Key West Film Festival 2024: Adult Best Friends | Interview with Delaney Buffett

Delaney Buffet has true comedic talent and not just as an actress but also as a writer and director. Growing up in Florida, she has a passion for comedy. Buffet makes her feature film a directorial debut with the help of one of her best friends, Katie Corwin, as they collaborated on a script that tells an honest, heartfelt, and comedic story about friendship in the film Adult Best Friends. Buffet will be honored at the 13th Key West Film Festival, where she will receive the fourth annual Golden Key Award for Emerging Talent for her hard work on Adult Best Friends. Previously, the award was given to Kodi Smit-McPhee, Elegance Bratton, and Thomasin McKenzie. Adults Best Friends, which also made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, audiences follow Delaney (Buffet) and Katie (Corwin), who have been best friends since childhood. Katie takes her free-spirited friend, Delaney, on a girl’s trip to let her know she is getting married to her boyfriend John (Mason Gooding). For Katie, the trip goes differently than planned. The film also stars Zachary Quinto, Cazzie David, Benjamin Norris, Owen Thiele, Michael Rowland, Miki Ishikawa, and other comedic talent. We spoke with Buffet before she premiered the film at the festival and received the award for her latest career achievement.

Kristin Ciliberto: I just have to jump in and ask right away why you want to become a filmmaker and an artist.

Delany Buffet: I have always loved writing and I have always loved comedy. I didn’t always want to be a director and I didn’t always want to be a filmmaker. I had always wanted to write. After college, I started working a little on sets and loved the community and the movie-making process. I began to do web series and loved the improv, the comedy, and the spontaneity of everything. Once I tasted that, I met all these funny people and started collaborating with them. I wanted to continue to make funny things with funny people. Being around funny people is my favorite thing in life and at work. I have always loved watching stand-up, and I love SNL. I had always loved silly movies from a young age and wanted to do things that involved comedy but also had real relationships at the center of my favorite kinds of movies. I aspired to get to a place where I could do that eventually.

KC: Why did you want to tell this story? Why is it important to you?

DB: My best friend Katie wrote it with me. We wanted to make something, and we wanted to make something personal to us. We had just entered our 30s and were dealing with what happens to a friendship when it evolves from childhood to adulthood. That’s what we experienced, and we wanted to tell that story because we also felt that we talked to other friends, and it was a universal experience. We wanted to make something that spoke to this, but also through a comedic lens, and create characters on different sides of growing up in different ways. We always wanted to return to this idea of friendship and the evolution of it. I originally wasn’t going to act on it, and we were hesitant, but we ended up doing it ourselves because we wanted to add the authenticity of what a friendship feels like.

KC: I felt the authenticity of this friendship, and it’s great to hear you two have been friends for so long. How did you meet?

DB: We met in middle school in science class, and stayed best friends. After school, Katie was acting, and I worked in film and entertainment as an assistant and production assistant. We both liked doing this and loved writing and thought, let’s try writing together. Thankfully, it didn’t affect our friendship and we’re still very close.

KC: It looks like you and Katie had fun filming. Do you have a favorite onset memory? I love seeing you go to the beach, pull all the pranks and the go-kart. What’s your favorite memory?

DB: I have so many memories, and I loved the days when it was all of us. They were the most difficult to shoot. I think in the Airbnb, where it was all of the guys at the bachelor party and the Airbnb host and me and Katie were my favorite days. Everyone was so funny, and even when we weren’t rolling, they were all so ridiculous, funny, kind, sweet, and good sports. It was very hard to film. It was 105 degrees, and that was no fun, but the fact that we made it through the day and were laughing was a testament to just how great everyone was. The days when we were all on set were fun because everyone brought different kinds of energy and comedy to the characters and the set. I loved those days when it was like the whole group.

KC: The cast you have is hilarious. Zachary Quinto stars and is a producer, and also Mason Gooding. What was it like putting that whole cast together?

DB: It was interesting because it was a hodgepodge of our friends like Cory Walls, who stars as Dougie, the Airbnb host, Connor Hines, and Cazzie David. We are all friends and a good group of friends, honestly. I sent them the roles and they said they would do it. Then, my producer, Marie Nikolova, cast the entire thing from her laptop. She’s very close with Zach. She works for Zach so he was gracious to be in the movie and help us out. We worked on his character with him, and then from there, Marie cast the entire thing through other relationships and emailed and sent the script out to comedians that we loved, and it went from there. We got lucky. I shouldn’t say lucky because it was a lot of work, but once I was on set, I was like wow, these actors are all unbelievable. And again, having people who are good at being a sport in a low-budget film is important and great for the process.

KC: You had a great cast. What was the biggest challenge you faced as a director?

DB: I think it was acting in it too. On the days when it was, I was in the scenes with many of them and there were all seven other actors. It was a struggle for me to be present in the scene and watch the other performances. You have to split your brain when you need to develop a process of when you’re going to do your work and when you’re going to figure out to be present for the actor, but also be present as the director to give them feedback. That was a constant struggle for me. It was not easy and I don’t know how people do it, but every day I tried to be present as an actor but ensured that I was. I certainly fell short in moments in both. Still, being present as a director for my director of photography and my assistant director, made sure that I was doing my job in every way and trying to do the best in each capacity I had to fill.

KC: This film premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival and now you’re getting this great award, the golden key for your emerging talent. What does it mean to you as an actress and a filmmaker? What does it mean to you to have your film at all these film festivals and receive the recognition you truly deserve?

DB: Thank you! It’s amazing! I love the festivals, and I’ve just been doing the festival circuit, and I’m super grateful to be in all these festivals. To be able to watch a comedy in the theater with so many different audiences in different places, I can’t watch the entire movie anymore. I’ve seen it 9000 times, but I always like to peek in because seeing it with a live audience is great. For me, that’s someone’s dream. It is like, wow, it’s on the big screen with an actual audience. To be able to go to an AMC and sit there with an audience because it’s a lot of the community members of these different festivals has been surreal. Also, to meet all these people and to meet other filmmakers and hear how they do, how they’re processed, and like all of our work, is so different, but then meet the person, and you kind of approach it in a similar way. Coming to Key West and receiving this award feels surreal. My family and I are from Florida and have a history in Key West. It’s awesome that I get back to play the movie and receive this award. It has been amazing. I am excited and happy again to be able to come back and premiere it. Katie and I both grew up in Florida. Hopefully, we’ll be able to go back together and premier it in the state where we grew up, which would be surreal as well. I’m incredibly happy and excited. I love the festivals and how important they are for independent filmmakers. I plan to continue to go to them because I’ve had a blast at every single one, and I’m super excited to be going to Key West.

KC: That’s amazing. I’m happy you returned to your home turf and embraced it all.  I want to end on a final note. You dedicated this film to your dad (Jimmy Buffet), which was very heartfelt, and it brings everything together, including friendship and what you wanted to do with the story. I hope this gets a theatrical release because I’ll pay for a ticket to see it in a theater. You did a great job, and I cannot wait to see what you do next.

DB: Thank you so much, Kristin!

The 13th Key West Film Festival is set to take place November 13th – 17th. Catch the screening of Adult Best Friends, on Thursday November 14, 2024, at 8:00 pm, at Williams Hall.