Sonny (Kevin Hart) is a stay-at-home dad. He’s seen as safe and predictable by his friends, including Alan (Andrew Santino) who likens him to their kids’ school’s crossing guard. When Sonny’s family goes on vacation, he gets his first real me-time in years. It begins with what Alan would expect but eventually, Sonny decides to ramp things up and reconnects with his old best-friend Huck (Mark Wahlberg), an adventurous party-goer and thrower who he hasn’t seen in years. Sonny joins Huck on a bender for his 44th birthday, along with a bus full of his friends, and nearly unravels his entire world.
“I never really heard of him prior to the film,” joked Santino about working with Hart in Me Time, “I was unfamiliar with him and his work. It turns out, he’s a funny guy. He was pretty funny and was super fun to work with, and a sweetheart, man, a really big sweetheart. Every day after we were done filming, he would kiss everybody on the forehead pretty gently. Before he would take off, because he takes off in a private jet, he would kiss everyone on the forehead lightly.”
Hilarity in Me Time
There’s plenty of hilarity in Me Time, both in the actions taken by the stacked cast, including Jimmy O. Yang, Regina Hall, Diane Delano, and more, as well as in the script written by John Hamburg, who also produced and directed. In one scene, Santino makes his way to a party and gets his taste of me time, which opens the gates for some wicked choices and excellent delivery.
“I did not follow any of the directions of the script. I just went rogue. I did my own thing and Netflix can't stop me. You know I'm going to do my thing,” Santino quipped. He continued genuinely, “It was great. All of my scenes were mostly with Kevin, but very talented other actors are also in the film. There are literally like 15 other people and some of which I already knew beforehand. Jimmy O. Yang is a buddy who I’ve known for a long time. Drew Droege is in there, and it was cool to see some people that are familiar faces, and everyone is super talented. They spared no expense in getting a lot of super talented people to move these scenes around the guys. They did a great job.”
I'm most excited for fans to see the height difference between Kevin and I. I was stood on an apple box the whole time because I'm six one and some change and I said, ‘I'd like to be six-four.’ Kevin fought tooth and nail, but I got away with it.
Getting Involved With Me Time
“I was put in touch with John over Zoom and kind of played out the role online because I wasn’t available to go to the traditional process — I don’t think I was in LA at the time. So we Zoomed it, and we ran it a bunch of different ways and times until we felt like we were all on the same page about what we liked. Then, sure enough, they said, ‘Let’s put him in the movie.’ Everybody said yes except for Netflix. Somebody at Netflix was like, ‘I don’t want him in the movie.’ They got fired, and I got it,” joked Santino.
“I think it’s a relatable film for a million different reasons,” Santino continued, “I think people are going to watch it because they love buddy comedies. I think people are also going to watch it because of that dynamic of husbands and wives, trying to time manage with children and both still having a personal life. I think that’s a very obvious theme in this film that we explore and joke about, and everybody has a friend like Mark [Huck] who’s not ever going to grow up. Everybody has that guy. But overall, it’s a sweet film. It’s actually really, really sweet, which is, I think, what Kevin does best, is being funny but also having that bow tie of heart at the end which is really nice. That’s why his name is Kevin Hart.”
Santino added, sincerely, that he’s most excited for fans “to watch it and comment on it and find their favorite little moments. Whether it’s with me, or whether it’s with the turtle (referring to a scene in the movie that involves a turtle)… I’ll go head-to-head with the turtle and see who comes out on top.”
Me Time will release on Netflix on August 26, 2022.