STACK J#165 Jul 2018

DVD & BD FEATURE

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Director Kay Cannon tells STACK how she brought a vital female perspective to a traditionally male-dominated genre, with the raunchy teen comedy Blockers . Words Scott Hocking

B est known for her work as a writer and producer on TV’s 30 Rock and New Girl , along with two Pitch Perfect sequels, Kay Cannon always believed that her first directing gig would be an episode of one of her shows. Instead, she

Director Kay Cannon on the set of Blockers

you’re the boss! I brought that kind of vibe to the roundtable and when I left – and I didn’t know this until after I’d shot Blockers

from happening. Ostensibly a comedy in the raunchy tradition of Porky’s , American Pie , Superbad , et al, Blockers has a unique point of difference – it’s one of the few films of this kind to be directed by a woman. Moreover, where the focus has traditionally been on the male characters, Blockers corrects the gender imbalance as a coming-of-age comedy told from a female perspective, which Cannon added to the screenplay by brothers Brian and Jim Kehoe. “When I got the script it felt like it was from the male perspective, and much heavier on the parents’ story,” she recalls. “There wasn’t the balance between parents and kids that you see in the movie. One of the biggest changes was

– the guys were like, ‘we should have her direct something for us.’ They sent me the script for ‘The Pact’, which changed to Blockers , with a straight offer to direct it.” Blockers is the story of three protective parents – Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) – who, upon discovering their teenaged daughters (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Aldon) have made a pact

found herself at the helm of teen comedy Blockers , having impressed producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg with her input into Bad Neighbours 2 . “What happened was, I was brought into a roundtable full of ladies for Bad Neighbours 2 ,” Cannon tells STACK . “I had come with all my notes and thoughts. When you run your own TV show,

When I got the script it felt like it was from the male perspective, and much heavier on the parents’ story

you’re basically the director of the directors, and everything goes through you for better or worse –

to lose their virginity on prom night, embark on a series of madcap misadventures to prevent it

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JULY 2018

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