‘Super Troopers 2’ cast discusses comedy and how studio funding affects creative freedom

Back in 2001, the New York City-based comedy group Broken Lizard released their second feature film “Super Troopers.” While not an immediate hit with critics and audiences, the film has since gained a strong cult following and a variety of fans.

Now, 17 years later, the film’s highly anticipated sequel, “Super Troopers 2,” will be coming to theaters. This installment is notable for being largely crowdfunded on Indiegogo, reaching more than $2 million in less than two days back in 2015. With the considerable hype and noteworthy planning going into this sequel, there is plenty to be excited about.

The Connector sat down with the five members of the Broken Lizard comedy group, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske, to discuss this interesting production.

The Connector: It’s an amazing accomplishment that you guys were able to raise $2 million in one day from crowdfunding alone. What do you attribute this to?

Soter: The first movie had a real grassroots fanbase and that lent itself well to doing crowdfunding. We could go directly to the fans who really loved the movie and they came to support the next one. I think it’s a unique situation in terms of financing.

Lemme: Like any of us when we find something that’s not particularly mainstream, we love it and we want to share and that’s what the first movie was. It wasn’t something that came out into theaters and everyone was just talking about it. It was people handing off the DVD to one another. What happens as a result is that you feel a certain ownership of it, like it is yours, so crowdfunding becomes a very natural extension of that.

The Connector: Being independently funded, does that change the production process as opposed to a more traditionally funded film? 

Chandrasekhar: The studio gave us a list of suggestions, and some of them we were like, “yeah OK,” and others were “not doing it.” That’s how financing worked. You bring the money and they won’t push you to do something.

Lemme: With the first movie, we brought the first script around to all the studios. They all passed on it and they kept asking about the meow scene … . They can’t possibly see it the way we see it, we were there when we were riffing on the idea and laughing our heads off, so when it’s something like this you need total independence and you can’t interfere with that.

Soter: Like the opening scene of the first movie, to them makes no sense. You can’t start with the POV of these kids in this car, the movie is about the cops, you start with the POV of the cops, but it just doesn’t work that way. Those are the kinds of things that a studio development person is just never going to get so that’s why the sequel resembles the first film so much in tone and style, because we did it to make each other laugh.

Stolhanske: There’s no bad intentions on their part, they’re just trying to make it better. In terms of that we said the opening scene in “Super Troopers” is the only time that people will experience what it’s like to get pulled over by these guys objectively from the point of view of a driver getting messed with.

The Connector: Do you guys feel there’s an added pressure because the fans funded it?

Chandrasekhar: Yes. The pressure is really around a film that people saw with their friends and decided to quote it with their friends, so they seem to have an emotional connection to it. The pressure is to not ruin the first movie by making a bad second.

The Connector: For Jay, what challenges are there in acting in and directing the same production?

Chandrasekhar: Self-loathing, mostly. Ultimately, you have to bracket your performance. So if you have a subtle read, little bigger, right where you think it should be, a little over-the-top and then way over-the-top, and then one of those will be good.

The Connector: For people wanting to get into comedy, particularly in the film industry, what is something you guys would recommend to stay fresh as you all have done for some time?

Chandrasekhar: Don’t limit yourself to one type of comedy. If you can do stand-up, do that, and you can later take those jokes and adapt them for film. I have files that lists stand-up ideas, film ideas, novel ideas and so on. The other thing you’ve gotta do is to get into those scenes young because those are the people coming up now who nobody knows but we’re all going to know in the future years. Then they’re going to know each other and put each other into their things, it’s very much a business sense.

Lemme: Always do another draft. The only thing that happens with another draft is that you get more jokes and make improvements. You’ll get plenty of seasoned writers who get a third draft of a script and think, “this is awesome,” but then 20 drafts later they’ll look at that same third draft and say “wow, that sucked.”

“Super Troopers 2” will be out in theaters on Friday April 20.