The new comedy from writer/director Tom Gormican, “That Awkward Moment,” is about three guys in their 20s trying to work out love and relationships. Not coincidentally, the movie stars three guys in their 20s – Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan.
When I got the chance to talk about the movie with the three stars, I couldn’t help but ask how the situations in it spoke to the three men’s own lives and experiences. Jordan started off their answers and discussed needing to use your own “moral compass” when making decisions and expressed the opinion, which is certainly not new, that guys can be misunderstood, “Because we’re not as forward with our emotions.”
He added that the film is a “great depiction” of how men handle emotions and talk to each other “That females never get a chance to hear.” That is definitely one of the things the movie focuses on, and Efron, who is also an executive producer on the film, loved Jordan’s answer, offering him a fist bump in solidarity and appreciation.
It was a great moment because as much as the film deals with men’s relationships with women, it is also about the three guys and their camaraderie. If the fist bump between Efron and Jordan didn’t show how the actors feel about each other, the response to Efron’s answering our second question (is it harder now to date than it may have been 10 or 20 years ago) certainly did.
After stating that the difficulties in dating were growing exponentially now from one generation to the next, Efron offered the sentiment, “I’d love to meet a person-a girl-face-to-face that knows nothing about me and I know nothing about her.” To which Jordan instantly offered a “Good luck,” noting how hard that was, and Teller followed with the explanation that “They’re taking trips to outer space” to find someone.
Okay, fine, Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan don’t have exactly the same difficulties as the characters they’re portraying in the movie, but that doesn’t mean that they (or at least Efron) don’t want to be loved for who they truly are on the inside. The three men may not know where they’re headed relationship-wise now, but they promise that they’ll figure it out… eventually.