I spent the afternoon talking music, movies, and make outs with Greg Calderone, star of the upcoming concert flick This Movie is Broken by Canadian director Bruce McDonald.
By Monica Heisey
Photo credit: Caitlin Cronenberg

How do you feel about the upcoming premiere?
I’m more excited to see everyone again than the actual film I think. I’m nervous to see the final cut and also I just want to keep hanging out with everyone that I worked on the movie with—Bruce, the band, everyone was so great. My parents are the ones that are really excited. My mom’s been calling me like four times a day to get tickets and make sure everything’s arranged. She’s really into it. [Greg’s mom called a few minutes after this, just to ask how he was feeling about Thursday.]
The footage from the night of the concert was all shot during the actual concert. Was that insane? Because it sounds insane. Were other concert-goers annoyed?
Mostly nobody paid attention to us, they were captivated by the music and didn’t give a shit that a movie was being filmed around them. People didn’t seem to get too distracted by what we were doing. Don [McKellar, who wrote the script] sort of manned the ship in terms of wrangling the crowd and making sure everything was where it needed to be.

It was a crazy day. We could only film during the concert, so we only had so much time. We had the story, but we hadn’t really locked in the dialogue at the concert, a lot of it was improv, which was nice. We didn’t have anything to get ‘right’ or a certain number of takes that we had to do. It was a little nerve-wracking but we got through it. I was nervous, especially because I found out I was doing the part the night before.
Wait, you got the part the night before the concert?
Yeah, it was my birthday. I was pacing the apartment waiting to find out, thinking it was going to be either the best or worst birthday ever, because I wanted to do the movie so badly. When they called me and told me I got it, I was ecstatic. I had to be in wardrobe that night and the concert was the next day. It sounds really really lame to say, but it was the most magical thing. I was going to be at that concert either way, but to get to work with Bruce, and the band and everyone else… I was literally dancing down the street.
As a Torontonian, the film feels really local. How did you feel about that aspect?
I love that it features Toronto as Toronto, not New York or Chicago or something. Toronto is a fucking great city. Everyone involved in the film is from here, most of us live here and we all love this city. The movie’s not about Toronto necessarily, but it is the home of it. It doesn’t change the story that we’re in Toronto, but the city is definitely celebrated in the film.
You have a lot of make outs in this movie. What Broken Social Scene song would be on your make out playlist?
My make out playlist? I don’t think I have one of those. Maybe I should get one. I feel like that depends a lot on the type of girl and the type of make out. What kind of make out are we talking here, like nice summer night make out or hot and heavy make out? I think “Lover’s Spit” would be my make out song. There’s also a “Lover’s Spit (Redux)” with Feist singing on Beehives that would be a nice complement to a make out.
Aside from making out to Feist’s sweet vocal stylings, what are you up to this summer?
I don’t know, and I like that I don’t know. It’s gonna be hard to top last summer, with the filming and everything. I’m getting excited for the Island concert and for the premiere this week, and beyond that I’ll just have to see.