Dave Franco says the Idiots movie has a bathroom scene that lands in his top three “shit yourself” moments in cinematic history. The cast discussed it ahead of the film’s August 28 theatrical debut, and the reaction suggests the movie’s most talked-about beat may be the one that lingers longest.
Dave Franco and Idiots
Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, and Kiernan Shipka spoke about the scene in an exclusive roundtable interview. Franco said it is a “top three “shit yourself” scene in cinematic history,” while Jackson called it “violent” and Thames said, “It’s just so aggressive man! It broke the camera.”
The movie is written and directed by Macon Blair and stars Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, and Kiernan Shipka. Blair also said the title changed from The Shitheads to Idiots after the team weighed the challenges of promoting the movie, and Franco, producer Alex Orr, and Blair brainstormed the new title over a weekend.
Kiernan Shipka and the motel scene
Shipka’s reaction gave the scene its sharpest off-camera detail. She said, “Mason and I were in the other room drinking Diet Cokes with our phones out. We were just like “Oh My God!””
That response fits a movie that Macon Blair describes as grounded in bizarre characters rather than a string of one-line jokes. He said, “This isn’t a movie where it’s a bunch of one-line jokes,” and added, “It’s all grounded in these really bizarre characters, and we’re playing it as real as possible and letting the humor come from that.”
The Shitheads to Idiots
The title change carries more than branding cleanup. A movie built around two unqualified bozos hired to transfer a rich teen to rehab needed a name that could travel with it, and Blair said the team settled on Idiots after weighing the promotion problem tied to The Shitheads.
The road-trip setup also helps explain why the bathroom scene lands so hard: Mark and Davis stop at a local motel while transporting Sheridan to rehab, invite a stripper named Irina to their hotel room, and Sheridan taints Mark’s supply of drugs in the motel scene. Franco called it “an unbelievable cinematic feat,” and if that is the bar the movie is setting before August 28, audiences are being warned where the pressure points are.
