Working with Robert de Niro and Zac Efron: interview with writer John M. Phillips

John Phillips is an actor and writer. He wrote Good Boys (2019), Dirty Grandpa (2016) starring Robert de Niro and Zac Efron, and The Office (2005).

The film tells the story of a grandfather's emancipation from his grandson. What do you think the meaning of the film is?

I think the film is ultimately about a rather complicated man who is facing mortality and feels like he wasn't a very good father, so now he's trying to make up for it by developing a last-ditch relationship with his grandson. Also, it's about the very essential and life-affirming need for sex, regardless of age. A lot of people have found the idea of a 70 year old man having an intense sexual reawakening rather chauvinistic and disgusting, but I think it's completely normal and human.