It might not be 2025 yet, but A24 and Kyle Mooney are speed-tracking to New Year’s Day with Y2K! On the final day of 1999, high school juniors Eli and Danny crash a New Years Eve party to fulfill their dreams of high school popularity and fame. However, when a virus causes technology to turn against humanity, they find themselves fighting for their lives.
To celebrate the film’s release, I had the chance to talk with stars Jaeden Martell (IT) and Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2). Here, we discussed about forming their friendship as Eli and Danny, filming with American rock icon Fred Durst, and much more. Check out our conversation down below!
HOLLYWOOD HANDLE: There’s no doubt that you both had just so much fun building this brotherly dynamic that was just so wholesome. What’s one memorable moment on set that you guys shared that really cemented your friendship with each other and just the entire cast as well?
JAEDEN MARTELL: One time, we did this thing that was totally improvised. I think when I was behind you and we were talking to Kyle and you went like this [motions] and then I blasted my arm through with the middle finger and we totally improvised.
JULIAN DENNISON: Yeah, that was cool. I think we spent, we spent like a bit of time, we didn’t have a lot of prep time. We were probably like there doing pre-production for probably like two weeks, a week and a half. So, we tried to spend as much time as we could together.
We were doing night shoots and we’d all get dropped off back to our apartments that were kind of in the middle of nowhere. The only thing that was open past 12 was like a Denny’s. I remember we would all go down and eat together and just talk and just hang out and I think that really built the relationships. Me and Jaeden’s apartments were down the hall from each other. There’s a few times we’d have dinner or drinks together, like Mountain Dew and stuff like that. I think just enjoying each other’s company and I think enjoying real people and people who are genuine.
HOLLYWOOD HANDLE: I just love the friendship that you guys share on screen together as Eli and Danny, especially in the whole party sequence in the first act, because it’s just going so crazy in that sequence. In that sequence, you guys take so many bumps. Which one would you say was the biggest or best one that you had to take while filming? I know the porta potty sequence was just so messy!
MARTELL: Yeah, it was messy! It was really cold, but thankfully it wasn’t real poo-poo, it was chocolate and it tasted pretty good and smelled good. We had to get out of there, take a warm shower, get dried off, get redressed, go back in, so that was a lot. The technical process of that was like a little bit exhausting.
DENNISON: I wasn’t in the porta potty scene, but for the scenes that we shot that were a bit more crazier, I think just like a lot of dirt, a lot of blood, a lot of like fake sweat, mixed with kind of like real sweat, because it was really hot in that house. I think it was just intense and it was fun!
HOLLYWOOD HANDLE: I saw the intensity of those two scenes, and it was just a huge blast, and one other really extensive scene was also in the finale with Fred Durst and just his presence in the entire film is just something else. I don’t know if you’ve gotten to meet him yet, Julian, have you gotten to meet him some yet?
DENNISON: I met him after shooting, at a film festival actually, at South by Southwest, where it showed, so it was my first time meeting him, which was a great experience.
Yeah, because we got to talk about Fred Durst a little bit, because that finale was so really fun to just see together. For either of you, what was the most memorable experience that you had with him, and did he give you any good advice to keep?
MARTELL: He was honestly full of so much good advice, some that I wouldn’t even feel like comfortable telling anybody. He was so open, and really kind, but also, I say this humbly, with every other actor in mind too. He was very respectful in a way that, while he’s older than us, he seemed to have a lot of respect for everyone as actors. He was curious and interested, but he was this larger than life person and persona. It was interesting to see the person behind that, so kind, so fascinating, and so open. I really enjoyed working with him, it was very, very valuable.
HOLLYWOOD HANDLE: For you Julian, I have one more question because Danny actually relates to one other character that you’ll play outside of this film, that being Fishlegs in How to Train Your Dragon. How do those two roles intertwine for you and what can we expect from your portrayal of Fishlegs?
DENNISON: That’s a great kind of, Danny and Fishlegs, true. We weren’t shooting it simultaneously, I remember actually we both got emails about that.
Bill Pope, who [was our director of photography in] Y2K, also shot How to Train Your Dragon, so it was cool working with him again. I loved those films growing up as a kid, I watched all of them, and I love Fishlegs. My portrayal is true to who Fishlegs is, with a little bit of a twist obviously.
MARTELL: A little bit of a Kiwi twist?
DENNISON No, not at all. I had an accent in that film! It should be fun and I’m excited for people to see it. I’m excited for people who liked those movies to see it because they’re going to be happy with what they see. That’s really all I can say, because I think someone might come out of a closet and kill me!
A24’s Y2K is now playing in theaters.
