VACATION FRIENDS: John Cena and Lil Rel Howery break down their raunchy new comedy

Vacation Friends

Anyone who has ever bonded with a stranger on vacation will immediately identify with the premise of Vacation Friends, the uproarious new comedy starring John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, and Meredith Hagner, debuting today on Hulu and Star on Disney+.

Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) are a straight-laced couple who finally find the time for a long-awaited vacation. When everything begins heading south at their Mexican resort, they encounter Ron and Kyla (John Cena, Meredith Hagner), an off-the-rails couple who invite Marcus and Emily to stay with them for what turns into a wild drug-fuelled vacation.

After the two couples bid each other farewell at the airport, Marcus and Emily try to put the trip behind them and get back to their busy lives, including planning their wedding. But who should show up the night of their wedding but an uninvited Ron and Kyla, who are determined to reignite some of their former shenanigans with their trusty “vacation friends.”

A raunchy mix of Wedding Crashers and The Odd Couple, Vacation Friends goes down as easy as a strong mojito at a poolside bar. Directed and co-written by Silicon Valley‘s Clay Tarver, the film features great chemistry from the four leads who effortlessly bounce off of each other as their predicaments become more and more outlandish.

The principal cast and Clay Tarver recently held a virtual press conference on the film where they discussed the inspiration for their characters, why the timing is right for a comedy like this, and whether John Cena and Lil Rel Howery are the next Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Read on for some of the highlights below.

Vacation Friends is streaming on Hulu and Star on Disney+ now.

On their characters:

John Cena: I think as performers we always try to take either extensions of ourselves or possibly the opposite of our personality. Now, if you see Ron and you see me, Ron’s probably not going to wear a waistcoat and a Half Windsor. But I think the characteristics that I find in Ron are the ability to be present, the ability to be in the now, and the ability to enjoy the journey of life. And I think he’s very emotionally connected to who he is. He’s not ashamed to be who he is. And he certainly is the captain of the ship when it comes to having a good time.

Lil Rel Howery: I mean, I’m cooler than Marcus first of all. [Laughs] What I do like about Marcus is, and I think that’s what makes this interesting, is that this guy, he’s a dude that has his own business. You know, he owns a construction company, he’s done all these amazing things, but he hasn’t really let his hair down for real. And because we meet this couple who’s just like, ‘Yo, we’re just down for whatever,’ it helps me and Yvonne’s character let their hair down.

I like playing really irritated people, just irritated by like random stuff. He’s easily irritated, he knows this. Like, he’s paying attention to everything because he has to. But I do love what you’re going to see throughout the movie is him kind of loosen up. And that’s what made Marcus really dope. But Marcus is just a very focused guy who’s in love with his fiance. But he’s just, you know, he’s a stiff guy. And this vacation changes everything.

Choosing their roles:

John Cena: Honestly, when I read the script from Clay, it was like, this is kind of where I am in my life right now. And I know the great thing about comedic presentation of a movie called Vacation Friends, I love it, because you know what you’re going to get when you see the movie, like the two words describe what you’re going to see. So you have expectations, and any great comedy takes relatable situations, and completely makes them hysterically absurd. And that’s what this movie does. It puts us in a situation, like I’ll use Superbad, The Hangover, you could go on and on. You get it, like you get what The Hangover is about. But it’s so far that that’s where we can laugh at it because these people go through absurd situations.

So you know what Vacation Friends is about. And what drew me to the script was, I’m really kind of focusing on trying to be present, trying to be more emotionally available, trying to really solidify my attachments in life, so I loved that and then the hysterical absurdity stuff, that was fun in its own right. I always enjoyed doing that.

Subverting comedy tropes:

Yvonne: Orji You know, one thing we don’t get to see often, and these are some of the messages I got when I posted the trailer, is you don’t get to see the black couple as the straight-laced black couple, you know? Like they’re usually the ones that are kind of causing the mayhem and they’re just like, ‘who invited, these folks?’ you know? And we get to see a different spin on that. It’s kind of like, they’re just trying to have a good time. And so it puts the humor in a different position. That’s kind of refreshing.

The Next Wilder & Pryor? John Cena and Lil Rel Howery on teaming up again:

John Cena: I think initially, it started with a professional respect that we have for each other. And certainly, both of us excited about the script and wanting to do the film. And Clay being kind enough to like Rel said, just kind of let us go and be us. And we just got to kind of lean into what we wanted to show. I had a blast, I’d love to do it, again.

Lil Rel Howery: Me and John were on a boat. And we were just talking about wrestling and I was talking about comedy. And I actually say this about you all the time because I’m a big wrestling fan too. So I’m like, ‘Yo, he actually really loves this.’ He loves what he does. And I think just working with somebody else that loves what they do, made it easy for us to play and then like, I love the fact that John was open to like trying things, having fun with it and whatever, even if it’s the silliest thing. So yeah, hopefully, we can be Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

The comedy we need right now?

John Cena: I think all of us know what vacation means. And all of us remember our vacation moments and people we may have been on vacation with. I think that’s what’s important about this film, I hope audiences are entertained, and they laugh. That’s what I hope they take away. If they want to get anything else, that’s great, but I hope they’re entertained. And they laugh. I just think our subject matter is so relatable, and so desperately needed right now, especially with people having to come up with plan b vacations and alter plans yet again, here we are 18 months into the world-changing. I think it’s gonna be good for people to just sit down and enjoy a film that might make them remember a moment of their life and smile a little bit and laugh a little bit.

Lil Rel Howery: It’s almost like a blueprint to what was fun. And this movie is so funny like, which is why I applaud Clay on this more than anything, is that one of the things I think comedies are missing is just being straight-up funny. And this is just really a straight-up funny movie. And laughter is so important, right? And I think laughter is good for the soul. And I think people are really gonna enjoy this movie.

John Cena: Being a physical performer in the WWE, the reason we transcend so many borders is because you get the action. I think what Clay brilliantly did in the script was provide a ton of physical comedy. So it’s also a movie that you can even not necessarily know what’s going on with the audio and see the movie and laugh along with it because of the tremendous amount of physical comedy and I think that’s going to help us around the world. And hopefully, we can make a lot more people laugh.

Vacation Friends is streaming on Hulu and Star on Disney+ now.