Jeff Tomsic, director of the film TAG, talks about his inspiration for making a film about friends continuing a childhood game into their adult lives.
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00:00Now, I had read in another interview that you do this with a group of friends.
00:04You go up to a cabin in Canada?
00:07Yeah, yeah.
00:08And spend time?
00:09Yeah, when I first read the script, I was up on this trip every year with my childhood
00:15and college friends.
00:16For the last 10, 15 years, we've been going up and fishing on a little remote lake.
00:22And when I got the script, it was the first year that none of them could come, so I was
00:24just up there with my family, which was great, but I missed my old friends so much, and I
00:31read the script not thinking it would be emotionally resonant with me, but realized that it was
00:41about the same thing.
00:42It was about this group of guys that had created this insane tradition, but just to stay connected
00:48for the rest of life.
00:49And it really sort of punched me in the gut hearing about their story in that moment
00:54where my buddies couldn't come because they just had kids, or their parents were ill, or
01:01one guy's brother just had a heart attack, so life obstacles get in the way of keeping
01:08up with those people in your life.
01:09I think your movie, when I saw it, it's very wholesome.
01:13It's something where I think it's going to resonate with a lot of people.
01:16And one of the things we've talked about at the radio station has been, we're doing a
01:20whole thing with teachers right now where they call in best teachers, and they're talking
01:25about how a lot of kids are watching the trailers for this movie, and they might not be able
01:29to see it because it was rated R. But they're being inspired to play this game again, to go
01:35outside, play the game with their friends, make these connections, and you're doing that.
01:40You're inspiring a new generation of people to be connected.
01:43It's hard to believe, but I'd be so happy to do that, because I grew up in the 80s, and
01:53all you could really do was run around and play with leaves, and there was not a lot of
01:58video games, or there was no phones or anything like that.
02:01So I think it's important both for kids, at least I would hope for both kids and adults
02:08that put your phone down and actually see those people and have fun with them that you love.
02:15Because talking to them on Facebook and Instagram only gets you so far, and it's much better
02:21just to see them in human form.
02:24Yeah.
02:25So if you got to play this game, and you know, aside, I'm sure you'd want to play with your
02:29friends, but if you got to play the most epic game of Tag, and you choose three people dead
02:34or alive, who would you choose to play with you?
02:37Well, I feel like I need to choose from my cast.
02:41That's true, that's good.
02:46I would take Jeremy, Isla, and Jon Hamm, I think.
02:52Did you play Tag on set one day, maybe just to get the vibe?
02:57We were playing Tag so much while shooting that mostly when we were done, we would just
03:05sit down.
03:06Because really, we were in Atlanta, it was 110 degrees most of the time, and we're running
03:14around and we're not 22 years old anymore, so we were just like, mostly it was a lot
03:20of this, oh man.
03:23Have any of your friends reached out, do they know that, you know, this came out of you missing
03:30them?
03:31Yeah, you know, it's funny because I, when I met Warner Brothers about the movie and New
03:37Line about the movie, I did a whole presentation and it was all pictures of my friends from
03:43home because I wanted to make this a love letter to them, but they didn't really know
03:48that until I was home for the holidays this year and my sister got all my buddies to come
03:54over.
03:55We actually hadn't been together in the same room for like a year or so, so it was a really
03:58sweet moment.
03:59And then I showed him sort of this book that I made to inspire the movie for everyone in
04:07the crew and studio.
04:09And it starts with our like kindergarten photos.
04:13And it was a really, it was a really sweet moment and I'd sort of forgotten to like tell
04:19them that they were this important to me that they had inspired so much of this film I made.
04:26And then I brought them to set and it was so nice for them to like be there and see the
04:33movie.
04:34And it's, it's really great and they actually met the real tag guys and they all got along.
04:37So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's helped, it's helped bring us back together, even the process
04:43of making it.
04:44Well, congratulations on your movie.
04:46And I hope that, you know, next year when you have this cabin camping trip, everybody's
04:50able to come and you're able to have a really good time.
04:52Thank you so much.
04:53Thank you so much.
04:54So nice to meet you.