An average day’s news is the stuff of nightmares these days, so for some, a horror film may well feel like an escape. But that’s not the type of story Dave Franco was after in his directorial debut “The Rental.” “I wanted to make a scary movie that was relatable and set in the real world,” he explains. “For me, there’s nothing scarier than someone watching something and thinking, That could actually happen to me.”
“I realized how challenging acting really is.... It just really made me appreciate actors more than I ever had.”
“The Rental,” which hits VOD on July 24, follows two couples who take a weekend away at an idyllic, remote, seaside Airbnb-type rental home. “The idea was inspired by my own paranoia about the concept of home-sharing,” Franco says. “Our country is as divided as it’s ever been, and no one trusts each other, yet we trust staying in the home of a stranger simply because of a few positive reviews online.” But the actor and first-time filmmaker wasn’t just after a jump-scare genre film. The tension within the couples’ onscreen relationships would alone be enough for a marital drama, but when cameras are discovered in their rental house, the story takes a sinister turn into more classic horror territory.
Those familiar with Franco’s work in the industry might be surprised by two things: that the project isn’t a comedy and that he doesn’t appear in it himself. But his desire to work in film predates both his acting career and his largely comedic body of work. “I always wanted to find a way into the movie business, and the path I took happened to be through acting. But over time I became curious about every step of the process and felt like I wanted to do more than just act,” he says. His first job as a teenager at a small video store where he could take home as many movies as he wanted became his film school.
From Acting to ‘Action!’: How These 18 Actors Became Directors After directing short films, Franco was ready to transition into features. He teamed up with Joe Swanberg with the idea for “The Rental” and they co-wrote the script. What originally was a starring vehicle for him instead became the opportunity for his feature film directorial debut, even if that concept scared him a bit. “Once I wrote this script and realized that I knew these characters and this story more intimately than anyone, all of my fears went away because I had such a strong idea for how I wanted to approach this film,” he says.
One of those approaches was a strong core of actors to play the two couples. Franco’s wife, Alison Brie, stars alongside Sheila Vand, Dan Stevens, and Jeremy Allen White. “This is a movie where the characters are all flawed...they all just feel human,” he explains. “I wanted actors who could really dive into these complex characters and make it all feel real and grounded.”
“For me, there’s nothing scarier than someone watching something and thinking, That could actually happen to me.”
Franco offers high praise of his cast, throwing around compliments like “maybe one of the best actors on the planet” about Brie and “I would wonder why he wasn’t the biggest star in the world” about White. It was no surprise that his own experiences in front of the camera made him want to give his actors room to do their best work, like allowing them to give input on their lines in the script. Once on set, as he was navigating his first experiences in the director’s chair, he also learned a thing or two about acting.
“I realized how challenging acting really is. I would watch them preparing for intense scenes; they would be building themselves up and trying to get into this really intense headspace while hundreds of crew members watched. It just really made me appreciate actors more than I ever had.”
Taking the reins on the the technical aspects of filmmaking also made him understand the importance of transparency on set. “I’ve been in situations as an actor where we do take after take and no one tells us why. After a while, you can’t help but get in your own head and think, This is all my fault, I’m a terrible actor, and I’m going to get fired,” he says. “I just wanted the actors to be privy to everything that we were doing on the other side of the camera.”
5 Things an Actor Must Know as a Content Creator When it came to building his skills as a filmmaker, Franco is thankful that he surrounded himself with people who were as passionate as he was about the project. It was an indie filmed in a remote area of Oregon, so it was all hands on deck. “As a first-time director, I needed a crew whose main priority was the quality of the film, as opposed to wanting to get home in time to watch a basketball game or something like that,” he says. Through those parameters, he learned that sometimes talent or experience shouldn’t be your only qualifications for building the best possible team for your project. “There were circumstances where I was deciding between someone who had more experience and someone who maybe hasn’t been on as many sets but they were passionate. I chose that passion every single time and it really paid off. I ended up being surrounded by people who made my job a lot easier than it could’ve been.”
In short, this is just the beginning for Franco as a filmmaker. He has been thinking about thoughtful ways to approach stories, especially in genres people tend to write off. “As a viewer, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a smart genre film,” he says. His experience as a viewer is what led him here in the first place, and what will continue to be the catalyst for future projects. It all goes back to his first job. “The main reason I’m doing any of this is because I love movies.”
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