Set in 1986, the semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age comedy follows young cinephile Brian David (Austin Zajur), a character based on Smith’s own movie-loving teen years. After inviting his crush Melody (Siena Agudong) to the movies, David spends the entire day at the theater with his two best friends, Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup), before his big date begins. There, the trio encounter a handful of colorful characters, eat “movie bacon” one of their mothers has prepared and get into some trouble with the theater manager.
The Current recently caught up with the four main cast members of The 4:30 Movie and talked about their favorite Kevin Smith films, cinema snacks and core movie memories.
The 4:30 Movie is playing at San Antonio’s Regal Cielo Vista, Regal Live Oak and Regal Alamo Quarry.
Austin, what kind of notes did Kevin give to you to play a version of him as a teenager?
Austin Zajur: He kind of gave me an open playing field. I have a pretty good relationship with him and understand him and his witty humor from doing Clerks III. In terms of preparation, he told me to watch Weird Science a bunch of times.
What is your favorite Kevin Smith movie?
AZ: For me, it’s Chasing Amy. Tonally, it’s a really beautiful piece of work.
Siena Agudong: Clerks because I feel like it’s a testament to his writing. Setting a camera down and letting the characters just bounce off of each other is beautiful and just so raw.
Reed Northrup: Mine is also Chasing Amy. So much of the politics of love in it still stand true today and how complicated gender and sexuality and love can be.
Nicholas Cirillo: The 4:30 Movie. It paid my bills.
Not counting “movie bacon,” what’s your go-to snack at the movie theater?
AZ: Reese’s Pieces.
NC: Twizzlers! If you know anybody over at Twizzlers, let them know. I’m trying to be an ambassador.
SA: Sno Caps.
RN: I don’t eat bacon, so this movie was very difficult because I had to eat a lot of it and was always spitting it out between takes. I normally just eat good ol’ salty popcorn and a little bit of Buncha Crunch.
They didn’t have veggie bacon for you on the set?
RN: No, we had turkey bacon, but it was so floppy that it was almost worse than the actual pig bacon. So, I just stuck with the pig and then spat it out.
NC: I’m positive whatever bacon they were giving us gave us cancer.
RN: Yes, save this interview for our future lawsuit.
Since most of this movie takes place inside a movie theater, what is your earliest memory at a movie theater?
AZ: I honestly didn’t remember it until recently, but I have spurts [of memories] of my dad taking me to see The Passion of the Christ, and it horrified me.
NC: It might’ve been Star Wars: The Clone Wars for me.
RN: One that’s coming to mind as a pivotal one when I was younger was Holes.
SA: I wanna say Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I just remember watching it with my dad, and I remember seeing [the ape] bite [off someone’s] finger. That’s a core memory for me.
Can a relationship between two people with different tastes in movies last?
RN: My girlfriend loves rom-coms, and I love horror. You would think that those would be on opposite ends of the spectrum and that we would never find commonality. But I’ve started watching all these classic rom-coms with her, and it’s been amazing. We just watched Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts, which I’d never seen before. I loved it. So, we made it work!
There’s a quote in the film that states, “Movies make life make sense.” What movie has impacted you in a way that gave you that kind of deep perspective?
AZ: The Pursuit of Happyness had a really big impact on me. That’s when I started listening to that little whisper that told me I had to be an actor. That kept repeating to me as a kid.
NC: Sean Penn’s Into the Wild really changed me as a human. It was around the time where I was becoming more aware of Transcendentalism and [Henry David] Thoreau. I probably wouldn’t have chosen a life in the arts if I wasn’t introduced to something like that.
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