Filmmaker Fernando Andrès & Actor-Producer Jacob Roberts (Rent Free): "Film Is My Religion"

Dennis is joined via Zoom by two of the men behind his favorite indie of the year so far Rent Free, co-writer and director Fernando Andrès and actor-producer Jacob Roberts. The film is about two queer, down-on-their-luck best friends Ben (Roberts) and Jordan (played by David Trevino) who hatch a plan to live rent free for a year in Austin, Texas--on friends' sofas or whatever they can fanagle--while they save up to move to New York City to pursue their dreams. Fernando talks about his goal of making a buddy comedy set in a bleak contemporary economic landscape focusing on a kind of queer friendship that's very familiar to him but underexplored in cinema. Jacob talks about the finding the comedy in cringey hookup scenes, and recalls shooting a key emotional scene with Austin-based actor Bill Wise as Jacob's eccentric and empathetic father. Other topics include: Jacob writing and appearing in several iconic Hasty Pudding musical shows while at Harvard, Fernando being mentored by Austin-based filmmaking legend Richard Linklater, the upside of taking a film from the idea phase all the way through production and distribution in a relatively short period of time, what it's like to live in Austin post-tech boom and why they made one of the most obnoxious characters in the movie a gay "Facebook Guy with a good salary."