Stars of Kevin Smith’s The 4:30 Movie Share Their Own Coming of Age Stories

Kevin Smith is back with his latest effort, the quasi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, The 4:30 Movie. Set in 1986, the film follows a group of teenage boys who spend the day at their local movie theater, sneaking in and out while attempting to fulfill their teenage dream: sneaking into an R-rated movie with a girl.

The 4:30 Movie stars a quartet of young actors in the leading roles: Austin Zajur plays Brian David, a character based on a teenage Kevin Smith, while Nick Cirillo and and Reed Northrup play his two best friends, with Siena Agudong as Melody, the girl of Brian David’s dreams. In addition to its young leads, The 4:30 Movie boasts an all-star roster of supporting players in minor roles, including Kevin Smith regulars like Jason Mewes, Justin Long, Jason Lee, Jeff Anderson, and Method Man, among many others, including some cameos we won’t spoil here.

In advance of The 4:30 Movie‘s theatrical release, Screen Rant interviewed the four young leads of the film. They talk about working with Kevin Smith, shooting in his famous SModcastle Cinemas, and dressing in 1980s fashion, including some accessories that were provided by various crew members from the set.

The Cast of The 4:30 Movie Share Their First Experiences With R-Rated Movies

“We bought tickets to some PG movie and then snuck into this sold-out showing…”

Screen Rant: Hello, everybody!

Austin Zajur: What’s up?

Oh, man, what an odyssey this movie is! It reminded me so much of when I was, you know, in high school, skipping school to go to the movies, hanging out with my friends and talking about Star Wars all day. All of that. So my first question is for the group. My first R rated movie was Starship Troopers. My dad was cool that way. He took me when I was six years old. What was your first R rated movie in theaters? And how did you see it?

Austin Zajur: My first R rated experience was me and a couple of my best friends when I was, I believe, 12 years old. We went and saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall and we bought tickets to some PG movie and then snuck into this sold out showing of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and we saw our first male genitalia on screen of the cinema and it was pretty crazy. Yeah, I love Nicholas Stoller a lot.

Nick Cirillo: Fantastic. I think when I was maybe seven or eight, I convinced my dad to take me to see Hostel, which he immediately then took me out of and we spent the rest of the night in the arcade. So that was pretty memorable. But yeah, that one was a good first go-round in the cinema for an R rated movie. I feel like that’s pretty hardcore.

Reed Northrup: I don’t remember my first in theaters. But I remember, my family was moving and I was really angsty about it. And so they let me watch Borat. I was too young for it, as I remember. And I think it was my first R-rated movie ever. I just remember my parents looking over with such disapproval as I laughed my little butt off, way too young to see Borat.

Siena Agudong: I don’t remember the theater one either. But my whole family and I watched We’re the Millers. I don’t remember how young I was, but that definitely… it was a lot.

The 4:30 Movie Cast On The Kevin Smith Of It All

“When Brian David says, “I got a 24 Karat Case of Love,” like, that’s an actual thing that happened.”

Fantastic, fantastic. Austin, your characters is, to an extent, an avatar for Kevin Smith himself. Tell me about becoming Teen Kevin, but also getting to make Brian David your own guy. What was that balance like?

Austin Zajur: Honestly, it was super freeing, because the whole time, as we were in pre production, as I was working on the character, I was asking Kevin, like, “Do you want me to do a little Jersey thing? Do you want me to try to really do this like you? Or what do you want?” He kind of just gave it to me entirely, because I think maybe he felt weird telling me. “Yeah, do this and do that.” Because I feel like with Nick or whatever, with playing Ernie, maybe he was a little more like,”Yeah, go be like Ernie.” But he was a little more open with me, I feel.

But he did send me a lot of old of his old tape recordings. When Brian David says, “I got a 24 Karat Case of Love,” like, that’s an actual thing that happened on tape recording. If you go on YouTube and type in Emo Kev, there’s a whole podcast where Kevin and Scott Mosier listen back to all of Kevin’s old tape recording stuff that he started doing after… I looked in and kind of correlated the timeline. And, like, a month after he saw Say Anything, he totally started using a tape recorder to record his thoughts.

For anyone who wants to answer this one. Tell me about shooting at SModcastle Cinemas. I figure that the vibe would be cozier than a typical Hollywood set. Did Kevin host any special screenings for the cast and crew? Or was he like, “Alright, people, we got to get our shots. No goofing around.”

Siena Agudong: Well, yeah, it was crazy, because that’s obviously his theater. And I remember sometimes like, during lunch, Kevin would disappear. And I would ask, “Oh, where’s Kevin? “And he’s like, “Oh, he’s probably just editing upstairs.” And I don’t remember if it was like the second week of shooting, but Kevin took us up and we watched, like, everything that we had filmed thus far, and he had already edited it. You know, roughly, but you could really see it. And then 15 minutes later, we were back down and shooting. It was just so cool. And so special. That just doesn’t happen. I’ve never experienced something like that.

The Audacious 1980s Fashion of The 4:30 Movie

Siena Agudong shares that, “I kind of felt like a mannequin.”

Siena, while I have you here, you play Melody. You look like you stepped out of an issue of Seventeen magazine from 1986. The hair, the big old scrunchie, the outfits. Did you love that vibe? Or were you happy to return to the present day when the shooting was over?

Siena Agudong: I don’t think I had too strong of an opinion. But I think I loved that everyone… I kind of felt like a mannequin. Because everyone was just so excited to like, bring the things that they wore in the 80s. I mean, I had these jelly bracelets that I believe belonged to someone from set. And they were just they were just playing with everything. And that bang was just a piece. But I was just playing dress up every single day. It was just so exciting to see everyone replay their high school years.

Reed. Same question. Did you keep your little ponytail thing?

Reed Northrup: I have to tell you, Zak, it is absolutely framed in my house. It is here is here on my bookshelf in a little glass frame so you can see it, and I can have it forever. I will say, my mom also asked if it was my real hair, which was crazy because she had seen me the month before and it was nowhere in sight. So how she thought it was biologically possible that I grew it out that quickly really befuddles me. But yes, I have the rat tail, still on my shelf.

Yeah, you look like a prototype of the kid from Terminator 2.

Reed Northrup: Oh, totally. Totally.

The 4:30 Movie Stars on The Unbreakable Bonds of Friendship

“With them, it was so easy to feel brotherly.”

Nicholas, or Nick. You get to be the louder, tougher, not quite leader, but the immature older brother of the group. Tell me about like the balance of your guy, like how much of a dick do you get to be while still being a pal?

Nick Cirillo: Oh, that, I guess, was the main challenge, so to speak, of the character. You know, remaining to a point where it’s still believable that these guys are friends at the end of the day, after such dickish behavior. But really, it was so easy because it’s more like an antagonizing, like you say, older brother type of thing. That was really fun to explore with Austin and Reed. With them, it was so easy to feel brotherly, I suppose. We could really jab at each other and know that, in a way, we were still on safe terms, safe boundaries, you know, not overstepping as actors, which bled through to the to the characters, I think.

Yeah, I mean, when I hang out with my really close friends and, you know, we have a couple of drinks and we’re hanging out, you know, the things that we say to each other, it’s like, from the outside in, it’s like, “you guys are friends?” Of course, we wouldn’t be saying this otherwise. Yeah, in a way, it’s almost like the best thing a friend can be for you to each other, is like a punching bag sometimes, you know, a safe person to go and be toxic with together!

Austin Zajur: I feel like that kind of that connection kind of happened super organically with all of us on set, too. Like we would just kind of joke about each other, like, “I feel like you were indicating on that last take,” just screwing with each other and stuff.

Well, you guys, the movie is fantastic. I’m probably going to watch the screener again before it expires on me. It’s beautiful. It’s a snapshot of Americana. And you guys are such a great unit. I could watch you shoot the shit, you know, as long as you want. So thank you so much for the film. And I hope to catch you all on whatever you decide to do next.

Austin Zajur: When you watch it again, make sure to… Like, pretty much everything in it is… Like Brian’s mom’s character is named Grace. There’s so many Easter Eggs, where it’s, to an extent a meta film without being like one of Kevin’s View Askewniverse meta type films with like callback jokes. It’s honestly just so truthful. If you really dive deep and, like, research stuff, it’s pretty crazy.

More About The 4:30 Movie

Writer-director Kevin Smith presents his most personal film to date with this coming-of-age story — set in the summer of 1986 — that follows three sixteen-year-old friends who spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies at the local cineplex. When one of the guys invites the girl of his dreams to see an R-rated film, all hilarity breaks loose, as a self-important theater manager (Ken Jeong) and teen rivalries interfere with his best-laid plans. Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, Jason Biggs, and more contribute outrageous characters to this poignant comic valentine to moviegoing and the youth of the ’80s.

The 4:30 Moviereleases in theaters on September 13.