SheKnows sat down with directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord to chat about their strategy for 22 Jump Street.
If you’re looking for 22 Jump Street to offer a refreshingly new plot this time around, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. However, as Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill head undercover as college students to bust a drug deal, they’re exploring all the things we learned about during our days of co-ed bathrooms, dining halls and the walk of shame from dorm to dorm. SheKnows sat down with directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord to chat about their strategy for 22 Jump Street.
In order to prep for the film, Miller and Lord went to UCLA to do some research on how the kids were living nowadays, and they realized things haven’t changed as much as they thought. “It was exactly the same as when we were in college,” the duo said, finishing each other’s sentences. “We went to go research high schools before the first Jump Street, and it was so different. The kids were more evolved, and I guess they go college and revert right back to stereotypes,” Lord explained.
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It’s a consistent theme in the movie that allows Channing Tatum’s character, Jenko, to grow and garner new insight on things like sexuality.
“We needed a new way for Channing’s character to evolve, and going to college, you get to learn new things and experience the world,” Miller said. He explained that Jenko’s eagerness to open his mind ties in well with his relationship with Schmidt, something the director describes as “a bromance with a capital R in the middle of romance.”
“They really love each other, but they don’t know how to talk about it because they’re guys,” he continued.
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Miller and Lord also found a new way to keep viewers around until the very last second of the film — a particularly hilarious closing credit scene that previews 22 other Jump Street sequels. “It really seemed like the audience was asking for a happily-ever-after for the guys,” Lord said. “So, very late in the process, we thought of this and we hastily shot for about a day.”
Of the spin-offs they’d like to tackle next, Miller wants an animated series, and Lord wants something called 2121 Jump Street in outer space. We can’t wait.
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