Joss Whedon Loves BriTANicK and So Should You
Last year, Joss Whedon switched gears from his usual fantasy-fueled projects to tackle a classic. The result was a modern day update of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Whedon packed the film with actors from his hit TV shows and movies, including Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion and Fran Kanz. But two of the actors featured in film were plucked straight off the Internet by the director. Comedians Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, together known as BriTANicK (rhymes with Titanic), have been writing, directing and performing on their own YouTube channel since 2008. While they’ve both dipped their toes into film, both separately and together, Whedon’s project was their first time working on a major studio film project. The duo’s roles might have been small — the characters are simply named First and Second Watchman — but they definitely made a huge impression on the direction and cast. Mashable talked with McElhaney and Kocher about their experience diving into Whedon-verse. The man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly first connected with the BriTANicK when he linked to their “Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer” video on his blog. “He also said he really loved ‘Team Work‘ and ‘Eagles,’” McElhaney said, referring to another video as well as their short film, “Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses,” that was made as McElhaney’s final thesis at New York University. When asked whether their Shakespearean bits, “A Monologue for Three” and its precursor “A Monologue for Thee” were perhaps a factor, they laughed, “I don’t think anyone would cast us in Shakespeare based on that, but you know, maybe.” Probably not, since they can’t even remember the quintessential lines. The filming for Much Ado took place in Whedon’s expansive Calif. home. The cast stayed in hotels, but McElhaney and Kocher admitted that sometimes it would turn into a “slumber party situation.” “We were really accepted into their family.” McElhaney added, “It was really laid back. It didn’t feel like a set. It was like f*cking around with friends.” They noted that for all of their differences in experience, the rest of the cast never acted like “Hollywood types.” The cast even took a shine to one of the duo’s favorite past times, a game they invented called “Running Flip Cup Charades.” As you can probably guess from the title, it’s a slightly complicated drinking game. They even played the aerobic game on the ensemble’s 24-hour back-and-forth tour bus trip from Los Angeles, Calif. to Austin, Texas, where the film was being shown at SXSW. McElhaney described running around the bus for four hours in the middle of the night as “magical.” They were also encouraged to spend that time on the bus promoting the film on social media, particularly Twitter and Vine. Kocher explained that it sometimes led to awkwardness: “Something cool would happen, and then it would be kind of weird while everyone silently tweeted about it.” BriTANicK “SHIT! We should have called it the ‘Harlem Shake-speare’!” – Joss #muchadosxsw @MuchAdoFilm http://t.co/Acgpp6BAb3 […]