Written and directed by Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) and Mod Sun, the stoner comedy Good Mourning follows movie star London Clash (Baker) who lets what he convinces himself is a break-up text from the love of his life to hang a metaphorical storm cloud over his head. London is supposed to be preparing for an important meeting that could lead to a major starring role, but his day just keeps going downhill until he’s faced with the life-changing choice of love or his career.
During this interview with Collider, musicians and friends Baker and Mod Sun talked about what inspired the movie, how they can’t believe they actually got the money to go make this, whether they’ve ever been faced with the choice between love and career, having so many bloopers, what they each see as their biggest strengths as directors, how much his experience on Roadies pushed Baker as an actor, the bowl of cereal gag, and how game Megan Fox and Avril Lavigne were for their roles.
Collider: What inspired this movie? Did it start with an idea that one of you had? Did it start with a scene or a character? Is it just you guys wanting to make a stoner comedy? How did this evolve into what it is now?
COLSON BAKER: It’s very meta. Everything was real life, and then it turned into a movie because I was spiraling and I just needed to write and relinquish my anxiety. And then, I texted [Mod Sun] at 11:11 and said, “Would you like to make and write a movie?” The fact that it got made, I can’t fucking believe it. I can’t believe they gave us money to make this movie.
It’s one thing to say, “I want to make this movie. I need to do this.” It’s another thing to actually be able to go and do that and now have a movie. There are not a lot of people in a position to say they could do that, so is it a surreal head trip that you do have this movie now?
MOD SUN: Yeah, it’s actually insane. The further I get away from it, the more gratitude I feel. It’s incredible that we got this opportunity to do it. We were both doing a lot in our lives, at the time that we got this opportunity, and I just kept telling myself that the future me would be so mad, if we said no to doing it.
How much of this film comes from personal experience? Have either or both of you ever been in the position where you had to choose between career and love, and if so, do you feel you made the right choice, in that moment?
BAKER: Yes to, is it real? And did I make the right decision? No.
MOD SUN: Yeah, I feel like, as an artist, your job is a 24-hour job. You’re always on, so you’re always choosing between your career and having a real life. I definitely have had to make a choice, and I’m here now, so I guess I made the right choice.
BAKER: An interesting parallel to those fork-in-the-road decisions you have to make, like in this film, like I said, it is meta. All the things, minus the character names, were all the reality of what was happening at that time, for me. The Eight of Swords tarot card that you see play into the movie, from the intro to the ending, those swords in front of the blindfolded woman represent your own obstacles that you place in front of you and how you get in your own way.
Even that was amazing because I went and drew a card from the tarot deck. In the script, it was just like, “Tarot card flies in the air,” but we didn’t know what tarot card it would be. And then, when I asked the tarot deck, “Which card should be the one that represents in the movie?,” I drew the Eight of Swords. I was like, “Interesting, I wonder if I should redraw and get The Magician or The Devil or Death, or something that just really stands out.
And then, I looked up the meaning of the Eight of Swords and I was like, “Oh my God, this is perfect. This is exactly what I was supposed to draw.” I love little details like that, in the movie. Yes, it’s a stoner comedy. Yes, there’s gag comedy and really easy laughs. But there’s also a complexity in the items that were chosen for the movie, that appear and disappear and reappear. Same with the themes that happen. They come, they go, and then they come back. There are a lot of full circle moments.
When you work on something like this, and you’re working with your friends and you’re making a comedy, are there a lot of bloopers? Is there a lot of goofing around, or do you guys try to at least stay focused as much as possible on set?
BAKER: I did my best to lose focus as much as possible.
MOD SUN: I think by day two, we realized that all the magic was going to happen by letting people just be completely free and not make it seem so serious. That was the angle that we took for the whole film. We basically said, “If the people on set, all the way down to the runners, aren’t laughing, then we’re not making a funny movie.”
BAKER: It was a 30-minute blooper reel that we had to cut down to 10 minutes, that we then had to cut down to five minutes. We had just as long of a blooper reel as we did a movie.
Colson, what would you say Mod’s biggest strength is, as a director?
BAKER: He’s great. He’s essentially Tarantino. I’m kidding. He is the most brilliant. I’m just kidding.
MOD SUN: Stop saying, “I’m just kidding,” when you compliment me.
BAKER: He’s the most like diligent creative, ever. He has this aspect of him, where he’ll throw a million things at the dart board, just so that one of them can hit a bullseye. But then, as sporadic as his ideas are, he’s so concise and like a sniper. He knows, when he’s pulling the trigger, why he’s pulling the trigger. The research and the pre-production that he did for the movie, it saved our ass. If I didn’t have Mod, it would have fallen apart after four days. He’s always on time. He saves the self-destruction when it’s happening. He has many talents
Similarly, Mod, what would you say Colson’s biggest strength is, as a director?
MOD SUN: Oh, it’s so simple, he’s not a people pleaser. He doesn’t do things as a yes man. He really will stand his ground and fight for what he thinks is right. He has no qualms about standing up for himself, and it’s very rare that you meet someone like that, that operates in this industry. In this world, there are so many people that are just yes men and that are just there to get people to come along for the ride. He really stands his ground.
BAKER: But not for myself. It’s more for the movie. It was like a selfless act. It was never something for me. I just wanted to keep the integrity of the movie, the whole way. If we heard a song that we wanted, I was down to fight to the last breath for it, or if we had a shot that we really wanted. If they were like, “You guys are first-time directors, what the fuck do you know?,” I was like, “We know fucking everything. You can’t silence us. We’re gonna make this happen.”
MOD SUN: He’s a fighter.
Colson, you’ve done a lot of music videos, which require a certain bit of acting because you’re playing a version of yourself. Do you feel like Roadies was the first real acting you’d done, playing a character different from you, as part of the main ensemble, and taking an emotional journey through a season? Do you feel like you really learned about acting and about your yourself, from doing a project like that?
MOD SUN: Claps for Roadies real quick. For real. Great job, bringing that up.
BAKER: That was a good one that got slept on. I really wish it would’ve gotten a Season 2. I love the arc that was beginning to happen with my character. It allowed me, for the first time, to be sensitive, which is why I liked this movie. I didn’t want to play London in this movie, Good Mourning, but I’m glad that I did end up doing it because I would’ve never been invited to play that role, if it was somebody else directing it. I don’t think that I’m seen as a funny person, or that I’m able to be vulnerable. That’s what happens with musicians, a lot of times. It’s the same reason why it took me nine years to get invited from performing on a stage at a late night show to actually sitting on the couch at a late night show. They see the persona and they stop you right there. They’re like, “Okay, that’s you and that’s what I know of you. There can’t be much deeper than that.” So, it was nice to get to play London in this film.
Mod, how many times did you have to put your face into a giant bowl of cereal? What is that even like, as an experience?
MOD SUN: Thanks for asking. That’s the one question I’ve been dying to get asked. I had to do that so many times, and each scene got longer and longer. I was committed to the role, so I was face down, holding my breath in cereal. Before they come up with the snorkel, I was really just face down in it. People started to get really worried, by the end of it, with my commitment to staying in the scene.
BAKER: It became even more complicated because that was just supposed to be a quick gag, but we realized we could see him from the rest of the shots in that house, if we were shooting on an anamorphic lens. Because the scope of what you could see was much wider, you could always see the kitchen, so we always had to get him face down in the cereal, even if it had nothing to do with the camera being on him. Just shooting a take in the living room, he would have to be in the background.
MOD SUN: They were like, “We can just put cereal in the bowl. We don’t need to put milk in it.” And I was like, “No, I’m committed to this role.”
BAKER: Even in the scenes when it was just his back, he didn’t even need a bowl or anything, and he would still do the milk and the cereal. It was wild. Props to him for that. That was great. I will say that all came together because mod thought we should do a little ode to Gummo. For anybody that knows Gummo, there’s a scene in the bathtub.
MOD SUN: Nobody out there probably knows Gummo.
BAKER: We have a couple little nods to the things that we love.
I love that we get to see Megan Fox in a role in this that we haven’t seen her do before. And there’s even a fun moment with Avril Lavigne. Were they both very game to be in this? Did they just want to come have fun?
MOD SUN: We’re super lucky that Avril was down. She’s never done something like that before. She’s playing into the joke with us.
BAKER: And the joke was written before they were dating.
MOD SUN: Yeah, it’s all really strange, how it all worked out. She’s just super supportive. I can’t even make a joke out of it. She’s really just that supportive and she was down to do it. In the movie we get to kiss, so I made sure to do as many takes as possible.
BAKER: The movie is a love letter of my spiral to Megan anyway. That’s what it was all based off of. So, when she came back and my spiral ended because I realized I just set up all of my own obstacles and was tripping for absolutely no reason. I read her the script and she was just like, “Oh my God, you did all this while I was gone, thinking that I didn’t wanna be with you?” She was game. Every character that we originally planned to be a certain character got flip-flopped around. Megan’s character was originally a different one, and then we invented Kennedy, who is now her character in the movie, the same week we started shooting.
Now that you guys have made it through this production, are you looking to direct more films together? Would you like to do that again?
BAKER: It’s official. As of right now, we’ve retired.
MOD SUN: Good work. One and done.
I’m not sure if I should take you seriously.
MOD SUN: That’s the whole movie. That’s the whole basis of us being here today. That’s hilarious. That’s good shit.
BAKER: We really feel strongly that we have a contender for the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards this year, with this one.
MOD SUN: Watch them just take that and go, “You asshole.”
Good Mourning is in theaters and available on VOD.