Interview: David Koechner

I wanted to start off by talking about “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy”, which opens on September 2^nd. I think the name pretty much explains everything, but what is it about?

[laughs] Uh… friendship. Testing the bounds of friendship and intimacy. I guess that’s what it’s about.

Who do you play?

I play Vick – who is an old hand at orgies. Apparently I throw them on a regular basis. And so a group of younger people who have been friends forever – there’s a beach house that they’ve been going to for years, and these group of friends used to go there every summer to hang out. And apparently the dad is selling the beach house so they decide to have one final blowout party, and Jason Sudeikis’ character has the idea that this should be an orgy. So they’ve had all kinds of drunk parties over the years – themed parties – so he decides this theme should be an orgy. His buddy comes to me to… [laughs] …find out how to throw one.

So you are like the orgy guru.

[laughs] Yeah.

Nice. And I saw you in the trailer, you looked all pimped out.

Yeah… [laughs] we’re having an orgy… myself and whoever I hang out with… we’re having an orgy at a mattress store at night. [laughs] And they come and get advice and the first time they see me I am mid… how can I say it delicately? Uh, mid-position I guess. Mid-lovemaking. It was pretty funny.

Did your character get it on with Jason Sudeikis at all?

No.

Ok, I just wanted to clear that up. It looks like a lot of fun, did you guys have a lot of fun on set?

Oh, we did. This is a great cast, obviously you can see… so they were a lot of fun. I was there for a short time, but clearly they have all bonded.

Yeah, this looks like a great cast.

Yeah.

Another movie I wanted to talk quickly about – ‘Final Destination 5’. Do you have a cool death scene?

Two of them.

Really?

I don’t know if you’re familiar…

That’s right, you see the vision in the beginning and then you see it actually happen later.

Yes, the first set of deaths happen during someone’s premonition, and you have your death when fate catches up with you.

Can you tell us anything about that since it’s already out?

Yeah, I had a great experience – we shot that last Fall. I have never done those type of movies – so that was really interesting. And it had a really bright and talented cast – we had a blast making it. Steve Quayle, who has worked for James Cameron for years – it was his first time helming a feature, and he did an amazing job. There were a lot of moving parts in that movie, you’ve got your story and then you literally have all of the moving parts for these intricate deaths – you have to really set them up. It’s a real task to draw out the tension for these deaths, because everyone knows that everyone is going to die – and you know they’re going to die twice. So you have to keep the audience guessing. You have to be ahead of them. It was really well written and the execution of the script was phenomenal.

That’s what I didn’t like about the last one, everything seemed so predictable. And I hear this one is different.

It is, you don’t know where it’s coming from – it keeps you guessing. It’s probably too much, but I’m going to say it… it’s got some Hitchcock elements. It keeps you guessing. They did an amazing job building the tension.

You are also going to be ‘Piranha 3DD’ in November.

[laughs] I guess I’m the new “scream queen”.

I guess so. Do you die off in that one too?

I don’t know if it’s a spoiler or not… so maybe… maybe. That was a lot of fun, in North Carolina. David Hasselhoff is in it – Ving Rhames. It’s a young / talented cast. That movie is pretty raw.

Yeah, I saw the last one.

Yeah, this one might go further than that one.

Which sequels usually do, so probably.

Yeah, you know… these things are a guilty pleasure for people. There’s an appetite for that.

One thing that I came across wile looking at the cast; it’s got Gary Busey and David Hasselhoff – how in the hell did they finish the movie with those two?

[laughs] They didn’t have them working at the same time. Hasselhoff is a straight up pro, he’s a delightful guy too. I’ve never worked with him before, but he is a kind delightful man who is an ultimate professional.

I don’t want to scare you or anything, but looking at your track record… I think people like to see you die.

Apparently, right? I died once before, I died in ‘Snakes On A Plane’, but then suddenly I’m dying. No, wait… then I died in Extract.

Yeah, the heart attack.

So, I guess… yeah… it’s a lot of fun to have a death scene as an actor. [laughs] And in the last five movies – I guess I keep dying.

“We don’t want that David to work on our movie, let’s kill him off!”

Yeah, really.