MIDDLEBURG, Virginia – This will forever be the year that Jordan Firstman released his debut feature film and also racked up an ungodly amount of frequent-flier miles.
The Long Island, N.Y., native took his heartfelt dramedy "Club Kid" (in select theaters Nov. 6, nationwide Thanksgiving) across the film festivalcircuit – after premiering at Cannes in May, Firstman had high-profile stops including Telluride, Toronto, San Sebastian, Savannah and New York. And in a four-day stretch in October, he went from Rio de Janeiro to Chicago to Los Angeles to the horse country of Northern Virginia. All while also filming the second season of the HBO comedy “I Love LA.”
“I feel like I just got through the hardest part,” Firstman tells USA TODAY in a barn on
a sprawling Middleburg resort. He knows it’s just the start, however, as everything shifts toward the Oscar race, where “Club Kid” could be a player in best picture, actor and original screenplay. “It's been intense, but it's very fun.”
Firstman, 35, writes, directs and stars as Peter, a gay 30-something party promoter in New York City who lives a hectic, drug-fueled nightlife. He learns he has a 10-year-old son, Arlo (Reggie Absolom), after a one-night stand with a British woman he met a decade earlier; after she dies in London, Arlo comes to live with Peter. The initially reluctant dad forms a close bond with the boy and, outside of a late-night kid DJ stint, tries to shield Arlo from the darker aspects of his job. However, parts of Peter’s past threaten to take away this unexpected but important new family member.
“Peter and I have similarities but are different,” Firstman says. “Peter is a very lovable character because he's kind. He's a really good person, and he has a really good heart, and I hope people can see my heart through this.”
In the hands of another filmmaker, “Club Kid” could easily be an extremely dark story – and you wouldn’t have to change much. Firstman, though, wanted the movie “to feel like getting a really good hug from a close friend before they tell you you need help."
When the film does delve into darker places, Firstman made sure to add a laugh here and there so it never felt too heavy. “It’s not that I want to please the crowd, but I want them to take these tough lessons," says the actor/filmmaker, who first won popular notice doing comedic videos on social media during the pandemic before starring on TV shows including “Ms. Marvel,” “English Teacher” and “I Love LA.”
Colleen Camp, who stars as Peter's kooky neighbor in "Club Kid," says Firstman's "brilliant" writing is "the perfect touch of comedy and reality, and also, it just sneaks up on you." “Club Kid,” she says, reminds her of “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “movies that have a real emotional depth, but it's also very funny.”
So far, the award-season attention on his movie hasn’t thrown Firstman for too much of a loop, and it didn’t impact his creativity doing the new season of “I Love L.A.”
“I’m a person – obviously, you can tell in the film or my career – that does live in a bit of excess. This is a new kind of excess that I haven't experienced before, the constant 'talking about my movie' era of my life,” Firstman says with a laugh. “My life partying and being a social person has helped me be more comfortable in these situations. I'm kind of cut out for it, and it does feel exhilarating, but also, yeah, I get deeply tired sometimes.”
The key to weathering those moments? “I just start talking,” Firstman confesses. He recalls suffering from depression a lot in his 20s, and his sisters would advise him to go out to dinner with someone “because once you start talking, you become not depressed. That's been a constant in my life. Once you get me yapping, all the other stuff goes away.”
Peter goes through needed life changes in “Club Kid,” and Firstman had his own realization during a period between 2021 and 2023. “I was definitely partying too much and not having fun at the party, but I didn't know quite how to stop, and I also knew I wanted to grow up in general,” he remembers. “I was in therapy, but I'm like, 'Does this work? I don't know.’
“It is really hard to know how to change. It's a lifelong mission. We try endless things, and a lot of people try having kids hoping that will fix it,” Firstman explains. “Change is the backbone of this movie, and I think this movie has been that for me. Not even only thematically but just logistically: I feel like a parent to it, and I feel like I have to be responsible to take care of my baby. If I go out, then the next day I'm not as smart talking about the movie. I'm hurting my baby. This movie and the success we've had so far has really helped me grow up in a lot of ways.”
Firstman feels he’ll “definitely always” be a work in progress in that way. “Peter has his filling-out-forms phobia in the movie, which I definitely still have,” he says. “I was proud of myself because I called the exterminator the other day and I got ants taken care of. That was a big deal for me! I was like, ‘I did that.’ ”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Club Kid' changed Jordan Firstman. Now he's ready for the Oscar party
