'May The Best Man Win' Leaves SXSW Laughing After World Premiere

May The Best Man Win, a new mockumentary style comedy from director Andrew O’Connor, had its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday, March 8.

The film is about two friends obsessed with viral pranks, who film everything with YouTube stardom in mind.

The two pranksters, Whit (Whitmer Thomas) and Drew (Drew Tarver), invite a girl, played by Rosa Salazar, to join their team and end up fighting each other in an all-out, R-rated prank war for her affection. The film borrows heavily from Borat and Jackass, or the recently Oscar-nominated Bad Grandpa, with the filmmakers playing pranks on unsuspecting bystanders within the context of the fiction film. In other words, just as Borat famously featured some non-scripted pranks mixed in with scripted character development, May The Best Man Win features real-life pranks and a scripted love story.

Director O’Connor also acted as producer and co-writer, has a long history in comedy and recently produced the Zac Efron bro-comedy That Awkward Moment. After screening the film at SXSW, O’Connor spoke about the importance of casting unknown and fearless actors so that they would not be recognized during the hidden camera pranks. When asked about the most challenging aspects of making the film, O’Connor said that casting was by far the trickiest, followed by how to reassure the victims of the pranks after the fact.

“Firstly, finding an unknown cast who could act as well as be brave enough to do the hidden camera pranks and be fearless enough to take on the ‘punishments’ in the storyline. We also had to calm down angry or upset members of the public after they had been pranked,” O’Connor said.

May The Best Man Win will be screened again at SXSW on Wednesday, March 12, and Friday, March 14.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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