Sheila (Kaley Cuoco) has a time machine. She is in love with Gary (Pete Davidson), who has fallen for her time and again as she sparks conversation with him in a bar every night. He’s the perfect man – almost. Sheila wants more from him, which leads her to use the time machine to travel further into the past to shape the man he is is, or can be.
In addition to Cuoco and Davidson in the cast of Meet cute are Deborah S. Craig, Sierra Fisk, Kirk Kelly, Wesley Holloway and more. It was written by Noga Pnueli and directed by Alex Lehmann.
“I like the idea that the audience thinks they’re just swept away on this romantic date night, but after that it goes places. As a filmmaker, I like the idea of hiding the Brussels sprouts in the mashed potatoes,” said Lehmann, who came to talk to us about the film ahead of its release on Peacock on September 21, 2022.
Directed by Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson
“I didn’t have a full picture of how Gary was working on the page. Casting Pete really unlocked it for me. Because you want to save Pete Davidson, but he makes you smile so much that you kind of forget you want to save him,” Lehmann explained. from. “That’s the trade-off that I think keeps Sheila so obsessive about him. So that made a lot of sense. And then as far as Kaley can do anything, and she can turn a dime, and her comedic timing… she’s coming out of that Chuck Lorre- background where they got more jokes per minute and even her reactions are humorous she does all that down to the microsecond and gets it right every time just leaving room for more jokes Then all of a sudden she gets serious and takes that hard turn to right, and you think, ‘How does she do that?’ If the question is, “Have we been lucky with the cast? Did we get the top two people for these roles?” I think the answer is yes.”
Lehmann went on to explain that Cuoco and Davidson’s hilarity also happened during the filming process, and not just on screen. “We had a really tight shooting schedule, so it was really awkward how much they made us laugh,” he joked. “It was very funny, and thanks for the front row seats at the Pete Davidson Kaley Cuoco show… their chemistry was fantastic. They’re just two really driven people who eventually want to play, so they’ve worked really hard to set up playgrounds for themselves.”
This certainly translates well, as we can see, in addition to the hilarity in the dialogue, there was room for improvisation, as Lehmann explained that “the amount of improvisation that Pete did on movies, he likes five minutes on Jobsand then another five minutes at the end of Titanic, and you’re like, ‘This is great.’ We don’t have room for it in the film, but it’s hilarious and then it feels real. Gary feels real because Pete isn’t making this guy up, he’s actually Gary.”
It’s okay for life to be messy
During Meet cuteCuoco’s character Sheila essentially tries to change Davidson’s, to mold him into someone she thinks will be more desirable, and challenges viewers to consider whether that’s really possible.
“I think not only can we change, but that’s the main purpose of our lives,” explains Lehmann. “We have a certain amount of time where we can face trauma and maybe disappointments or things in life that didn’t feel quite right, and even though we have partners, friends, therapists, teachers and all these people who can guide us, we get ultimately the choice, the opportunity to improve, change and face those things I think that’s what Meet Cute does well is it shows that no one is going to change you but if someone really loves you, they will stand by you and all your imperfections, and support you patiently as you try to change.
Lehmann continued: “We use the phrase a few times: ‘It’s okay that life is messy.’ Sometimes it’s okay for things to be messy. I mean, even our New York City is messy. Like we’re not showing the New York City you see in those really super polished rom-coms. I love it when someone watches New York shows and thinks, ‘Why isn’t there a scaffolding and a lot of trash on the street? Why didn’t they show up for the camera?’ And it’s like yes, because we showed you fiction. And it was really important to me that we showed a real version of what New York is, a real version of what romance is and what independent struggle is.”
Meet cute will be available on Peacock on September 21.