Possessing crack comedic timing, beauty and yet still a sympathetic visage and demeanor, Lindsay Sloane exudes girl-next-door goodness, a quality which has kept her steadily employed in a variety of mostly sunny roles in both movies and television. It’s exactly these traits which writer-directors Peter Hyuck and Alex Gregory wished to deploy in subversive manner by casting Sloane in their bawdy comedy “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,” just out on DVD last week. ShockYa had a chance to sit down and chat with Sloane about the uniquely titled ensemble movie, as well as her off-screen thoughts on its subject matter and what exactly the “orgy cut-off number” is that makes her uncomfortable. The conversation is excerpted below:
ShockYa: Movie titles are a lot of times changed to something if not sleazy and tawdry then at least kind of blandly catch-all, in an effort to woo the lowest-common-denominator masses. “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,” though, is actually about a good, old-fashioned orgy. Was it always called that?
Lindsay Sloane: It was always called that, but I was 100 percent convinced that it was going to change, which is I think partly why I agreed to do this movie. I remember being on the phone with Lake (Bell) — because I knew her before we did this, and we each knew that the other person was considering it — and we had a very long conversation, after we’d both met Pete (Hyuck) and Alex (Gregory), and felt the movie was going to be tasteful, where the only thing holding us back was the title. We were both like, “There’s just no way. They can’t release a movie called ‘A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.'” Then we shoot the movie and of course the actors are the ones saying, “You have to call it ‘A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,’ what else could this movie possibly be called?” If felt right — the title was a juxtaposition of this crazy sex romp and a sweet little story about friends.
ShockYa: And you filmed it entirely on location (in the coastal town of Wilmington), is that right? Knowing the Carolinas like I do, you couldn’t just have signs for extras reading “Orgy,” with an arrow pointed down a street.
LS: (laughs) No, it was just called “A Good Old Fashioned” when we were in North Carolina.
ShockYa: So were vendors in the know?
LS: Once we became friends with people. There were a couple restaurants that the cast went to all the time, and the Dixie Grille is where we ate breakfast all the time. So we would slowly start letting people in, and it was pretty intimate where we were staying. Most of the extras in the movie were of course locals, so once they were there they figured out what the movie was about.
ShockYa: I think the big orgy accurately sells the film, but I was intrigued too by these giant themed parties that Jason Sudeikis’ character throws. There’s kind of a “Big Chill” factor to the movie and its reunion gatherings, but it’s perhaps this illogical extrapolation to the nth degree.
LS: Yes!
ShockYa: Do you have any friends like that, who are always throwing big themed parties?
LS: Well, I was that person for a long time. And Pete is that person, Lake is that person. But I used to throw ’70s sitcom character parties, where you had to come dressed in costume. Just any excuse we could have to put on some sort of costume and drink a specific drink pegged to that time or place — it all revolves around alcohol, of course. But, yeah, parties are more fun when people are dressed up like asses. Because then we’re all on the same level and feel kind of stupid, but are trying to act like we don’t feel stupid. It eliminates all of the bitchy people from your parties.
ShockYa: The movie’s DVD commentary mentions that it was shot loosely in order, and the orgy sequence back-loaded basically, so the cast had a chance to get to know one another —
LS: Which seems like the right thing to do, right? By the time we shot the orgy I think we’d been together for a total of two months, and the directors had wanted us to have a chance to build a rapport. But in two months [we’d] spent every second together — every meal, every day, because we liked each other so much that we didn’t just leave at the end of a day. We actually all lived in the same apartment building, and so we’d get together and have dinner. People would grab what they had in their rooms and we’d say, “OK, so we’re meeting up in 10 minutes at so-and-sos?” We were together all the time, and then the reality of having to get in a room and get naked with people was weird. There’s no fake making out — you have to make out with people. There’s definitely simulated sex, but you have to make out and do the motions of sex, which is sometimes even more uncomfortable than just having sex with someone. Sometimes it’s almost easier to say, “We should just have sex, because me faking sex on top of you for two hours is going to be so much more awkward for both of us.”
ShockYa: Good old “outercourse.”
LS: I know, it’s so uncomfortable, because you’re like, “Wait, what am I humping? Your thigh? Your knee? It looks more real this way, but you want top of ass crack and side boob, so I have to keep my arm here.” There are so many particulars and it’s so uncomfortable. We did try to line up the bits as best we could. We shot the orgy over the course of maybe five days. There was a lot of sex in this movie. I mean, you think it’s only the end of the movie, but there’s probably a good seven minutes of it in the film, and that is about 1/1ooth of what we shot. There was so much that didn’t make the movie, because we did every set-up and amalgamation; we all did something with someone. At the end of each day, they were like, “OK, do we have you doing anything physical with Tyler?” They wanted to make sure it felt like an orgy and wasn’t just people pairing up, even if it was something as simple as Tyler and I both naked but me sitting in a blanket on his lap shooting a scene of truth or dare. So it’s a legit orgy, people, it’s legit!
ShockYa: You’re married in real life, and for me it was amusing, these married characters played by Will Forte and Lucy Punch who kind of want in on the orgy, and are really resentful of being left out. Not necessarily in exactly the same fashion, but have you found yourself on the outside looking in with regards to single friends?
LS: Yeah, there are times when it’s people assuming I don’t want to go out or something. I’m pregnant now, and so of course pregnant woman don’t go to bars or parties. I’m like, “I haven’t had the baby yet! I’m not on bed rest.” I still need to have a life, even more so now. I feel now a bit like I’m missing out on things. But luckily before, with my husband, I do feel that we were either the people starting the party, or always included. He’s a wonderful guest. Every person throwing a wedding should invite my husband, because he will get the party going. He came out to the “Orgy” set, and it’s a pretty intimidating environment… coming in thinking, “Oh my God, my wife is going to have fake sex with all of these people.” But by the end of his visit, they all wanted me to leave and him to stay. He definitely made his presence known. Tyler and I were the only married people in the cast — well, Jason was married at the time [too]. But there were a lot of single people, and it wasn’t like everyone was safely paired off. So I feel like that served up weird things, because these people could legitimately be hooking up if they wanted to be. It almost would have been better if we were all married, because then it’s all off the table and nothing gets weird. But the shit got real!
ShockYa: To quote Martin Lawrence.
LS: Yeah, exactly. (laughs)
ShockYa: What’s your perception, maybe, on orgies through time, if that makes sense — whatever you’ve [been] exposed to in real life, in hearing about them? I sometimes think people mainly associate them with one era, the late 1960s and early ’70s. One of the things this movie does is posit that people aren’t as adventurous in bed as they used to be. And yet maybe it’s not a 1:1 causal relationship, but I feel like a movie like this almost wouldn’t exist without the Internet.
LS: Very true, but I also think that what may be happening in life, and maybe what younger kids are doing, is that orgies that may be occuring now seem a little bit more lascivious. This sounds crazy, but maybe they used to be more pure? I feel that sexuality is so prevalent nowadays that it’s taken on a different energy. It’s almost like a more raw energy, whereas before it seemed like, “Hey, we’re partying and we’re in love — let’s all make out together!” and then it slowly turned into other things. Even the way it’s portrayed in this movie — it’s not like literally the “Kama Sutra,” with legs intertwined, where we’re doing a train of some kind. This movie to me feels like the more realistic way that an orgy could happen, where people break off and you switch partners. But the visual of it happening now is much dirtier than it used to be — like, literally a pile of bodies. Tyler (Labine) described an orgy that a friend of his walked in on, and it was that. I watch HBO’s “Real Sex” all the time, and I’m just fascinated by what people are into and what they’re willing to do. …There’s something about a threesome that seems almost palatable, because it’s three people. I guess I understand how people can do that, and maybe I’ve seen it enough in movies or porn to understand it. But the idea of an orgy where it’s five and up, I cannot comprehend it at all.
ShockYa: So the orgy comfortability cut-off is five?
LS: Yeah, I think the orgy cut-off is five. (laughs) Three, that’s palatable — can totally do. Yeah. Everyone’s getting something from someone. At five, though, someone gets left out in some way.
Written by: Brent Simon
