From Internet Fad to Feature Film Force

By: Alison Miller

Posted: 3/12/09

Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in their first feature film, "Miss March," appropriately coming to theaters Friday, March 13.

"Miss March" centers around two best friends, Eugene (Cregger) and Tucker (Moore), on a mission to find an old high school girlfriend who is now on the spread of March's issue of Playboy.

Cregger and Moore are most known for the comedy troupe they started in 2000 at New York City's School on the Arts, called the "Whitest Kids U'Know." The show's sketches soon became a huge sensation on the internet with over 5 million hits on YouTube, and became one of the most successful features on collegehumor.com.

In an interview with Moore and Cregger, they both emphasized that their success was a very gradual process.

"There was never really a moment of 'holy shit, dude,'" Cregger said.

When the group first started the comedy troupe, they would go to school during the week, work Saturday and Sunday during the day, and then put on shows Sunday nights, Cregger said.

"For years, we just worked our asses off. There's a saying like 'treat what you love like it is your job and it is only a matter of time before it will be your job,'" Cregger said.

The troupe went from doing these free shows in their school's amphitheaters, to weekly shows, to festivals, until they finally got their own television show that now airs on the Independent Film Channel (IFC), Moore said.

But, when Fox brought a script to Moore and Cregger, they were given the opportunity to work on their first feature film.

Moore said they weren't thrilled about the script in the beginning, because it just seemed like another road trip premise, but Fox gave them permission to rewrite it to better fit their style.

"We wanted to make it a type of movie that we would want to go see, and then it became a lot more fun," Moore said.

Moore said they weren't nervous about having the responsibility of so many aspects of the filming process on the set of their first feature film.

"We were lucky because we had been doing a television show before," Moore said.

Moore said they were also able to go right into shooting the movie after they wrapped up Season 2 of the "Whitest Kids U'Know."

"It was nice that we weren't rusty and didn't have to worry about getting back into the groove. We basically had a month and a half of rehearsing before the film," Moore said.

Moore and Cregger said they are both happy with the way the movie turned out because it is not the typical "sex-romp" comedy film.

"The aspect of the movie that I liked is that it isn't just about two horny guys that are looking to get laid. The two characters (Eugene and Tucker) have two opposite views about sex and neither of them is healthy. Both of them kind of learned to stop putting sex up on a pedestal and treat it like a normal thing," Cregger said.

Cregger said his favorite part of the film was working with Craig Robinson, who plays the character Horsedick.MPEG, a hardcore hip-hop star who raps about having sex with white girls.

"He is so fucking funny. I just loved being in any scene with him," Cregger said.

Cregger and Moore also had the opportunity to work with Hugh Hefner, who had a cameo in the film.

"Hefner was totally cool with everything. The whole story that was made up about him in the film was totally not true, but he was really chill about it," Moore said.

In their free time, Moore said they might play some video games here and there, but for the most part they are always focused on work. They are already planning a "Whitest Kids" movie and possibly a Season 4 for their television show on IFC.