Think back for a second to where you were around 2014. Perhaps you were in a different job, or you were in a relationship that molded the direction of your life for years to come. The city or even country you call home could be entirely different. Whether we realize it or not, our lives are constantly shifting, pointing us in new directions that we can’t even begin to imagine. What’s normal one year can sound like it came from another dimension just ten years later. If that sounds ludicrous, well, just ask the three famous leading men of a 2014 romantic comedy written byTom Gormican.
The motion picture we’re referring to isThat Awkward Moment.Since its release, it’s largely vanished from the cultural radar in the years, and for good reason. It’s a very generic and unfunny movie. However, what’s intriguing aboutThat Awkward Momentis the three leading men wereZac Efron,Miles Teller, andMichael B. Jordan. Each were about to leap into new chapters of their career, but not before headlining a subpar rom-com. In hindsight,That Awkward Momentwas an awkward detour for all three of these actors before they moved on to profoundly different thingsthat make it hard to imagine any of them being involved in this feature.
That Awkward Moment
Three best friends find themselves where we’ve all been - at that confusing moment in every dating relationship when you have to decide “So…where is this going?”
Where Did “That Awkward Moment’s” Leading Men Go After This Movie?
In January 2014, whenThat Awkward Momenthit theaters, Efron, Teller, and Jordan were in the infancy of their stardom. Efron was still shaking off the shadow of Troy Bolton fromHigh School Musical, a person he’d been shedding in the early 2010sthrough romantic dramas likeThe Lucky One. Teller, meanwhile, was afresh-faced actor known for playing high school studentsinThe Spectacular NowandFootloose,while Jordan had earned acclaim in 2013 for his work headlining theRyan CooglerdramaFruitvale Station. Although none of the actors were unknown to the general audience, they weren’t A-listers yet. A rom-com likeThat Awkward Momentmade sense for them, especially Efron, who likely saw the feature as a great way to further distance himself from the Walt Disney movie.
That Awkward Momentfloppedbadly, killing off any chances for the trio to become fixtures of the rom-com genre. However, just after this motion picture crashed and burned,Efron finally found a niche he could sink his teethinto as a leading man: R-rated comedies.Neighborsin May 2014redefined Efron’s image as a movie star and suddenly, a new era for this man dawned. The cozier R-rated laughs ofThat Awkward Momentwere a thing of the past. Soon, he’d be doing cocaine inDirty Grandpaor ingesting fluids from a dead man inBaywatch. Save for his return to musicals inThe Greatest Showman, his departures outside the R-rated comedy genre would be in darker features likeFirestarterandThe Iron Claw.
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Miles Teller Found a Niche in Intense Blockbuster Movies
Teller arguably had an even greater career transformation in the aftermath ofThat Awkward Momentthanks toWhiplash,which technically premiered 12 days beforeThat Awkward Momentat the Sundance Film Festival. With this feature,Teller plunged headfirst into leavinglaughs behind.Teller was now a man dedicated to intense motion pictures, all about the extremes people go to for very specific occupations.InBleed for This, Teller played a boxer pushed to the limit, whileThank You For Your Servicesaw Teller portraying a soldier grappling with his mental health after returning home. Even his one foray into superhero films (Fantastic Four) had the same drama and intensity that would later be found in your typical MCU picture.
In the 2020s, Teller would carve out a traditional blockbuster leading man career thanks to his work inTop Gun: Maverickand the upcoming motion pictureThe Gorge. InThat Awkward Moment, Teller was clearly meant to play thenerdy but handsome and confident foilto the traditionally attractive Efron and Jordan.That kind of persona was left in the dust in the years that followed, as Teller aged up his characters (he plays fathers inServiceandOnly the Brave) and kept choosing roles that emphasized his physical prowess. The archetype he inhabited forThat Awkward Momentwas not going to be the norm for the rest of his career, especially in terms of tone. Darker roles were calling Teller andThat Awkward Momentnow stands out as an odd early outlier in a filmography defined by brutal movies likeWhiplash.
Michael B. Jordan Especially Found Success After “That Awkward Moment”
If anyone’s career really went in a different direction afterThat Awkward Moment, it was Michael B. Jordan. Just under two years after this rom-com, Jordan would headlineCreed, a sports drama that unleashed a universe of new opportunities for this actor. This acclaimed box office hit catapulted him to stardom while his iconic villain work inBlack Pantherfurther cemented him as a movie star.Black Pantherstarred Jordan opposite Chadwick Boseman and captivated moviegoers around the world with its enthralling vision of Erik Kilmonger.It was no longer possible to imagine this actor headlining a romantic comedy unless he was the lead character. The days of Jordan getting an on-screen acting credit beneath Efron and Teller were thoroughly behind him.
Of course, one element that makes the idea of these three men headlining a romantic comedy likeThat Awkward Momenta strange proposition these days is the state of the genre itself. The 2014 featurecame at the tail end of the romantic comedy being a regular staplein theaters. WhenThat Awkward Momentdebuted, Netflix still had yet to embrace original movies. Major studios were still putting out comedies and romantic comedies alike in multiplexes. Althoughthe genre may be making a comeback, there arestill so few opportunities for theatrical entries in this domainthat it’s difficult to imagine a new rom-com scoring these same leading actors at their current caliber.
Even the directorial choice forThat Awkward Momentfeels like a departure from the kind of filmmakers this trio of leading men work with in the modern world. Gormican was making his feature-length directorial debut withThat Awkward Moment, rendering him the sort of fresh-faced director that Efron, Teller, and Jordan rarely dabble with today. The drastic shift in the type of directors each actor has worked with is just one of the many waysThat Awkward Momentis evidence of ten years of evolution in the American cinema scene. In January 2014,it wasn’t a peculiar proposition to imagineEfron, Teller, and Jordan headlining a romantic comedytogether. For that matter, it was expected that there’dalways be a romantic comedyplaying in your local theater. Efron was still struggling to define himself beyondHigh School Musical, and Jordan and Teller were still searching for their niches in Hollywood.Time changes us all, after all, even the three male actors forever frozen in dumbfounded expressions on the poster forThat Awkward Moment.
That Awkward Momentis available on Starz in the U.S.
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