It’s not often that you can mix sex, celebrity and a sweet send-up of “The Wizard of Oz” but that’s what makes Friday’s “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” a winningly satirical, offbeat comedy.
Zoey Deutch’s Gail Daughtry is a Kansas hairdresser, engaged but with an understanding that she and her soon to be hubby each have a celebrity sex pass: If it’s ever possible to meet their celebrity and get carried away, they can.
What sets Gail off is when Jennifer Aniston arrives for a Kansas book signing that sees Aniston – yes, that “Friends” icon – having sex with her betrothed.
Gail sets off for not Oz but LA, where she is determined to meet and bed her sex pass: Jon Hamm.
At a filmmakers and cast virtual press conference, Hamm, 55, was asked about the unique challenge playing Jon Hamm.
“I don’t know. What are the unique challenges? I would think to myself, ‘I should really do some homework on this. I should learn the lines.’
“But there were no unique difficulties. It was so silly. Immediately upon reading it, it was just like, ‘It’s so silly. It’s so dumb.’ You can just try anything.’
“And I will say,” he emphasized, “it isn’t going to be me being me.”
For writer-director David Wain, what to do if Hamm and John Slattery passed on playing themselves?
“Plan B,” Wain, 55, said, “was to call our reps and say, ‘Forget it! I’ll do no further work forever – because it’s just not worth even trying to do anything if we don’t get the Hamm and Slattery!’ Then we quit the business.”
Seriously, he continued, “It was the perfect idea for us because we both know Jon and John from different things. John Slattery was in our ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ series on Netflix – and unbelievably funny.
“Then they both have this certain real-life persona and relationship (from co-starring in ‘Mad Men’). Of course, Jon Hamm is such a sex symbol in his own way. I mean, it’s like ‘Va-va-voom!’ is what I would say.”
Wain concluded, “I’m very surprised when I watch the final movie. It’s this sense of freedom.
“I felt these guys felt free to explore things, to follow their inspiration and to not please anybody but themselves. That is the secret of this movie about self-pleasure – and I like that.
“It feels genuine. It feels these two intelligent people enjoy so much stupidity. Because to realize this kind of stupidity, you have to be very intelligent. This lightness has a depth.
“So, this is what I think is very special about this movie.”
“Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” opens Friday
Jon Hamm plays himself in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.” (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)