Special Report: Mooch (2026)

Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Turn it off. Woo! What the? I hope you get into an accident today. Into you, buddy.

Shane? Shane! Shane! What grown man paints his nails? What are you, in middle school?

I'm not marrying a 30-year-old caddy. Why do you work here, Shane? I don't know. Pay my utilities, buy Leslie a ring. Can something happen, Shane?

I got a job. Guy from the club asked me to do some work for him. I'm just going to cut right to it, Shane. I'm going to bind. I need some help.

I need someone like you. Someone who comes from nothing. No offense, Shane. I mean, I figure if you're willing to lose a job over $ 400, then. You're probably willing to do whatever is necessary for a little bit more.

Down on my luck, sprinkled out on everything. Anna, can I ask you something? Do you think that I'm a failure? Like, do you think I'm failing at life? Are you sure you want to ask me that?

Well, I know that you'll be honest with me. Exactly. You know, you spend your life searching for meaning, purpose, and then relationships are hard. They're always going to be hard. Well, my advice, life is short.

Get married. Yeah. Yeah. Hey folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth. I'm your host Mike White.

On this episode, I'm talking with Jeff Ryan. He is the writer-director of the new film Mooch. It is a comedy set at a golf course that really is not like Caddyshack. Had a great time talking with Jeff. I hope you have a great time listening to it.

Enjoy. Before we start to talk about Mooch, I want to know a little bit more about you. How did you even decide to become an actor, writer, director, your triple threat now? Thank you. If that is a compliment.

It is, yes. I think it's a bit of lighthearted narcissism and... the desire to be an actor, but also the desire to not be like dependent on other people to give me work. And I've always struggled as an actor finding like where I fit in. I still really struggle with that where I just don't really understand how to place myself and, or how the world sees me versus how I see me. And that's what led to me starting to make movies in college.

And I started making a bunch of short films then. And yeah, Truly just out of the necessity of no money, I just became everything on most movies. But I had collaborators on my early movies too. I had a co-director for my first two movies. And my third movie was my first solo venture.

And then this is my, weirdly, my fourth movie. Feels like my first movie, not like me and a bunch of friends running around like crazy. And it's purely just out of necessity. And then I kind of fell in love with it. And I also feel really comfortable as an actor when I'm also a part of the crew.

Because then I feel like I can have more freedom to kind of play with everyone, if that makes sense. Were you a big film fan before college? Yeah, I was. I think I've had pretty bad taste most of my life in terms of the film school versions of movies, which I fell in love with later. But I grew up with just movies that I adored, like Shanghai Nights.

It was like a movie I watched a ton as a kid, or very commercial blockbuster-y comedies and... And I always had a love for Coen Brothers, and that was the only film school people that I loved early that I didn't really understand why I loved it so much, but it just was quirky and weird, and I fell in love with that. I'm curious what it's like for you to be a director and writer, also actor, but being directed by other directors. I actually love it now. I think I was very nervous about it earlier. because I just didn't have confidence in myself as a performer.

I never really have, and I've always been very insecure. Well, I'm going right away, just going right for it. Just lay down on the couch, yep. You have a magic way, Mike. Yeah, I think I was very nervous about it at first, and it's actually through making my own movies where I feel like I feel more comfortable as a performer, and I actually...

I think I also love being an actor almost as much, if not more, than being a director in some ways, because... I tend to write things for myself based on personal embarrassing things. And I usually take embarrassing things about myself and put it into a character. And I think that's a problem, but also I think it's nice when I'm like, okay, being the star of a movie that's small. But working with other directors, I actually love it because I don't have to focus on schedule and the edit and processing footage every night and all those things.

I get to kind of just be present for that. But I do have to say when I'm on just the actor's side, I do miss being a part of those conversations and being a part of the crew in some way. Yeah, you want to be part of that conversation and then have some more weight on other things than just your performance, I'm sure. Yeah, and it actually made me really empathetic for actors being just an actor. And when I'm a director and doing that, I'm like, ugh.

You guys will figure it out. It's fine. But when you're kept out of all those conversations and you show up, you're kind of like, wait, what? What's going on? And I was like, oh, I'm a bad director.

You were in one that I just love so much. The feeling that the time for doing something has passed. Oh my gosh. The movie is so funny. Oh, I love it.

I love it. So I did the table read for that movie way back. I think my friend Colin, who's a friend of Joanna's, is how I met Joanna. I did a table read for it. I thought it was the funniest script.

It was so strange, weird, and amazing. And basically, Joanna just texted me and was like, would you do this? And I was like, sure. I'm in it for two seconds. But seeing the movie, I don't think I've laughed that hard in person in a long time.

I can't imagine seeing it with an audience. It was so good. Yeah, I saw it at the IFC Center. And at that point, I knew Scott, who's also in that movie and is in Mooch. And I actually, when we were looking for a Don for our movie, I texted Joanna and I was just like, how was Scott?

Was he fun? And she was like, he's the best. And that's why we actually went out to Scott was through Joanna. Adore that movie. So funny.

Tell me about the one before Mooch, Mean Spirited. How did that one come about? Mean Spirited was, I guess, a post-COVID or during COVID movie where COVID hit and myself and my co-writer, who's a producer on this movie, Joe Adams, we were just talking about trying to go do something because it was craziness of COVID. We were like, what is the future here? Can we do something where there's people tucked away in a cabin?

And I remember writing a script in seven days. It went through many revisions after that, but it was like, there was a potential for financing if I turned a script around in seven days. I'll do it, I'll do it. And I did it. It was a pretty bad script at that point.

And then we basically... kept going. We set a date and we're like, let's just go make a movie. We really want to do something. And that was a blast to be honest. That movie was like so fun.

And it was a very strange time when it came out because it came out with seven other social media influencer movies. And I remember we premiered at Fright Fest in London. And I think we were one of seven movies with the same concept. And we were like, okay, this is so strange, but obviously we're all like, what can we do in a COVID confined space? And That's what we did.

When it comes to your writing, what's your method? Do you do three-by-five cards? How do you keep track of everything, and how do you find the beats of the story? I'm a big fan of Stephen King, and I read his book on writing once a year, maybe twice a year, and mainly for the grammar part. I'm always a nice reminder to be like, rocks explode is what he says.

That's a sentence. He talks very heavily about his thoughts on grammar, which is always nice and refreshing for me to hear as not a traditional writer. And not because he does this, but I am very much the person who's like, I vomit out. I get in the weeds with a character. I usually journal enough to find out who a main character would be and pull enough personal ties to something.

And then I just have enough of an idea in my head that I go and I try and write a few hours a day when I'm writing. to be like, I try and do the Stephen King thing of a thousand to 2000 words a day in a screenplay. It's a little harder because you're not doing as many pros, but I do that, get the first draft out. And then I look back and be like, okay, this is a total mess, but there's a direction. And I think this part is what I, if I take a step back, I love it for that reason. That's usually how I write.

That's how I've written the things that I really care about. And yeah, When I've tried to outline, I really struggle, actually. I feel like I end up just knowing where it's going. And that's why I say the Stephen King thing, because he just talks about you know where your end is, and therefore the audience will know as well. But if you're in the weeds with people, you're figuring it out with them.

So obviously you're not a 29-year-old caddy, but where is the personal when it comes to Mooch? I don't think there's a single thing in the movie that's not personal on some level. It is personal. To a degree of every character's name is based on someone in my life. I usually change the names of who it is in the story.

Anna's based on another friend, and Louis... Well, Louis is based on Louis, because Louis can tell me he's a friend of mine, and I was like, oh, he's fluent in French. I'll just make him Louis. In high school, my friend's dad sat me down and told me that I was a mooch, and that I would potentially fail in life if I kept being a mooch, and... Then I just, I actually remember journaling in, I use this app Scrivener that I really love.

I use it for my first draft of screenwriting and then I moved to final draft. And I like it because it has this binder where you can just draft crappy thoughts and put a journal document and throw it over there. And I journaled every day about just stuff with being a mooch because I thought it was a funny concept. And I was like, what could a mooch do? And then I started journaling and I was like, what are times where I've been a mooch?

Oh, I used to steal golf balls from the place I tried to be a caddy at. And I remember being like the oldest caddy there, never getting picked. And then I just started taking details from all of those things. And then it wasn't, I didn't start writing this script until I went to an emo night in Jersey city where they basically just play a bunch of old emo music. And my friend Jason and I went, and it was like the best experience.

Everyone was like our age. And it was just like, Oh my gosh, like, where has this been? I miss this music so much. And then all I did was just nonstop listen to that music while I wrote. And I was like, I know what the movie is.

It's like an emo kid. And then it kind of, and then everything has come full circle. Emo Night, the brand, is putting out our soundtrack, which is cool and different. And I don't know, it's very weird. Once you've got the screenplay done, what's your next step?

How do you now take this and make it your baby? I guess I usually send stuff too early to people because I get too excited. And I'm very much like a verbal processor when it comes to ideas. And it helps me sometimes even just, it's bad, but just talking with someone about your idea is helpful for me to flesh it out. And it's a little rude to the person I think I'm talking to maybe because it's less about their input and more about me hearing someone else react.

And then I take my own Maybe I am a narcissist. What's wrong with me? But I usually send it to a handful of my really close friends who are sometimes writers. Actually, my favorite person to send it to is my friend John. He is not a screenwriter, but he loves movies and he reads it.

And he just reads it from an audience perspective. And I think that's the most fun feedback because it's who's going to watch your movie. It's not screenwriters. It's that. And I think those are usually the best notes because it's He's, one, very thoughtful and just a wonderful person, but he also just gives really good notes and thoughts.

And from there, then it's like, okay, what's a reasonable amount of money we could make this for? Can we actually find some way to raise that? And usually it's like you set a date, and a year and a half, on May 19th, we're going to start production on this. And then you're like, that's crazy. And then you're like, I guess let's work backwards and figure out how to do that.

And I remember I have a producer friend who told me that's the only way to get a movie going is you just pick a date. And I really do think that's true. Have you ever written anything for somebody else to perform? As far as the main character, I mean. I have.

I have not had it made. I have two things. I have one that I'm making next year, I hope, where I am acting in it. But the lead character is my friend Matt, who plays the jeweler in Mooch. And he's been in every movie I've ever made.

He's the funniest person I know. He is just such an incredible performer that I wanted to, or we, the three of us writing it, were like, oh, Matt should lead this. That's like, this is Matt in a nutshell. So that's one example where I know the person. Another example is I have this really dark action movie that's very hot, fuzzy sort of movie.

And Kevin James, if you're watching, I really want Kevin James to play. It's so dark, but I think it's so funny. He'd be so funny in it. And that's one where I'd be like really excited to not act. And I really care about that one as well.

And then I also have another project I would love to not direct, but act in. It's gotta be a little tough for you to be directing and starring in things. And I'm curious as far as the writing though, when it comes to the actors, are you very precious about your words or do you allow them to improv? The actors can like definitely give their own thoughts and be like, Jeff's a freaking nightmare and a disaster to work with. But yeah, I have the bad trait of being a bit of a people pleaser.

And that's not a great trait for directing. I'm aware of that. But I do think for this type of movie, it helps where I'm in the weeds with them. If they can see me looking like a total fool and trying things that aren't on the page, I want them to try that. Most actors don't do that.

I find that most actors don't improv. And I will mess around with it way more than they will. And... I don't know if it's they don't feel like they can or they like, they trained, they practiced, they did their thing. I think on this movie in particular, it's a really hard one to improv a lot in the words because the words are very, fingers crossed, a little Coen Brothers-esque where a line that doesn't really make sense in real life maybe makes sense in the context of this movie because it's repeated four times in the movie by different characters.

That's my favorite thing the Coen Brothers do is they feel like, They use these weird phrases that feel like they just are said in this world. And we definitely tried to do that. But I also think we would improv a lot with physical comedy. And I would usually try and do something stupid and throw my body in a weird way to be like, you guys can do this too. Yeah, you're very physical in this role.

I really appreciate that. My idol growing up was Jim Carrey. I like him. The Mask is by far the movie that made me want to be an actor. And I remember reciting that movie all the time, 24-7.

It's the funniest movie to me still. I still think it's his best performance. It's so good. And I just have never really been able to do that stuff. And this is the smallest version of that love for Jim Carrey and his physical comedy.

But I love physical comedy. It's one of my favorite things in the world. So I would love to do that more classic version. mask-esque sort of movie. It feels like you're fearless when it comes to the performance, which is fantastic. Thank you.

That's like the nicest thing anyone's ever said. Making a movie is so difficult, but making an independent film has got to be even more difficult. And I'm curious, you have so many shots, especially at the beginning of Outdoors with the golf course. You can't control the weather. How was that, just trying to balance the elements?

To be honest, we talked about it a lot after we finished the golf course, I don't think anyone wanted to jinx it, but we credit to my producers and my like, my producers, Joe Adams and Jacob Padilla. They just did so much, truly like so much work that goes behind the scenes that like, that like never gets thanked by the way. It's, I have to bring them up because like, if anyone saw the amount of work they do over the past two years and locations and scheduling is something that they worked so hard at and visited so many places. And that, But for weather, that was the luckiest thing of our shoot because I remember we wrapped the golf course. We had like four days at the golf course.

And we filmed this in Massachusetts, doubling for New Jersey. And. I couldn't tell the difference, just so you know. It played. I would love to film in New Jersey.

Their tax credit, their tax incentive is too expensive. And Massachusetts was like wonderful. They were so great. And. Yeah.

Who are some of the other people that are on your team when you're doing this? You mentioned your producers. Tell me a little bit about your DP. My DP is, he's a wonderful person. His name is Kenneth Wales.

He does a ton of stuff. He did a movie called The Beta Test, which was like a Jim Cummings feature. It's a fantastic movie. He did the last movie with me as well, Mean Spirited. Ken and I met at Tribeca when he was there with The Beta Test.

And I remember I met his wife first and we were like, I was joke pitching this like insane show that I was thinking of and I was laughing hysterically. And then Ken and I hit it off. And Ken and I have had like some of the best, like he's become one of my closest friends and just genuinely, I cried like bald cried when he left on like his last day. Cause I didn't realize until that moment, the relationship that we had on this movie in particular, where the last movie, I wasn't the lead. It was my friend, Will Madden.

And I had more time behind the camera unless this time it was like, there was not a shot or a single second that I was not on camera. And so I relied on like Ken and our scripty to basically like just watch performance when, because I couldn't do playback all the time. And long story short, Ken is so talented, so fast. You just watch someone who is so respectful of every part of the process. And I remember we have like this really big fight scene and a dinner scene and like he created a vibe in the room that was something magical that I kind of can't explain, but he just made the whole crew and set and everything feel ready for like long takes and like a really heavy performance scene and gave us space to practice, figure it out.

And I remember just like, he and I just had like this like nonverbal communication at that point where like, I just knew what he wanted and we were just on the same wavelength. We used an app called Previz Pro and we basically edited the entire movie in storyboards before the movie actually got shot. So, and I had a book on set with every shot that no one looked at, but that's a very long winded way. But I, Kenneth Wales is a DP that in a nutshell makes this movie what it is truly a magician and a wonderful person. How long was the shoot?

It was, I believe 22 days, but I don't want to, I'm probably wrong. When were you shooting? Was this last summer? I wish it was 2023. The movie has been roughly done for a year, but there was a need to raise more money to finish certain things.

And just as I was also the editor of the movie. So it's, it's a little on me to just figuring out what was like, I don't know. I think I had burnout to be honest. And I just slowed down more than I wish. Our VFX artist was wonderful and great.

It was, uh, It definitely wasn't waiting on him. It was more on me to get him the correct assets. Yeah, and we had a lot of things we did in between. We made up a festival, a film festival, a year ago in New York. We called it Rejecta Film Festival, and it was across from Tribeca.

And it was two days. The first day, I drove around a white van with Rejecta on the window and tried to get people in the back of my van to watch the movie. And. Then the next day, we had the proper screening, and then we met our other producer, Peter Fock, who came in and has helped us get distribution. So that was a weird way it all came together.

It sounds like you got some eyeballs on the film, though, which is fantastic. Yeah, exactly. What did you edit on? I edited on Premiere. I don't know if I love Premiere, though.

No offense, Adobe, you charge so much. Very much. If you're listening, give me a free year, please. It's just like... I have such an organization process in Adobe that it's really hard for me to do the mental switch to DaVinci for a feature versus shorter-term projects.

I know that's not true, but once you learn a thing, it's really hard to be like, I'm going to go feel dumb for two weeks to learn a new thing. It's crazy. When did you first get to see this with an audience? Was that at Rejecta? I've actually premiered every feature I've made. at a film festival in Boston called IFF Boston, which was started by my friend Adam.

And I have to shout out them because to me, they're like what made my, me feel like I could have a career. I made a short film called Nailed It, which was ironically, it's a very long story, but that one is about a failed model who gets abused on a photo shoot. Flash forward. I, My day job in New York for a while was modeling, and I wrote a movie about being abused after I was abused. Oh, jeez.

And it's a very dark comedy, but this short film was like before anything ever happened in that at all, and it was ironic to experience it. TMI, but that film was the first film that my friend John Paul DeCiccio directed, and that got into IFF Boston. I remember in my bed screaming. I finally got a film at a festival because I went there in college all the time to that festival and I really loved it. And through that process, then I premiered every feature, including Mooch there.

And this was the first time we got to play in the main 900 seat arena. And that was like, I cried. I remember watching people come in and I felt like a child, but it was just, I don't know. It's like you work so hard to get a movie across the finish line. And our crew was in Massachusetts.

So a lot of people could come and watch it. And I think just seeing it with people, seeing it work in a live audience, the movie really plays great in a live audience. And I think it's fun. It's supposed to be fun and not super serious. And I miss that.

We did that. And then we did Rejecta after that. And which is really nice because we had the experience knowing, okay, we did something that we are proud of. Now let's go do something really stupid and maybe get us canceled. Canceled in the industry, not in real life.

Didn't do anything bad. Where else has the film played? To be honest, it got rejected from a lot of places. And I know people on YouTube will be like, why would I watch a movie if it got rejected everywhere? And it's just the nature of film festivals.

And movies that are comedies are really hard to program at a festival, to be honest. And I don't blame festivals and... Regional festivals, for the first time in a long time, it feels like you have a responsibility to sell tickets. I think to sell tickets, you do need the Sundance titles and the big ticket items because people want to see those. And that is a weird thing where if you don't premiere at a Sundance or a South By, it's a lot harder, your trajectory going forward.

But also, we played at this place called Philadelphia Unnamed Footage. Puff, I think, is the slang. And I did not go. I forgot. I was away during it, but we won the audience award and I was so bummed I missed it because supposedly it was like a big hoot there.

And so that was a bummer. And then it played, I think, two other places. But yeah, it was like we struggled with festivals, to be honest. That's why our trailer says Rejected by does the festival laurels because we thought it was funny to be like, why not just wear rejections on your sleeve? I made a video on Instagram calling my mom and dad to tell them how excited I was about getting rejected from South by Southwest.

And that's actually what started this whole thing was that video was so funny to us that we were like, we should just embrace this as our movie is about a reject. Let's just fully embrace being a loser. And because that's what this scene was that we grew up in. It was like other people see us as liking weird music or Silence of the Lambs is my favorite movie. And people think I'm crazy for that.

And I watch it to fall asleep. So don't give me a break. Don't judge me if you think poorly. The heart wants what the heart wants. The day we're recording is August 14, 2026.

And I think the movie is coming out today. Yes, we're very excited. I hope people like it. It's available to buy, rent on Amazon, iTunes, all those places. And then I think we're doing a live tour with some public tours with Emo Night when the album starts to come out.

And then we're also going to eventually be on a streamer. So if you're a streamer and you're watching it and considering it, take it. Where's the best place to keep up with the movie? If you go to moochfilm.com, I try very hard to keep everything updated on there. And we're trying to add more fun stuff there too, like games.

But you're going to have to give me some grace. I'm not a great coder, but I'm trying. Yeah, I'll cut you some slack. And how about you? Where's the best place to keep up with you?

I guess Instagram. My tag is just Jeff Ryans, like J-U-S-T, J-E-F-F-R-Y-A-N. Weirdest tag ever, and it's confusing for everyone, but I post a lot of dumb stuff where I edit myself into movies. So just be prepared for some stupid content. That's my favorite kind of content.

And then let's be friends on Instagram. We can watch some movies. I will be following you as soon as I hang up. Yes, likewise. Jeff, thank you so much for your time.

This was so great talking with you. Mike, thank you. I genuinely really appreciate it. And really, I'm very grateful for your time. and your thoughtful questions. It's about a guy that grabs everything.

The mooch. Thank you. Jean-Marc Delon Hey, he's the Woochum. Listen here, Mooch. Why you always coming over to my crib, right?

You're buying my cabbage, squeezing my dame. What's the deal? Mooch! That's some Mooch.