‘Big Time Adolescence’ Star Griffin Gluck Got The “Most Fire Leftovers I Have Ever Had” From Pete Davidson’s Mom

“I’ve been waiting for so long for this to come out,” Griffin Gluck told me earlier this month when he stopped by the Decider offices to chat about his new movie Big Time Adolescence. Luckily, Hulu moved up the release date so he had one less week to wait, and audiences can now stream the comedy/drama that first premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Gluck turned 18 on the set of this movie (he’s now 19), but he’s been working steadily since the age of nine and counts this role as the influenceable Mo as his second leading role after 2016’s Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. But he’s already a familiar face to anyone with a Netflix account: he most recently starred in Locke & Key (and read more about that unique role here), Tall Girl, and American Vandal.

Here, we discuss hanging out in Pete Davidson’s basement home, why filming party scenes is actually fairly stressful, and the crazy reason he missed out on meeting Elon Musk on the Why Him? set.

Decider: Were there a lot of elements about Mo that you found relatable? 

Griffin Gluck: So much so. Mo is such a relatable character. And so is every character in this movie, by the way. I feel like [writer and director Jason Orley] really nailed that. I know when my sister watched this, when I watch this with people, they’re like, ‘Oh my god! That guy reminds me of my buddy from high school!’ Every time and with so many different characters. I think something that really drew me to the role was just how grounded it was in reality and how well Jason really wrote the script. When I read the script, I fell in love with everything: with the story, with the characters, everything.

Tell me a little bit about Jason, because he directed Pete Davidson’s recent Netflix special too. He feels like one of those guys that’s about to have a very big moment.

Oh, he is. This man is going to win so many awards. I loved every minute of [working with him]. Jason’s a great, great director. This was his directorial debut and I think he crushed it. I don’t think it would’ve been the same movie if he wrote it and someone else directed it. Jason is so great with cast and crew and he’s not one to boss people around. He’s one to sort of bring everyone together towards the common goal of creating a movie like this.

Were any of the events in the movie inspired by his own life, do you know?

I actually met his friend who he named Mo after, last night for the premiere. He came up to me and was like, ‘I just want to tell you: I’m Monroe!’ I was like, ‘No way!’ I don’t think the character Mo’s based on him, I think he just got the name because it was his best friend. He was even saying when he watched it, it was hilarious to him because everyone in the movie is based off of someone in his life. I don’t know the ins and outs, but I do know that Jason definitely drew from his real life experiences. He told me the relationship between Zeke and Mo was based off of a relationship that was a real life relationship.

Have you ever had the mentor/friend relationship like the one that your character and Pete’s have in this movie? 

I think Thomas [Barbusca] is going to hate me for saying this, but I’ve always seen him as a little brother. Just because, age-wise, he’s much younger than me. But mental age-wise, he’s very much an old soul. But I feel like, when I met him, I wanted to become that older brother type thing. Because I never had an older brother, I was always the youngest sibling, so it was kind of a chance for me to be like, ‘Alright, you know what? I’m gonna brother the shit out of you!’

Did he take to it?

Yeah, totally! We’re still best friends. He comes to me for advice, I go to him for advice. But a lot of times he comes to me for advice.

And what was the dynamic like between you and Pete? Did you guys get along right away?

Yeah, I would say so. He and I first met at the table read, for just a brief bit and I didn’t get to know him much then. But we clicked. When we were reading, we had good chemistry back and forth. But then when we started filming was when he and I actually started to hang. I think after the first day of work, he was just like, ‘Yo, what are you doing?’ I was just like, ‘Not much!’ And he was like, ‘Word. Want to come to my room and watch a movie?’ And I was like, ‘Word!’ It just kind of went from there, it was a very natural friendship that I think helped the movie go along.

What movie did you watch?

I don’t know about the first night but I know that we watched Mars Attacks! soon afterward. And the reason I remember that is because we watched it and Pete was sitting there and he was like, ‘You know? I kind of want to get a tattoo of the martians from Mars Attacks!.’ And I was just like, ‘Those? They’re so ugly! Why do you want a tattoo?’ He was like, ‘Nah, bro. They’re sick.’ And I was just like, ‘Word.’ I just thought he was kidding, and like a week later he had a giant martian from Mars Attacks! on his chest. I was like, I like this. This is funny. This is fun for me.

I watched the tour of his basement, in the house where he lives with his mom upstairs, and I think he has a tattoo gun?

The cave, I’ve been there, it’s the best. It’s the best man cave on this side of the Mississippi. And his mom is the best! I love his mom. She sent me home with some of the most fire leftovers I have ever had. So good.

His friend Snuffy, who actually gave me this little smiley face, which is so stupid [he pulled up his sleeve to show a small smiley face on his left wrist]. His buddy who’s a tattoo artist just comes and they hang out. And he’ll be like, ‘Yo, I kind of want a thing right here.’ And he’ll be like ‘Word!’ and bust out the tattoo gun and go for it.

We see Pete in the tabloids and stuff all the time but he seems like a very cool, decent person outside of all of that.

I was talking to him about that because he and I were talking about social media and all that. I don’t really like social media at all and I know his opinion on it. People just give him a hard time, dude. The press, for some reason, just loves to shit on Pete. Which is insane to me, because he’s a really great guy. It just shows how weird social media is because people who don’t know you at all are going to judge you.

View this post on Instagram

Surprise! Griffin Gluck has an ill-advised tattoo just like his character does in BIG TIME ADOLESCENCE.

A post shared by Decider.com (@deciderdotcom) on Mar 16, 2020 at 7:58am PDT

I feel like I want to be friends with everybody in this cast. 

Yeah. You do. And I do, and I’m glad that I am.

Did party scenes turn into, ‘Well, let’s all just hang out!’ Did you guys all become good friends on set?

The party scenes, no. Because the party scenes are very hard to work around. There’s a lot of moving pieces to them. The party scenes are actually super stressful. But I’d say it more continued off-set than it did on-set. On-set we were there, we were working, and the second we would wrap or we would cut, it would be all back to jokes or all back to fun and games.

Tell me about working with John Cryer too because you are both great in your scenes together. 

Thank you. Yeah, John was awesome to work with. He was like, I don’t want to say a father figure because I have way too many father figures. But he was definitely such a great influence and a great energy to have on-set. Obviously he’s a seasoned vet, he’s a pro. I love so many of the things he’s worked on. So it was really awesome to have that energy and to be able to play off of him because I feel like he’s very natural and easy to work with. He’s a fantastic guy.

It’s cool that 30 years ago he would have been in more of the kid role and now he’s the dad. Are you ready for that, in 30 years, to be the dad?

Oh yeah. I’m ready tomorrow.

It’ll be here before you know it. 

Oh my god. Never mind, hold on.

I feel like I’ve been watching you for a long time at this point. How old were you when you started working? 

When I started professionally working, I was nine. But I’ve always been around the industry. My dad’s a director, so when he would be working on a project, he would just be like, ‘You’ll have a little cameo.’ And I’d be like, awesome. Actually, if you go watch the Japanese remake of Sideways, I have a small scene in that where I just go, ‘Oh, you’re that guy!’ And then that’s it. I think I say it in Japanese, and then I’m out.

How do you feel now? Do you feel like a veteran? Do you feel like you’ve been doing this for a long time?

Honestly I feel old, in a weird kind of way. When I was like 11 I was on Private Practice, I was the only kid on set and I was there for two seasons. So I very much felt like an adult, even though I know damn well I was not at all. But I felt like one. So now I feel like I’m in my 30s or 40s. I’m just always like 10 years ahead.

It must feel nice now to work with people your age, though.

Yeah, it’s great.

Is there anything you have your eye on that you still want to do? 

A lot. This year has been really awesome for me and the characters that I’ve gotten to play. I got to do Locke & Key. It was an hour-long mystery/drama, which is something I’ve never done before. And also in that, I get to play the bad guy at the end, which I’ve also never done before. But it happened in the perfect way because I get to play just regular kid, which I’m used to, I’ve done before and I know that I can do it. And I slowly transition into an evil mastermind, which is super exciting for me because I know that it’s totally different. So I just want to keep doing things like that, where I get to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new and end up really loving it like I did with Locke & Key.

I do want to ask you about Why Him? which is one of my favorite comedies. 

Let’s go. It’s up there with my favorite projects of all time. I was having the best time. I was chilling on set and then Steve Aoki would come with Keegan Michael Key. And I would just be like, ‘This is a very cool combo!’ Bryan Cranston is the funniest, most dry humor guy I’ve ever met. He and I would mess around a lot, so that was a lot of fun. Megan [Mullally], Zoey [Deutch], Keegan, Steve Aoki. Elon Musk was there for like a day, I didn’t get to meet him because he couldn’t show up to set one day because one of his rockets blew up. He was like, ‘Sorry guys, can’t make it to set. My rocket blew up.’ And we were like, ‘Okay. Alright. Fine.’

Where to stream Big Time Adolescence