‘A Millennial Job Interview’ viral video sensation, exclusive group interview with actors, writer and director [Exclusive Interview]
A Millennial Job Interview has only been out since late fall 2017, and its runtime is less than three minutes, but it has become a viral phenomenon and has received a total of nearly 100 million views across multiple platforms including Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and other sites worldwide.
What originally started as a demo reel for L.A. actress Melissa Tucker has become a debated part of pop culturewhere the entire team behind it including co-star Tom Katsis, writer Ralph Odierna and director/producer/editor Daniel Brea have been pleasantly surprised by the reactions and remain hopeful for the results to yield more offers of work.
Now, not all reactions to this video have been good. For those who have not yet seen A Millennial Job Interview, here’s the gist: Amy goes into a job interview with an old school Baby Boomer named Abraham and they aren’t quite speaking the same language. Amy rarely looks up from her phone and isn’t quite professional and the interviewer is flabbergasted by her answers and behavior.
The comments are almost as good as the video. People either love it or hate it. Some people do not find it funny at all and are offended by this depiction of Millennials (BTW: the director and the star are both Millennials), while others find it to be a little too spot on. Multiple political comments representing every possible point of view are made as a result of the video. A group that seems to love it the most is HR professionals.
The video is a satire — a very funny one at that, but some people don’t seem to get that this isn’t a castigation of all Millennials and that it isn’t meant to be taken literally.
The team behind A Millennial Job Interview including actors Melissa Tucker and Tom Katsis, writer Ralph Odierna and director/producer/editor Daniel Brea spoke with Michelle Tompkins for TheCelebrityCafe.com about the theatrical origins of this project, how the actors had such great chemistry, a bit about all of their professional backgrounds, their reactions when the video started to take off, what their hopes are for the video and more.
Michelle Tompkins: Everyone please introduce yourselves and tell us what was your role or position in this film?
Melissa Tucker: Okay. Yeah. Hi, I’m Melissa Tucker and I play Amy Connor, the millennial in the film.
Tom Katsis: I’m Tom Katsis and I was honored to be chosen to play the part of Abraham, the gentle, but yet, firm boss.
Ralph Odierna: Ralph Odierna. I wrote the piece.
Daniel Brea: And I’m Daniel Brea. I produced and directed it.
Michelle: Now, how would you describe A Millennial Job Interview to someone who’s not seen it yet?
Ralph: Well, I guess the idea came from every generation has a film, whether you go back to Animal House or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, to Legally Blonde, and I just didn’t see one out there for this generation. So I decided to have fun with it.
Michelle: So Ralph, tell me about the original play.
Ralph: The original play’s a ten-minute short, and what you see is two minutes from mid to towards the end of the play. And it was performed for eight performances at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks.
Michelle: Now, tell me what are some of the differences between the play and the short that we see.
Ralph: Well, it’s just elongated. You would see her from when she enters the office, and then there’s a going over some of the resume and some of the background. And then there’s also much more in-depth in the interview itself, where she wants to know what her position is called, how many days off does she get, does she have a private office, can she bring her dogs in [laughter]. There’s a lot more in there.
Then the only thing that we adjusted for the sake of being able to wrap it up a bit sooner is just that in the short that we produced, she does not get the job and walks out, and then the script actually continues quite a bit.
She gets the job because she addresses him that her father is a lawyer and she has rights.
Michelle: Oh, great. That’s always someone you want to hire [laughter].
Ralph: That’s right.
Michelle: Now, let’s talk about the happy news. Tell me about the numbers to date right now.
Daniel: As far as Tom’s keeping track a little bit on Facebook, now the behind-the-scenes number I see on Vimeo — Vimeo is a little bit behind on their statistics update, so what the public sees is 1.9 on the original upload, I think, which is 1.9 million. I think the actual number behind the scenes is now approaching 5 million on Vimeo, and YouTube, I think, is approaching 2 million. And Facebook is where it’s actually going nuts. And there’s been dozens of reposts internationally now. I’m getting calls and emails from Russian places that want to translate it and post it in Russia, and in Spain, and other countries. But there are requests coming in all over the place, and I think the biggest account is this — I think it’s called One Federation News, something like that they have.
Tom: Nation One News. They have, I think, 35 million and counting, and so I would wait — Actually, they crossed 40 this morning.
Daniel: So, then I’m sure that the total number probably add up to easily over 50 million if you count all the accounts together.
Michelle: Wow [laughter]. Amazing. Congratulations to all of you.
Daniel: Yeah. And I’ve seen multiple other channels with over a million and then there’s another channel called RV, I think, which posted it. I think they’re up to 2 or 3 million already. We couldn’t have posted this more than a month or so ago. Or maybe it’s two months by now. And I think these last two or three weeks is a wonderful place to start. Things really are starting to take off.
Tom: Twitter too. And Michelle, I only watched it many times myself, so I’m just calculating all of that [laughter].
Michelle: So Melissa, how did you get the inspiration for Amy?
Melissa: Well, I actually — so I grew up in the Valley.
Michelle: Shocker [laughter]!
Melissa: So I said a lot of kind of in phrasing from hanging out with friends and being around different people. And I kind of once I started reading it, I just kind of let it come out instinctively and just having fun with it, really. And kind of letting it just come from that place.
Michelle: So you and Tom seem to have instant chemistry. Did you find out immediately, or through rehearsals?
Tom: Well, we were rehearsing and we just were working off of each other. And she was so amazing was that she’s got to react to what’s going on here. At that one moment, we did a little improv where she talks about showing up at 10:45 a.m. and I drew that long take and I go, ‘Wow [laughter].’ I think you just take you know what she just told me. So it was a lot of fun.
Melissa: Yeah, it was just very easy, and working off of each other’s energy was really great. And so it just glowed and worked.
Tom: Well, I don’t want to forget to tell you guys just that when Daniel did that awesome job of editing and trying to get together and sent to me as a short, I sent it to a showrunner, Mike Larsen, who’s been — He’s been a showrunner. He’s been on five television series. He sent back. He said, ‘When did this air?’ So I said, ‘Daniel, we go to get this up.’ And I got a nice note from someone asking, ‘When is the movie coming out [laughter]?’
Michelle Tompkins: Oh, yeah. So awesome! Now, how much of the script was improv?
Melissa: Just little bits and pieces. Just a bit.
Tom: The writing was so good, we just want to eat just some different beef. Like Melissa said, the way we just work off of each other and just the different things that Daniel would have us try to do, like he had her get up. ‘I’m not feeling safe right now.’ So he had her get up and kind of do that physicality, which bit the scene.
Daniel: Yeah. And maybe have little words come out here and there.
Michelle Tompkins: Was that tisk sound you did at the end planned?
Melissa: Just about.
Tom: Because we were working through each take. We just got this. Every time, there was just a new little thing that popped into one of our minds, and we were trying, and it was working. And then we would do another take with that. And then we’d find something else and kind of, I think — We didn’t do that many takes. Right, guys?
Daniel: No.
Melissa: Then, but by the time we finished, it was — I almost didn’t want it to end, it was just going so well.
Michelle Tompkins: How long was the filming process?
Melissa: A couple of hours.
Daniel: Less than two hours.
Tom: And it was important that when Daniel did those scenes with people, he had a crew there for sound. You’ve seen a lot of good demo reels by people, and there’s no — they’re in an office, but they’re not because somebody put a plant by a sofa [laughter]. But we had a great setting. And if the sound’s not good, you can kiss it goodbye, whatever your project is, so everything about this was just great. It’s a sweet little gem. I call it a little gem.
Michelle Tompkins: So what were your original expectations for the project?
Daniel: Well, let me just jump in and be the first to say that — because this is a bit of a surprise, I think, to all of us. The expectation was to give Melissa something that she could take out there and show people. Tom called me and said, ‘I think this should be put online.’ And I’ve posted some things online for the company website, but I — it was neither here nor there. I loved it, but for me, the job was done and on to the next. And he said, ‘You know, I think we should post it, and I have a couple of friends that would appreciate it.’ And then the numbers just started going up like crazy.
Melissa: Yeah. Daniel was just like, “Hey, do you mind? Can I post this on a few sites?” I was like, “Yeah. Sure. Go ahead [laughter].’ And then, the next thing you know, it’s like, whatever, go ahead. And then all of a sudden, he’s like, “Do you know what’s happening with this?” I was like, “No.” And it just took off.
Michelle Tompkins: Melissa, did he call you when it had hit 750,000?
Melissa: Yeah, when it hit 400,000. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what [laughter]?’ Just at 400,000, I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, 400,000? That’s insane.’ And then it kept going.
Tom: Try 40 million.
Michelle Tompkins: That’s amazing. So far, has this video landed you any auditions or other job opportunities?
Tom: Well, it’s a door-opener, for sure. I think it’s so new to what’s happening with it that we, of course, have to promote, like what Daniel’s done, and the wonderful writing of Ralph. So it’s incumbent on the actor, director, or writer, or producer. Your agent only gets 10%. You’ve got to do 90 percent of the work. So that’s why we’re going to try to get this in the hands of some of the comedy — some of the TV casting directors that do comedy, some of the showrunners who run their own shows and also some film parts for both Melissa and me.
Melissa: Yeah. It’s definitely started. Yeah. I’ve definitely started hearing from people about it, and wanting to talk about different things, and projects, and stuff. So…
Daniel: I think it’s still so fresh now that everything’s still kind of conceptual and up in the air. I mean, it’s hardly been a month that it’s been going viral. But so far, the — I mean, on my end, of course, the communication’s been mainly, ‘Hey, can we post this? Can we use this?’ And for me, it’s just, “Get it out there, please [laughter].” As long as you credit everybody, you put writer, director, and the two stars on it, throw it out there, you know?
Michelle Tompkins: And Ralph, please tell me a little bit about your writing background.
Ralph: Oh, I’ve been a script doctor for almost 20 years, and I have written so much for other people. It wasn’t until about four years ago I decided to start writing just for myself. And in the last four years, I’ve written three shorts, and all have been major film festival award winners. And then I’ve had the Whitefire Theatre produced ten of my plays that I’ve written.
