'The Threesome' Interview: Zoey Deutch and Cast

Moviefone speaks with Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King and Ruby Cruz about 'The Threesome'. "It was a strong script with a strong director behind it," Deutch said.

Zoey Deutch stars in 'The Threesome'.

Opening in theaters on September 5th is the new romantic comedy ‘The Threesome’, which is directed by Chad Hartigan (‘Little Fish’) and stars Zoey Deutch (‘Zombieland: Double Tap’), Jonah Hauer-King (‘The Little Mermaid’), and Ruby Cruz (‘Willow’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King and Ruby Cruz about their work on 'The Threesome', Deutch's first reaction to the screenplay and why she wanted to work with director Chad Hartigan, Hauer-King's take on his character's unusual situation, and what Cruz learned about threesomes from her research.

(L to R) Jonah Hauer-King, Zoey Deutch, and Ruby Cruz in 'The Threesome'. Photo: Vertical.

Moviefone: To begin with, Zoey, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of your character that you were excited to explore on screen?

Zoey Deutch: First impression was that it was a very strong script with a very strong director behind it, and I thought that he was an interesting and different choice to be the captain of that ship. I was really excited about that pairing, and I had been wanting to work with Chad the director for a long time. So, immediately after reading it, I reached out to him and asked him if he would be interested in meeting with me. I have this thing when I'm reading scripts that it's like my body knows before my mind. There's a lot going on here and my body, it doesn't lie. Whenever I'm reading and I start to just speak out loud the lines, that's always an indicator for me that I need to do this and I really want to do this, and that's what happened. The second I started reading it, the words were just like flowing out of me as I was reading it. I loved the cadence and heard the way that she spoke, the dialogue, the relationships, and how nuanced it was.
Jonah Hauer-King stars in 'The Threesome'.

MF: Jonah, can you talk about the unusual situation Connor finds himself in and how he navigates through that?

Jonah Hauer-King; I think it's something that he's not expecting. I think ultimately, he finds himself in a position where he must grow up very quickly and take responsibility for his actions. However intentional or not, he needs to take responsibility and try and be a good person and do the right thing in that quite complex delicate situation. He gets it wrong on several occasions, but he tries to right the ship and I think a lot of the story for him is about learning from those mistakes and trying to be a better person to both Olivia and Jenny. So, I really like that about him. He doesn't feel sorry for himself too much at the time and any time there is a little bit of self-pity, he kind of drags himself out of it and realizes that there's more important things that play and this isn't about him. It's very much about two other women and potentially bring new life into the world as well. So, I think he bit by bit starts to become a bigger man.

Ruby Cruz stars in 'The Threesome'.

MF: Ruby, it seems like Jenny is caught in the middle of Olivia and Connor’s relationship. Can you talk about that and your approach to playing the character?

Ruby Cruz: I think when I was doing my research on threesomes, I learned about the term called “The Second Fiddle”. The Second Fiddle is the person in a threesome who doesn't get as much attention, and that's what Jenny is. Jenny is the third in this story. I think it was just relating to how she feels like the third in her life as well. She feels like they're characters in her own life. After the first read of the script, I realized that, and I thought that was a very interesting way to feel. I was excited to dive into that.
'The Threesome' director Chad Hartigan.

MF: Zoey, you mentioned that you had wanted to work with director Chad Hartigan for a long time. Now that you have, what was that experience like for you?

ZD: So disappointing. I'm kidding. He was the best. I love him, I think he is such a wonderful human being, and one of my favorite things about him is how much he truly appreciates every single person involved and walks the walk and talks to talk about collaboration. There is no hierarchy with him. He wants everyone to feel invested, involved, and like their opinion matters. I saw that from the second I started working with him all the way to now, and I loved working with him. He's just a wonderful filmmaker and a film lover. So totally, very grateful that I got that opportunity.

(L to R) Zoey Deutch, Ruby Cruz and Jonah Hauer-King, in 'The Threesome'. Photo: Vertical.

MF: Finally, Jonah, what was your experience like working with director Chad Hartigan and did he give you room to improvise on set?

JHK: Yes, and I think that was partly down to the fact that when you have characters that are as well drawn as these ones, it is very subtle and it's quite nuanced to how the story develops, how that all relates to one another, and the energy of a particular scene can be made very different with different types of performance. It was always about calibrating in this moment, like how emotional is Connor being or how difficult is he being? That was true for all the characters. Then that was a fun job for Chad in the edit to work out the emotional beats of the story and he had more to work with. Because it wasn't like this is the exact point that the character is going through, or these are the exact beats that we're going to hit through the story. He had more wiggle room to play around with it. That came very naturally to both Zoey and Ruby. I think that's probably what they would do on any film anyway, they would provide different takes and different things. So, I think that came very naturally to them, and then I just had to keep up.

(L to R) Ruby Cruz, Zoey Deutch, and Jonah Hauer-King in 'The Threesome'. Photo: Vertical.

What is the plot of ‘The Threesome’?

Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) wants to start a real relationship with Olivia (Zoey Deutch). While out on a date, the two meet Jenny (Ruby Cruz), one thing leads to another, and they have a threesome. In a strange twist of fate, both Jenny and Olivia end up pregnant.