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Most know Kyle Mooney for his time on Saturday Night Live (SNL), but he just made his directorial debut with A24's Y2K. This ushers in a new era for the multifaceted actor, writer, director, and more.
ClutchPoints spoke with Mooney ahead of the release of Y2K. He was under the weather after a Thanksgiving holiday spent with his loved ones. He jokingly blames the sickness on his young daughter.
“I have a one-and-a-half-year-old, and she goes to daycare preschool two days a week,” he explained. “I think it's just all diseases all the time — the babies are throwing snot at each other; I think it was probably her.”
Y2K is Mooney's directorial debut and has been a long time coming. Mooney, 40, has been developing it with Evan Winter since 2019. What started as a hypothetical idea became a script that was funded and produced by the indie studio A24.
Before that, he didn't even consider filmmaking as a career path. “But talking with producers and A24, who encouraged him and Winter to take the movie by the reins, gave him the confidence to step into the director's chair. “Fortunately, I had Evan at my side the whole time. I had Bill Pope shooting it and an incredible group of artisans, actors, and everything,” Mooney praised. “It felt more like a team effort than it did any sort of singular effort.”
Did SNL help Kyle Mooney ahead of Y2K?
Having previously spoken to other SNL alums like Paul Briganti, it's clear the sketch show can help prepare talent for filmmaking. For Mooney, it wasn't a specific sketch or moment that prepped him for making Y2K.
“I mean, I started making YouTube videos, and then eventually, we made a lot of videos for SNL,” Mooney said. “A lot of those [were] made with my friend, Dave McCary.”
Previously, Mooney co-wrote McCary's movie Brigsby Bear. Their collaborative relationship dates back to their childhood years. Mooney said they have been friends since they were in fourth or fifth grade.
Because of how close they are, Mooney got to observe McCary as he made his projects. “I got a front-row seat to the process and also got to contribute to them,” he said.
Eventually, McCary left SNL, which benefitted Mooney. It allowed him to become more involved in the sketches. One thing SNL did teach Mooney was the value of spontaneity.
While they go into Saturday night with several sketches planned, things change. In turn, Mooney doesn't “feel precious” about certain scenes or dialogue and is “always down to evolve.”
When Mooney and Winter were writing the A24 movie, they had to broaden their script for the masses. After all, it takes place in 1999-2000, but certain moviegoers, such as yours truly, were not alive in that period. Kyle Mooney realized how important it was to make it accessible to all.
“You learn what plays for a broad audience and what doesn't,” explained Mooney. “I've made a lot of very specific work that is sometimes very niche, and sometimes you have to learn like, Okay, this is more likely to play than this is.”
Did the '90s references go over the Y2K cast's heads?
Y2K takes place on New Year's Eve in 1999 as the world heads into a new millennium. However, the cast is full of young stars like Jaedan Martell (21), Julian Dennison (22), and Rachel Zegler (23).
This didn't affect their preparation for their roles, though. Mooney conceded that he had to explain some things, but they “broadly knew Y2K as a concept” since the term is “in vogue” these days.
To be fair, the SNL alum didn't feel that they necessarily needed the full backstory. Though there was one cast member, who will remain anonymous, who told him, “This '90s music sucks.”
One of Mooney's favorite artists from the era is Fatboy Slim. Y2K uses his hit song “Praise You,” which was a big deal for Mooney since he covered it while in a band in college. Mooney programmed synthesizers and drum machines for a band called Dream Kids in college, which also featured McCary and Whitney Martin. His weapon of choice was the Roland MC-303 Groovebox.
When asked if Dream Kids could have an Oasis-like reunion, Mooney didn't seem so sure. “Maybe once people hear about it, the demand will come,” he teased as he sipped his coffee.
They also got to use Brian McKnight's “Back at One,” which Mooney described as a “classic school dance song.”
But if you don't remember all of the songs, don't feel bad. “What I really like about it (“Back at One”) is that to me, it doesn't feel like the first song you'd think of [with the '90s],” he said. “I like the idea that there might be some folks out there who are like, ‘Oh s**t. I remember this one.' But it's not maybe as ubiquitous as some others.”
Making playlists for the characters
Music plays a big role in Y2K, even behind the camera. Kyle Mooney made playlists for each character. For Zegler, who plays the popular girl, Laura, hers had a lot of pop music. The likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and the Backstreet Boys would be featured on the playlist.
Daniel Zolghadri, who plays CJ in the A24 movie, had the same underground rap that Mooney listened to in college (Hieroglyphics, Pharcyde, Freestyle Fellowship, and Mos Def were named by Mooney).
The most interesting playlist was for Jaeden Martell, who plays Eli in Y2K. His character is still finding himself throughout the movie. Danny (Julian Dennison) reminds him to be himself in order to get the girl of his dreams, Laura.
“The whole point of the character (Eli) is that he doesn't really know which group he falls in, so I imagine it was pretty much a track from all of those,” Mooney revealed.
Taylor Swift is 2024's Fred Durst?
Fittingly, Ash (Lachlan Watson) had Limp Bizkit on their playlist. Fred Durst appears in Y2K as himself and has a pivotal role. Durst feels like a natural fit in a movie that takes place in 1999 and is a perfect cameo.
If Mooney was making a movie in the 2020s, who would he choose to be the representative for that era? The answer was (obviously) Taylor Swift. Some of the other names that came to mind for Kyle Mooney were Chappell Roan and Ariana Grande.
When he asked me who I would choose, my answer was also Swift. That comes from my lack of pop music knowledge. Even Mooney, who was once in touch with the contemporary music of his day, isn't.
“I can't say that I listen to a ton of contemporary music myself,” he said. “But that's when you know somebody is so huge; when they've entered the zeitgeist in a way that feels like, Oh my gosh — they're everywhere!”
Kyle Mooney's role in Y2K
While not a major role, Mooney does appear in Y2K as Garrett, the high-as-a-kite video store owner. Mooney “loves acting,” so appearing in more movies is something he is open to.
However, there are no guarantees in Hollywood. Even Mooney acknowledges that he needs a studio to “want to put me in them.” He will do it, though, if there are any offers.
But Y2K was the “perfect amount of performing.” It didn't take his focus away from directing. “I got to score a little but also didn't have to think too hard about learning stuff,” said Mooney.
It certainly helped that Mooney had been developing the project for years. “Because we'd been writing it for a couple of years, [the lines] were already baked into my brain. I got to have fun but also think and focus on the universe we were trying to create.
Y2K may have been a “perfect” balance for Mooney, but he seems open to leading a project he directs. His one wish would be for a more “simplified” project compared to Y2K.
“I would probably initially want it to be pretty small-scale so that there's not [too] many things to think about,” he clarified. “We had so much going on in this movie between practical effects and action sequences and scoring with comedy and drama, so if I were to do that, I would want it to be more simplified.”
Mixing up genres
The biggest strength of Y2K is the various genres it infuses into the story. It opens like a standard coming-of-age movie but quickly becomes a slasher film. Movies like She's All That, Can't Hardly Wait, American Pie, 10 Things I Hate About You, Whatever It Takes, and You Drive Me Crazy inspired the opening parts of the movie. Dazed and Confused was deemed a “guiding light” by Mooney.
“We definitely were pulling from those while also wanting to make the movie feel very real — especially in the first section — to what our lives were like and make it feel like 1999,” he explained.
The Faculty was a movie that the SNL alum name-dropped for referencing the horror elements. The movie similarly blends a high school story with horror tropes. For reference, it was written by Kevin Williamson, who created the Scream franchise.
Going forward, could Mooney graduate and make a movie about college in the 2000s? “I love that mid-aughts era,” Mooney raved. “It's sort of the era of indie sleaze.
“I think there's definitely something to explore there,” he concluded.
A24's Y2K is in theaters.
