Exclusive: Sasheer Zamata Brings Her Comedic Game To Social Media Film ‘Spree’

Hitting Theaters, On Digital and On Demand August 14 from RLJE Films is Spree, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko (Wobble Place, 0s & 1s) from a script co-written by Kotlyarenko and Gene McHugh.

The film features an all-star cast led by Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”) in his first film feature leading-role, Sasheer Zamata (“Saturday Night Live”), David Arquette (Scream franchise), Kyle Mooney (Brigsby Bear, “Saturday Night Live”), Mischa Barton (“The O.C.”), Frankie Grande ("Style Code Live"), and John DeLuca (Teen Beach Movie franchise). 

SPREE is executive produced by award-winning rapper and record producer Drake (“Toosie Slide,” “Hotline Bling”).

Meet Kurt, from @KurtsWorld96 (Joe Keery). He dreams of sitting atop a social media empire, but for now he drives for the rideshare company Spree. Fortunately, Kurt has come up with the perfect way to go viral: #TheLesson. He’s decked out his car with cameras for a nonstop livestream full of killer entertainment – murdering his passengers. In the middle of all this madness, a stand-up comedian (Sasheer Zamata) with her own viral agenda crosses Kurt’s path and becomes the only hope to put an end to his misguided carnage.

BlackFilmandTV.com spoke with Zamata in regards to her role in this film.

What went into saying yes to this?

Sasheer Zamata: I come from the comedy world, and I was just so excited to do something in the thriller genre and do something new and have the audience see me do something new.

How would you best describe your character and how do you relate to her?

Sasheer Zamata: Well, Jesse Adams is a comedian. I had to really dig deep to figure out this character. But she's a different being than I am. She built her career on social media. It was interesting to think about this person who is getting direct feedback and direct accolades and love from her audience and from her phone. This is an interesting person because I've definitely been around other comedians who live in their phone and it does take work for people who create content online and end it themselves. To engage and comment with their audience that takes work and that is a different kind of work that I do not want to do.

We've all been homebound for a long period of time. There's a good percentage of people, probably over 50% that when they wake up, rather than turn on a TV, they pick up their phone and they go through different accounts. All they do is they scroll up and down. Where are you at this point?

Sasheer Zamata: I think that's great for people. What an opportunity for those performers to be like, the first thing that someone sees when they wake up that day, but I think what this movie really touches on is analyzing people's relationship with social media. What are you getting out of it? Are you doing this to get love? Are you doing this to because you're obsessed with someone or you're bored? We can really pull a lot of different worst case scenarios out of this movie.

Were you able to adlb in this film?

Sasheer Zamata: Thankfully, Eugene Kotlyarenko, the director, created a very open collaborative space on set. So I did feel comfortable improvising, and asking or pitching different ideas for dialogue or parts of themes and you're really open to it. That was encouraged honestly, and I love environments like that because I came from the improv world. So when someone says, yes, that is my dream.

How's working opposite Joe?

Sasheer Zamata: Oh my gosh, Joe's great. He's so great. He's really funny. He's a great performer and just great guy to talk to in between scenes and it was really fun. My favorite moment shooting was just me and Joe in the car because Eugene would be in a different car watching us and we would just drive and drive and drive. We would go through the scene over and over again and improvise things. We had a very interesting dynamic because we are at the crux of this statement on social media like Jessie's care. Jessie is really moving away from it and analyzing how detrimental it can be to her life. Then Kurt is showing us how bad it can be when you have a negative relationship with or too far maybe even to positive relationship with social media. But Joe was so great at this role, and people are going to like it a lot.

What goes to saying yes to the projects you take?

Sasheer Zamata: Honestly, I think about what I'm going to have the most fun on. These movies can be anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. I want to feel that I'm going to come away from the experience, learning something new or trying something new. I want to work with people on projects that I think the audience will really like.

There's so much competition out there for it's what's on TV, what's on demand, what's going to hopefully make theaters and so forth. What's the sell to seen this movie?

Sasheer Zamata: I think the sell is that you're gonna get a lot with this movie. This movie is thrilling. It's scary, it's suspenseful. It's funny, and it's thought provoking. And I hope people watch that and get all of those feelings when they come away from it.

Where do we see you after this?

Sasheer Zamata: In September I'm in a show called Woke that's going to be on Hulu and I'm really excited about it. It's good, timely, more and Lamorne Morris is in it. It’s about race and PTSD and people's perception of race and their relationship with other people and audience's perception of race and the art that you're putting out. I think it's gonna be really cool.