Jordan Firstman Knows When It’s Time to Leave the Party

Even hard-partying clubgoers worth their weight in white-label records run the risk of staying at the party too long. Thankfully, Jordan Firstman has figured out, through years of trial and error, the perfect time to call it a night.

“It’s 4am,” Firstman says, during a visit to the Rolling Stone Studio. “If you’re really partying, 4am is perfect. It’s before the sun comes up, and then you can be up and still go to the gym.”

The writer, director, and star of Club Kid knows of what he speaks. A longtime fixture in New York City nightlife and a regular at hot spots like Basement, Firstman had been spending a lot of time in Berlin doing what he termed an “excessive” amount of party drugs (“a lot of different letters, a lot of different numbers”) when he realized he needed to slow things down. Then, at a dinner party, he began talking a friend’s kid and “I was saying a bunch of inappropriate stuff around [him]. Everyone was laughing. I thought, ‘Oh, there’s something here.'”

Those two factors helped inspire Firstman’s directorial debut, a story of a club promoter named Peter who ends up having a particularly wild night out. Ten years later, someone shows up at his door and introduces him to the son (played by newcomer Reggie Absalom) he never knew he had. The reluctant dad and his kid end up bonding, as fatherhood inspires this thirtysomething to grow up and leave his drugging days behind him. “It’s like Kramer vs. Ketamine,” Firstman says, namechecking the 1979 Oscar-winner.

A massive hit at Cannes — where Firstman and his cast and crew ended up on a yacht during the premiere’s after–after-party and admittedly did not adhere to the 4am rule — the movie ended up being picked up by A24 and is now one of the buzzier movies schlepping its way through awards season. For Firstman, however, seeing his cast, many of whom he pulled directly from the LGBTQ+ clubgoing community, was already a dream come true.

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“We made this story that is filled with with real queer people from the community, and these amazing trans women, Firstman says, tearing up. “So for me, the most moving part was seeing them on the red carpet — all of a sudden everyone’s hair is blowing like Beyonce, and they start playing Whitney Houston… and it’s the most magical moment ever. Seeing queer people be able to shine like that, on that stage in front of the whole world. It was just like, we don’t get these opportunities much. It was just really cool to see.”

Also in the interview, Firstman talked about why his role in I Love L.A. reflects his own ambitiousness, another actress he’d write a song about after having penned that famous ode to Laura Dern, and what he and Whitney Houston have in common. To watch Jordan Firstman’s full Rolling Stone Studio interview, go to Rolling Stone’s YouTube channel, or just press play above.