The Family Plan features two young stars, Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby, who play the kids of Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan's charaters, Dan and Jessica.
In the new Apple TV+ action comedy, Wahlberg plays an assassin-turned-car salesman. He has to take his family on a road trip to confront those from his past who have reemerged.
The two teenage kids are facing their own struggles that feel as dire as Dan's issues. Nina (Colletti), has lost her identity thanks to her relationship. She's dating a “sophisticated” college guy her parents just don't understand. Meanwhile, Kyle (Crosby), who has been banned from video games by his father, is a world-class talent and wants to be a video game streamer — another thing his parents just don't understand.
These storylines give The Family Plan an extra layer that most action comedies don't have. Colletti and Crosby sell their bickering sibling relationship and make for a great duo.
ClutchPoints spoke to Colletti and Crosby at the junket for The Family Plan. They discussed how the theme of identity has affected their own lives, the action sequences, and laser tag.
Zoe Colletti, Van Crosby-The Family Plan interview
ClutchPoints: The big theme from this movie is identity. Both your characters go through a stage where they're coming to their identity in some form, whether it's relationship or their careers. So I'm curious, for you guys as actors, was there ever a turning point where your families acknowledged your career aspirations?
Zoe Colletti: Fortunately for me, my family was always super, super open and accepting of what I wanted to do. My brother is 26 — he's a bit older than me — and he had started acting before I was even born. So once I was born, I kind of just fell right into step behind him, which was really good, and it gave me the opportunity to have somebody to learn from.
But one thing that I've always appreciated is my mom always being super supportive of [that] at any given time, [if] I didn't feel like doing it or wanted to do something else, she would have always have been 100% supportive of that. And just knowing that that support was there has always been really awesome and I'm super fortunate for that.
Van Crosby: Yeah, for me, it's pretty much the exact same story — my family has always been super supportive. It was my sister before me and she's now moved on to other things. But I was fortunate enough to be able to continue, and everybody's always been so supportive and so ready to support me in my aspirations.
And same thing, they've always been receptive of if I don't want to do it anymore, they're perfectly fine with that — they'll let me go do something else.
But, I think I'm good doing this for now, yeah. [smiles]
CP: Zoe, did you actually learn any Kyusho Jitsu for the film?
ZC: It was an actual move, and we did take some time for the stunt coordinator to properly teach me where you have to do the pressure points and everything. So it was legit, it's an actual thing you can do.
Now, I didn't really do it to him [laughs], because that probably would have been not great, but it was like a legitimate Kyusho Jitsu move, so I guess I learned something.
CP: Van, in the film you have a scene where you and Mark [Wahlberg] get to play laser tag with each other. But did you guys actually get to play laser tag, including you, Zoe?
VC: [laughs] We didn't end up getting to actually play laser tag, but we were in an actual laser tag arena that was in an arcade. But that was so fun. It was such a fun scene to film for sure.
CP: And for both of you guys, do you guys have any memories from the set with your on-screen parents?
VC: You know, the scenes in the car singing were all so fun. They're so great. It was “Ice Ice Baby,” and we had to pretend like we didn't know that song—
ZC: But of course we know the song!
VC: Yeah, I mean, we did do a take where we sang along. It didn't end up getting used, but yeah, those scenes were all so fun. Any scene with the baby was also great.
ZC: There was a specific night shoot that we had done, and I always had the giggles, but that specific night, I was just thinking everything was so funny. I was cracking up constantly and then he [points to Crosby] kept cracking up because I kept looking at him while we were trying to film and then making him laugh and it had gotten so late that even Michelle [Monaghan] started like laughing so much and none of us could keep it together except for Mark. He was like, “What is going on over there?”
And the three of us were just dying. So, that one sticks out to me — I definitely started a bit of a chain reaction. My bad.
VC: Yeah, it was your fault. [laughs]
CP: There's an action sequence while Mark's character is driving a minivan and you guys are acting like you're asleep. So was that at all difficult or was that all done in post-production?
ZC: [It was] so difficult! The stunts were insane.
And the worst part about it is we had to be sleeping and we couldn't watch any of it. So we're just hearing all this crazy stuff going on. They'd say “cut,” and we'd be like, “Are you okay? Are you alright?” [laughs]
VC: [laughs] Yeah, but it was real, for sure.
ZC: Oh yeah — all of the stunts were fully real. It was some of the most insane things I've ever seen. Those stunt guys are crazy, and I don't know how they're alive, to be honest with you.
VC: [They] get paid to break their bones.
The Family Plan will be released on December 15 on Apple TV+.
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