Jason Ritter & Alia Shawkat on the Mysteries of 'Wild Canaries'

Jason Ritter & Alia Shawkat on the Mysteries of 'Wild Canaries'
About this video
YH sits down with actors Jason Ritter and Alia Shawkat at SXSW to find out more about their intriguing murder mystery comedy 'Wild Canaries'! They also dish on their favorite Austin hot spots to find some good grub, including one place that finds inspiration from 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'! Hosted by Tracy Behr (@tracybehr). Check out the Young Hollywood Store Here: http://shopyounghollywood.com/
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Hey guys, it's Tracy Bear with Young Hollywood and we are at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, which is my all-time favorite city in the world. And I'm with Jason Ritter and Leah Shaw Kat, so how are you guys?
Pretty good.
We're pretty good.
You I mean, you're in Austin. You have to be feeling pretty amazing.
We are feeling pretty amazing. Yeah, we got here yesterday or I did. Did you get here yesterday?
I got here two years ago.
What? Two years. Do you live two years ago?
No, I don't. I was here two years ago, but I've gone to other places since.
Pathological liar.
Um We uh, yeah, we're uh we're enjoying our movie today and so we're super excited and uh
Have you guys been to South by? Is this your first time? Have you been in Austin?
Both been a couple of times. Yeah. Love it here. It's so great.
This is my second time.
What are some of your favorite spots that you like to go to here? Cuz you've been here before. So are you guys like barbecue fans? Mexican food fans?
Yeah, I like I love all the food. Uh I went to Las Parras last last night that like seafood place. Oh yeah. Um it's very good. Um Schmidty's, I think it's called. That's one's a little out of town. That's a fun spot. Congress has some cool vintage stores I like to go to. Congress is awesome. Yeah. Just breathing in the air. And you're like really, you know, artsy and you're into music a lot. So Obviously. I mean. Look at the colors. You you fit right in to Austin. This is like your time. People are super rad here. I have some friends that I haven't hit up yet, but I will. I'll text in a bit. Um but yeah, I just really like the vibe out here. I use the word vibe a lot. Also being an artist. keep Austin weird. I got that vibe. Yeah, it's got that rad vibe.
What about you?
Uh I basically go where people tell me to go. So I haven't
She's going to tell him a lot of places.
Uh yeah. You listen to everything she says. But you she knows. She clearly knows what's up. So far I've sampled the uh Sheraton Hotel uh coffee uh in the rooms. You have to go there you guys. If you go to Austin. Come to my room at the Sheraton. I will make you a delicious cup of coffee. But only only one or two because the pods are are yeah yeah. I can ask for more probably. They're free. Um but yeah, I haven't been I went to a place called Buffalo Billiards last night. That was pretty fun. Tonight our party is at cheer up Charlie's, which is a.
Oh I drove by. It looks really cool.
Yeah. And it's uh, you know, any place that's named after a uh you know, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory reference, you know, It's like cheer up, Charlie. Of course. Don't feel so blue. I think.
Can you say that again? I like those. Look at this little romance. And your movie Wild Canaries, it's it's awesome cuz it's like this murder mystery, but it's but it's funny and you guys were like really quick on your feet to do like a lot of improv and Was that like a big thing like coming into the movie that you had to like sort of just do it do a lot of it on the fly?
Sure.
You're like, I do that all the time anyway.
Yeah, there was a lot of improv. I mean, a lot of it was in the was just written in. But um uh but every once in a while, you know, Larry would say uh who directed it and wrote it. Uh he would say like, okay, now you guys are just having a fight, you can do whatever you want. And so it was fun. We had that freedom and and also the structure. You don't want only freedom.
No, it's too much. What are we Americans?
The filmmaker, Lawrence. It was actually him and his his real wife, right? So Sophia.
Yeah, Sophia. Mhm.
So what was it like sort of working with them? Were they like just like being a real couple? Did you see them fight a lot? Like how how was that on set? How do we that had to be some interesting stories.
They were actually one of the best couples I've ever worked with. They they communicated pretty well with each other. Um uh You never know when like, you know.
No, no, it's true. People are working together.
No, a lot of times. A lot of times couples are like the worst. I mean. Well, they don't know they they haven't figured out like the difference between how they can talk to each other like when it's just the two of them like the shorthand where they're like sort of being rude to each other and how that can be not such a big deal when it's just the two of them, but when there's other people around, you're just like, So like, they don't fight. Yeah. I know. They're not like that. Lawrence and Fira are not like that at all. Yeah. Neither of them are. They have the professional. Thank god. Not passive aggressive people, which is nice. They're very honest.
Yeah. What is sort of like, you know, the premise of the movie? Like what could people expect when they see it?
Um basically, uh uh I can't give it away. I guess that's the whole thing.
No, that that is a tough thing. You can't give it away. But basically an old woman dies, um, across the hall.
You just gave it away, Jason.
I gave it away. Yeah. Uh, she dies across the hall. There you go. That's it. There you go. Very, very convincing. Spoiler alert. Um, and uh, she dies and Barry and and the main character and Noah, yeah. They're their roommate. Yeah. They uh, they they think that maybe something went wrong and there was some foul play. So, uh, Jean and Barry decided to do some reconnaissance and they start to uncover that there are some secrets in the building, uh, that they weren't aware of.
We did that at the same time.
You guys, I'm so excited to see the movie and I'm sure everyone out there is really if you love murder mysteries and comedy, cuz you wouldn't necessarily put those two things together, but comedy. Wild Canaries. Check it out. Check it out.
Timestamps are approximate — click one to jump the player.
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Jason Ritter
Actor in 'Wild Canaries'
- Alia Shawkat
Actor in 'Wild Canaries'
- Tracy Behr
Host of the interview
- Lawrence Michael Levine
Director and writer of 'Wild Canaries'
- Sophia Takal
Lawrence Michael Levine's wife and actress in 'Wild Canaries'
- Willy Wonka
Reference for a bar name
FAQ
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