Daniel’s Gotta Die is one of my favourite comedies of the year so far.  It sports a terrific cast and inspired direction, and fearless dark humour.  Since this exotic ensemble comedy has many working parts, I was interested in finding out more details about how the production came together so well.

I reunited with director Jeremy LaLonde, who I last interviewed for Ashmore, to ask the filmmaker about this fitting, personal throwback.  I also spoke with actor Dax Ravina, who portrays one of the many outrageous roles in this hilarious flick.

Addison Wylie: Daniel’s Gotta Die harkens back to your work with ensemble comedies.  Is there a specific craft to directing so many comedic heavy hitters?  Do you allow them space to find a rhythm with the cast?  Or, do you usually find your actors appreciate lots of guidance when finding the humour in a situation of line reading?

Jeremy Lalonde: It’s been a while since I worked with such a big ensemble that share many scenes together, so that was a lot of fun.  The trick to any film, comedy especially, is balancing tone.  With comedy, it’s essential that everyone makes sure that they’re in the same film.  That’s my job to accomplish and, hopefully I have.

I know that tone is something I work on very seriously, especially in comedy, because if the tone is confused, the movie doesn’t work.  I can’t speak to anyone else’s experience but I’d like to think, speaking as the first audience of the film, I have a sense of moments that work and the ones that don’t when we’re shooting.  So while I’ll never, ever give an actor a line reading, I like to play *a lot* in the first few days on set with the cast;  spend a little more time exploring the tone with them, and we all sort of figure it out together – within a few days, we’re a bit more specific.  And then I give myself enough material in the edit to use only the explored material that fits that tone.

So to answer your question, my method is somewhere in the middle – the actors are not so much given space as I’m there to throw stuff at them and see what they do with it. We play together. 

AW: Does dark comedy work better if the actors are in on the joke?  Like a farce.  Or, is it best if they play it straight?

JL: I think comedy only works if the characters take it seriously.  Comedy with a “wink” rarely works for me, personally.  I’m sure there’s some exceptions that I love that I’m not recalling at this moment, but the more a story or a character or an actor commits to the situation, no matter how absurd, the funnier it is for me in a comedic context.  It’s why some of the greatest comedies have come out of the most absurd set-ups – because they took it seriously.  Comedy must be taken seriously if it wants to have any hope of being hilarious. 

Dax Ravina: I alway like to play comedy straight.  Trying to force comedy makes for less of a performance in my opinion.  I always try to find the moments in the script, then bring them to life with my own twist.  It’s in the twist where you can find the humour.  Everyone in Daniel’s Gotta Die brought their own little twist, which created a big bowl of tropical island awesomeness.

AW: Dax, what was your favourite aspect to playing your character? What’s your method to fleshing out an outrageous role?

DR: Pierce was such a fun role to play.  When I read the script, I pictured Pierce as the epitome of a captain romance.  He would do anything for the love of his life, social media influencer Jessica (Carly Chaikin) – even if it meant killing her brother Daniel.  

I came up with a few ideas and a backstory, but it all comes down to a character with love blinders on – romance isn’t dead for Pierce.  I had a phone call with Jeremy and he liked my ideas.  He gave us all the freedom to bring our own concepts to the table.  I love that guy. 

AW: It’s impossible to talk about the movie without recognizing Bob Saget.  I was so impressed with how he went against typcasting with his role, spinning “dorkiness” into a type of loyalty that makes his character hilarious.  Jeremy, how was it working with Saget and workshopping that character?

JL: Was it against type?  Bob had two very different types of careers – “The Full House Dad” and the “Guy Who Sucked Dick for Coke” in Half Baked, and somewhere in the middle of those two people is who Bob really was.

He was dark and filthy but with a tremendous heart.  He cared deeply about people and his work and he took it seriously.  I think Bob wanted to bring more of himself to this role and do some stuff he didn’t typically get to do – being a bit more insecure – to play the guy who wanted everyone to like him and respect him.  I think most artists can relate to that.  We’re all insecure about how others see us, no matter what success we’ve had before.  We can’t help but feel those things, and so I think Bob got to tap into that for this in a way that other projects hadn’t asked him to do before.  I’m really proud of his work in this film and sad that it will be the last time he gets to explore his tremendous gifts.  The world was robbed far too early of a great performer and, for those who loved him, a very loyal and lovely friend. 

DR: Bob was a beautiful human.  He sat down in front of me on the plane ride from Miami and turned around to introduce himself.  He was such a sweet guy with a huge heart.  We had some great times together on the island.  He always wanted to make sure everyone was okay – he was the island Dad.  We went golfing, rode jet skis, sang karaoke and had enough tequila and cigar nights to last a lifetime.  I only got to spend a short amount of time with Bob, but he became a fast friend.

We were on the beach on his last day drinking tequila and smoking cigars and I said to him, “I can’t wait to see one of your comedy shows one day.”  He smiled.  Cut to a few months later, I was fortunate enough to be cast in a few other films that were being filmed consecutively down there and I was heading to LA on my way back to Toronto for a few weeks.  I met Bob and his wife for dinner at Laurel Hardware along with my cousin Peter Facinelli.  We had an amazing dinner and, after a few expresso martinis, I had to ask him, “Bob, will you do a walk-on at the Comedy Store tonight?”  I went to the washroom and when I got back he said “Dax, it’s happening.  I’m on stage in 15 mins.  We gotta go.”

When we pulled up to the Store there was a sea of people with their jaws to the floor.  The legend was in the building.  Bob said, “go take a seat and I hope you guys like the show.”  He killed it.  The red light went on and Bob kept on going.   He was in his element.  He was on top of his game.  It was the last time he played at the store.  See you on the other side Bobby Bananas!

AW: Like you said, you’ve co-starred in a few of these Caymen Island movies of the last year (The Retirement Plan, The Baker). Outside of the business of moviemaking, what do you find attracts filmmakers to this specific location?

DR: The Cayman Island experience will always seem like a dream and I’m okay with that. 

We were deep into the pandemic and I received a call one day from my agent asking me if I wanted to do a Darius Film in Cayman.  I’ve worked with [producers] Nicholas Tabarrok and Leah Jaunzems many times before, and I absolutely love collaborating with them.  My first reply was, “get the hell out of here! You’re joking right?” Then, I was sent the amazing script for Daniel’s Gotta Die (written by Matthew Dressel) and the itinerary.  Next thing you know, I was quarantining in a luxury hotel overlooking the Caribbean ocean for 16 days (shot out to the Kimpton).

The cast and crew had a group chat which was full of laughs and excitement for our impending release into paradise.  The people of Cayman greeted us with open arms and kindness.  There are so many talented crew members, filmmakers, and talent on the island that have so much to offer.  It was so great collaborating with them, and I’ve made friendships that I’ll always treasure.  What we had in Cayman was a special moment in time.  While the world was enduring lockdowns and restrictions, we were able to live freely after our quarantine.  Cayman did it right.  I can’t wait to go back one day and see everyone.

AW: And Jeremy, you did such a good job of using the film’s exotic location of the Caymen Islands to your advantage – terrible people being inconvenienced while on a lavish getaway during fairly morbid circumstances.  You make that balance seem effortless, but was it challenging without making the film seem too tonally crowded?

JL: Wow!  Thank you.  We got lucky with the location – it was originally written to take place in Northern Ontario, but one of the many strange surprises of COVID was this opportunity to shoot in the Cayman Islands at a time when the world was shut down.  Because it was so remote, it was open and people were protected and could go on living like they did before COVID hit.  It was a massive upgrade for our characters and story, and so we wanted to lean into it.  My DP, Rob Scarborough, and I wanted it to feel like, “What if Hitchcock made a really over-the-top dark comedy?”, so we leaned into those aesthetics and just trusted my own sense of tone.  It felt sort of like a straight throughline enough to me.  On paper it all shouldn’t work, but hopefully audiences feel like it does!

AW: What was your favourite memory from making Daniel’s Gotta Die?

JL: In retrospect, it was the time not on set.  We were all living at a hotel together so it was sort of like being away at camp.  Very few of us had our families with us, so we’d spend the evenings and weekends together.  We got to know each other in a way you don’t get to on usual film shoots, and do things you might not typically do.

I had a great time on set, obviously, but memories of morning swims and snorkeling in the ocean with Leah will always calm me.  Riding jet skis with Jason, Mary-Lynn, Carleigh and Dax with Varun throwing up off the side of his will always be something that makes me laugh.  Swimming with stingrays with Chantel will always be a magical memory.  And crashing a beach wedding with Bob is a story I’ll tell my grandchildren.

Daniel’s Gotta Die is now available on VOD and Digital HD.

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Jeremy LaLonde: @LaLondeJeremy
Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie