by Jenn Tisdale

Holy Shit. Literally. Sort of. When I RSVP’d for the SXSW screening of the film Milo, I had absolutely no idea what it was about.

I knew Ken Marino (“Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Ten,” “Party Down”) was in it and that was more than enough to go on. The lights dimmed. The film started. I laughed. Ken Marino’s character Duncan shit out a tiny demon that was a manifestation of all of his anger, this demon killed the people who were the source of his torment and crawled back into his ass when it was done.

Yeah, you read that correctly, and it was one of the most HILARIOUS films I’ve ever seen. This is precisely what happens when you internalize your anger. A polyp forms in your colon that ends up turning into a monster that you regularly crap out of your own ass. And this monster? It kills for you. This is the Jekyll and Hyde I WANTED to see. Marino is supported (and not supported in the film) by a great cast who manages to hold it together the entire time. His overbearing boss is played by Patrick Warburton. Mary Kay Place plays the mom who just wants some grandchildren, and Gillian Jacobs is the wellmeaning wife who is pressuring him for the same. When things come to a head, so to speak; Duncan seeks out the therapeutic help of Highsmith played by Peter Stormare. That is when the shit quite literally hits the fan.

I sat down with the cowriter/director of the film Jacob Vaughan and its costar Gillian Jacobs to talk some shit. I’m going to squeeze out as many puns/shit references as possible here. Squeeze, there’s another.

Jenn: First of all I want to say I loved this movie so much. Did everyone come in here and say that? Honestly, here’s the thing…

Jacob: I love that you love it…I love that you love it.

Here’s the deal, and this is going to sound so fucking weird but I love a good shit story. I love a good shit story, and while this wasn’t an actual “shit story,” it’s still very shitcentric.

Jacob: Yeah, yes it is.

And I didn’t know what to expect and when I got in there I just went “Oh…” It’s like somebody opened up my brain…

Gillian/Jacob: Ha ha ha ha ha…

…and put everything I’ve ever thought was amusing in one central location

Gillian: Cool (points between Jacob and I) soulmates!

Jacob: I am so happy. I have a girlfriend, but not anymore.

I just killed her out front, so it’s true.

Jacob: Ha ha ha ha, that’s so funny.

So I just sat there and I had the same feeling, and I don’t want to compare films because that’s probably lame.

Jacob: You can do whatever you want.

Gillian: You can mention other films.

After I saw “Cabin in the Woods,” I had this very surreal “Nothing makes sense to me anymore, what’s going on in the world,” feeling and after “Milo,” I felt the same way I thought “I gotta get ahold of some of my rage issues.”

Jacob: Ha ha ha that’s great.

First I wanted to ask you (Gillian) did Juilliard prepare you for this particular role.

Gillian: No, Juilliard unfortunately was pretty snobby when it came to…they they like, it’s so funny. They didn’t know anything about the business at all, so probably no. They would probably turn their noses up at something like this but I’ve always been way more attracted to projects like this than a life solely of of

Shakespeare?

Gillian: Well I grew up doing Shakespeare so I do have a deep love of Shakespeare.

“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is my favorite.

Gillian: I’ve been in “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Jacob: Did you do “Hamlet”?

Gillian: I’ve never done a “Hamlet.” I’ve auditioned for “Hamlet,” but umm…

You hear that world?

Jacob: Ha ha ha ha

Gillian: Yup! It’s funny because it’s like everything I’ve done in my career is nothing that Juilliard would have wanted me to do but…

They should screen this at the school.

Gillian: Oh my God. If you become successful enough then they embrace whatever it is you’re doing. If you could potentially donate them money then they’re excited about what you’ve done with yourself.

Jacob: Not gonna happen.

Gillian: I’m not giving them any money. They traumatized me. They owe me my therapy bills. But yeah, this has been really fun. I’ve never been in a film quite like this.

I’ve never seen a film quite like this. I was not prepared. I don’t want to jump all over the place but I’m sure everyone has talked about the penis scene (one character gets his penis bitten off by the monster, who if you haven’t figured it out yet is named Milo).

Gillian: Yeah….

Obviously penises, no offense are (at this point I looked at Jacob, the only person in the room with a penis) awful looking anyway. You guys didn’t get the good end of the deal.

Jacob: I don’t like them, except for one. Yeah, no man…I wanted to see that happen and the character (who is a fertility doctor) is named Dr. Tip by the way…

Yes it was. I guess the punishment fit the crime. Is every single death like that? I just realized that may be the case.

Jacob: Yeah I tried to…

Gillian: Poor Erik Charles Nielsen (Duncan’s cubemate who died first) and that one. He did delete the file and the presentation, but I felt a little bit bad about Erik dying.

Jacob: I had to try to motivate that one a little bit more that’s why I put the deletion in. There are some things I did impose to try to make it more motivated. Um, but yeah, for him I kind of wanted the idea he’s shredding paper so he’s doing something illegal. So when he gets killed it sort of comes across that he’s being dragged under the desk and sort of shredded by Milo.

Gillian: I liked that in later scenes there was still blood smeared on the wall.

They couldn’t even bother to clean it up.

Gillian: It was great. It’s just those touches, also it’s such a shitty (pun) company that they couldn’t even muster the energy to get rid of his blood.

Here’s a weird question, did the actor whose penis was bitten off…did he get to choose his own prosthetic penis?

Jacob: Uhhhh no…

Because obviously I’d be like “Can I have a bigger one?”

Jacob: It was pretty big actually, ha ha ha…there’s an interesting story behind (pun) this. There was a time when we didn’t know who was going to play Dr. Tip so we were looking at a couple of other actors. One of them was African American and one of them was White so we made up two penises.

You made a cock up.

Jacob: Ha ha ha, yes we made a cock up of a black one and a white one and so we had them both.

Gillian: What did you do with the African American one?

There are a lot of penises in this film because you (Gillian) had to throw a bunch of dildos to defend yourself at one point.

Gillian: Ohhhhh yeah…

“Hey guys, I wasn’t feeling that one. Can we do another take?”

Jacob: Ha ha ha ha

Gillian: As I said my one request was that they not throw a dildo directly at my face because I knew that moment would live on forever on the Internet.

Jacob: Obviously I didn’t want them to hit you but I wanted them to throw one past you and you were like “You have to be careful not to hit my face.” You know the Internet so well…

Gillian: Oh yeah, when you’re on a show like “Community,” you develop like a sixth sense of memes and gifs and that wouldn’t be great. So they have enough to work with I think. Me throwing a bunch of dildos…that was my gift to them, my gif to them. I mean…I’ve worked with grosser things than a bunch of dildos. There’s a scene that’s not in the film, well my character is a veterinarian, and there’s a scene where I’m birthing, what was I birthing?

Jacob: Duncan (Marino) goes to her work place to pick her up to go to dinner and um he walks into the back, comes into the operating table and she’s got her arm elbow deep in a huge sow. And she’s giving birth to a little embryonic pig. I wanted to show that she’s (Gillian’s character) is a badass. But also I wanted to bookend it. She’s doing this in the beginning and she’s doing this (putting an injured Milo back into Marino’s ass) at the end (pun).

What a cycle, that is the cycle of life. It’s a shame that scene didn’t make it because at some point I thought “Man she is surprisingly okay with all of this.” So before I ask about the end of the movie how much are you comfortable with me discussing? I don’t want to blow anything because I legitimately…here’s another thing I do a lot. I cry at a lot of things, films mostly, maybe life but films…ridiculous things. My mom will come into my room and say “Oh, you’re crying at the end of ‘Terminator 2’ again?”

Gillian: It depends on the time of month. I can cry at pretty much anything.

That is also true, but when he (Marino) is cradling an injured Milo I was just….tears were coming down my face. The girl next to me, who didn’t know me, was like “Are you okay?” and I was like “I’M FINE.”

Jacob: You don’t understand how happy that makes me because that is really…I mean really…in all seriousness I wanted that part to be genuinely authentic. When Milo gets to that point and Duncan is there emotionally…I really wanted there to be an emotional impact. At the screening there was an “awwwww” moment. If that is all I get then that’s all I want.

Gillian: I also think, having not seen the film cut together before last night and a lot of the things I hadn’t seen because I wasn’t on set; I loved that whole bonding sequence of Duncan and Milo in the hotel. I feel like that goes such a long way towards endearing the audience to him as Milo as a character so you do feel that. It’s not just something that’s coming out of his butt, killing people, and going back up his butt. Then you would feel like “I want him dead.” There is a lot of anal exit and reentry in this film, but it’s subtle.

Jacob: You don’t actually see. It’s offscreen. It’s just offscreen. Ha ha ha.

Here’s a really, because I’m such a pervert; at one point I literally thought “Well it probably feels a little bit good for him because he has a…”

Gillian: Prostate!

Jacob: Ha ha ha ha, exactly.

I wanted to say “Oh stop your bitching, if it had been a woman it’d be a nightmare.”

Gillian: The first part of it going back in maybe there’s probably a shiver of pleasure, then it’s just

searing pain.

Jacob: Yes yes yes

So I know someone last night at the screening screamed out “sequel?” and who knows because obviously you left a nice little cliffhanger, an in utero cliffhanger (we see a tiny Milolike creature in the baby of Gillian’s character who is still in her womb) does he live? Did he live? Is he alive? I want everyone to be alive.

Jacob: I think that Milo is. I think that Duncan has come to terms with some of his issues and they are living in coexistence. I don’t know, you know; I’m not going to dictate how people interpret the movie.

Is there going to be, and a friend of mine actually asked this question which was an unintentional pun. Is there going to be a wide release of the movie?

Jacob/Gillian: Ha ha ha

Jacob: Well I certainly hope so.

Every person I’ve spoken to about it wants to see it and I keep saying “Ugh, I’m sorry you’re not special enough to have seen it already.”

Gillian: Oooohhh…she’s hyping it!

Jacob: I want Milo in every home. I want little Milo dolls and on the packaging I want it to read “Not For Insertion.”

Gillian: You know what? Don’t rule that out because there is money to be made in that market.

You could make a Ken Marino doll and the kids could take Milo out and put him back into this body.

Gillian: Do you remember there used to be a pregnant Barbie doll where you could unscrew her pregnant tummy and there was a little baby inside. And you could put a flat tummy on it. We should do a Ken Marino doll with like a see through tummy area and you could put a little baby Milo up into it.

Jacob: I love it.

Gillian: What about a Miloshaped butt plug?

Jacob: That’s a really good idea.

You know you could have handed out dildos at the screening.

Gillian: I was in a film where they gave out butt plugs as a promotion.

Was it Choke?

Gillian: Yup!

Well I look forward to receiving any one of these items in the future. And I really appreciate you guys hanging out and talking like humans with me.

Jacob: Oh man no it was really wonderful, thank you.

Gillian: Yes thank you.

I hope to see “Milo,” in a theater near me soon, but not in an ass near me.

Jacob/Gillian: Ha ha ha ha