In The Overnight, Alex (“Parks and Recreation’s” Adam Scott), Emily (Taylor Schilling from “Orange is the New Black”), and their son, RJ, have recently moved to Los Angeles’ Eastside from Seattle. Feeling lost in a new city, they are desperate to find their first new friends. After a chance meeting with Kurt (Jason Schwartzman) at the neighborhood park, they gladly agree to join family pizza night at the home. But as it gets later and the kids go to bed, the family “playdate” becomes increasingly more revealing and bizarre as the couples begin to open up.

Writer/director Patrick Brice’s second feature is a painfully funny take on thirty-something sexual frustration and parenthood. Featuring memorable lead performances by Schilling, Scott, Schwartzman, and Judith Godrèche, take us on an emotional roller coaster that turns from surprising honesty to complete embarrassment. Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling recently discussed the film, including the soon-to-be-notorious penis scene.

So I need to address the elephant in the room about the [nude swimming pool] scene. Was [the penis] real.

Adam Scott: You can just ask the question. How small is it is the question I guess [laughs]?

No, that’s not the question at all [laughs].

Adam: I’m flattered. My penis wasn’t big enough for what we needed to shoot, so we needed to get a prosthetic. Yes, Jason and I had prosthetics which was really weird because you have this thing on. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a real penis. You put it on and you’re naked except for this thing that looks like a penis. You’re actually naked, but there’s this psychological barrier because it’s fake. We didn’t really feel like we were naked, but we pretty much were.

Taylor Schilling: Oh you totally were [laughs].

Adam: We were far more comfortable than we would have been than if we were nude, which we basically were.

Taylor: [laughs]

And after that scene when you’re waving [the penis prosthetics] around.

Taylor: We were just flapping them in the wind [laughs]. I don’t why I’m so giggly. I don’t drink Diet Coke very often and I had one with lunch.

Adam: That’ll do it.

Taylor: It just put me over the edge.

There’s a scene where the two of you are talking and you say, ‘I feel like I just gave birth to myself.’ For each of you, was there a moment in your life where you feel like you gave birth to yourself?

Taylor: This is really gross.

Adam: Come on. Tell us.

Taylor: The other day, I picked something off of my face and I thought, ‘I just gave birth to something on my face [laughs].’

Adam: Was it like a little baby?

Taylor: I wasn’t going to share with you until Adam egged me on.

Adam: Did it scream?

Taylor: Yes [laughs].

Was there a particular incident in your life where you stepped outside your comfort zone and felt kind of reborn after that?

Taylor: That’s a great question. I think there are lots of little moments. All of the times I make a riskier choice, there’s a new part of myself that’s never been explored. It’s a lot of little decisions that add up to a new understanding.

Adam: When I was introduced to the writings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Taylor: [laughs] I don’t mean to laugh, sorry [laughs more].

Adam: It’s corny, but becoming a dad was a big thing. I didn’t know how to do any of that. I didn’t have any idea of how I was going to be as a dad or how to take care of a baby or any of that. Going through that experience, I was like, ‘wow, this is who I am.’ I kind of figured myself out through that unexpectedly. I was expecting to take care of a baby and not have it take care of me. I figured myself out in a hurry once I had kids. People in their twenties are figuring themselves out and once you’re in your thirties, it’s like, ‘this is who I am.’

Taylor: There are those moments when you kind of step outside of yourself and you think, ‘who am I? I just did something not like me.’ Some of the most interesting moments in life, in my life, happen when you veer off the track.

Adam: I like how [our characters] were happy at the end [of the film]. It could have gone the other way.
Taylor: I love that about the movie – the theme of getting to know yourself. There’s a greater acceptance of who these people are. When you dive into the scarier places, you can emerge stronger.

Is that what drew you to these roles?

Adam: Again, when I was first introduced to Dianetics…[laughs]. [Producer] Mark Duplass brought the script to my wife Naomi and me a few years ago. He said, ‘you can act in this and Naomi can produce it and we’ll make it quickly for a small amount of money.’ We thought the script was wonderful. I loved Patrick and got to know him, but we couldn’t figure out when to [make the film]. When we finally figured out a chunk of time to do it, we jumped on it since it was such good material. We were lucky to get Taylor five months before we shot.

Taylor: Yea, it was a while. I was working and we still had the whole time slot figured out.

Adam: I liked it because I thought it would scare me. [Taylor’s] character creeped me out when I was reading the script. The nudity freaked me out. When you want to film a script, you think there’s like a 10% chance that this will ever happen. When we found the time to actually shoot, I was like, ‘will I actually have to DO all of this [the nudity]?’ I’m glad we did because it ended up being really fun. Also, if things are scary, you should do them.

Taylor: Oh yes! Actually, the movie happened so quickly, so there wasn’t a lot of time to over think, which I’m finding out more and more to just allow the moment to happen.

The Overnight opens in select theaters June 19.