The Hating Game's Austin Stowell on Working with Lucy Hale

Hello.

Hello.

How's it going?

It's good, how are you?

Good, I like your background.

I know it's really.

Oh, thank you.

I'm in a hotel.

Where are you right now?

I'm in New York.

Okay, not bad.

I bet you love New York.

I do.

Yeah, I love it.

This is the Hating Game.

Yes.

It came out December 10th.

How do you feel now that it's out?

Well, the reaction from the fans has been a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Uh yeah, to to see everybody who was uh such fans of the book by by Sally Thorne, to hear their take on uh what they thought of bringing the characters to life.

It it seems overall that people are very happy and there hasn't been much hate, the hating game.

So, uh, I'll take that.

There you go.

Are you on, do you use Tik Tok at all?

No.

Okay, well, you're all over Tik Tok.

Like, scenes of you and Lucy fighting and stuff, like are like Tik Toks.

Because you don't know, kidding.

Yeah, because like if you look, like all your tagged photos and stuff, if you look is like some of the Tik Toks.

Like they make edits of the movie.

Oh, right.

Great.

So, I feel like if you were on Tik Tok, your for you page would be you.

All right.

How was it like hating Lucy Hale and having her, you know, hate you for a little bit of the movie?

No, we don't.

Not at all.

Uh, we've been friends for years now.

And uh, you know, she's the reason that I was in the movie anyway.

Um, because uh, she was already cast and she kind of got to uh, as far as I know, she got to pick her Josh.

And after working together and I think she finally had a window where this was going to this movie was gonna work.

So, she was instrumental in doing that.

And and then, you know, Lucy and I have like great banter in real life.

Uh, you know, she could be a little sassy and she could be, you know, she's funny, she's witty and uh, so really all we did was, you know, we have scripted lines and then like turned it up a little bit.

Yeah.

Did you have any scenes that like you were like hating each other but you just couldn't keep it together and you guys like just started laughing.

Were there any scenes that didn't make, you know, the cut because of that?

Are you're pretty good?

Yes, no, no, no.

Um, no, everything made the cut as far as I can remember.

Um, there was definitely uh, the one scene where I'm talking about there being some sort of sacrifice that my family made dinner for Thanksgiving.

Yeah.

Trying to get those words out.

Um, so back and forth and there was something about Smurf fanfic or something like that.

But fanfic, I just Smurf fanfic, those three F's together.

Yeah.

Just my mouth did not did not like that.

There there's got to be some some takes where where I went up on the lines and I'm just, you know, swearing at myself and another F probably came out too.

Yeah.

And one of the lines that was hate at first sight.

You guys say that that that was, you know, that was a line in the movie.

What was your actual like first sight of Lucy Hale?

Like when you first met her.

Like, date all the way back to when you first saw her in person.

Uh, we met each other on the plane going to Fiji.

That was the first time we actually saw each other.

She had all of her bags.

Yeah.

And I had like one duffel bag, basically.

And she looks at me and she's like, that can't be it.

And I'm like, yeah, that's that's it.

And so that that is still something we bring up all the time where um, you know, I I was working in Canada this year and she's like, what'd you bring a backpack?

That's so funny because I feel like that's so typical like for guys versus girls when traveling.

It's like you have like eight suitcases for like a two-day trip.

Obviously it was more than two days.

But, you know what I mean, like guys just have like a duffel bag and it's like, really?

Yeah, I just wear the same stuff over and over again.

Yeah, that's fine.

I just I I I saw that documentary about minimalism and it's like, all you need is 27 articles of clothing.

Uh, most of them are just socks.

I feel like, I like socks.

Um, and did you read the books to help prep for the role?

I'll be honest with you.

I did not read before we started filming.

Yeah.

But I have I have read since.

I felt like I had a good handle on who this guy was.

Yeah.

And every now and again, if you by by reading, you know, of course I read the script.

Yeah.

Uh, and so I my job was to be the guy in the script, not the guy in the book, right?

And I'm not saying that one doesn't come from the other, but um, I don't know.

I just felt like I had a good handle on on Josh and uh, I I told our our director, Peter Hutchings.

I was like, if I'm ever doing something outside of of Josh.

Yeah.

Let me know.

Let me know, but I feel like I got this.

Yeah.

Well, the YouTube comments all were like, oh my God, this looks so similar to the movie and then a lot of people commented after the fact and they were like, they've got it spot on.

People are happy.

Yeah.

Things a bunch of scenes that were being pulled directly from the pages that truly word for word.

I would read those bits.

Um, just in case there was a mention of like he puts this down here or there.

You know, things like that.

Uh, which which bands have found all throughout the movie.

So that's that's a lot of fun to see them finding all the little Easter eggs.

Isn't it crazy though that people really like get into all the little things too?

Like they examine every piece of the frame.

Yeah.

Um, I'm just really sad that no one has picked up that my dog is in the beginning.

They haven't you haven't seen any of that.

No, I haven't seen any of that.

I thought for sure people were gonna be like, I saw Gus at the beginning.

He made a cameo.

He's on the couch.

He's like front and center too.

It's tough to admit, but it is at the beginning.

So it's like, I think people are watching the title sequence and uh, maybe not paying attention to that.

But there is a very very cute.

I'm talking about you, sir.

He's right here next to me.

Nice.

Um, they will now once they watch this and then go look.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm I'm revealing one of the big Easter eggs.

Yeah.

Love it.

Okay, we're gonna play a game.

It's all I want for Christmas because Christmas is coming up.

Okay?

Yeah, or my birthday.

My birthday's Christmas Eve.

Your birthday's Christmas Eve?

It is.

Yeah.

Well, happy birthday.

I'll make a question in my head about your birthday.

Okay, all right.

Okay, there's two options.

You're gonna pick what gift you'd want.

Do you want, well, new car or new house, even though you don't think you have a house.

I Uh, I will take new house.

You would do new house.

Yeah.

I like to ride my bike.

I ride my bike everywhere.

When I lived in L. A. , I didn't even own a car.

So, I will I will take the new house and I would like for it to be um, either at the beach or uh, ski in, ski out.

If we're just if we're playing along with the fantasy.

There you go.

Love it.

Okay, so for Christmas, would you want the hateful side of Lucy Hale or the loving side of Lucy Hale?

Oh, the loving side of Lucy Hale.

What is And there there is no hateful side.

Like, I We had to go through the Hating Game, you know the vibes.

Right on.

Right on.

No, that was easy.

Would you rather get get casted in a new movie or a new show?

What do you like better?

Movies or shows?

Oh, good one.

Um, you know what?

I I'd like to do a show because it's it's nice to like get into a character and and let it breathe a little bit longer.

And sometimes you feel like at the end of a movie that you can you're left wanting more of this character, wanting to stay in those shoes for a little while longer.

I come from the theater where you got to do uh, characters for months and months and months.

Uh, and do it over and over and over again and um, you know, film and television obviously work a little bit, not a little bit, a lot quicker than that.

Doing a series, I think allows you to to breathe a little bit more.

Yeah.

Do you have a personal favorite show?

Like you binge watch any Netflix shows or have one?

The Office.

Classic.

huge Office guy.

Do you recast the characters?

Yes.

Yes.

All the time.

All the time.

That Great British Baking Show.

Oh, yeah.

It's a good one.

Yeah.

Very into that.

Yep.

Would you want to be in The Office if they did a re like a reboot?

Absolutely.

I would die.

Oh, I would I would just love that.

Yeah.

I actually auditioned uh, for those when they added the characters at the end of it.

Really?

Really?

I think I totally blew the audition because I was so excited about the idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I was more or less just fanning out about the show.

They were like, we can't bring this guy in because he'll like ask everybody for their autograph.

And then I ended up working with Steve Carell on uh, Battle of the Sexes.

Yeah.

And I had to bite my tongue every day, not going up and be like, she said.

I love it.

Last one, refilm the Hating Game or shoot a Hating Game, the Hating Game 2, hypothetically speaking.

Hating Game 2.

Yeah, why do it again?

It's perfect the first time around. I love it. How long did you take to shoot it? Like, how long was it?

It was quick. It was like six weeks? Oh my God. Yeah, super quick.

That is so quick.

We were flying through scenes. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's really, really fast. Uh, and it doesn't look that way. And I don't mean We shot We shot Whiplash in 18 days. So there you go.

Oh my God, I would not have guessed that that was only six weeks long. And have you how many times have you watched it?

Oh, a lot. Yeah. Plenty. Yeah. You know, as throughout the process, as things get color corrected and then the music comes in and uh, different edits of it. Um, uh, I I like to be a part of that process. Yeah.

Well, congrats on it. It looks great. Turned out great. You did great.

Yeah, didn't it? I'm very proud. Yeah. Just I'm just so I'm thrilled so thrilled that the fans like it, you know, that's the cool part.