‘Blockers’ Director & Cast On Telling Funny, Female-Fronted Story – SXSW

Before going wide on April 6, Universal’s parental angst comedy Blockers landed in Austin for its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholt star as parents who set out on a one-night operation to stop their teens from honoring a pact to lose their virginities on prom night.

The pic marks Pitch Perfect scribe Kay Cannon’s first directorial outing. “I was very excited about themes within the movie that are close to me which is this female perspective with losing your virginity” and “these young women who have agency over their own bodies,” said Cannon. “So I felt connected as a teenager who had gone through that” and “also now as a parent I know the other side of it too so I connected on a couple of levels.”

Mann, a mother of two daughters, had no problem finding commonalities with her character. “I was going through exactly the same thing in my real life. I was sending my daughter away to college and I was heartbroken so I could really relate to my character.”

Mann and Cannon were joined at the Deadline studio by Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon, two of the three actresses who play the ambitious daughters.

“I thought this script was so refreshing seeing this female-fronted story with females behind the camera as well,” said Viswanathan, a point to which Adlon agreed, adding “I was drawn to the script seeing what you’d usually see a from a male perspective, from a female perspective.”

Check out more of the interview above.

The Deadline Studio at SXSW 2018 is presented by MoviePass.