last lightning round question before I let you go. Who of the Magic Farm team would be most likely to land you in the wrong country for something, and who would make as much of a good time out of it? As Joe's character, Justin, does. I think you've been checked. I have to land him in the wrong country. Alex. You would keep us happy. I don't seem like it right now, but normally I'm pretty silly. Yeah, I think Simon would be, like, the person. I think Joe would land us in the wrong country, honestly. Thanks, Chloe. And I agree that Simon would keep us happy, because he's the most kind of chill. Yeah. He was so cool to work with. Good tone. Thank you, guys. Super chill. Thank you. And, yeah, actually, like, all the locals were very sad when Simon left. Really? Yeah. We're sad. I know, yeah, we're sad. Aw, that's very touching.