GMG36: Nick Swardson and Ruben Fleischer’s Guide to Making an Ass-Kicking Action-Comedy Film

The rule of summer blockbusters has always been: If you can’t laugh about blowing something up, you might as well leave the dynamite at home. Action-comedies are the no-brainer cure for those dog-day August blues—beat the heat by watching Eddie Murphy and Bruce Willis drop comedy dimes just as easily as they drop hordes of enemy ranks. And now, in the grand tradition of ’80s classics like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Point Break and Beverly Hills Cop, we have 30 Minutes or Less, a buddy “ax-com” directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer about two hapless extortionists (Nick Swardson and Danny McBride) who force a pizza delivery guy and his friend (Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari) to rob a bank by strapping a bomb to the pizza boy’s chest. It’s like Dog Day Afternoon meets Mystic Pizza (actually, it’s nothing like that…but just imagine!).

The wish-list comedy cast is anchored by Swardson, the stand-up comic and veteran of countless Adam Sandler comedies and Comedy Central staples Reno 911! and Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time. And Fleischer, directing his second feature film after myriad music videos (M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal), commercials, “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” and creating and developing two Rob Dyrdek reality shows for MTV, continues to breathe new life into the sometimes-stale worlds of zombie and car-chase popcorn flicks.

Here, Swardson and Fleischer present their own Guide to Making an Ass-Kicking, Rib-Tickling Action-Comedy film. Yippie ki-yay!

Fleischer, on the set of 30 Minutes or Less

PICK THE RIGHT CAST

RUBEN FLEISCHER: A director can’t make a good movie without having the best people for each role. That’s the biggest responsibility and fight the director has. I don’t think there’s a better comedy cast out there than the one we had in 30 Minutes or Less. Between Nick, Danny, Jesse, Aziz, Michael Peña—that’s why the movie is funny. Nick was in the first thing I ever directed; I’ve been a massive fan of his for so long and to get to work with him again was a big deal. Nick was kind enough to audition even though he didn’t really need to. His character’s kind of the heart of the movie. Basically it’s a double buddy comedy; Jesse and Aziz are two best friends and Danny and Nick are two best friends and their worlds really only overlap at the beginning and at the end. I was lucky to have a strong-enough piece of material to attract these talented people to get involved.

HAVE A STYLE

NICK SWARDSON: A lot of directors just point and shoot, but Ruben really has a vision. He was so prepared by the time we showed up and there were no panic buttons on set. Ruben has a great eye, and in Zombieland and music videos he’s done and now 30 Minutes, you see every little detail and all these cool shots and angles. That’s really important.

FLEISCHER: I think that comes from having done music videos, and also who my favorite filmmakers are—the Coen brothers or Tarantino or Scorsese; not traditional comedy directors. I thought this movie was going to be like Fargo; it’s a misguided crime movie where a really bad idea goes worse. And this is way more broad and commercial than Fargo, but at least that informs it, so that everything starts from a more grounded place before it goes the more traditional comedy way. 

KNOW THE MOVIE YOU'RE MAKING

FLEISCHER: If you do that, then every little piece of it—whether it’s casting, performance, tone or what the action’s gonna look like—it’s all informed by the same thing. By design, I wanted to make this a very no-frills movie. It’s ’80s-action-comedy-inspired, but without being the Hot Fuzz of ’80s action-comedies. We had the means to do crazy camera moves and all that stuff, but I purposely shot it the same way you would shoot an ’80s action movie. I didn’t want to do anything that took away from the performances or the comedy or story. I wasn’t trying to prove anything in this one, whereas in Zombieland I really wanted to show I could do all these cool things. I just wanted this to be the funniest movie and that’s all that mattered. 

DON'T SACRIFICE THE MOVIE OR A CHARACTER FOR A JOKE

SWARDSON: You always want to stay in the context of a character. With Reno 911! I would always go for the craziest shit I could say. But even with Just Go With It and Zohan, you don’t want to sacrifice the movie or the character just to do a joke that’s not organic to what you’re playing. With my character in this film, I would make jokes that were in his voice. I wouldn’t sacrifice the integrity of the film just for me to be like, “Shmacky… Hey-o!” The more it stays in context, the stronger the joke will hit. 

TRUST EACH OTHER

SWARDSON: Once the director comes in with the action and the vision to execute it, you have to be able to trust him. Ruben was just like, “Do it. If you have an idea, say it. Do what you do; I know how to cover it.” And I had trust in Ruben before the movie, but once you have two people who know their places and let each other do his thing, then you’ve got something amazing. 

FLEISCHER: That’s why you’re here; you should do what you do because you’re gonna make it better. The next movie I’m doing is not a comedy, and so I wanted the best dramatic actors I could get; I got Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin. And I’ll tell them, “Do what you do.” I won’t say, “Sean, let me tell you how to play this scene.” You just get the best people you can and let them do it. There’s a reason why they are who they are, and it’s the same thing with the guys in 30 Minutes.

SWARDSON: Can you imagine going up to Sean Penn like, “That’s not how people cry”?

FLEISCHER: He’d punch me.

FIND A NEW STORY...

SWARDSON: So much stuff has been done already. So find a new vehicle, a new take on something. It’s hard when so much stuff is regurgitated, there’re so many remakes now. When I first read this script, I was like, “How are they gonna pull that off?” And then when I saw the team behind it, I was like, “Oh, well, these guys will pull it off.” You have to find something fresh and something cool that people can latch on to.

...BUT PAYING HOMAGE IS STILL COOL

FLEISCHER: The thought of doing another romantic-comedy…there doesn’t really need to be that. But no one had really done a suicide-bomb-comedy before. But there are moments of acknowledgement—there’s a key song that’s very referential, there are clips from action movies, there are direct references. They’re going to rob a bank and Jesse says, “I don’t know how to rob a bank.” And Aziz says, “Of course you do—Point Break. Stick to the tellers, don’t bother with the vault, you can do this.” And in the same way any of us know all those movies intimately, so do the lead characters of this film—Die Hard, Point Break, Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon…they’re acknowledged. But no one ever says, “Yippie ki-yay, motherfucker.”

HAVE A GREAT EDITOR

FLEISCHER: You can’t make it funny unless you’re working with somebody who really knows how to cut comedy. And I’m lucky because Alan Baumgarten, who cut this and Zombieland, is one of the best there is. Comedy is so much about timing and the right reaction shot, the right pace, the right everything; Alan is so capable and talented and he elevated our movie to a different level. His ability to manage all the improv and mine it and find the best jokes, retool the story, find the pace of the film…there was incredible raw material, but to process all that and really find the best stuff, you need someone really capable to help you. 

HAVE FUN AND RELATE

FLEISCHER: Let me say this officially: Nick Swardson—just day-to-day, sitting around—is the funniest person I’ve ever met. Nick is off-the-cuff faster and funnier than anyone. But then add Danny, Aziz and Jesse…it was really fun. And Nick and Danny are best friends in the movie, but they had never met. It was this worlds-collide situation, and they became best friends off-set and hung out every day. They’re just good dudes and I think that informs their characters as well.

SWARDSON: We both come from pretty open dispositions just in terms of getting to know people and being friendly. It was four people who brought their own energy and sensibility to such a unique and crazy situation. It makes 
you think about your own friendships and relationships. There’s another level to it, a humanity.

PUT IN A FLAMETHROWER

FLEISCHER: But the real key to making a great action-comedy: flamethrowers. Action-comedies are about stunts, flips, explosions, car chases and a cool weapon. We tried to be original with the action. Nick shot a real 25-foot flamethrower. It was really climactic, as opposed to just guns. As soon as he steps onscreen with it, you’re just like, “OK, that thing’s going to go off and it’s gonna be awesome.” 

SWARDSON: I’d never seen a flamethrower before. I don’t even know how to spell the word. It was scary; I had to do fire training and I was convinced it was gonna go wrong. It was really heavy. And not only did I have to shoot this flamethrower, but I had to act with it and be real and not show that I was terrified. And of course, I shoot it and Ruben just says, “Yeah, we need bigger flames.”  F