Exclusive: The Guys of ‘Blue Mountain State’ Give Explicit Insight Into ‘Rise of Thadland’

Warning, this interview has explicit content. Read at your own risk…seriously.

I had the chance to speak with the men behind the popular TV series “Blue Mountain State” and their spinoff film, “Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland.” Eric Falconer, Chris “Romanski” Romano, and Alan Ritchson held nothing (and I mean nothing) back when it came to the raunchy details of the show and their latest film. From sex toys to beastiality, they provided thorough and explicit details which may be too much for some. But if you’re a fan of “Blue Mountain State” and have no filter, then you will see why this interview is one of the most entertaining interviews that I have done in quite some time.

Eric Falconer, Romanski, and Alan Ritchson:

What’s up Ryan!

Film Fad:

Hey guys how are you?

All:

Great!

Film Fad:

First off I want to say, I’m a HUGE fan. And I’m not just saying that, I’ve watched the series probably multiple times through. I have to ask, where did the original idea for “Blue Mountain State” come from? Were there any other influences?

Eric Falconer:

It basically came from…we had heard that Spike TV wanted to do a college football comedy. This is Eric Falconer. So we pitched them our version of a college football comedy which is “Blue Mountain State” which is basically sort of “Animal House” set in division 1 college football with a lot of our personal experiences and friends experiences sort of mixed in. But yeah, it came up because they were looking to do a college comedy.

Romanski:

Yeah, and we were huge fans of 80s movies so we really wanted to do a movie in that sort of tone of how the 80s movies were done with that sort of no holds barred partying. With of course, a blonde douchebag at the center…

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Romanski:

And we found that blonde douchebag…

Alan Ritchson:

(laughs) Thank you very much.

Romanski:

In real life his name’s Alan Ritchson and he walked through the door and he didn’t even have to say anything and we were like, oh yeah, that guy’s a fucking douche…

All:

(laughs)

Romanski:

That guy’s going to be Thad, we know it! And he was! He was everything and more that we wanted out of a character.

Film Fad:

So Alan, let me ask you a question. This is regarding your role as Thad overall. I’ve seen you in quite a few things…I even saw your “American Idol” audition.

Alan Ritchson:

(laughs) Sweet!

Film Fad:

But honestly man, you are hilarious as Thad! How much of your own personality did you bring to that role?

Alan Ritchson:

(laughs) Well…apparently all of it if Romanski’s story is true. First off I appreciate that and I appreciate that you’ve been a fan for a long time. That’s awesome! I don’t know man, I think there’s definitely Thad in me and there are times when he comes out. Either when I’m inebriated or really angry about something. But I think in my daily life, I don’t think we’re very much alike. But the thing I loved about it is that because I think I’m so reserved in my daily life and trying to contain all of that, for me it was really freeing to be able to just do and say whatever I really wanted to do and say in those moments like Thad would. And I think that’s why it was so well received because I think there’s a lot of honesty behind his outbursts…

Romanski:

This is Romanski. With that being said, it was pretty amazing because…I’ll speak for Alan right now. But Alan is a super competitive person and will do anything you ask him to do just as a person and he took that even further as Thad where he basically said to Eric and I, “I dare you to write something that I’ll say ‘No’ to.” And we tried…and he…

“I dare you to write something that I’ll say ‘No’ to.”

Alan Ritchson:

(laughs) Tried and failed! Tried and failed miserably!

Romanski:

If there was a fake dick to suck, we’d have to go, “Hey, pull back on that! That’s a little too far, don’t go all the way down on that. You don’t have to do that.”

Alan Ritchson:

Well speaking about that. Do you remember during “Vision Quest” (Blue Mountain State episode) when…so there was a scene that I don’t think ever really made it in the final cut but…

Romanski:

Oh it made it in…

Alan Ritchson:

But not this version where I had to…so there’s a dildo doorknob, and of course this is all a giant dream, it’s all in his head.

Film Fad:

Oh yeah…(laughs)

Alan Ritchson

And so Thad thinks, “Maybe I have to suck that to open the door?” (laughs) And so when we’re shooting this, these assholes let me…I mean for five minutes I was just gagging, it was in my stomach.

“I mean for five minutes I was just gagging, it was in my stomach.”

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Alan Ritchson

Trying to get that, like Thad would. Trying his hardest to get that door open. And they’re all dying laughing and I [have] tears and saliva coming out of my face. And then they’re like…

Romanski:

Tears of joy!

Alan Ritchson

And once they’ve had their fill, someone finally yells cut. And I was like, “Guys my esophagus hurts!”

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Alan Ritchson

And you can’t do that. And of course I think it was a lot tamer than the one that we [went with]. But yeah, my point is that they failed miserably. They just weren’t creative enough to get me in a situation that I wouldn’t do.

Film Fad:

Well let me ask you about the “Thad scream.” That’s something that gets me every time. Is that your personal scream Alan or is that something very exaggerated and animated?

Alan Ritchson

That is and I’m easily frightened so you hear that a lot around my house. To me, everything about Thad is heightened. He’s humanity to the nth degree you know? So if he’s scared, I think he’s going to be the most scared that a human being can be. If he screams it’s going to be the highest, loudest scream. That was sort of always the goal for me is to just heighten everything about what his circumstances are and his reaction to it. That’s just what came out one time and…I don’t know. It just worked and I guess we decided to keep going with it.

Romanski:

Yeah, we would never have to say to Alan, “On this one, go bigger.”

All:

(laughs)

Romanski:

(laughs) I think he could probably say the same for me.

Eric Falconer:

Yeah, I think all throughout “Blue Mountain State” we’ve never had to do it bigger.

All:

(laughs)

Alan Ritchson

(laughs) Once again, that means I’m winning as an actor. That means I win. Me – 1 Them – 0

Romanski:

Yeah you definitely won when you ate real goat balls on camera. Yeah you won.

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Romanski:

You win!

Alan Ritchson

I did, joke’s on you guys!

Film Fad:

So “Rise of Thadland…” I would have to say, this seems like it’s “Blue Mountain State’s” time to really unleash with no holds barred. Even though on the TV show I felt like there were a lot of restrictions and regulations that maybe you guys may have broken along the way. But would you say that this film is the chance to go even more explicit than you were in the series?

Romanski:

Yeah. This is Romanski. I’m just going to say this and Lionsgate’s on the phone too. It was really funny because we went into Lionsgate for a big meeting and I think everybody had seen the movie. And we walked in and I think one of the guys said, “Hey so everybody’s seen the movie and we’re really excited…” and there’s a long pause and it was like, “We’re so sorry, that movie was so fucking crazy.”

All:

(laughs)

Romanski:

Lionsgate had obviously seen the show and I think they were like, “Okay, we know what to expect, we’ve seen the show.” And I think even Lionsgate was like, “Well, this is um…how the fuck are we going to sell this? This is crazy.”

Alan Ritchson

Well I remember the day that we got a call from the MPAA was the day that really kind of woke me up to just how insane this was because we had finished the movie and it was just basically everything that we wanted it to be and taking where we always hoped it would go. And we’re so used to the show that we write these scenes…when I was on the show, I’d get the script and read it at a table read and I’m like, “Okay, alright…I have to bang a pocket pussy…alright great…alright.”

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Alan Ritchson

(laughs) And you’re so desensitized to just how nuts this stuff is and it was like that for the movie too. So we sort of finish it up and we submit to the MPAA and we’re like, “Alright, it’s gotta be an ‘R’.” And the reaction when they called, it sounded like this. I don’t know if you’re going to like this but this is what it sounded like. “(sighs) Oh God…I uh…(heavy breathing)…we just finished watching the movie…an um…Oh God (deep breath)…uh…let’s just say that…’NC-17′ and we gotta talk about…” The guy was breathless like he just ran a marathon and couldn’t wrap his mind around what he had just seen and we were like, “Oh no, what did we do.” So that’s when we sort of realized, “Oh we really did it. We reached our goal I think for this film.”

Eric Falconer:

There was a ton of explicit stuff and we were definitely able to push the envelope with that stuff. But even just the comedy and the way that we were able to make this movie without any kind of studio or network attached to the development or production aspects of it, was really freeing in that aspect too. Like for example, there’s a running bit in the movie about how much Thad hates Walt Disney that we would have just never been able to do if there was a studio attached during development. That would have been the first thing that got cut out. And so we were free to do all kinds of stuff with this movie. Yeah, it was awesome.

“Oh God (deep breath)…uh…let’s just say that…’NC-17′ and we gotta talk”

Film Fad:

So from a few of the series exploits we’ve seen things like the infamous cookie race, the team all sharing Thad’s pocket pussy, and even Thad hiding a used condom in his mouth. How did you get away with these acts on TV?

Romanski:

(laughs) I forget that this is all shit that we did. (laughs) You know what Ryan…what are you talking about man? What show is this? (laughs)

Film Fad:

(laughs) I know it’s Spike [TV] but how did you get away with this? There had to be some sort of repercussions.

Eric Falconer:

Yeah, we had long conversations with standards and practices just about every week. And it’s funny, Romanski and I have been talking about maybe making a coffee table book out of our emails back and forth to standards and practices. You know, where they would draw the line, where they wouldn’t. Spike really pushed us with the raunchy stuff. They wanted it to be as raunchy and explicit as possible and shocking. Especially that first season. So that’s where a lot of that stuff came from. But yeah, it was weird. They would draw the line on really specific things. Like Thad had the condom in his mouth but when he takes it out, in the original cut, the cut that we sent in, when he takes it out…this is really disgusting, I’m sorry to everybody on the phone. There’s a string of…cum for the lack of a better word running from his lips to the condom as he pulls it out. And they made us take that part out so we had to cut out from…we couldn’t see the actual cum, we could just see it inside the condom. So these are the kind of conversations that we actually had to have…with adults. Adults having this conversation with other adults on a weekly basis for the show.

Romanski:

Yeah, I’m actually working on another Comedy Central show right now and I’m with the same woman. This woman, Christie who was our standards and practices woman on “Blue Mountain State” and we turned this script in and she wrote me an email going like, “That was actually really tame for what I expected when I first saw your name on the script.” She was prepared for anything. (laughs) She was so scared.

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Eric Falconer:

It also helped I think, the three women that ran our standards and practices for the show are huge fans of the show. They loved us and they loved everything we did and they were on our side very much. So they worked with us a ton.

Film Fad:

Now, I would say Spike [TV] was probably in its infancy as far as viewership went at the time. Even myself, I’ll be honest, I didn’t discover “Blue Mountain State” until it appeared on Netflix. But even still, it reached a cult status. Do you think that maybe in this time where YouTube was a little bit more prominent or something along those lines where they could advertise better, do you think “Blue Mountain State” would have been a bigger hit than it already is?

Eric Falconer:

Oh yeah.

Romanski:

Yes.

Eric Falconer:

One thing I’ll definitely say, before you guys talk about this, is [that] we were sort of on the cusp of…we were right before networks realized what a powerful tool the internet is for TV shows and marketing. And I think had Spike been a little bit more savvy with their sort of digital marketing of the show and the push online to the audience that was watching it on their phones and computers, I think it would have been a much bigger hit then and I think it would be a much bigger hit now.

Film Fad:

So can we expect a sequel to “Rise of Thadland” or would you say this is more of the finish for “Blue Mountain State?” Like their big finale.

Romanski:

Well Lionsgate’s on the phone right now, they can go ahead and commit to a second movie right now. It’s totally up to them.

All:

(laughs)

Romanski:

I just want to say right now for a second movie, we’re totally in. Our end all goal is [that] we would love to do more seasons, more movies. We just know that our fanbase is craving more BMS and I hope that this movie makes them crave it even more.

Eric Falconer:

Yeah, we’re down for movies…

Alan Ritchson

…And we do know if, depending upon the performance of this film, if everybody runs out and buys this and it does really well, there will be more. Whether it’s film or TV or both. But there will be more if this does really well.

Romanski:

If not I think we’re thinking about maybe doing a Broadway right guys? Maybe going to Broadway?

Film Fad:

That’d be awesome actually. I would love to see that.

Romanski:

That would be hilarious. Yeah, you know how many lines I would forget each performance? I’d just be yelling “line” every other line.

Film Fad:

(laughs)

Eric Falconer:

Well Josh Gad would be playing you, would be playing Sammy.

Alan Ritchson

The Book of Thadmen.

All:

(laughs)

Film Fad:

Well, would you guys have any final words to say about “Rise of Thadland” for all of the fans out there?

Romanski:

What can you print? You can print anything?

All:

(laughs)

Film Fad:

I can print anything. Yeah.

Eric Falconer:

I will say this. It’s a giant, crazy, fun comedy. The lengths of which have not been seen in awhile. I feel like a lot of comedies right now are pretty safe even when they try to be crazy. This is legitimately crazy. There are scenes where you’ll be watching and you can’t believe what your eyeballs are seeing.

Alan Ritchson

And to take it a step further too, I would say we’ve got the good fortune of having all of this content behind us with the show. So we can look at that and go [to the fans], “We know what is the best of BMS and we were able to take just the best of BMS and then even push that.” But this film is truly…I think represents the best of what “Blue Mountain State” has to offer and I think that will translate and fans are in for a treat.

Romanski:

It’s really fucking crazy. The more I think about it, the more I’m like, “Holy shit…this is fucking nuts!”

Eric Falconer:

Yeah, we get sort of desensitized to it I think because we wrote it and we shot it and then we don’t realize how far we push things until people see it. And their reaction makes us realize how crazy it is.

Romanski:

Yeah, and I don’t know if there’s such a thing as beautiful beastiality but if there is, that is just a little snippet of what is to come in the movie. So I think it’s quite beautiful.

All:

(laughs)

Film Fad:

Well guys, I want to thank you so much. Like I said, I’m a big fan outside of just this interview in general. It was amazing to talk to you all and I’ll definitely be promoting this movie. I know there’s a lot of fans in my circle as well so we’re looking forward to it.

Romanski:

Well thanks a lot man. We’re really excited for you and the fans to see the movie. I really think that you’ll dig it and we really appreciate the support.

Film Fad:

Yeah, I have no doubt. I’m honestly super excited for it. And I appreciate this so much guys.

Eric Falconer:

Yeah, thanks again man. Have a good one.

All:

Thanks!

The film is currently available on digital HD through various outlets. You can check out the full audio interview below!