‘SNL’ star prepared for movie role at Syracuse strip club, pole fitness studio

A “Saturday Night Live” star worked hard to bring her latest character to life.

Chloe Fineman, who plays an exotic dancer in American High’s new movie “Summer of 69,” told Seth Meyers that she learned Mikey Madison prepared for her Oscar-winning role in “Anora” by visiting actual strip clubs. So Fineman sought out to do the same.

“I was like, ‘Okay, well, we’re working at Diamond Dolls in Syracuse. Like, I’ll hang out with these gals,’” Fineman said in a new interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Monday.

Fineman said she met a stripper named Khaos (pronounced “chaos”) at Diamond Dolls.

“She is the head chef and best dancer at the club,” Fineman said of Khaos. “Jack of all trades. Oftentimes, she would be doing a dance on the pole and be like, ‘Oh, man,’ and a smoke alarm would go off, or vice versa, flipping a burger and be like, ‘Oh, that’s my song,’ and go out.”

“It’s very different in Syracuse. The strip club is, like, literally next to a metal sheet yard.”

“Summer of 69,” co-written and directed by Jillian Bell, follows an awkward high school senior (“That ‘90s Show” star Sam Morelos) who hires a stripper (Fineman) to help teach how to seduce a crush who has a certain preferred sexual position. Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) plays a “sleazy misogynist who threatens to take over Diamond Dolls,” the gentlemen’s club where Fineman’s character works.

Scenes were filmed at the real Diamond Dolls, the Syracuse club confirmed. The movie was shot around the Syracuse area last year and is set locally.

Khaos, whose real name is Bailey Kocik, told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that she and four other dancers have “little parts” in the movie, too. She did a lot of dancing on stage and even showed Fineman “a couple tricks.” She also saw Day on set, but did not get to interact with him.

Kocik said the production used Diamond Dolls for about two weeks. From what she saw, the cast and crew cared a lot about making scenes look accurate.

“We’re one of the best clubs in Syracuse,” Kocik said. “We hold ourselves very highly as an establishment and being able to be in the movie, it was a very great experience.”

Fineman and Morelos told Deadline last month the scenes at Diamond Dolls were especially fun thanks to a loaded cast. Former “SNL” writer Paula Pell plays Betty Spaghetti, the owner of the strip club; Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”) and Liza Koshy (“A Family Affair”) play exotic dancers; and former “SNL” star Alex Moffat is the club DJ.

Fineman and Koshy also trained for their roles at Studio 360 Pole & Dance, a pole fitness studio in Syracuse. Owner Liz Cox said they worked with choreographer Travis Wall (of “So You Think You Can Dance” fame) and their own trainer.

“They were all absolutely sweethearts and even came and took class after they were done filming with some other friends,” Cox said.

Fineman even posted a video of herself on the studio’s pole and Koshy posed for a photo.

Alicia Flinn, a co-owner of Aeriform Studio in Solvay, told syracuse.com she saw them practicing in high-heeled shoes at Studio 360 and was impressed by their upbeat energy.

“They looked great,” Flinn told syracuse.com. “They looked like they were having a really good time. I think that they’ll look awesome for the movie because they were working for hours in there.”

Fineman, an “SNL cast member since 2019, told Meyers that she had experience doing competitive dance at a young age. She said she wasn’t very good at it, which is partly why she went into comedy.

“‘Anora’ walked so Chloe Fineman, in heels, could dance kind of OK,” she joked.

“Summer of 69″ premieres Friday, May 9, on Hulu. It’s part of American High’s first-look deal with the Disney-owned streaming service.

It’s the 20th movie shot in the Syracuse area by Liverpool-based production company American High. Headquartered at Syracuse Studios (the former A.V. Zogg Middle School and Liverpool high school), the studio also makes American High Shorts and other movies shot in Central New York like “Prom Dates,” “Miguel Wants to Fight,” “Sid is Dead,” “It’s a Wonderful Binge,” “I Love My Dad,” “Crush,” “Sex Appeal,” “Plan B,” “The Binge,” “Big Time Adolescence,” “Looks That Kill,” “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise,” “Holly Slept Over,” “Banana Split,” “Empire Waist,” and upcoming films starring Kevin James and comedian Matt Rife.