See William H. Macy's "Jew-Fro" in Bart Got a Room

"Jewish adolescent angst is a well that will never run dry," quipped an audience member after the premiere of boisterous Florida-set comedy Bart Got a Room. He was right: The story of a teenage boy looking for the perfect prom experience (ignoring his best friend, Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat) and getting embarrassed by his wacky divorced parents (played by William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines), Bart is funny, raunchy, and sweet.

Filmed in Hollywood, Florida, Bart is a true family affair. Introducing the film, director Brian Hecker read from a speech, thanking his mother and father: "Thank God for my mother, who would put rouge on my cheeks before meeting rich relatives because my natural color was too sickly. Thank God for my dad, who gave me advice on how to properly perform oral sex on a woman before I even kissed a girl."

Bart's roots in autobiography were fully revealed at the Q+A following the screening. Hecker gave Macy (sporting a great handlebar mustache) kudos for wiping down the sweaty car in between takes of a driving scene. Macy wryly replied, "Then I'd get a glimpse of myself in that wig."

"I was obsessed with having the Jew-fro. Obsessed with it," added Hecker. He then got his father, resplendent in white pants and an orange shirt, to stand up in the audience, and it was clear where the inspiration for Macy's 'fro came from. "It was life imitating art imitating life."

An audience member commented on how Macy and Hines did such a good job playing a Jewish couple. Macy said, "After seeing this, I feel Hebraically challenged." Changing course, he added an aside about what really drew him to the script: "I got to say Bart got a room, and that was enough for me."

Hines, on the other hand, liked the script's sense of the strange Florida lifestyle—in particular, being a kid around a retiree population. "I also grew up in Florida," she said. "I loved just being around retirees and being 15 or 16, and I remember singing to groups of people who were barely making it to the door."
The film is also a showcase for its younger leads, the visibly nervous Shawkat (who blushed when Hecker enthused, "We have to have Maeby. I will not have anyone else.") and newcomer Steven Kaplan, who plays Danny.

Despite the title, the film isn't about Bart at all—he's the elusive school nerd, and even he "got a room" for prom, triggering Danny's freak-out. Much of the youthful cast was in the audience, including Bart, actor Chad Jamian Williams, who was looking classy in a gray suit and lime green sneakers, and "the genius comic actor" Brandon Hardesty, who plays Danny's best friend Craig. In an interesting twist, Hardesty was cast off his YouTube videos.

According to Hecker, one of Bart's producers found Hardesty when a frustrated Joe Pesci lamented the amount of Pesci-imitators on YouTube. Curious, the producer looked up Joe Pesci imitations on the site, and was led to Hardesty, whose delivery of Bart lines like "are you here in this humid lizard bullshit to die? Or to live?" provide laughs. It's a sweet story, and Hardesty could be one of the first real Web 2.0 stars to jump into film.

The main word after the Bart screening? This reaction came from a pair leaving the film:

"It's great. Very sell-able. A big Hollywood pic."

"It's got legs, huh?"

"I love legs! I was just saying that!"