Ahh, the holidays. They’re good for at least a few awkward family moments. Things get plenty awkward and ugly in Ike Barinholtz’s new dark comedy, “The Oath.” Deco put Ike under oath today for our interview.
Ike Barinholtz (as Chris): “Hi, Katie. Good to see you. Happy Thanksgiving!”
Meredith Hagner (as Abbie): “What?”
Jon Barinholtz (as Pat): “Not Katie. Abby!”
An awkward family dinner is getting taken to the extreme in “The Oath,” where the U.S. government requires citizens to sign a loyalty pledge at the worst time possible.
Ike Barinholtz (as Chris): “Are they serious?”
Tiffany Haddish (as Kai): “This is crazy.”
Beth Dover (in movie): “The deadline for signing is the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday.”
Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish star as a young couple hosting an incredibly uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner.
But Ike, who also directed and wrote “The Oath,” says it’s not really about politics.
Ike Barinholtz: “It really is about this family and them trying to not kill each other during the actual meal. At the end of the day, it’s about family. Just like the Olive Garden, it’s about family.”
TV Commercial: “Olive Garden: when you’re here, you’re family.”
Those breadsticks, though.
OK, back to the movie, which feels eerily like it could be a prequel to “The Purge” movies, where the government makes all crime legal for one night of the year.
Ike Barinholtz: “It literally is. I said to someone this is like five years before the people said, ‘Hey, let’s give them a night where they can kill each other.’ They threw out a weather balloon like, ‘What about a loyalty oath?'”
Tiffany Haddish (as Kai): “Let’s leave the oath in the streets, and let’s just enjoy the holiday.”
Tiffany has starred in pretty much every other movie the last two years — not that we’re complaining.
And Ike knows how lucky he is to have her.
Ike Barinholtz: “I kept expecting her to get pulled into a bigger movie, but she stayed with us and she does just such an amazing job. You get to see this totally different side of her.”
He also appreciates that his co-star has a better Thanksgiving horror story than him.
Ike Barinholtz: “A couple years ago, I poured room temperature chicken stock on my stuffing while it was hot, and the Pyrex glass shattered. And Tiffany was like, ‘Mhmm, the police came to my house three years ago.’ But I think that’s me and Tiffany in a nutshell. One of us is like, ‘I broke some glass,’ and the other is like, ‘Someone got stabbed.'”
“The Oath” will be in theaters starting on Thursday.
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