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In The To Do List, Aubrey Plaza plays a high school grad who is determined to gain some sexual experience before starting college.
She turns to her parents (played by Connie Britton and Clark Gregg) for advice, but they aren’t exactly open to having “The Talk.”
“The movie is clearly fiction,” says director and writer Maggie Carey, “but I did have one night where I asked my mom when she lost her virginity — I think I was actually kind of needling her a little bit — and my dad literally said, ‘On our wedding night. End of discussion.'”
The scene plays out exactly the same way on screen, with Gregg’s patriarch character cutting off any talk about sex.
Onscreen parents Britton and Gregg were friends before shooting the comedy, although they were resistant to admitting it during their interview with THR.
“I called her a lot. She didn’t call me back. But I think the time listening to her machine, it made me feel closer,” joked Gregg about his “friendship” with the Nashville star.
Plaza, who plays eager student Brandy, says her own family wasn’t really open to talking about sex either.
“We weren’t like a sex-y family,” she says. “We weren’t like talking about sex. I think one time my mom whispered, ‘Be careful,’ like when we were on the general topic.”
Despite her parents’ resistance to talking about sex, Brandy, a straight-A student who was the high school valedictorian, is determined not to go to college a virgin, so she makes a to-do list of sexual acts.
Plaza, who plays sarcastic office worker April on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, admits she was quite similar to Brandy when she was in school.
“I was really into organized activities. I was a good teenager,” she tells THR. “I went through one witchy Fiona Apple phase, where I think for a hot second I was like, ‘I’m going to be that person.'”
Also starring in the raunchy ’90s-set comedy are Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter and Carey’s husband, Bill Hader. Hader tells THR he can also relate to the desire to reinvent yourself before college.
“I can relate to that, especially in high school. I had a lot of, not pressure, but growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be into sports. And I liked sports, but I wasn’t very good at them,” he says.
The To Do List opens in theaters July 26 via CBS Film.
Watch THR’s interview above.
E-mail: Rebecca.Ford@THR.com
Twitter: @Beccamford
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