Adult Best Friends with Delaney Buffett & Katie Corwin
Ethan and I had the amazing opportunity to see Adult Best Friends at the 2024 Bend Film Festival (shout out to Letterboxd for sending us!) and meet Delaney Buffett after the showing. We sat down with Delaney and her co-star and co-writer Katie Corwin to talk about their friendship and the journey that brought them to Adult Best Friends! You can hear even more on the podcast, including a fun game we played with Katie and Delaney inspired by their film!
This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.
Marina’s Movie Club: Joining us today are two very, very special guests, Delaney, Buffett, and Katie Corwin, the writers and costar of a new movie that’s coming out very soon, called Adult Best Friends. Welcome guys!
Delaney Buffett: Thank you for having us.
MMC: This is actually the first episode where we’ve been able to chat with filmmakers rather than just reviewing a movie, so this is really special for us.
Katie Corwin: Likewise! We’re excited.
MMC: If you were invited to give a TED Talk about something you consider yourself an expert in—but it can’t be movies—what would it be?
Katie: Mine would be the universe of Real Housewives. But also other shows. It’s a study in psychology and sociology. Not specifically Housewives, although that’s the foundation of my knowledge. Summer House, Winter House, Southern Charm—I don’t discriminate.
Delaney: I wanna say dating, but my dating life is not exactly a positive experience. I’m giving advice, but... yeah, maybe dating in the modern world. I think I’m saying that because we’re writing something about dating right now. But Katie and I are super into psychology, and she wasn’t into Bravo for a long time, but it really is like a case study. So I think my TED Talk would be about how dating is changing.
Katie: I thought you were going to say dog training.
Delaney: That was going to be my second thing! My dog, a King Charles Spaniel—I go on YouTube and train her.
MMC: Does she have a standout trick you’re proud of?
Delaney: She dances! She does "kiss," where she jumps up and kisses you, and then she dances. She’s very food-motivated, so if I pull out a treat, she’ll do anything. I think dog training is a better topic for me. I don’t know why I said dating—I really don’t think I could give a dating advice talk.
MMC: So, going back to your expertise in movies—we absolutely loved Adult Best Friends. Can you give our listeners a brief overview of the film?
Katie: The movie is called Adult Best Friends, and the logline is: A woman—me—struggles with telling her lifelong best friend, Delaney, that she’s getting engaged. So she takes her on a trip to break the news, but things don’t go as planned. More broadly, it’s a comedy that explores what happens when a childhood friendship follows you into adulthood. How do you allow it to grow with you, rather than leaving it behind?
Adult Best Friends starring Delaney Buffett and Katie Corwin will be available on Prime and AppleTV starting February 28th
MMC: We had the chance to see the film in a packed theater, which was amazing after so long without that experience during COVID. It was so much fun, and the audience was just in uproar. You both write so well—such a well-done film.
Katie: Thank you so much.
Delaney: We’re not doing a traditional theatrical release. We’re doing a series of special screenings in different cities. That’s such a valuable experience for a smaller film—especially at festivals—because every place has a different reaction. There are different laughs, different moments that land, and that’s always so interesting. It’s also a learning experience. You see what works, what doesn’t, and sometimes there are unexpected laughs. That’s what makes distribution so difficult—comedy is so subjective. Some people love one character, while others love another, and you think, How could you not like that character?! But then I think about how my friends and I react to different shows, and I remind myself that it’s all personal taste. Learning not to take it too personally has been a curve for sure.
MMC: I just have to say, I related so much to this film. I felt like at times that I was watching something inspired by my own life—obviously to a less dramatic extent. But I really resonated with this film, probably more than any other film I’ve seen.
Delaney: We always love to hear that because that was our goal, to resonate with people, and like we said, we wanted it to be a universal feeling, moving on and how do you handle it. Not necessarily having to move on, but finding a good balance. A lot of unexpected people related, there’s like a really funny person who left the theater, he was like a very tough dude and he was tearing up a little bit, and that was unexpected. I did not think that that person would relate. We talk about this a lot, but it’s a lot easier to structure a comedy around an authentic relationship just so it doesn’t feel like sketch comedy.
MMC: Delaney, you were the director, producer, star, and writer. And Katie, you were the writer and co-star. You’ve known each other for a long time.
Katie: Like in the movie, we really did meet when we were ten.
Delaney: Twenty-three years.
Katie: Which is weird because I’m still 22…
MMC: Your chemistry off-screen makes your on-screen dynamic feel so authentic. It’s great acting, but it also feels like a deeper level of connection that isn’t just performance.
Katie: Thank you. We definitely went back and forth about whether we should be in it. I’ve acted in the past, but never at this level. I always wanted to do more, but it’s really difficult. And Delaney hadn’t acted as much, but I always thought she had it in her. When you’re making an indie film, every step is hard. If you can get an established actor for a role, it greatly increases your chances of the movie being made—or even being seen. A lot of people told us not to act in it. They said to send the script to someone more well-known. But ultimately, it’s our story. It’s literally us. Sure, we changed parts of it, but if anyone was going to play it with the authenticity and heart we envisioned, it had to be us. It was touch and go for a moment, but I’m glad we did it. And, like you said, a lot of the film is playing different versions of ourselves, but so much of it is true. Filming was really emotional.
Delaney: Yeah, we were discouraged, but I get it. With fewer resources, it’s harder. But we got to make the movie we envisioned. It helps that we really did go through a version of this in real life. That gave us a strong foundation to build on. Every great movie—every great script—has purpose, and we always came back to that. In comedy, it’s easy to focus on making people laugh and avoid the emotional stuff, but every comedy has truth at its center. That was our guiding light.
MMC: That authenticity is what made the film stand out. It felt like I became your friend while watching, like we all went on this journey together.
Katie: That’s amazing to hear.
MMC: So this was your first feature. What was it like to take on writing, directing, and acting all at once?
Katie: I thought it would be hard, and it was even harder than I expected. After the first day, I called my husband and said, This is going to be a slog, like this will be hard. We were all wearing multiple hats, and Delaney was carrying everyone on her back, just like with a smile. But we are so lucky to have done it with our friends. We would end the day so tired and so stressed, but it was just so much more enjoyable to do it with each other. And it was hard - that’s the only way I can say it.
Delaney: It was really hard, I agree. The first day ended, and I thought, I don’t know how I’m going to sleep or eat. (And I didn’t really do either of those). You don’t normally go any day without feeling completely and totally fulfilled, like wow, I maximize that day—at the expense of your mental health sometimes—but I think having people around that you trust is so big on something that is difficult and lower budget. When you’re doing a lot of jobs, it’s like you know they have your best interest at heart. You know that you can trust that they’ll get the job done as well, so you don’t have to worry. I think directing and acting in something is something I don’t know if I would do again. At a certain point, I had prepared as much as I could, but I had to let go of some producer responsibilities so I could focus on directing. But no one else could take over directing when I needed to focus on acting. You just have to have people around you supporting you, and picking up slack, and you know, like you know, there’s a lot of things that there’s so many questions that you have to field as a director, and that was one thing that I was not prepared for. So I kind of developed a mechanism along the way, like answering questions one at a time. I had to think, how do I mentally prioritize? What needs to get done first? I had to develop a method that I can actually lead a set in a way that is both functional, but also not just burdened with stress because it’s so stressful. It is the hardest thing to keep a steady head, but it’s so important. It makes the day go by faster because if you have high stress, it just leads to a lot of yelling and then it’s an unpleasant experience for everyone.
MMC: I’ve never been in a circumstance where yelling makes me more productive. I was really impressed. Delaney, I think the only way you could’ve had more hands on the direct rules than you did was if you put the camera on a selfie stick. You talked about how difficult it was and how you had to answer questions constantly. For anyone else in a lower-budget situation or looking to take on a passion project single-handedly, what’s something you learned from being so deeply involved in every role?
Delaney: I think I learned my strengths and weaknesses very quickly. I didn’t go to film school. I’m not a technical director—I care less about composition and what the frame looks like because I love writing so much more. I’m all about story, character, tone, and performance. That was something I knew going in, but this process really confirmed it. So I’d say if you’re carrying everything on your back, be open about it. I kept saying, "I’m going to prioritize performance and comedy over composition and technical aspects," so I needed help. I don’t know much about lighting. I don’t know how to set up an Alexa camera. So if you go into a project like this, be very transparent about your weaknesses with your crew. They’re there to do their job, not just move puzzle pieces around. Their job is to support, and if someone’s the director of photography, I need to trust them to handle that aspect.
For example, I’d never done a feature with a lot of costume design before, so I needed to communicate my emotional vision and rely on people who knew how to execute that. It’s about recognizing your shortcomings so you can use the process to know yourself better and improve on those weaknesses.
MMC: From what I understand, you had a lot of friends working on the film. A lot of your friends came together around this film because they were your friends. It wasn’t like the film brought this new family together and you became friends through the process. It was friends then movie. Did that make it easier or harder?
Katie: It certainly helped at least like off hours. You are able to keep moral a little bit higher cause at the very least, you can laugh with your friends. Also, there was no time for anything, so there were absolutely no rehearsals, so you at least have a chemistry going in because you know the person, you know, more than five minutes, which I think was helpful.
The cast and crew of Adult Best Friends at Tribecca Film Festival
Delaney: I was friends with a lot of different roles and I don’t wanna ruin those relationships so stakes were higher too. But working with friends means you can be honest. I could be honest if there was something I saw that I didn’t like that was happening. We had a very civil conversation as friends at the end of the day. No beating around the bush. We all wanted to communicate with each other because we were always wanting to hang out after set so it’s like we would want to be like, what can we do to make this a more fun experience?
MMC: Delaney, I’d definitely listen to your TED Talk on friendship.
Delaney: Oh wow, thank you. Maybe I’ll give a friendship talk. I have the best friends.
MMC: It’s really inspiring to see women succeeding in film. Do you both want to speak about your experience as women on set—whether for this movie or previous ones?
Delaney: From the beginning, when we started making things, we always wanted to surround ourselves with female filmmakers—whether that was a DP, sound, or other key roles. That was super important to us because you don’t see it that often. I PA’d on some things, and Katie was acting in different projects, and we saw firsthand that it’s still a male-dominated industry.
But it’s been amazing to work with other women and build a network. We bring each other onto projects, seek advice, and create a collaborative environment. Our set had a lot of female department heads, and what was cool was that the people they hired—without our direct involvement—were also women. You don’t see a lot of female key grips, gaffers, or sound designers, but when women are in hiring positions, they create opportunities for other women. It makes a difference in creating a safe and fun working environment.
That said, I love working with men too—I think balance is important. The best sets are diverse, where different perspectives contribute. When you have people from every walk of life, it makes for a richer storytelling experience and a more well-rounded crew. On this movie, we shot in Mississippi and L.A., and it was just a hodgepodge of people from all backgrounds. That makes it more fun, more interesting, and ultimately a better film. This experience really solidified for me that I don’t want to work any other way.
MMC: You two have known each other since you were 10, and now you’ve not only portrayed a deep friendship on screen but also worked together in real life. Did you have any moments of divergence, similar to your characters—though maybe with less hilarity and drama?
Delaney: I mean… Katie got married and I didn’t.
Katie: I’m sorry.
Delaney: It’s okay. But at her wedding, it hit me—oh wow, we’re growing up. You have a partner, and I don’t. You’re going to live with this person, share your life with them… where do I fit in? It was never contentious, but it crossed our minds. And we adjusted to it but in a much healthier, grown-up way than that, those two characters are very extreme versions of ourselves so they’re gonna handle them very ways but we both are quite therapized and and we’ve been together so long - been together woah that was a slip - We’ve been friends for so long. The stakes were always high, but we just worked through things.
Katie: To color this story from my perspective—my getting married was never a moment of, "Oh no, what does this mean for me and Delaney?" It was never even a question. It would be like… at the risk of sounding like I’m in love with her… it’s like, well, that’s my right hand. I don’t function without it.
Delaney: You’re going to trigger the comments again.
Katie: No, seriously. There are YouTube comments saying, "Let me guess, they’re in love." But no. Just friends.
But yeah, I think growing up, you get a lot of anxiety about friendships—will they last? Will things change? Once you remove the guess work, like that was never a question. We’re gonna be best friends, so it’s just a matter of where we fit in and how we divvy up our time and we make it work and it kind of makes it a lot less anxiety inducing when you take out the maybe.
MMC: Well, if you haven’t been sold yet, go on YouTube, watch the trailer, check out the exclusive clip—this movie is incredible. I unashamedly have it in my top 20 movies of all time. I really, really enjoyed it. And you can support them by streaming it.
Delaney: It’ll be available February 28, on demand—on Prime and iTunes. You can also check out our website, adultbestfriends.com, for screenings. We’ll be in New Orleans, Cincinnati, Indianapolis—lots of places. It’s a great movie to see in a theater, but also perfect for watching on your couch.
MMC: We’re so excited to watch it again. Thank you both so much for joining us.
Katie: Thank you!
MMC: Everyone at home—mark your calendars! February 28. Watch it on Amazon Prime, Apple TV. Look up Adult Best Friends. Gather your friends. It’s hilarious, it’s heartfelt, it’s a great time. Thank you both again for sharing your experience with us. How can people keep up with you and future projects?
Delaney: You can check out adultbestfriends.com or follow me on Instagram @DelaneyBuffett.
Katie: And mine is @KatieCorwin_.
MMC: Love it. Well, thank you again!
Delaney: Thank you!
