Nina Dobrev & Mena Massoud Make Ben Platt an Honorary Canadian

We're here with the cast of Run this Town. Welcome to Austin, Texas, South by Southwest. First timers?

Yeah, first time for me.

Yes, never been to Austin before. Excited to be here.

Okay. Not me. I'm You've been to a couple of Rodeos here, huh?

Yeah.

Wow. What? Okay, so tell these guys. Since you've been Nina, since you've been here, you know all about the food. What should these guys check out?

I mean, to be honest with you, when I'm here, I typically go to the bars. I'll tell you what to drink.

Yeah. Tell us what place to go. What's the nightlife?

I try to sneak in a meal every now and then, but Unbarlievable is my favorite place. Okay. I just put that together. And then Dogwood. I love Dogwood. Concrete Cowboy. There's a lot of great spots.

Now all I can think about is writing a song called Concrete Cowboy. So my mind is somewhere else. Sorry.

What what would the lyrics be? Do you have like a theme song in mind?

It's going to be on album number two.

Okay, so for the fans, tell us a little about the movie.

Uh, sure. The the the movie is called Run This Town, and it's uh about the three of us. We are all three for lack of a better word, millennials uh characters. Uh it's sort of a a historical fiction kind of a piece. It's a political drama. Uh and these two are working in the city hall in Toronto. Uh and my character Bram is a journalist uh at a fictional paper. And sort of the backdrop of the story is the Rob Ford scandal, uh the mayor of Toronto. Uh and sort of the the whole sort of hoopla that went along with that, um a few years ago. And it sort of examines sort of our generation's place uh in that scandal and in sort of politics and journalism in general and sort of realizing as they become adults themselves that they have to sort of map out a new path for themselves because they're not really able to fill those same kind of boxes that were put forth for them.

Me and Nina's character, uh Mini as we like to call ourselves. Mini and Nina. So really good combo right there. Really, really

So a good ship name. Made it really difficult onset. Any time someone would ask, Nina, I would turn. Anyone

Exactly. Yeah, so uh I play Kamal. I'm Rob Ford's special assistant. It's a great dialogue of uh people our age that uh basically just have to reap the rewards of our older generation and uh what they've sown.

So many rewards.

So many. So many rewards. Yes, that was all sarcasm. Uh but yeah.

Was there a favorite scene you guys had shooting?

I barely spent time with Ben because uh basically both our story lines are on opposite ends. But I spent a lot of time with Nina and it was my first time uh working with her and meeting her. And uh she's uh she's all right. She's okay. No man, she's amazing. She's uh a ton of fun. I've apologized so many times.

Nina, We had fun. We we the the material is is intense. So

So you see what we did there. Mini.

Oh, so that was a mini move. Um I just feel a lot of gravity going on outside. The brainwaves are connecting. We had a fun time despite the heavy material and um uh I was the only character in the script that got to crossover between the two story lines. And that was really cool. It's a pretty heavy Canadian cast except for Ben who is now an honorary Canadian member.

Thank you. You can quote that.

You knighted him. Did you knight him?

Yes, I I Well, it's not really an English thing. We don't do that. Um but we gave him some Canadian bacon and a bag of ketchup chips. And so

That and maple syrup. And I love hockey now.

Uh yeah, Nina is from Toronto. I'm from Toronto as well. We we were familiar with the story and I think that's what drew me to it. Um I was living in Toronto when when the Rob Ford scandal was happening. So

Yeah. Torontonians. How would we did we did show Ben around. We took him to karaoke one night.

Oh yeah, she did. She did. I was in there.

I could tell Nina's fun to hang out with. She is. She's the life of the party. I could tell. Have you guys ever like decided to run a town?

I was a counselor at a Jewish summer camp called Camp Ramah in Ojai, California. And I would say that I ran that town. Uh I was the captain of the red team for Color Wars. Just the just running the town of the camp. Just the 800 Jewish children that I was in charge of.

Yeah, I was on the announcement team in high school, so I ran the morning announcements. So I think that qualifies.

Oh, 100%. Could you do an announcement right now? Do you remember one?

Uh, no. No, no, no, no, not at all.

Nina?

Um, I run my household which uh consists of

Dogs on the scene?

me and myself and I.

No dogs?

I have a dog.

What's the dog's name?

Maverick. You know the name of my dog. Don't act Don't.

Everyone knows. She's a I don't know, it's very entitled. She's a sweetie pie. Actually, one short story on set. She liked me. She would come up to me in the morning and sit on my lap and stuff.

Most dogs don't like you. I hate to break the news.

No, no, most dogs do like me, but

She's a slat. You were special. You you were one of many.

I thought I was the only one.

No, sorry, Nina.

Dammit, Maverick.