Rolling Loud Interview – Owen Wilson and Matt Rife talk upcoming comedy movie

The duo of Owen Wilson and Matt Rife stars in the upcoming comedy about a father losing his son at a music festival titled Rolling Loud. Writer and director Jeremy Garelick wrote the film on his own experience of losing his son at a festival. The film features appearances by rappers Travis Scott, Sexyy Red and many more. FandomWire had the pleasure of sitting down with Owen Wilson and Matt Rife about working together on the project. 

Rolling Loud follows Hank (Owen Wilson), who feels his family slipping away from him. His marriage is struggling, while the relationship with his son Zion (Christian Convery) appears to be distant as he grows up. In an effort to become the cool dad, he sneaks his son into the Rolling Loud festival. Once in the festival, Hank loses his son, and he enlists his co-worker Terry (Matt Rife) and a security guard to help hunt him down.  

I think the combination of Owen Wilson and Matt Rife works rather well. I enjoyed their banter as we see Wilson bring what he normally does to a comedy while Rife does an impressive job holding his own. The script felt fresh as it didn’t fall into the similar tropes you are used to seeing within this genre. Garelick takes his own experience and amplifies it on this massive stage with some really cool cameos.  

Owen Wilson and Matt Rife talk upcoming comedy Rolling Loud

FandomWire: What about Jeremy Garelick’s script stood out for you to take on this project?

Owen Wilson:  Well, I think wanting your kid to have an adventure and sort of that balance, walking that line. You don’t want to be a helicopter parent, but you do want to protect them. So the idea that you would take your kid to Rolling Loud, and yeah, I did then take my kids to Rolling Loud, so it was life imitating art. But I didn’t lose them. They tried to lose me, but they weren’t successful. I thought that was one of the fascinating things early in the script.

FandomWire: I love seeing you transition into the acting space. How does working with someone like Owen Wilson help navigate becoming better within the acting space?

Matt Rife: I mean, he’s literally the best at it. Like, there’s nobody who would have been better to have learned from at this point in my career. This is my first large project, and Owen’s somebody who I’ve looked up to for decades now. And somebody who literally made me want to get into acting. He made it a very easy experience for something I was kind of nervous about. I mean, I usually work a solo job. It’s just me on stage. If I do bad, it’s on me. If I do good, it’s on me. And this was a team effort. That was more pressure, but I liked it.

Wilson:  Obviously, it is nice what you’re saying. But that thing about it being a team effort and then sometimes you work with people who kind of really want to stick to the script or aren’t comfortable brainstorming. Matt and I got along  because it was just fun to just discuss a scene and kind of come up with ideas. Jeremy was always open to that, and that just makes it more fun to go to work when you’re with somebody that can make you laugh or appreciate your take on something.

FW: What’s it like trying to film in the atmosphere of the festival? 

Wilson: I am always looking for one less thing to act. If we are at the music festival, it’s different from anything I have ever been to.  I can understand how it would be overwhelming to feel that you couldn’t find your kid at this concert. And not only that, you’re not supposed to be there because your wife, the mom, has forbidden it. 

I was kind of taking it all in because it went way beyond seeing Travis Scott and Sexyy Red, all the artists, and just the things just walking around the  festival, the Ferris wheel, and the things that you see.  I remember seeing sort of the Grateful Dead and their sort of that traveling circus that goes with them, but this was a traveling circus. And it was great at Rolling Loud let us do it. 

FW: With the film set at Rolling Loud, give me a few artists that you would want to headline your show.

Rife: J. Cole, Tyler, the Creator, and Playboi Carti

Rolling Loud hits theaters on October 2.