Joining Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Columbia Pictures’ new comedy “Sex Tape” are co-stars Rob Lowe (TV’s “Parks and Recreation”), Rob Corddry (“Warm Bodies”) and Ellie Kemper (TV’s “The Office”).
In the film, Jay (Segel) and Annie (Diaz) are a married couple still very much in love, but ten years and two kids have cooled the passion. To get it back, they decide – why not? – to make a video of themselves trying out every position in THE JOY OF SEX in one marathon three-hour session. It seems like a great idea, until they discover that their most private video has gone public. In a panic, they begin a wild night of adventure – tracking down leads, roping in friends, duping Annie’s boss – all to reclaim their video, their reputation, their sanity, and, most importantly, their marriage.
Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper
Jay and Annie’s first stop is the home of their closest friends, Robby and Tess (Corddry and Kemper), who become their accomplices in tracking down the remaining devices.
“The scene when Annie and Jay come over to Robby and Tess’s house to suss out if they know about the sex tape was so much fun to shoot,” says Kemper. “It was a wonderful game that the four of us played, with Annie and Jay reading Robby and Tess’s sheepishness, as if they were trying to hide something. The misunderstanding and awkwardness before the truth comes out was really fun to play.”
“It turns out that this evening is Robby and Tess’s 12th wedding anniversary, so they’re eager to do something besides hang around and watch TV,” continues Corddry. “They are just so intrigued by the whole thing that when they get the opportunity to help out by insinuating themselves in the adventure,” he chuckles, “they are thrilled.”
Of course, Robby finds a way to make the situation even more uncomfortable. “My character is pretty delighted from moment one,” he says. “At first, he has this anticipation – and then he has great admiration for Jay’s endurance and for Annie overall. He becomes a great fan of her work.”
Rob Lowe
As if it wasn’t mortifying enough to have to face their friends, Jay and Annie also come to realize that their entire future may be at risk. Annie’s pastime – recording her thoughts as a wife and mother on her blog – could be about to hit the big time if the multinational toy company Piper Brothers decides to purchase it. The decision rests with the mild-mannered, family-values CEO, Hank Rosenbaum (Lowe), who’s supposed to be reviewing the blog this weekend on an iPad that Annie has graciously supplied.
“In their madness, Jay and Annie rush out the door in the hysteria of ‘How do we get this thing back?’” Diaz explains. “They show up on Hank’s doorstep, without any plan or explanation of why they’re there – they just need to find that iPad.”
And Annie and Jay will stop at nothing to find it. “So while Jay is ransacking my house,” says Rob Lowe, who plays Hank, “Hank co-opts Annie into his very surprising and unbelievably bizarre world that no one, including she, would ever see coming—which is why I wanted to play this character, along with the fact that the script made me laugh out loud. I didn’t want to play an uber-smoothie, good-looking CEO charm bomb; that’s been done. Instead, I’d describe Hank as ‘hail fellow well met’ – a Silicon Valley power dweeb with a secret.”
“Hank could have been a more brash and aggressive character, but Rob did something unexpected and made him into this upbeat, spirited guy with a really complex life who and is, ah, dealing with some issues,” says Diaz. “He has a buoyancy that Annie understands and is drawn to—they have an amazing night together.”
Opening across the Philippines on August 13, 2014, “Sex Tape” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.