From the beginning, Jordan Firstman had faith.
Kid ClubFirstman’s first feature as writer, director, and star, opens with a flashback to a simpler time, 2016. A group of friends pile into an Uber on their way to a party where Rihanna plays “Sex With Me” crucially over the aux. “[Producers] She begged me to shoot the two replacements, and I said, “No, I won’t do that.” “We’ll get the song,” Firstman recalls filming the scene without the rights Anti He struck out, at risk of losing his film opening.
The 34-year-old finished filming at the top of the year and began editing. By the time the filmmakers learned that Kid Club It will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, but they haven’t heard from Rihanna yet. “There was a time about three weeks ago where they were like, ‘What are we going to do?’ “Just trust,” I said. It will succeed itself. “I know if Rihanna saw this, she would throw up over it,” Firstman says. “We got it, and I did.”
(How did the first man get… Kid Club To the star? “God and my propaganda, which may be one in the same.”)
In making Kid ClubFrom shooting on location in New York during real parties to shooting on film to serving as writer, director, and star, Firstman gave himself a difficult task for his first role as a feature director. But all that faith paid off, and now the film heads to Cannes to premiere in the Un Certain Regard section as one of the festival’s most anticipated best-selling titles.
Firstman is best known for his work on screen, first for his viral Instagram impressions and then supporting roles in films like Sebastián Silva’s. Rotting in the sun And a series like I love Los Angeles. But before that, he spent nearly a decade in writers’ rooms for comedies like Search Party and Big Mouth, and at film festivals like Sundance and SXSW with his shorts.
In 2023, during its Sundance Film Festival premiere Rotting in the sunFirstman came up with the initial kernel of an idea Kid ClubI’m thinking: “There’s going to be something funny between me and a kid.” At the time, he was in a relationship with a Berliner and became involved in the party scene there, all of which began to influence his writing.
The result is a story that follows a former party promoter whose life takes a sharp left turn when he discovers he has a 10-year-old son.
Firstman moved to Los Angeles when he was 20, selling his first television show when he was 24 and his second when he was 28, both of which spent years in development but were never produced. He didn’t reply Kid Club — which had planned to be shot in New York City at real clubs — only to suffer the same fate in the traditional studio system.
So, Firstman went the independent route. Alex Coco, before winning an Oscar for Sean Baker’s film Anoraand Lurking Producer Galen Corr joined as producers, with support from Topic Studios, then Jesse Eisenberg Real pain.
“Jordan is unique because, technically, he’s a first-time filmmaker, but he’s not green at all. He came with a level of experience that was different from what you might think of as a first-time director,” says Topic’s head of film, Ryan Heller.
Four months after securing his financing, Firstman was ready for the first day of the 26-day shoot.
Kid Club It contains six separate club scenes, many of which the crew just shot scenes at real parties. “We were given access to places that no one could get to in life, let alone photograph. We were allowed in because I was actually there partying, and these were my friends,” says Firstman, adding: “The invitation was not something I took for granted.”
It was important for the director to accurately portray New York’s party culture. Most of the extras were “kids of the scene,” Firstman says.
“I call this a foreign language film. This new age of parties and gay people. It’s like we’re talking nonsense sometimes.” “I watched a lot of our crew members, who were straight men, learn the language,” he adds with a laugh.
Casting director Lucy Bevan was tasked with finding Firstman’s on-screen son. Having just worked on Harry Potter In the TV series, Bevan had an almost basic knowledge of actors from the U.K. Even before he saw his audition tape, Firstman recalls seeing Reggie Absolom, whose credits include the Apple series silo And Britbox Bennett’s other sisterAnd knowing it was the right choice.
“I was like, ‘This is it,'” Firstman recalls. “I was so nervous before I hit play [on the tape]. I said: Please let him be able to act. Please let him be able to act. “(He can act.)
On screen, the relationship between Firstman and Absolom is initially awkward and then becomes quite endearing. Like their characters, they established their own relationship over the course of filming. “I don’t really like rehearsals,” says Firstman. “I get embarrassed. I was like, ‘You know what, let’s do this.'”
Kid ClubThe excellent cast includes Colleen Camp as the eccentric neighbor, BabylonDiego Calva as a child therapist and a small fleet of gay performers, including Miss Penny and Saturn Raisin9.
“After the first day, Reggie’s mom said he came home and said, ‘I love dolls!’” says the Firstman of Absolom as he meets his transgender co-stars. “It makes me think emotionally about it, because that’s how you teach kids how to accept people — by introducing them to them.”
Shooting on location in New York City was non-negotiable for the director, who along with cinematographer Adam Newport Berra looked to films set in New York in the 1970s and 1990s for inspiration, particularly Paul Mazursky’s film. Unmarried woman Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney star One beautiful day. Lots of grit, magically photographed.
Kid Club It embodies a culture rarely seen in films, especially films that have made it as big as Cannes. When writing, Firstman wanted the city’s party scene to look and feel as alive as it does on screen as it does in real life.
“These people in it are my friends,” Firstman says. “I critique certain aspects, but I don’t take pictures.” “There’s a scene at the end of the movie where I say to one of the party girls, ‘Take care of yourself.’ And she says, ‘I always do that.'” For me, what I say about the party scene is that there’s a right moment for it, and you can be right for it. Or you can be right for it at the right time. It’s not a condemnation of people who do drugs or like to have fun. It’s more about this guy who has overstayed his welcome, or has never known a different option.
After nearly a decade in writers’ rooms, years of short films and screen time, Firstman feels he arrived at his first film exactly when he was supposed to.
“I knew my taste and I knew what I wanted it to look like,” he says. “I just knew how to do it better.”
