It’s safe to say Blake Cooper Griffin is taking Hollywood by storm! From movie to television, the South Carolina native has had the chance to work alongside some big names, including Helen Hunt and Cuba Gooding Jr..
Now, he is the star of CW Seed’s first original full-length feature film, Beerfest: Thirst For Victory, which is currently streaming on their digital platform. Inspired by the 2006 cult classic movie, Beerfest, the film focuses on a group of twenty-something friends, struggling to recapture the rowdy glory of their college days. They reunite to compete in an underground drinking competition and take down the tournament’s evil CEO. We could tell you more, but you just need to watch this scene from the movie to fully get it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHX-b7tGjpk
We had the chance to speak with Blake to learn more about the making of the film and his upcoming projects. Check it out!
CS: Can you tell me about this latest project “Beerfest: Thirst For Victory” – what is it about? How can fans watch it?
Blake: “Beerfest is so much fun, first of all! Beerfest is really about reclaiming the fun of college. It’s about 5 friends who are a few years out of college and they’re kind of experiencing the pains of becoming a full-time adult. I play Scott in the movie – he’s kind of the ringleader of the group, he’s kind of recently single, he’s in a rut so he persuades his friends into entering a beer-drinking competition because he’s trying to get his college mojo back. And you know – it’s just a blast! It’s got an amazing cast that I just had an amazing time working with and throughout the movie we sort of see these people that were college friends, getting to reconnect and I think that’s really fun. You also meet Scott’s ex-girlfriend and he’s trying to maybe you know rekindle his romance with her… all the while, they’re playing beer games and having a blast. It’s a great movie, I think it’s really funny, it’s obviously inspired by the 2006 Broken Lizard film which was such a fun, crazy movie too. You can see it on CW Seed – it’s CW Seed’s first original movie – and if you have Apple TV, ROKU you can get the app and see it for free! Or you can see it on your computer at CWSeed.com! So there’s a million different ways to watch it and it’s great.”
CS: Awesome! So at what point were you like – this is such a cool project, I want to be a part of it?
Blake: “The casting process on this was kind of fast to be honest. I went in to audition for it and when I read for it, I thought it was really fun. It gave me a new opportunity because I had just come off of a really serious movie that I loved being a part of. I got really involved in going out and speaking about that film. It was a movie about bullying and it got me involved to where I am still working with a lot of anti-bullying efforts. So what it gave me as an actor was a chance to do some comedy which I have always loved doing and have been able to do some on television, but I went and auditioned, had a great audition, thought it went really well and then two weeks had gone by and I got a call like right before they were going to do the table read, like a day before and they were locking in casting and I was like – “let’s do this!” So you know it was really a blast and then we started shooting like immediately. We had a great time! I mean a thing about the set of Beerfest is that Matt Johnson, who is our director, and all the producers, they really made a set that is just such a blast to be a part of and really a comedy needs that. A comedy needs there to be fun in the air and they really created that so I’m grateful to them for that and I like the movie shows that.”
CS: Do you have any favorite memories from set from making the movie?
Blake: “Well, I’ve become really good at beer pong! They didn’t even need to do many takes because I was getting them in so quickly! That was really fun. I think that you know I have a lot of great memories because you know I was there a majority of time. The funniest thing is we had such early calls. I mean I was waking up every day at 2am and then cameras were rolling by 4. And you know weeks of that – that’s a very different schedule and that was really interesting. And really funny, the amount of coffee you drink – you have no idea how much I coffee I drank. I probably have an ulcer. I was just like downing coffee all day long and we just had a blast. So there was the fun of some of the big scenes like the championship which was so fun and then as an actor though sometimes the most fun are the one-on-one scenes you have. Amy Rutberg who plays Angie in film who is sort of my ex-girlfriend and she and I have a scene where we talk about what happened in our relationship and it’s like the most fun, sweet, funny scene and it felt so real because everybody knows what it’s like to have lost touch with somebody you liked and then finally get to get to talk about what happened. I had a blast that day, that day was really fun to shoot.”
CS: Do you have a favorite type of beer?
Blake: “So actually, I’m not going to lie I’m more of a tequila guy. I’m a Casamigos tequila guy – in case anyone is looking for a sponsor… haha no! But I will say, after we shot this a buddy of mine was getting married and clearly, we’re not drinking real beer in the movie – and his bachelor party was a beer tour. He wanted to do a beer tour and so we down and now I think I’ve sampled every single kind of beer in the entire world. I’m more of a pale ale guy – I think pale ale is the way for me to go.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjp1Rhwjzi3/?taken-by=blakecoopergriffin
CS: You’ve worked in both TV and film – do you have a preference?
Blake: “Well, I think them both for different reasons. Film gives you a lot more time, there’s sort of a luxury of telling a story and shooting four pages a day. You can really sort of lean into it in that way and then the television is so quick and immediate. You’re making decisions – you know you’ve done your homework – but often running a lot on instincts and I think there’s a lot of creativity that comes out of that. And I think right now is just such a great time for television. The stories that are being told and because there’s so many different outlets like CW Seed – this platform – there’s the ability to tell a lot of different types of stories and I think we’re really up-ing the game on the content.”
CS: When did you get into acting?
Blake: “I sort of always had a bug for it. This embarrassing but I used to put on plays in like the backyard when I was 5 years old. But like obviously I didn’t have a script but my parents would read me these books and I would act out the stories from the books. I sort of had the inclination and then as I got into like a community theater play in elementary school or something. Then in high school, I really got more into it and then actually went to a performing arts boarding school towards the end of high school and then I went to a conservatory – The North Carolina School of the Arts – for college. The School of the Arts is such a great institution and such a rigorous place to go, it’s like you’re sort of making all of your decisions and for me that really felt like the right choice. And then after I graduated, I did a showcase on both coasts, and then I started working with an agent/manager over here and I moved out here and that’s where it all sort of began.”
CS: Any projects coming up that you can talk about?
Blake: “Well, one of the things I’m doing is that I’m developing some of my own content which is really exciting. I’m working with an actress I’ve worked with in the past named Kim Shaw, she’s a friend of mine as well. And she and I are creating some content, that I can’t say too much about it but I will say hopefully you guys will get a chance to see that in the near future. We’re writing and developing some comedy stuff for ourself so there you go!”
CS: We’re Celeb Secrets – do you have a secret you can spill with us?
Blake: “On my Instagram, it says actor and paper hoarder… so when I was a kid I was like obsessed with paper. I asked for people to like give me paper, like construction paper, white paper just like printer paper, you know just any kind of paper, colored paper. It was really, really weird and I just kept collecting weird paper. It was just so strange, but in my defense I was like 4 or 5 years old. It didn’t go on that long, but I was like it was this weird idiocy that my parents still laugh about and we should have known you wanted to do comedy because that is weird! So I was like a very young paper collector.”
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