With their usual suspects—Aubrey Plaza, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, etc.—in tow, they set out to create a movie that was fun and unexpected. The idea for a project centered on corporate restaurant culture initially came from Baena, who was kicking it around after filming The Little Hours in Italy and brought it to Brie. “I think he had read some articles online about a similar program and just thought it was rife for some comedic fodder,” Brie says. While they typically like to work off a short outline and improvised dialogue for their projects, the pandemic gave them plenty of time to really flesh out the script and the bizarre cast of characters that make Spin Me Round such a delight—like Deb, a try-hard type who is played brilliantly by Shannon. 

 “We didn’t know if she was available … but we definitely wrote that role for Molly, and it made it really fun and easy to write because Molly is so funny and commits so fully to every character that she plays,” Brie shares. “I have worked with her three times before in Jeff’s movies, and I think Jeff and I were really excited to let her go all out. She gets to take a bigger swing here, whereas the other movies I worked on with her and Jeff, The Little Hours and Horse Girl, we had her playing more subdued characters. As we were writing it, we got really excited to be like, ‘Oh, let’s let Molly really go for it!’”