There are many lucky people in the world who can say they’ve had that ride-or-die BFF who’s always by their side since their early formative years. But what happens when you reach the complexities of adulthood and things like career, new friends, or marriage threaten to damage that fading friendship you just can’t imagine life without? Those are the relatable themes explored in Adult Best Friends, an endearing — and laugh out loud — new comedy about two lifelong friends who reach a fork in the road after one of them gets engaged.
Delaney Buffett not only made her feature-length directorial debut with Adult Best Friends, but she also co-wrote and starred in it alongside writing partner, actress, and real-life bestie Katie Corwin. As the film opens, you’ll also notice another peculiar detail: the lead characters in the film are also named Katie and Delaney. And, no, that’s not just a coincidence. Adult Best Friends — which also features Zachary Quinto onboard as costar and executive producer — is intentionally a semi-autobiographical film, but by no means a “based on a true story” recount of their real-life friendship.
In fact, when Buffett and Corwin first cooked up this special project, they knew from the get-go that they wanted to shake things up with an exaggerated, almost alternate reality-like presentation of both their personalities and their friendship. In the movie, Delaney is an aimless wanderer who mostly spends her time partying, sleeping around, and hating on everything, while the more straitlaced Katie is adulting and preparing to make a big leap with her romantic partner. Basically, they’re far from being exact copies of their real-life counterparts — but that’s where the fun of the project lies.
“We wanted the emotional beats to feel real while still making a fictional story. So thankfully, the plot is made up,” says Corwin as she explains the ratio between fact and fiction in the film. “And we kind of decided to heighten the worst parts of our real personalities to make the characters have even more attention than we have ever really had in our real lives. So a lot of the characteristics that are in the movie character versions of us could be from either one of us.”
Katie Corwin as Katie, Delaney Buffett as Delaney Courtesy of Gravitas Ventures
Buffett agrees, but also notes that their goal was to make her character — let’s call her fictional Delaney — “more stunted” to heighten the contrast between the two so that Corwin’s character (fictional Katie) was perceived as “someone who was a little bit more mature further along in their adult life.”
“A lot of the stuff that we wrote about comedically is drawn from experiences,” adds Buffett. “But the plot points were thrown in there just to bring the audience on a more fun ride than just seeing the two of us talk the entire time.”
During the early stages of the project, Buffett and Corwin toyed with the idea of casting other actresses to play their characters, but in the end, it ultimately felt more natural to tackle the roles themselves.
“I think Katie and I made the decision because we wanted this to be authentic,” explains Buffett. “We've been friends since we were 10, and we erred on the side of authenticity because we wanted our off-screen chemistry to kind of translate on-screen. And also for us, we were all wearing so many hats in the film that we were a little intimidated to do it. But we're really happy with our decision because it's a personal story. In the end, I think we were the right people for the role.”
The film’s plot follows the two friends as they embark on a special trip to their childhood beach town so Katie can break the news about her engagement to her boyfriend John played by the hunky Mason Gooding (Heart Eyes), but things don’t go quite as planned. Along the way, they encounter a colorful crew of characters including a kooky Airbnb host (Cory Walls) and a rambunctious group of dudes they meet at a bar. Without spoiling too much, the latter scene results in a gross-out moment involving a sandal, beer, and dog poo, which begs the question: Since the script is a mishmash of fact and fiction, did some of these things happen for real?
“Well, the Airbnb host, absolutely,” Corwin says coyly. “I had an experience where I had booked a private space. And you get there, and you're like literally shacking up with whoever owns the property. And the sandal was actually a true story as well. But my favorite is Zachary’s character, Henry, who is genuinely made up. I have a brother. He's nothing like that. But every single person we're related to who's seen the movie is like, “Is that me? That's me, right?” She laughs.
Mason Gooding as JohnCourtesy of Gravitas Ventures
One of the scene-stealers in Adult Best Friends is Katie’s brother Henry, played by Quinto, a character who has a habit of giving his little sister a full dose of unwanted secondhand therapy. The Brilliant Minds star revealed that he’s “developed a number of projects” with Buffett and Corwin throughout the years, first in the TV space, but now with Adult Best Friends. And after reading the script, he couldn’t resist a little bit of fun with the role of Henry.
“I've been working with [Katie and Delaney] for a while,” says Quinto. “So my participation in the project as an actor was really an extension of my collaboration with Katie and Delaney in other ways. And it made sense for me to jump in and have a little bit of fun with them on set.”
While the tight-knit cast and crew includes some actor friends in the mix, Buffett and Corwin credit a lot of the casting finds to their producer Marie Nikolau, also noting that Quinto’s presence really made it feel like “this is a project,” paving the way for other actors to sign up. Other familiar faces in the cast include Cazzie David (The Umbrella Academy), Carmen Christopher (The Bear), Heather Mazur (General Hospital), Benjamin Norris (Never Have I Ever), Michael Rowland (Animal Control), and Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) to name a few, but it was landing Wilson that really had Buffett and Corwin over the moon.
“I'm also a rabid fan of Casey Wilson, and so the entire time we were writing, I was like, ‘What if Casey Wilson did this one? What if she was in that part? Like, should we reach out to Casey Wilson?" shared Corwin.
“That was all thanks to Zach and Marie, too,” adds Buffett.
“And that's how she actually got there,” says Corwin. “But then, when she actually got there, I was like, ‘Oh my God, it worked.’ I manifested Casey Wilson.”
Benjamin Norris as Kyle, Delaney Buffett as DelaneyCourtesy of Gravitas Ventures
As for the brisk 16-day shoot, Quinto took notice of Buffett’s prowess as a director, praising her attention to detail and openness when it came to allowing the cast to flex their comedic chops with alternative takes. “I was very impressed by [Delaney’s] ability to see the whole picture, know what she needed, and then give us the room to play within that vision,” shared Quinto when asked about the amount of improv on set. “I think with any comedy, it wants to be able to breathe. So there were moments where I would suggest alternatives or Delaney would suggest an alternative. She was incredibly supportive of that process, which I think is important when you're making a comedy, because you want as much as you can have in the edit room to be able to draw from.”
He continues: “I think that any smart director knows that the best idea wins and Delaney certainly approached it with that point of view. That said, it wasn't a free-for-all. We definitely adhered to the structure of the scenes to move the plot forward, but within that, there was a lot of play and openness to suggestion.”
“Zach's character was so funny to start with,” recalls Buffett. “All of the improv he did was very difficult to cut up, and I think when you're in an edit, you have all of this improv, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but a lot of people's improv ended up in it, and I think that's the most fun, because there's so much spontaneity on a comedy set where something comes out of someone's mouth and you're like, ‘How did you think of that?’ There were so many options of the funniest take in the edit, so I was super excited when I got into the edit to just have so many amazing options from people who are very skilled improvisers.”
Katie Corwin as Katie, Delaney Buffett as Delaney Courtesy of Gravitas Ventures
All laughs and raunchy-comedy antics aside, there’s one thing Quinto hopes audiences take away from Adult Best Friends by the time the end credits roll. “You can't have nostalgia without evolution, and I think that perspective that comes with growing up is something that I think this film captures so beautifully, and with real humor and real heart, and I hope people respond to that,” he says. “I hope people feel that, and sense that, and enjoy that.”
At the time of its limited-theatrical release (February 26), Adult Best Friends was sporting a coveted 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, so if audiences respond well, could we see Katie and Delaney’s fictional story continue to play out on the big screen?
“It's funny because I think someone said they’d love to see a spinoff of Zach's character, I read that somewhere,” replied Buffett. “I would, too, but yeah, I mean, obviously, that's not something we planned, but I welcome, that would be amazing.”
“We welcome funding!” quips Corwin.
As for Quinto’s thoughts on another Adult Best Friends adventure, he’d rather see the two rising talents explore other original projects before immediately tackling a sequel.
“Katie and Delaney have already written another feature that is a totally different kind of story, but every bit as funny," teases Quinto. “So it’s wonderful knowing Katie and Delaney as long as I have now, which is probably six or seven years, to watch their evolution, to watch their growth, to watch their skills, and their talents develop, and it's been really so gratifying for me, as a producer, as a filmmaker, and so I'm really excited about the project that we're working on now, and I think a real step forward for them, and so whether or not they decide to return to these characters, I'm really excited for people to see what they're gonna do, because I have a lot of faith in them, and I think that people are starting now with this movie to see what they're capable of and how funny and talented they really are.”
Adult Best Friends is now playing in select theaters and is also available on VOD.
