Just call Chris Martin "The Scientist" of virtual interviews.
As the 2022 Sundance Film Festival carries on with virtual events, the Coldplay front man briefly found himself participating in a panel with his girlfriend, Dakota Johnson.
On Sunday, Jan. 23, Dakota was preparing to discuss her upcoming film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, when she appeared to need some Zoom assistance. After a brief delay, the camera started working and Chris appeared in the shot. "Hello!" the singer said before rushing out of frame. "Welcome, welcome. Peace!"
While Dakota, writer, director and co-star Cooper Raiff, and co-star Vanessa Burghardt couldn't stop laughing, moderator Charlie Sextro didn't miss a beat.
"It's great to see the three of you together," he said. "Loving the film and loving seeing the three of you all together on one screen."
Cha Cha Real Smooth tells the story of Andrew (Cooper), a man in his 20s who works as a bar mitzvah party host. While striking up a friendship with a mother, Domino (Dakota), and her daughter (Vanessa), who has autism, he finds himself in the midst of a potentially complicated love story.
"I thought it was really funny having a 22-year-old who is not at all a man, helping little 13-year-olds become men at these bar mitzvahs," Cooper told Deadline. It's also a "coming-of-age story for a 12-year-old, a 22-year-old and a 32-year-old, those different stages."
When she first heard about the project, Dakota became intrigued and immediately helped develop the script with fellow producer Ro Donnelly.
"We really jumped at the opportunity to make the women in this story very real, and to allow Domino to be quite complicated and to not have to explain herself," she said. "And it was like a real gift I think. Meeting Cooper was just wonderful, we want to make all his movies… Cooper's incredibly talented. The story's really special, it's timely, it's inclusive."
Then, toward the end of the interview, Dakota had another special guest make an appearance: Her dog started barking in hopes of earning a spot on Mom's lap.
"He really likes to be in the interview," she said. "Then he likes to be in and out the entire time."
Celebrities getting interrupted during virtual meetings in a pandemic—very relatable content!