David Duchovny and Rosemarie DeWitt will have you in stitches as despicable siblings battling their cousins for a cruel aunt's inheritance. The Estate stars Toni Collette and Anna Faris as sisters who learn their vile but wealthy Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) is near death. They want to claim her fortune and save their struggling New Orleans café. The Hilda ingratiating goes comically awry when cousins Richard (Duchovny) and Beatrice (DeWitt) have the same plan.
Director/writer Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral) assembles a veteran cast for his raunchy comedy. The film is loaded with cursing and wild shenanigans. Richard is a sleazebag who lusts after Collette's character Macey. Beatrice oozes disgust as an unbridled narcissist willing to do anything for Hilda's money. The family infighting gets laughably ugly as every crazy scheme backfires.
Duchovny and DeWitt discuss the benefits of an ensemble cast during our interview. No one has to shoulder the burden of carrying the entire film. Their collective experience made the sharp humor look effortless with particular praise for co-star Keyla Monterroso Mejia. She plays another cousin obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons. They also discuss a knockdown funny scene of trying to get an unwitting sex offender to expose himself.
Comedic Timing in The Estate
The film has such great comedic timing. Did you have a lot of rehearsal time together? Or are you all just great actors?
David Duchovny: Yeah... the second!
Rosemarie DeWitt: Yes, we're so good (laughs).
David Duchovny: We didn't rehearse much. We had one read-through and then on set beforehand. Without saying we're so good, we are longtime professionals.
Rosemarie DeWitt: We're old!
David Duchovny: Yes but we're capable. We think we know what's funny. We work in that area together. It's all just a leap of faith for all of us. Immediately, working a day or two with Rosemarie, and I'd worked with Toni [Collette] before, Anna [Faris] I hadn't, each person was just really funny in a very different way. It's remarkable actually.
Rosemarie DeWitt: Keyla [Monterroso Mejia] was funny in another planet way. It was often that we just couldn't get through her scenes. I couldn't even look at her while acting. I couldn't keep a straight face.
David Duchovny: You could have a whole movie of Keyla and it would be a good movie.
The Best and Worst Day on The Estate
What was the best and worst day on set of The Estate? Was there any downtime?
David Duchovny: There are always bad times when filming a movie. You're on set a little longer than you want to be. There was one day when we had lightning and a thunderstorm. It was a Friday. Everyone wanted to get to their weekend, and we were delayed by three or four hours. You're like, what's a little lightning going to do? That was a tense day. Best day... all the days for me were fun. Then again, in an ensemble, you're not overworked, it's kind of a perfect gig.
Rosemarie DeWitt: Yes, the pressure isn't on just you. The first days are usually awful for me. This one was particularly awful. The character that I play, Dean Craig started for me in the middle of her drunk scene. That was my first day, getting really drunk with Bill [Danny Vinson]. I was like, really? We're starting there? But then it can only go up. You get that terrible day out of the way, and it can only get better. Like David said, when it's an ensemble film, you have so many ball players with you. You're never shouldering everything. Toni actually shouldered a lot. She was the emotional heartbeat. Being the moral compass is a harder job because you have to justify things. When you're narcissistic and gnarly, you just get to be awful.
Filming the Outrageous Flasher Scene
The scene with the flasher is absolutely hilarious. Rosemarie's drunk and trying to get him to pop out his business. Was that fun or difficult to film?
David Duchovny: That's actually a lot of editing. The timing of that...hats off to Dean [Craig] and the editor for putting that together. For us, we had fun with that. There was that fake penis we were playing around with.
Rosemarie DeWitt: No...that was real (laughs). For me, that scene should just be titled potato chips. You should never eat in a scene like that. I ate bags and bags of them. That's all I remember. I'm not sure I can eat them again. That's not true...I still eat them (laughs).
The Estate opens theatrically on November 4th.