Kyle Mooney on Getting Limp Bizkit Frontman Fred Durst to Join the Cast of Y2K
Y2K filmmakers Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter had Fred Durst in the script from day one, long before they knew whether the Limp Bizkit frontman would say yes to taking on a significant acting role in their turn-of-the-millennium satirical horror comedy.
"He was always our guy who from the era who shows up," producer and co-writer Evan Winter said at a Q&A following a screening of the A24 film at SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Monday night.
The film follows a group of teenagers in an alternate version of history in which the Y2K bug actually did go horribly wrong, causing all electronic devices to merge into a collective consciousness and turn to violence against humans. Beginning at a house party on New Years Eve 2000, the surviving high schoolers band together and try to find a way to survive the apocalypse.
That's when they meet Fred Durst in a bombed-out video store.
If you're not expecting it, the appearance of the Limp Bizkit frontman is a delightfully on-brand surprise, considering the band was at the peak of its success in 2000.
Lucky for Mooney and Winter, who had written his part specifically with him in mind, Durst said yes when they offered him the role.
"We made backup lists, and every other person we thought of, like, 'this is not as good for whatever reason.' It was always Fred. It was always Fred. We wrote it like that," Mooney said.
"He was the first person we tried to get," Winter said. "He took a zoom with us, and he was somewhat of an ambiguous human."
"He threw us for a loop a little bit," Mooney added with a grin.
"He kept talking with us, and ultimately agreed to do it. It's so wonderful and funny. And like, you all saw the film, and I don't want to speak for you or what you felt, but like, I think he's so good, and he's such a good actor, and he plays it so well," Winter added.
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More About Fred Durst and Y2K From Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter
Mooney says Durst's involvement was "built into the DNA" of the movie.
"The whole thing was kind of a leap, because, yeah, just even writing it, we were like, well, I don't know if this is going to happen. And it's so contingent. It's like, so built into the DNA of the last third of the movie. And, yeah, I guess there's a lesson there — just go for it and see if you can make it happen."
He adds that he and Winter weren't sure how things were going to go when Durst first arrived on set — but that the rapper and singer was locked in immediately.
"He just nailed it, like, from the first scene. And it was such a relief when we were shooting that just seeing the light in his eyes," Mooney said.
Y2K also stars Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Lachlan Watson, the Kid LAROI, Eduardo Franco, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Mason Gooding, Daniel Zolghadri, Lauren Balone, and Mooney himself.
Mooney also gave advice to SCAD students hoping to make movies too one day.
"What I feel strongly about in terms of making stuff, whether it be movies or whatever you make, I am somebody who loves to collaborate. I feel so fortunate that I got to work on this with my friend Evan, and I've gotten to make so much stuff with my very close friends over the course of my life," he says.
I love to meet people and work with people that challenge me and are down to critique what you do and make you better. And that might sound a little obvious. But you need people around you who challenge you, or who are like, 'I think you could actually do a little better than that,' because it's too easy to fall into the trap of being like, 'This is what I like. This is what I do. This is it," he adds.
"You need folks to be like, 'Okay, that's fine, but you need to be open to criticism. You want to be around smart people who do cool things that you admire, and I promise that they will make you or allow you to make better stuff."
Y2K arrives in theaters this December from A24.
Main Image: Rachel Zegler and Jaeden Martell in Y2K, A24