Steve Basilone on The Sweet, Scary, And Sweaty Personal Stuff That Made It Into His First Film ‘Long Weekend’

By Lea Palmieri Twitter @littleleap
Published March 25, 2021, 1:18 p.m. ET

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Romantic Comedies

Steve Basilone has written nearly two dozen films — about 16 or 17 by his count — and the first one that’s ever truly been made, that he not only wrote but also directed, AND is inspired by events in his own life, is now in theaters. It’s called Long Weekend and if you like a romantic comedy with a little twist, this one is very much for you.

“I’ve done a bunch of other movies in the past, mostly in the studio system; they languish, they don’t go anywhere,” Basilone said over a Zoom call last week from Los Angeles. “I knew if I was going to, ultimately, con a bunch of people into letting me make something without ever having really directed anything before, it was going to have to be small enough that it felt digestible, and so that’s why it’s ultimately just two people talking.”

It’s a bit more than that, but it’s also really good at being just that, due to the fact that those two people are played by Finn Wittrock as Bart, a struggling writer fresh off a breakdown, and Zoe Chao as Vienna, a mysterious and charming new gal Bart meets during an afternoon at the movies. You’re guaranteed to fall just as much in love with them as they do with each other, but that’s not a spoiler or the twist — that comes later. I normally find the mere mention of there being a twist at all to be a spoiler because then we’re only watching to find out what it is. But in this case, it’s not only worth mentioning that it exists, but that it ultimately works.

As Basilone described it, “Not to put myself on the same level by any means, but taking a Before Sunrise, that trilogy, just a character study and adding another element to it that hopefully distinguishes it from that.” He went on to say, “I feel like it’s a movie about feelings. It’s taking a leap of faith even in spite of it seeming illogical, which oftentimes it is. Being vulnerable and being open and choosing to trust somebody is sometimes nuts. Less so as a man because we take so many things for granted, but just going on a date as a woman is fucking crazy. So it was just always a way to tell a story that was very grounded.”

That is mostly due to the fact that much of the movie is inspired by reality, and lifted from events in Basilone’s own life. He’s also been a writer on shows such as Community, Happy Endings, and The Goldbergs, but his personal life proved to be decidedly less hilarious for a period of time. From around 2011-2014, he battled an illness that led to having his colon removed and found him “spending the better part of a year in the hospital,” once weighing only 88 pounds. On top of that, he went through a divorce and also lost his grandmother and mother. And despite what you’ve heard in the past year, feel free to use Basilone as an example that no, you do not need to be writing your own King Lear while experiencing a traumatic time in life. It wasn’t until the fall of 2016 that the film actually started to take shape and he committed to writing it. “I think I had the idea probably a full year before I actually wrote it. And my process has been for a long time… I don’t know if it’s great, but it works. For me, I get a little high, I get a massage and then I just think about ideas. This was one that in an hour-long massage, I left it and I was like, Okay, I have that movie.” He clarifies that at first, “It was just skeletal, I had to figure out some more twists,” but he was on his way to what would eventually crystalize into Long Weekend.

Many details from his own life also made it into the film, including a monologue from Bart about a cowboy, a man Basilone called “a fascinating individual” he met when he was 22 and had just recently moved to LA. “That just been floating in my brain for, you know, 13 years,” he said. Vienna also originally had two separate monologues that were based on “stories that have been told to me over the last decade at some point,” that he credits Chao for doing “a beautiful job with” but they were ultimately cut from the final edit of the film. And while parts of Bart were certainly inspired by Basilone’s own experiences, the character of Vienna was inspired by a woman he met while his mom was going through cancer treatment, who he remains friendly with today, and expressed his appreciation for her even posting about the film on her social media platforms. “It took a little while to digest, I guess the trauma and catharsis that came out of that, but it was things that had been lying dormant, then they came to the aid when I had the language to tell the story.”

Also coming to his aid was the stellar supporting cast, with nearly every actor representing the previous projects he’s worked on. From Community, he enlisted Jim Rash to play Bart’s new manager. From The Goldbergs, enter Wendi McLendon-Covey as Bart’s landlord. And in a mini Happy Endings reunion, Damon Wayans Jr. plays Bart’s best bud Doug, who is married to Rachel, played by Casey Wilson. “The whole thing is just like a bit of a weird fever dream,” Basilone admitted. “You spend so much time doing this, and I’ve been incredibly lucky. I basically live in a house that was bought by dick jokes and that’s weird. What a crazy life to lead. But you work so long and every job is just a million heartbreaks. It’s not even being pessimistic, [but] more of a realist. A statement that I fall back on, but I feel like it takes so many people, literally dozens, hundreds of people who are so talented and so smart, working so hard, just to make something bad. So anytime anything is remotely good, it’s a miracle. So the fact that this got made and that I think that it’s pretty good is a goddamn miracle. It was just such a joy and so I’m so grateful that all of these people that I worked with throughout the years came and were supportive. Just having them on set and being like, ‘Here are words I wrote, let’s do them, but if you got other ideas…’ and they were just so great about that. It was a comforting thing to have, having not really done this before. I had total faith that [they were] going to be great.”

But it’s the leads who truly sell you on this story, that were their performances slightly less wonderful, it might be harder to buy into. While Basilone admits he is “a big ‘fraidy cat and I don’t do scary shit,” that means he missed Wittrock in his Ryan Murphy performances, but instead enjoyed and found him charming in roles such as If Beale Street Could Talk, The Big Short, and A Futile and Stupid Gesture. “He’s very measured and very thoughtful and game, just incredibly supportive and collaborative. [He’s] a Juilliard-trained actor who has all the dramatic chops. After a while, I started thinking of him and referring to him as ‘comedic tofu’ because he’s not known for his comedy necessarily, but you put them in a scene that has that energy and he raises to it and elevates it and just takes on all those flavors. He’s just such a facile actor.”

As for Chao, he said, “Love Life was a surprisingly really lovely show and she was so great in it. I really am so thrilled. I think she’s having a moment and I hope this helps her in some way because she’s just the sweetest. If this movie works, it’s largely because of her. She’s kind of the glue; some of those scenes and those turns, if she doesn’t pull them off, you’re kind of like, well this is dumb. But she does it so elegantly that I think it works beautifully. I mean, really, they made me look so much better and so much smarter because they’re just so, so compelling and such intuitive actors.”

I was afraid to know the answer, but I had to ask Basilone if there was much hope left for getting a sweet movie about two people falling in love made these days, and he said, “Well, I was fortunate enough that I’ve had enough friends that have been toiling away in the indie arena, so I got to watch and learn from that by osmosis.” He pointed to Gemini’s Aaron Katz and Little Fish director Chad Hartigan, who even slept on Basilone’s couch while he was writing Morris from America, and granted him the part of “cock admirer” in his first film Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. “It is the IMDb credit I get the most questions about,” Basilone confirmed. When it came to making this movie, “I just went into it like, what’s the best way to keep it small, I’ll make sure it’s very personal, get it low to the ground, a couple twists. So just set yourself up for success, because it’s always gonna be hard.” The film was eventually made for under $500,000 and filmed in the summer of 2019. As for what the future holds in this genre, Basilone said, “I just finished [writing] another one. I think I’m in a better position to do it now, it’s slightly bigger. But the paradigm has shifted so much with this. The mid-range are going to be the tough ones. I think streamers will want that more, but who knows? This might be the whole roaring 20s after this, where we all just want to put on tuxedos and drink our faces off and just see all the entertainment.”

One thing I’m personally hoping to experience, and from this film specifically, is an activity where Bart and Vienna go to a dance party in the dark, which Basilone assured me, “It’s a real thing that was started in Australia. It’s called No Lights No Lycra.” About six years ago, his friend Julia Pott, the creator of Summer Camp Island on Cartoon Network, introduced him to the “wholly unique” dance party in New York, which he said is much like the scene we see in the movie. The one he attended was on a weeknight in a rented out, empty room in the back of a Korean church hall with paper signs taped up, and 100% dark. “There’s no light source,”  Basilone remembered. “It was just playing the LCD Soundsystem song “New York, I Love You”. But you know when you find something and just instantly you’re like, I know this is gonna be special to me? It was that kind of experience. It’s just so cathartic because you just dance your face off.” He soon realized he had to bring a whole new outfit with him for this activity because by the end of it, “I would be drenched. Not just like, the gym kind of sweaty. I would look like I took a shower with my clothes on. I thought it was always so beautiful, I just wanted to put it somewhere.”

It’s one element of the film people will be talking about, but perhaps not as much as the ending, which is sure to have you discussing your own interpretation of what actually happened. “I know what I believe to be true and the way I wrote it, but I also think if it means something else to you, that’s wonderful,” Basilone said. “Isn’t that what great art is supposed to be? Not saying that this is great art, but art in general. I liked that it’s a bit of a Rorschach test, you know?”

He’ll likely get to experience that specific, precious after-film chatter this week when he plans to finally see the movie in a theater, as it’s currently playing across six in the Los Angeles area (it will hopefully be available to stream later this spring). “People are sending pictures of the posters and I just haven’t seen that in real life yet, so I’m excited. It’s those little things, you know?”