Kylr Coffman Had The Time of His Life in Nimrods

For Kylr Coffman, Nimrods is more than a coming-of-age comedy about young musicians chasing an impossible dream. The comedy film, directed by Lee Kirk and inspired by Green Day’s early years touring in a van, follows three teenagers who travel from Kansas City to Los Angeles believing their band has been invited to open for Green Day. Coffman plays Fred, a member of the fictional Analog Dogs, alongside Mason Thames and Ryan Foust.

“There’s a real sincerity and a real heart in DIY music scenes,” Coffman says. That sincerity was central to how Coffman approached Fred, a character he saw as someone who desperately wants to be understood beneath the movie’s irreverent humor. “I was like, ‘I know you, Fred. I know you. You’re somebody that has so much to say. You just haven’t been heard. You haven’t been seen yet.’” Coffman’s own path to acting began in small-town Oklahoma, where skateboarding and punk music initially seemed far removed from the world of theater. “So if you would have told me when I was a kid that I’d be an actor, I’d be like, ‘No, that’s the corniest thing,’” Coffman says. But his high-school theater teacher gave him something he hadn’t found elsewhere: purpose. “She was the first person to say, ‘Instead of just ignoring you, I’m gonna give you some responsibility,’” Coffman explains. After being assigned to open the curtain for a school play, Coffman discovered something profound. “I think that was the first time I had felt a sense of purpose,” Coffman says. 

That realization eventually sent him to Los Angeles. “I didn’t know anybody. I’d never met an actor. I had no plan. I was just like, ‘I need to do this,’” Coffman says. Coffman initially auditioned for another role. “I originally was up for the drummer character,” Coffman says. He wasn’t expecting to play the bass player, Fred, until director Kirk asked him to read for the part. Reading the script, however, Coffman immediately understood what he wanted to bring to the character. “I never read it as, ‘Oh, corny comedy,’” Coffman explains. Instead, he wanted to make sure the punk-rock world felt genuine rather than merely stereotypical. “It was something sincere and authentic that was so important.”

Coffman’s deep connection to the music of Green Day predates the movie. “I found this picture of me at 13 with green hair. I had dyed my hair green,” Coffman says with a laugh. “When most kids had superheroes to look up to, I had punk bands.” One musician in particular occupied a lot of his childhood. “I spent many hours of my life trying to replicate Tré Cool’s drum fills.” Getting to make a movie connected to the band that shaped his youth therefore felt almost surreal. “It felt like such a dream project, getting to make a movie for a band that gave me a safe space and a place to call home when I was a kid.” For Coffman, performing alongside Green Day was the experience of a lifetime. “It allowed me to be at the peak of a mountain that artists only get to reach in their imaginations most of the time.”

Although Green Day’s touring schedule limited their availability during production, Coffman got to spend time with the band during the Los Angeles Palladium scenes. His childhood heroes proved remarkably grounded. “They say, don’t meet your heroes. And I would say that unless your heroes are Green Day, because they’re everything you would expect and much more,” Coffman says. The experience also reinforced something Coffman had learned from punk rock itself: don’t wait for permission to create. “I’m so excited to tell every artist to keep going, because if my dumb face can do something that cool, everybody else can do whatever the hell they want on this planet,” Coffman says.

While Coffman is still auditioning for big film roles, his most passionate pursuit is to build an acting and filmmaking community through Oklahoma Film Actors Studio, which he founded after returning home to help his mother. “There’s a huge film industry in Oklahoma,” Coffman says, explaining that ambition now extends beyond acting. “I’m most excited about being able to give back and build that community and make my own productions and make my own content, my own movies there.” And the philosophy behind it all comes directly from the band that inspired Nimrods. “Green Day taught me DIY — that, hey, if you want to do something, don’t wait around for somebody else to make it,” Coffman says.

For Coffman, the past few years have indeed been something unpredictable, but instead of photographs and still frames, he has an entire motion picture to remember it by. In the end, it’s right, and for Coffman, shooting Nimrods was truly the time of his life.

Read more movie interviews conducted by Patrick Gibbs:
Emmy Nominee Dale Dickey Feels Anything But Cursed on Widow’s Bay
The Beast in Sean Callery

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