In Summer of 69, Matt Cornett plays the object of protagonist Abby’s affection, Max.
For Cornett, joining the film was a no brainer, largely in part to its first-time director – actress and filmmaker Jillian Bell. “She has such a warming and calming presence,” the 26-year-old actor tells The Hollywood Reporter about Bell on a Zoom from the trailer of his current project. “You feel so immediately invited in to just create and have fun, and with her specifically, there was never a moment where I didn’t feel like I could try something.”
While Summer of 69 is firmly in the teen movie category, the former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actor is personally in a bit of a transition period between high school roles and what’s to come next. However, he jokes that as long as he can keep himself “feeling young,” he’ll be able to play high school.
Below, Cornett speaks with THR about Summer of 69, working with Bell as a director and what types of projects he’s hoping to join next.
What drew you to Summer of 69?
For me, one of the biggest things about it was, A, it was funny, obviously, and B, I think it had that kind of elevated level of comedy while still holding the heart and the softness of something that is going to tug at your heartstrings at times. At the end of the day, it is still like a dual coming-of-age story, and it still is something that Abby (Sam Morelos) is learning from Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) and Santa Monica is learning from Abby. They could not be in more different places in their life, but they’re still teaching each other things without them knowing it. I think that’s something that I picked up on very quickly and that I love so much. I also heard wonderful things about the American High team because I have a bunch of friends who have worked with them. Obviously, Jillian Bell [directed the film], and I’ve always been a big fan of hers. All of those things collectively is the reason that I was so excited about it.
What was it like working with Jillian as a director?
It’s actually shocking that this is her first time directing because you would never know it. If you would’ve told me coming into this that she’s directed a hundred films, I would believe you. I’m sure Jillian probably had some stuff behind the scenes that she was freaking out about, but from my perspective and talking with a lot of the actors, from our perspectives, she had everything so well thought out and planned out. The way that in which she was excited to create this world and bring this world to life genuinely. I don’t know if it could have been done better by anybody else. Also, just the way that she speaks to the actors. I’ve always said an actor’s director is so much easier for the actor [because it’s] someone who came from the acting world.
One of my other favorite directors I’ve ever worked with Kimberly McCullough, she is also, she started as an actor and I worked with her on High School Musical, and she was spectacular. Directors that come from the acting world first know how an actor’s brain works, so they know how to get certain notes across and how to get certain ideas across of what they want out of a person in a scene. I think that was a big thing for her too. She knew how to talk to us and she created such a safe, fun, playful environment that from day one it was instantaneously I felt okay to just play around. And I think that’s really important, especially for a comedy.
People online seemed to take to the movie pretty quickly. How do you feel about that and why do you think that happened from your perspective?
Obviously, it feels great. It always feels really great whenever something that you make and something you put so much work into kind of turns out and people like it. It’s a good feeling. I’ve been reading a lot of very positive things about it. I think as for the reasoning, it’s a lot of reasons. I think the trailer was such a good showing of what it is, and obviously, that has a lot to do with Jillian and the way that she cut that. The way that it’s shot — Maria [Rusche], our DP — is beautiful and she made it look stunning. It has that elevated feel. I’ve read a few things that are like this should have been a theatrical release.
What types of projects are wanting to do these days? As you said, you’re 26, which can be a very middle of the road time in your life.
Something that I’ve had conversations with my team recently is just I am in that space where I’m kind of growing out of the teenage stuff that I had been doing for so long, and [that] I attribute a lot of my success in work to. I wouldn’t be anywhere where I am without it. Right? I love those things so much and there will always be a place for those things, but I think it is [a time where I’m] trying to transition into things that aren’t necessarily always high school. Like I said, as long as I can play high school, I will happily play high school. As long as I can keep myself feeling young, I’m good.
I think it’s a transition of trying to figure out what material I want to play in. I love comedy so much. I will continue to do comedy for as long as I can and as for long as people will have me do it. I think something that will help with that is just finding the areas in where we can find more mature material or more mature roles or something that has a bit of a deeper meaning to it. I always tell people I would love right now to do some kind of military or war movie. where it’s something that’s a bit heavier. It’s something that’s a bit more intense, something a bit more dramatic and something where people who have been to war, people like battle hardened soldiers, they’ve been through a lot.
I have a lot of family who’s in the military and my childhood best friends are in the military. Just talking to them, hearing from them and then watching documentaries, it changes a person. Someone who has been in battle; it’s a mental, emotional, physical toll on a person, and I think there’s so much to play and so much to research and so much to tap into with that. That’s something I think that would be fun. I don’t want to narrow myself down to one specific thing. I always tell my team, send me everything. I would rather see everything than I see a smidgen of things that come through.
I don’t necessarily know exactly what I want to do until the right thing comes across. I just talked to my about a film recently that if you would’ve just given me the gist of what it was, I probably would’ve been like, eh. But I read the script and I talked to my team about it, and I learned about the character. I was like, “This is fantastic. I love this so much.” It’s hard to say this is exactly what I want to do, but I think that’s where we are right now is that transition of really dialing in the trajectory of what I want for my career. [It’s] is hard to do, and it does feel like I have to figure it out, but at the end of the day, you don’t have to have it all figured out, which is what we learn in this movie a little bit.