Did Judd Apatow give you any idea of what happened to the characters afterwards?
Lou Wilson: I know that I’m in prison. That’s for sure. I don’t think Judd really ever talked about what happened to RItchie afterwards. But if you ask me… you know there’s the quote of “We’re all going to be Jay-Z. We’re not going to be Jay-Z’s friends.” Ritchie is 100% Jay-Z’s friends. Where he ends up is the equivelant of Jay-Z’s friends. There’s no Jay-Z story for RItchie!
That brings it full circle! Awesome. Apatow is also known for letting his actors improvise and letting the scene flow and make itself up. Were there any scenes or jokes that didn’t make it into the final cut that you wish that had made it in? Or scenes that might of shown a different side of things?
Lou Wilson: There are scenes that are already in the film, but they are expanded on…There’s a comedian, Keith Robinson, he’s a black comedian who plays the security guard at the orphanage who kind of walks up to us when we are hanging out.
Somewhere in the archives are takes of him just ripping us apart. Absolutely roasting us. I think my favorite jokes that made it into the cut, when he tells me that I look like “Fat Kanye.” Which ironically I think is sweet. But he had these unreal takes when he would just go down the line and just rip each one of us. And honestly just thinking about it now, brings me so much joy because those were hard takes to film. You can hold it together for you, but then he gets down to the next guy down the line…
That was just an awesome day to watch Judd kind of just let him roll and unload on each one of us. In an honest way. We were just getting roasted. That scene is one I think about. I think it’s a little shorter in the actual film. But believe me, Keith comes for me in the film, but he came for all of us that day.
The characters were interesting. It would be cool if one day we can see what happens in the future. You should try to lobby to Apatow to see if he could bring you back five years later and catch up with you guys. That would be really cool.
Lou Wilson: I honestly would love to see the future of the guys!
So, most of the time you guys are hanging out and joking around. Obviously, the robbery is a different kind of a tone, it’s almost more of like a thriller. What was it like filming those scenes in contrast to the normal day-to-day life of the crew?
Lou Wilson: I keep wanting to say great question! I don’t know there is a part of me that’s legitimately excited to answer. You’re asking good questions and I’m excited to give you answers to em!
That was like a really cool set of days filming in the pharmacy. A heist.
Someone said to me on set that there haven’t been a ton of action-like scenes in movies he’s [Apatow] made. So we got to have this awesome thing with like gunshots going off, glass was getting shot out, police were rolling up… It works really well in the film because it’s grounded. It’s kind of scary. Like when Oscar gets shot, it’s intense. I think it all goes to show how bad this crew is when we get together. This idea is poorly executed and going horribly wrong.
But the actual making of it was so cool! It was cool to be in an action movie. It was cool to have props fall on my head and reaching out to grab [indecipherable] before gunshots went off. We had some awesome stunt people on set who worked through me getting punched in the face a bunch. I don’t know. A lot of application of sweat in between takes to look like we were in it. And in a lot of ways we were.
We were up late running around. We shot in an actual pharmacy on Staten Island. I don’t know, how raw that scene is… is from how real it felt to be shooting it. I don’t know… there were a little moments of fear…it was easy to get into that space because of the way we shot it. Every part of it felt real and scary.
I gotta commend you. Because that scene is when the movie clicked into gear for me. [Things] are real now!
Lou Wilson: Yeah! That’s it! Judd [Apatow] did such a good of giving that moment, that turn-key feel of these guys can’t do this… This is not like the movie version where we are going to stumble our way through a heist. No. We are going to get caught. Our boy is going to get shot. And there is a chance that we don’t make it out alive. You feel all of that in that scene.
You did a fantastic job man! I hope, let’s say one year from now, we could do this in person for the next interview and I’ll give you a high five!
Lou Wilson: Braxter, I can’t wait man. You keep asking these great questions. We are going to link up again in a year. It’s going to be great. I can’t wait.
Absolutely! You take care of yourself. I appreciate you.
Lou Wilson: Thank you so much. Take care and stay safe
The King of Staten Island is available to stream on demand on June 12th. What did you think of Scott’s crew in the movie? How cool would a spin-off be? Let us know in the comment section below or on our social media!
KEEP READING: THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND REVIEW
