Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sat with Summer of 69’s Jillian Bell, Chloe Fineman, Sam Morelos, and Matt Cornett at SXSW 2025.

Bell reflects on her directorial debut, from creating a safe space for her actors to learning from previous sets.

The cast members praise Bell’s leadership, discuss creating chemistry, their own teen idols, and tackling their nerves during the production.

Jillian Bell has made her mark on the world of comedy as an actor, with hilarious productions spanning from Brittany Runs a Marathon to a series like Idiotsitter. This time, she enters SXSW 2025 as a director, making her debut with Summer of 69.
Giving us a type of humor that is right up her alley, Bell presents a teen comedy that revolves around Abby Flores, played by Sam Morelos (That ’90s Show). Abby has a high school crush on the recently single Max Warren, played by Matt Cornett (High School Musical: The Musical Series), and finds out what his favorite sex position is (hinted by the title). Severely under-prepared for that aspect of teen romance, Abby turns to a stripper named Santa Monica, played by Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live), to learn the finer details of intimacy. While the summer starts as a romp for sexual education and wooing a boy, the power of friendship shines through, crafting a light, fun, and comical coming-of-age story.
Bell, Morelos, Fineman, and Cornett sat with Perri Nemiroff at the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center at SXSW 2025 to talk about their new coming-of-age comedy. Bell reveals how long she has wanted to try her hand at directing, what it took to finally get her in the director’s chair, and how she persevered to create a “safe playground” for her actors (even when punching walls). In turn, the cast gives Bell all her deserved flowers, while also revealing their own teen idols growing up. Hear about their experience creating this story of love and friendship straight from the cast and crew in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
‘Summer of 69’ Is Jillian Bell’s Directorial Debut

“A script came to me about 69ing, and I had to tell it.”

Image by Photagonist

PERRI NEMIROFF: I’m so psyched to talk about Summer of 69. I’m so happy for you. I’m gonna say this multiple times during this interview – making your feature directorial debut is a big deal, and it should be celebrated.
JILLIAN BELL: That is so lovely for you to say. Thank you! I’m very, very excited. I’m very proud of this cast. I just saw them for the first time 20 minutes ago, so if I’m still beaming, or look oily, it’s because of that.
CHLOE FINEMAN: Jillian, as a director, is a gift to the world. Get ready, guys.
SAM MORELOS: It’s shocking to think that it was her first one, too. It felt right.
Clearly, I know what your movie is about, but because we’re talking about it at a film festival, our audience might first learn about it during this interview. Jillian, would you mind doing the honors and giving a brief synopsis?
BELL: It’s basically about a sexually inexperienced teenager played by Sam, who finds out that her forever crush, Matt, is single for the first time. She overhears what his favorite sexual position is, and so she hires a stripper, Chloe, to teach her how to go from 0 to 69 in a week’s time.
Again, first feature. When did you decide that you wanted to direct a movie, and when did you realize that this was the story that needed to be your first feature in that role?
BELL: I’ve wanted to direct a movie since I was very young, probably since I was a teenager, and I was always so intimidated by it. I felt you had to do all the film school and know every single thing. Then, as an actor, I’ve been on over 40 sets. I know a lot about filmmaking, I know a lot about storytelling, but it is intimidating to do the first one because people have a tendency to look at a lot of, especially female filmmakers, and say if you do it wrong, you’re in director’s jail. I was terrified about that. Then a script came to me about 69ing, and I had to tell it. [Laughs] No, I loved the message of the movie. I loved that it was about female friendship. It was a really exciting story to tell, and it was in my wheelhouse, and it’s comedic, but it also has a really strong amount of heart. So, this became the one.
Bell Creates a “Safe Playground” For Her Actors on Set

“I punched the wall because I was so scared.”

Image by Photagonist

You’ve been on many sets as an actor. Can you tell me something a past director did that inspired you, you back-pocketed, and brought to your work here? But then I also want the opposite. Even with all your experience, what is something about what it takes to direct a movie that still surprised you?
BELL: Oh my goodness. One of my first films was 22 Jump Street. Phil Lord and Chris Miller directed that film, and I learned so much from them. The scene with Jonah Hill at the end, where we end up fighting each other and then almost kissing, that was almost entirely improvised, and we came up with that idea that day, and it just reminded me: stay open to what can happen naturally on the day. You can prepare, prepare, prepare, and then you have to just be ready for what can come and change the film forever and make it hopefully better. When you’re working with actors like this, it always does. That was a good piece of advice that I always was like, “Oh, I have to remember that, to stay open and keep it a safe playground for them.”
I have not talked to you guys about this, but it is terrifying when you know how much time you don’t have to get a scene. You have to just lie to their wonderful faces and say, “We got it, yeah, go again!” And we don’t have that much time, but you want them to feel relaxed and feel like you can keep trying at it, and keep trying at it. Thank goodness, on the ones that we couldn’t get a lot of takes, they are effortless and wonderful because we got everything that we needed, and the end result is in the film.
FINEMAN: Didn’t we have one where I looked in the corner of my eye and I saw [gestures a five-second countdown]…?
BELL: There were two takes. This is a real story.
FINEMAN: Two takes, and there was a hand countdown.
BELL: There were two takes of one scene, and it was a pretty crucial scene. It’s when you’re asking for the club. It was basically: you guys did it twice, we said cut, I looked over, they said, “We can’t do anymore,” and you guys came out, and I went from going, “Did we get it?!” to going, “You guys nailed it in two takes!” Then I went to the back room, and I punched the wall because I was so scared. Nobody witnessed it.
MATT CORNETT: I thought you were gonna say cry, but punched feels more correct.
BELL: I want as much time for the actors as I can get, but the editor was working with us and showed us back. Chloe was perfect in it, and I was like, “We don’t need it.”
‘Summer of 69′ Is Sam Morelos’ Debut Feature Performance

The cast share how Jillian made the set a collaborative, fun environment.

Image by Photagonist

Chloe, Sam and Matt, does Jillian have a monitor dance? We just heard about punching a wall, but is there something she does behind the monitor that signals to you, you just crushed it?
BELL: It’s punching the wall. [Laughs]
MORELOS: It’s a lot of little giggles. Actually, Breanna [Bell], who’s her sister, who’s also a producer on this, sends us these photos of Jillian at the monitor just looking like –
FINEMAN: Beaming.
CORNETT: Just like the proudest little mum ever.
BELL: I was just a mama bear. I was very proud of every take.
I’m gonna make this really awkward for you, Jillian, because I love forcing collaborators to give each other flowers. For each of you, what is something about her as an actor’s director that you really appreciated, and you’re excited for even more actors to experience when she directs more movies?
FINEMAN: I knew of Jillian from The Groundlings. I was a huge fan of Idiotsitter, and you should watch Idiotsitter by the way. Everything Jillian’s ever done is so effortlessly funny and hilarious, and also [she’s] the kindest person alive. As an actor’s director, there was so much improv. It felt like we were in the scene, and then we were spitballing, and also feeling safe to just try really stupid shit, I’d say was a big thing.
MORELOS: I don’t want other actors to work with Jillian, just me, just us. We’re just gonna re-film it over and over again.
CORNETT: We’re gonna do the same movie over and over again.
MORELOS: This is my very first feature. I’ve never really been on a single cam-anything either. To have this be my foray into the world of film and have just this amazing, kind, open-hearted person who allows me to make mistakes, I didn’t feel like it was detrimental. Well, I did, because it’s my first feature. I was like, “I can’t mess up!” But that was my own personal pressure. That’s my voice. It was no one else’s voice on that set, especially Jillian’s. She was only there to lift us all up. She also laid an amazing foundation for everyone because she’s the base, she’s the scaffolding, she’s the rock for everyone. You never felt like you couldn’t go up to her. It was also just fun. It was just pure fun.
FINEMAN: We all sobbed when it was over.
MORELOS: It was genuinely the worst thing.
BELL: There’s such a good picture of them just sobbing on me.
MORELOS: Body-wracking sobs.

Image by Photagonist

CORNETT: For me, from the get-go, I’ve never felt more comfortable so instantaneously with a director than with Jillian. As an actor first, what is so great about Jillian is that a lot of directors know what they want, but it’s really hard sometimes to get that out to an actor and how to get an actor to portray that. Because Gillian is such an incredible actor first, it’s easier for her to know, “Okay, this is what I want, this is how I would play it. How do I give it to an actor in an actor’s perspective?” I think that that made things significantly easier for me, and much more comforting to me. Like the two of them said, as well, the ability to play and have fun and not feel pressured to get it perfect every single time was so nice and so easy and so heartwarming.
MORELOS: Also, since she is an actor, she has the vocabulary of an actor. There are some directors who are more committed to the visual medium, which is amazing and a whole world that I can’t even fathom. The fact that she’s able to marry the two is just a dream.
FINEMAN: I’ll say, also, another thing: I’ve never worked on a set where every crew member worshiped the ground Jillian walked on—costume, crew, crafty. She just set a tone of love and safety, and I’ve never seen that before.
BELL: This is all making me sweat, and it’s so sweet. I will say, too, it was really nice, because when we started, I had a meeting with all three of you, just basically saying we have a very exciting responsibility. I don’t know if you remember. It was just like, “We get to determine basically how everyone on this set respects each other, because they’ll all look to us to see if we are handling each other with love and joy and acceptance and just playing.”
FINEMAN: Then I locked myself in my trailer and I demanded a little butler.
BELL: [Laughs] She would not come out.
FINEMAN: I would not come out unless my little butler was there. Yeah, a Syracuse local. A little butler.
BELL: Who had Pedialyte.
FINEMAN: I did actually have a Pedialyte butler! [Laughs]

Image by Photagonist

Pedialyte’s kind of important. It can make you feel better.
BELL: Pedialyte saved Chloe Fineman’s life.
FINEMAN: I was so addicted to Pedialyte this summer, I think I got hypertension. I was housing one Pedialyte a day minimally, and I would get the medical grade because you’re stripping, you’re in heat.
BELL: I know you’ve got to ask questions, too, but I do have to say, this woman worked her tail off for those dance scenes. I mean, got in such serious shape, like fighting shape, and really jumped in. I feel like the day after we talked about the role, you were already taking classes or looking into it. It was unbelievable.
FINEMAN: What happened was Cannes and Mikey Madison, who now has an Oscar. I saw a tiny clip of all the extensive work she did, and I was like, “Well, our movie is not quite that, but why not?” Then, found the pole.

1:02:25

Related

Mikey Madison Turned to a “Personal, Raw, Emotional” Memory To Crack ‘Anora’s Final Scene

On Collider Ladies Night, Madison looked back on ‘Scream’ and ‘Better Things,’ and discussed how ‘Anora’ director Sean Baker helped amplify her voice.

The athleticism that goes into that, my brain can’t compute it, truly.
BELL: It is unreal.
MORELOS: It’s impossible. The upper body strength you need. They’re athletes.
I can’t do a pull-up.
MORELOS: I can’t do a push-up!
But I ran a marathon because of you! I ran a marathon because of Brittany Runs a Marathon.
BELL: That is incredible.
FINEMAN: Are you serious?
Dead serious. I saw it at Sundance 2019, and then I ran the marathon later that year.
MORELOS: I got full-body chills from that.
BELL: You have done something I have not done, which is run a marathon. I’m so excited for you. I’m proud of you. That’s huge.
It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.
BELL: Have you done it multiple times? [Laughs]
No!
CORNETT: It was a one-and-done kind of situation.
I ticked that box and I’m glad I did it, but never again.

Related

‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ Review: A Funny and Inspiring Story of Perseverance | Sundance 2019

Jillian Bell once again shows why she’s a treasure in this delightful tale of self-improvement.

Jillian, you have a wonderful support system right here at this table, but there are some other people who supported you that I really want to highlight, because I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of American High movies lately that speak to me. Especially when you’re a first-time feature filmmaker, it is of the utmost importance to have the right people at your back. What is it about the team over there that not only helped you get this movie made but made the way you wanted?
BELL: They’re unbelievable. They bought a high school in Syracuse, and their production company is within that. We shot in the high school. They’re the most supportive of young filmmakers and first-time filmmakers, and I just feel like Jeremy Garelick, specifically, who I worked with. I did a small part in Murder Mystery 2, and I just sat with him at the monitors and was telling him how much I wanted to direct and hadn’t quite found the opportunity. He was just so wonderful about calling me up and being like, “Here’s a script that came our way, what do you think?” We worked on rewriting it together and making it what I ultimately envisioned it to be. It’s kind of a love letter to my sister because she’s been my Santa Monica. She’s not a stripper, but…
FINEMAN: She taught you how to 69, and that’s beautiful.
BELL: Exactly. She’s been my mentor forever, and I’ve always wanted to make a film that’s about our dynamic. We’re five years apart; a lot of times, coming-of-age stories are about one particular person or, if there are two, they’re the same age. I just think this is really cool to have like a 10-year age gap, and where people are at in that journey. To bring it back to American High, as soon as we got there for prep, they were like, “And now go with whatever you think.” They were there to help guide. They were the bumpers on the bowling alley, if you’ve ever bowled. They’re not weighing in so much that it becomes something different.
‘Summer of 69’s Cast and Crew Reveal Their Teen Idols

“I actually think I’m living my dream.”

I have many follow-ups. I’ll give you the sillier follow-up first because of how you just spoke of your sister being your Santa Monica, and it was something that the movie was making me think of, but as it pertains to past rom-coms and high school comedies, where you’re growing up, and you look at one of those characters, and you idolize them. Did all of you have that with a particular past rom-com or high school comedy, a character that made you say, “I wanna be you when I grow up?”
FINEMAN: Cher from Clueless.
That’s a great example. I kept thinking of Empire Records in particular. I was like, “I want to grow up and work for Joe.”
BELL: That’s a great movie!
FINEMAN: When I was in high school, we were really obsessed with Sex and the City, and we were all virgins, and I worshiped Samantha Jones. That is how I lost my virginity. My friends called my boyfriend and were like, “You need to go down on her.” I don’t even think they knew what that meant. I don’t know why I’m sharing this, but I think she was so advanced, and she was like, “Get your head down there.” She was like my teen idol, and I feel like I took that with me to play Santa Monica. We were virgins, capital V, but we watched her rip her top off and hump all those PR men or whatever.
BELL: With such confidence.
FINEMAN: She was just so confident.
That was a great impression.
FINEMAN: [Laughs] “Head. Penis o’clock.”
Can you top that?
MORELOS: No. [Laughs] Mine was Lemonade Mouth, if you know Lemonade Mouth. It’s a Disney Channel original movie. Hayley Kyoko in Lemonade Mouth. She was this super badass. She made a band. I was like, “I wanna be in a band. I wanna be in a band and I wanna drink lemonade and be like, ‘Fuck you, principal!’” That was not my high school experience, but I enjoyed the idea of it. It was Lemonade Mouth for me.
CORNETT: I feel like for me, The Notebook. I feel like I always wanted to have…

Image via New Line Cinema

FINEMAN: The range of the three of us!
CORNETT: No, no, listen. Hear me out…
BELL: Lemonade Mouth, The Notebook and Sex and the City.
FINEMAN: Cunninlingus.
CORNETT: I always wanted to have the rain kiss. That’s like peak sexy cute moment. Then I had my rain kiss, and it was ice-cold rain in the middle of winter, and you can’t keep your eyes open.
BELL: Is that what you did with your tongue?
CORNETT: Uh huh.
FINEMAN: Can we play that back for the fans at home?
It’s like the Spider-Man kiss, how everyone idolizes that, but it’d probably be really awkward in reality.
CORNETT: In reality, does it really make sense?
FINEMAN: The Spider-Man kiss is a lot like 69, if you think about it.
CORNETT: It’s the 69 of kissing.
BELL: Honestly, my favorite teen comedy was Valley Girl. I just was obsessed with that. Has anyone seen that? Am I the only one? That’s one of my favorites. I live in the Valley, and so I think I’m living my dream, and my fiance lives in Hollywood and wears a leather jacket, so I actually think I’m living my dream. I just realized.
Chloe Fineman Was a Mentor to Sam Morelos on Set

“I felt like a small fish in a big pond.”

Image via SXSW

I have to wind down with you all soon, but first, Sam and Chloe, your chemistry is like the spine of this movie. It needs to soar the way it does in the final film. What is the very first thing you saw in the other that made you say with the utmost certainty, “You are the Santa Monica to my Abby,” and vice versa?
FINEMAN: As soon as Sam auditioned, you just knew. We have such a soul connection. Sam’s at Adler, I went to Adler, and you remind me of my sister. Sam is the kindest, best, most wonderful person, knew everybody’s name immediately. You’re so easy to love, so it was easy. That’s the thing, like when you find the right person, it didn’t really feel like acting. You’re like a little stoopy virgin, and I’m also immature. I felt like it was a coming-of-age story for both of the characters. I do feel like even though I’m an old hag, I have a lot of maturing to do, so that also came very naturally.
MORELOS: At the beginning, I struggled into feeling like a person on the set just because I’m like, “Oh my God, it’s freaking Chloe Fineman from SNL. It’s Jillian Bell. It’s Matt Cornett from High School Musical: The Musical Series.” Genuinely! Actually, I felt like… What’s the phrase? Big potatoes, small potatoes?
CORNETT: Baked potatoes, I believe.
MORELOS: Something about potatoes. No, I think I’m saying that wrong.
BELL: The hottest potato. You felt small potatoes?
FINEMAN: You felt baked potato.
CORNETT: She felt like fingerling potatoes.
BELL: [Laughs] Potatoes three ways.
MORELOS: This is wrong. I think I meant fish.
FINEMAN: Fish out of water, which has nothing to do with potatoes!
MORELOS: Small fish in a big pond! I felt like a small fish in a big pond with a lot of big fish. But the fact was that everyone just wanted to see each other succeed, especially Chloe. When we were doing those scenes, I felt like I was playing the straight man. I wanted to also just see you shine and be like the funniest, funniest, funniest person ever. I’m all the time just holding back laughter, and just watching you work and knowing that we went to the same school… She went to NYU, and I’m in NYU now.
FINEMAN: She literally had the teachers I had when I was Sam’s age, and so I was like, “I know you.”
MORELOS: It feels literally like that mentorship. I’m like, “You are where I want to be.”
FINEMAN: Totally. And I was mentoring behind the cam a little bit. It’s a weird kismet thing, and it was very special.
MORELOS: I totally pretended that I didn’t know that you went to Adler, but I looked up everyone on Wikipedia before I came. You are an alum. I’m in the hallways, and I take pictures with the little headshot they have of you in the hallway. I’m all like, “Mother is here.”
Perhaps this crew’s next project should be inspired by a real, chaotic day on set.

Image by Photagonist

I started ending every Ladies Night with this particular question, and I also think it’s important to ask when someone has a big achievement, like directing their first feature. In film and television, we give each other awards. That’s super cool. We should keep doing that. But, nobody tells themselves good job as much as they should. I want to know something you accomplished while making this movie that you know you’re always gonna look back on and say, “I’m really proud of what I did there?”
BELL: Oh my gosh. Honestly, I struggle with a lot of anxiety, and I was very nervous to take on such a leadership role and I think that this has made me go, “If we can do this, if we can survive a summer in Syracuse with hot weather and craziness and tornado warnings and all of these wonderful things, you can do anything, Bell. You got this.” I just wanted to say, too, if anyone is struggling with anxiety, and you feel like you can’t make big things happen, you can.
FINEMAN: We literally were shooting in a sex shop with vibrators, and a tornado warning happened. You wouldn’t know. Jillian calmly led us to shelter. We literally had to bunker down inside a sex shop, and next to it, and I had no idea you were anxious. That’s incredible. We just played games until the storm was over.

Related

Jillian Bell Talks Running, Her ‘Bridesmaids’ Appearance and Dogs on Ladies Night

You better RUN to see ‘Brittany Runs A Marathon’ in select theaters on August 23rd. (Seriously.)

I feel like this is your next movie idea. There’s some sort of meta-comedy concept in that.
BELL: Yes, having to bunker down in a sex shop, and we’re like, “Hey, guys, step away from the glass.”
FINEMAN: Having literally a tornado – like we could see it, we could see the clouds coming together.
CORNETT: [Laughs] Literally, the amount of times I got told, “Get away from the glass, Matt. Get away.”
BELL: And there was just a loose pitbull running around, which was amazing.
FINEMAN: And that was a very calm day somehow, because of Jillian at the helm.
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at SXSW, including presenting partner Rendezvous Films and supporting partners Bloom, Peroni, Hendrick’s Gin, and Roxstar Entertainment.