The star of ‘DTF St. Louis’ Richard Jenkins Says He Didn’t Know What ‘DTF’ Meant Until He Read The Show’s Script
DTF St. Louiss’ may have been a mystery to the rest of us at home at the start of episode 1, but for star Richard Jenkins, it was more of a mystery than most.
Sitting down with DECIDER to discuss HBO’s new dark comedy, Jenkins — who stars as Homer, a veteran homicide detective investigating the death of Floyd Smernitch (David Harbor) — explained that when he first received scripts for the show from writer-director Steven Conrad, he had to learn Internet slang all over again.
“I got all seven episodes and I was — I didn’t know what ‘DTF Saint Louis’ meant until I started reading,” Step Brothers explained the star. “I didn’t, I know I talked to Steve on the phone and he said, you know, we talk DTF Saint Louis. I go, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ [I had] I don’t know what it was. So he sent me a text and I got it, but it was brilliant.”
Those who have been on the Internet for a split second know that “DTF” stands for “down to fuck,” used by people who are connected hot and heavy. In the context of the show, “DTF St Louis” refers to the name of a dating app used primarily by married people to find partners willing to engage in physical relationships outside of their marriage.
In DTF St Louis – the show, not the app, that is – featuring Harbor’s character who downloads the app at the urging of his friend, Clark (Jason Bateman), who says he should download the app to improve his sex life. You see, things don’t go well in the bedroom department since Floyd’s wife, Carol (Linda Cardellini), starts working as a consultant to make extra money, something Floyd says is completely nerve-wracking.
Regarding the bad name behind the series’ name and the show’s deceptive premise, the 78-year-old Jenkins says it’s not really the kind of speech he finds himself using every day – or the social settings he finds himself going through – but thankfully, he was able to get up to speed quickly with the project’s purpose.
“The script is brilliant. His writing is brilliant, really fun, very brilliant. I mean, writing exposition is very difficult, and predictably, it’s very difficult to get information in a movie that the audience needs to know other than, ‘You know, what day is it today?’ ‘Oh, it’s Tuesday,’ you know? Then there’s a way to enter Tuesday where you don’t even see it,” said Jenkins about why he signed on to the program.
Of course, it’s easy for Jenkins to say yes quickly since he got all seven episodes, while the audience gets one at a time. Don’t worry, though, he promises that it will all be worth it in the end, as the show will take you on a wild and unexpected ride, even if it makes you wonder at times what you’re watching.
The first episode of DTF St. Louis now streaming on HBO Max.
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