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Silva pictured the gringo character as a real-estate agent.
Then he met Jordan Firstman, the popular but polarizing comic best known for impersonatinginanimate objectsandabstract conceptson Instagram.
Silva and Firstman augment their worst traits inRotting, burying a propulsive comedy of errors inside seemingly indulgent autofiction.
Sometimes that mockery is brutal.
If stuff got hairy between Silva and Firstman during production, it makes sense.
The Chilean director and his crew communicated in Spanish, of which Firstman speaks none.
Firstman, who appeared inSearch PartyandMs.
Tensions mounted as some of the same qualities that Silva and Firstman were attempting to lampoon arose off-camera.
Silvareallydidnt want him to wear it, fearing the jacket would be distracting.
Silva eventually relented, then walked into another room and screamed into a towel.
Jordan would say things like, Im not really digging that.
Its giving student film, Silva recalls.
(The project has apromotional waiverfrom SAG.)
I was like, Bitch, this is my ninth feature.
Ive been in all the fancy festivals.
Why are you giving me advice like this?
Its an independent movie and youre rushing.
Also, Im diagnosed super-ADD and a total stoner.
At the end of the first week, Firstman made what seems like a modest request.
Silva, who camouflages his humanistic films in art-house edge, isnt innately a Good job!
Today, Firstman laughs it off, calling the experience hell on Earth.
They hung around Mexico City for a week after the shoot and partied their cares away.
It was so healing for us, he says.
It was a beautiful experience.
Had Silva walked away hating his guts, Firstman would have been used to that, too.
In a2020 profile, the Cut called Firstman the cocky prince of quarantine comedy.
Its really disappointing because I spent my 20s trying to make gay stuff for gay people.
When you see someone dive headfirst into success I wasnt humble about it.
But neither is Nicki Minaj.
Neither is Ice Spice.
But Ive always been an ambitious person.
Coming from someone who has actively courted his 803,000-strong Instagram audience, its a knotty rebuke.
(What is this dark new personality?
a friend asks during Jordans freakout.
At the same time, it hands Firstmans skeptics more ammo.
That is, if his algorithm-happy admirers even clock his pursuits outside of social media.
Sebastians movie is way funnier than anything Ive ever put on the internet, he says.
But these white girls are probably gonna hate Sebastians movie.
This andNasty Babyboth feel like a very sharp criticism of the life that I live.
At the beginning of this movie, I am tired of a life that is not tiresome at all.
By pure coincidence, Silva and Firstman now live seven minutes apart in Los Angeles.
Their friendship doesnt feel like one of those chummy showbiz performances.
For both of us.
I think watching the movie is a big warning sign, Firstman says.
