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Interview: Will Smith Talks ‘MIB III,’ Coming Back To The Screen, And Future Projects

Laura Aguirre — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:14:48 +0000

Will Smith might just be the biggest movie star there is. His TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, made him a household name, and before his three-year hiatus he made a decade’s worth of blockbusters. Now, he’s back as Agent J in Men In Black 3. We recently got the chance to talk to Mr. Smith. He told us what he learned during his time away, why he chose to revisit the MIB franchise, and shared details about some of his future projects.

Check out our interview with Will Smith…

Your act got to be a little more serious this time around. How was that?

Did you see my acting transition? Look, I think that the surprise at the end of the movie was the thing that got everybody excited to want to make this movie. It was a little bit beyond just getting together and having some fun. It was an interesting way to tie up the series and get you all the way back to the beginning. I like that people are surprised. No one really sees that coming. Well, some people see it coming, those amongst us that are so far ahead, but it was beautiful to come back together after so many years. And even the new guy, Josh Brolin, was able to deliver on the same energy that people are used to experiencing in these movies.

Describe your chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones and how you translated it to get that same effect with Josh Brolin?

That’s what was crazy because that was all Josh Brolin. As actors, when you’re in a scene, it’s like a tennis match. You’re going back and forth. Me and Josh have very different chemistry than me and Tommy Lee Jones. And what you do as an actor is you try to find the lanes and develop the chemistry. So I was expecting to make an adjustment from Tommy Lee Jones to Josh Brolin, but Josh studied Tommy so thoroughly that it was almost identical, like just the way that the interactions were. It was absolutely stunning and it’s crazy because you don’t even notice how good his acting is because it’s so good. It feels like you’re watching Tommy Lee Jones. You don’t know that’s Josh Brolin. People thought that Tommy did the voice for the Josh Brolin character. That’s how thoroughly Josh delivered it.

Were you surprised that the story was slightly more serious this time?

Look, we’re all ten years older from the second movie and different things are important to us in our lives. We’re growing and you want to have the same kind of dumb, the same kind of silly that the first two movies had. There’s an appreciation of the silly that the comedy delivers, but it was really important for us to also have some meat to chew on and create something. Toy Story 3 did a really great job of advancing it, but also creating the underlying depth. So if you’re going into the third part of something, it was really important to deliver emotionally.

Why did you want to revisit this franchise?

The idea of a secret government organization that polices alien activity on and off planet Earth, is so unique. You don’t say that this movie is just like Men In Black. There’s nothing that’s just like Men In Black. You can look at other movies and compare them to things, but Men In Black is a very distinct, very unique thing. It’s difficult to have a fantasy comedy that works on that level. They tend to feel not smart or there is something in the DNA when it’s those two things that sort of dissipates. So for me, I was excited about the degree of difficulty. Also, I haven’t worked in three years, so I wanted to put on some shoes that I knew fit. [Laughs]

You’ve been producing though. Is it a totally different creative exercise when you produce a film that you’re not in?

I’ve been producing with the kids and with [wife] Jada [Pinkett-Smith]. I think it’s where I’m most natural, at my most natural lane. I think that the wide view of seeing everything that’s going on, and helping, and pulling people in comes very natural to me. But when you stay away from acting for a while, it’s like a muscle. You get out there and you look stupid, so it’s like you got to warm up a little bit and I’ve been away from it. The time was well-spent. There is a little bit of a blend.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons on The Karate Kid. Working on a remake is interesting in that you start with hindsight, right, so that was an interesting thing. You can spell out and see the patterns of why people cheer in a movie theater much more clearly and you get to experiment with your idea. So for me, that was very informative. And just coming back to Men In Black 3 felt like home.

Can you talk about coming back? What’s changed in the last few years?

Well, it’s a thing that I’ve been paying attention to for a lot of years. I was in Australia in 1990 with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis and they were opening Planet Hollywood. So I was out there while I was just in my first year of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. I’m down there, I’m like, ‘Yo, this is crazy.’ So they’re sitting around and I go in there and I’m sitting there with those guys and Arnold sits there and he says to me, ‘Young man, I want you to know, you cannot be a movie star only in the United States. You’re only a movie star if they know you around the world.’ Right? And then, Bruce talked about it for a little and I was like, ‘All right.’

So they put that idea into my mind very clearly and then, from that point, that’s when I started making it a point to open new markets. We went into Russia with I, Robot, we went into Brazil, and the idea is that you create that around the world and that’s when you hold a movie star. There used to be a time where you could just have hit movies in the United States, but that’s not the case anymore. And as you can see, the world of cinema is opening up even more, so to me, it’s just about taking those laps around the world to maintain that.

Is it surreal that some of the younger generations are recognizing your early work?

You know what’s crazy for me is that The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air is the biggest thing I’ve ever done. Like when I go around, I’m the Fresh Prince everywhere in the world. People scream, ‘El Principe!’ It’s just amazing how that television show, and it was really sort of a stroke of luck, it’s because of the amount of outlets for the show that a nine-year old kid thinks it’s new. A nine year-old kid in Moscow watching the Fresh Prince thinks it’s brand new, so when I show up, it’s as if it’s brand new. So The Fresh Prince has been a huge gift for me in that sense.

Do your kids ever give you grief for some of your earlier work?

Jaden can’t figure out how people thought it was OK for me to wear the clothes I was wearing on Fresh Prince. That’s his thing. He was like, ‘Dude, that shouldn’t even be on TV.’ Willow gets it and understands. But with the kids in the house, it’s really great for me because they help me stay aware. They help me stay current, and follow trends and things like that. Even the idea of something as simple as Instagram is an entirely new outlet. It’s like the fans are consuming entertainment differently and if you miss on that, you turn into a dinosaur really quickly.

What, personally, did you learn from your time off?

It was just that, I was a child of Dallas, so I’ve dreamed about this life my entire life, right? So on Dallas, they had South Fork, the property had a name. And Sue Ellen would come to breakfast and J.R. was there and it was like the whole family and everybody worked the family business. That was my vision of my family. But I’m actually surprised that other people got their own vision. Like Willow made a huge hit record, “Whip My Hair”, then she cut her hair off. It’s like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?’ So it was like, for me, the last three years of seeing just how much everybody has their own opinion and everybody has their own ideas and everybody has their own lives that may or may not fit in my Sue Ellen vision.

What’s your favorite gadget from Men In Black III?

It has to be the time dial. Somebody needs to come up with a Time Jump app. That idea, I’ve always loved time travel. And I started, because of this movie, to actually dive into it and thinking about it and talking about it. I realized, for black people, you don’t want to do too much jumping into the past. Right now is the best it’s ever been. It was like, yeah, maybe the time dial, if can go forward with it, that would be a great thing. [Laughs]

This is your first 3D movie. How was your experience with this new technology and what did you think of the final product?

Well, my first concern with being in 3D was my ears, because I could see these things pretty much taking over the whole of the screen. But when I first saw and they were cool and it was like “Alright.” They didn’t have me looking like satellite dishes. But then, with special effects now you can see anything. There’s no limitations with special effects. In the last five or six years, there’s no limitation of what you can see on screen anymore.

It’s funny, because the same thing happened with the music business. When the music business went to digital, when you can do anything, when you can record anything, a number of tracks, as soon as it exploded, it has a weird opposite effect where it gets worse for a while, which is really strange. It’s like as soon as you get all the tools to do anything, all of a sudden, now the movies aren’t as good, and it’s like “how the hell does that happen?”

So I think we’re about to turn that corner with the 3D specifically and Men In Black. I think what [director] Barry [Sonnenfeld] did was he found the balance of not throwing things at the audience. The 3D is the screen and back, which he went for depth, which makes it more pleasing to the eye. He decided to go with the conversion. We tried to work with the actual 3D cameras, but he went with the conversion and I think it just gives you a greater opportunity to dial it in and make it more pleasurable.

How was it filming in New York?

Anytime you shoot in New York, it’s always hectic because New York actually becomes a character in the movie. But that’s an important part of the Men In Black series. We were back there, I think we shot four months in New York and then the rest was on the streets and some of the stuff was on stage.

Can you tell us anything about Uptown Saturday Night?

Uptown. Well, me and Denzel [Washington], we’re working on it, trying to get it together. That would be a great thing, considering the material has to be right to deserve all that manpower. We would try to figure it out as we got into it and see who’s more comfortable doing what. Because when I first asked Denzel, he was like, ‘I’m not funny, man.’ And I’m saying like, ‘That was funny, that you said that.’ So he was a little concerned about the comedy and I’m like, ‘Man, come on. It’s going to be fantastic.’

If you could go back in time and change the success of anything, what would it be?

The thing that I have learned in my extensive study of time travel is that if you change one thing, you change everything. So I am absolutely ecstatic about where my life is right now. I wouldn’t mess with anything. Everything I’ve experienced, everything that’s gone right or wrong in my mind has turned out to be alright. So I feel like that’s the nature of energy. I get to decide whether it’s right or wrong or good or bad. My life, as I sit here today, is absolutely perfect, so I’m messing with nothing.

Is another Bad Boys a possibility?

I love making those movies. It’s Miami, it’s the tight T-shirt, and fast cars and it’s just at this point in my career though, the material has to be right. Just because it’s a popcorn movie doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something to say. And that to me, that’s hugely important. I’m 43 and I’m probably looking at seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career.

Do you think you’ll do SNL anytime soon? What do you think of Jay Pharoah’s impression of you?

I met him a few months ago. He’s got Denzel down. He doesn’t exactly have me perfect. I should spend some time with him so he can get me just perfect. I’ve never done SNL, we have to figure that out. The timing’s never been perfect for that. I’ll go on there and I hear everybody say it’s great and it’s a tough week that’s fantastic. But I’ve never done it. Maybe, we’ll see, next flick.

Do you ever think that there’s a generation of kids who know you best as Willow and Jaden’s dad?

In Philly, the kids were like, ‘Mr. Willow! Mr. Willow!’ [Laughs]

Do you think it’s important to attract a younger generation?

It was very important for me, having been away that long to come back in a way that was comfortable for me, and to come back with a project that was kid-friendly. And that was something that Eddie Murphy had said to me a few years ago. He said, ‘Man, if you’re lucky enough to be in this business, every 20 years, you got to go back and get the kids. Go get the kids every 20 years.” With Dr. Dolittle and The Klumps and everything and the idea of maturing and then you go back and drop something.

And what’s great for me is that target audience is in my house, so I get the scene-by-scene, screenplay-by-screenplay, run it by the judges. Jaden is probably the one of my kids who looks at me like I’m meat, like, ‘I’m coming for you. You just have no idea. He’s looking across the dinner table at me. Jaden is extremely competitive. I tell him all the time, ‘You know what, son, listen, I’m going to teach you everything I know and you’re going to work hard and you’ll be the second biggest movie star in the world.’ [Laughs]

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Interview: Josh Brolin Talks ‘MIB III,’ Impersonating Tommy Lee Jones And ‘Gangster Squad’

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:24:11 +0000

In Men In Black 3, Josh Brolin plays the 1960′s version of Tommy Lee Jones‘ Agent K. His cool, charm and optimism offer a new side to a character we all knew to be otherwise grumpy. We recently got the chance to talk to Brolin. He told us why he chose to join the Men in Black, the terrifying process of impersonating Jones, and his first impression of Will Smith.

Check out our interview with Josh Brolin…

How do you go from an impression of Tommy Lee Jones to an entire performance?

It started with a bad impression that I used to do for Barry. I got to know Barry a bit through the Coens and was re doing Nick Nolte and Tommy Lee Jones, but really bad versions of them. And then somebody calls you and says, “Hey, you want to do this mega-movie and play young K for a billion people to judge?” I said, “Um, can I think about it?” It’s putting your ass on the line – especially when it’s somebody you know. I still don’t know if Tommy liked it or not.

You do get to add a smile to the performance, a smile that we hadn’t seen before.

Good. I think I’m most happy about that. I saw it in its entirety in 3D last night, which I hadn’t seen. The last time I had seen it, about 20% of the special effects were done. But I think I was most happy about that because Barry and everybody had an opinion on it. “I think he should be really happy” or “I think he should be depressed.”

And so, you’re figuring all this stuff out the whole time and at the same time, you’re playing Tommy Lee Jones. There’s a lot of hives that start to happen. I was so pleased that it seemed seamless and that’s what was so great as an experience and watching the film as objectively as I can watch it. I’m very lucky in that respect where I don’t watch a movie I’m in and go, “You’re so bad. Your nose looks so weird.” That whole cosmetic thing, I can really look back and say, “Does this work or does this not work?”

The intention was within ten minutes when you are watching the movie, you’re not watching me constantly do this Tommy thing, some kind of caricature of Tommy. I think it was really important to allow the chemistry to work and all that stuff and not do too much makeup. We did just enough, I think. And the voice goes up into that extreme lilt sometimes, but then goes back into more of a generic thing.

The voice was dead on, what was you process for that?

A torturous one. I was down in Mexico, and I went and rented a little motel room down and went on my computer and went through it. What happens is like with a play: you go, you get together, and you do the first reading. This would be very similar to this and you do the first reading of a play and it’s usually great. And then it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse and then you come back around so you feel like you’ve earned your way back to what the initial reading was. That’s what it was like.

So I went down to Mexico, and got totally frustrated, wanted to quit, wanted to call Sony and say, “You’re wasting your money doing this because I can’t do this.” You know, all the actor stuff that people go through. And then you start to go, “Oh my God, that’s one thing that sounds good.” The tough thing about Tommy is that the “u’s” will all be alike and the vowels will all be alike. When he’s doing his thing and the breathiness of all that stuff. Tommy’s all over. Tommy’s improvising his voice and it’s still cultivating into something we won’t know until later. It’s like an instrument that’s been played by nobody that somebody says, “Learn how to play this, but make an album in two months that everybody will hear.” It’s like, “Why, I can’t do that. I just started.”

Can you talk about your chemistry with Will Smith?

Chemistry with Will was either going to be there or not. I think that was just luck. You can act it. I remember acting with an actor I didn’t like so much and he says, “I feel like you don’t like me,” and I said, “I don’t have to like you. I can act it,” which wasn’t a nice thing. But the truth was I hadn’t met Will before I said yes to this, and we went into rehearsals right away. I had a lot of nerves about getting it right and listening to the iPod and having watched Men In Black fifty times and all that. But the minute I got together with Will, it was seamless and it was like, “Thank you, God, Thank you God.” And it was professional, too.

We don’t know each other personally that well. It was very professional and we were always talking about the story and how we could make a moment better and ad-libbing and going back and forth. From my point of view, I was very happy with the outcome because it was organic.

What appealed to you about this big mainstream project?

It’s not a business decision. I don’t think “I bet the audience wants to see me in Men In Black now.” It’s totally selfish and personal. I like to have fun. I’m a total goof. And honestly, as a whole, serious movies are much more fun to work on than comedies because you’re compensating for the drama, so people usually have a brilliant time. When I did Flirting With Disaster, it was one of the gnarliest movies I ever did.” Everybody was like, “Oh, my God! This is not funny, And I’m not funny. It was like “Wow, this is gnarly. I want to do dramas.” And I liked Flirting With Disaster and I saw how it came out and it was like, “Wow, it’s a great movie.” So for me, it sounds so cliché, but I just want to keep challenging myself.

My goal isn’t to do as many mega-films as I possibly can. That’s just not my own personal goal. My goal is to be on my deathbed and to look back and kind of chuckle. And I’m starting to chuckle a little bit right now. It’s a really nice feeling. Like the guy from No Country For Old Men did Men In Black, who also did Milk, who also did W. That’s a nice feeling for me.

What are you looking for from a director?

It’s different. You work with The Coens and you get nothing literally. I’ve told this story a million times, but we’re doing No Country and I would finish a scene and look at Ethan [Coen] and Ethan would be silent and that meant, “Awesome, we got it. It was amazing.” It was like, “Really, that’s it?” The first two weeks, Javier [Bardem] would go, “Oh, my God! He’s going to fire me. He hates me.” [Laughs] I’ve had the most amazing stories about Oliver [Stone] and this and that. I had an amazing experience with him. I heard Gus [Van Sant] was quiet and fragile, and I didn’t experience that at all. So I’ve been very lucky.

Directors know the biggest talent a director can have, from a actor’s standpoint, is casting. If you cast it right, they won’t have to do much. And beyond that, they know when to tweak and when not to tweak. If they feel like they have to get in and say something because they have the title of director, that’s usually a massive problem.

When did you first realize you had a gift for vocal mimicry?

When I got kicked out of class a lot, that’s when it starts, you make people laugh. And I remember the first time I ever took an acting class was in high school and it was kind of an accident and I did an improv class and I created a character and everybody laughed. So it first came in humor and it was like, wow, making people laugh is really fun, this feels right, and creating stories. I wrote from the word ‘go’. I have all my journals, still from the beginning. So writing short stories, writing poems, writing scripts, writing plays, writing that, so storytelling has been a massive thing in my life. And then, I found out you can maybe act what you’re doing, like Mike Nichols or somebody in the beginning. And I liked the prospect of that.

Everybody imagines, your dad was an actor, so you became an actor. Your dad can’t get you a job. And my dad wasn’t in a position to give me a job. He didn’t run a studio or something. My dad was trying to get his own jobs. So when I became an actor, he was like, “Are you sure you want to do that?” And now my daughter’s into it and it’s the same thing. She has much more talent than my father and I, for sure, put together. I’ve seen her on stage and she just blew my mind, but if it’s in there, it’s in there.

Did you try to stop her?

The thing is, you look at your kid and you go, “What do you want to do with your life?” And they go, “I want to be rejected my entire life.” “Go for it!” It’s not something you wish for your kids, but even in the greatest of successes, you’re always going to have people slamming you. It’s constant, especially now with the Internet and all that. But she’s got the skin, she’s got the heart, and she’s got the talent, so why not.

What surprised you about working with Will?

The first time you meet Will, he’s like, “Hey!!!” You’re like, “Wow, serious?” It’s like waiting for rehearsal and try this voice and talk about it and whatever and he’s like, “M-I-B!!!” And you go, “OK.” So that was the whole movie. It’s just funny, man. It’s like going to an insane asylum. You have Will doing that and you have Barry going (imitating nasal voice), and telling stories about his mother calling him Madison Square Garden when he’s 16. And I’m like, “There people are crazy.” I thought I was crazy, but these people are nuts, which, honestly, makes it fun because you have both sides, which I understand very well.

You can have a lot of fun and you can have a lot of fun on the set, which I think is very important, and you can also bang away and say, “Look, what’s the best story here. Let’s never get lazy about our work. The professionalism comes first and then, we can have a blast.” There’s a lot of people that just want to have a good time and there’s a lot of people that I’ve work with, not a lot, but some, that just love the title, man. They’re in Hollywood and they can get good blow or something, I don’t know. What I loved about working with Will is that he is into it. I don’t know why he didn’t work for four years, which was a choice. I thought that was pretty amazing after four years. I like to work a lot personally. I like to just keep challenging myself and all that, but maybe, that would change in the future, I don’t know.

What do you key into when you’re doing a period piece like Gangster Squad?

You know, honestly, first and foremost, I’m proud of L.A. and I’ve really tried to embrace California, hence our California skit on SNL. I try to embrace California a lot because I remember as a kid, being an actor was going to New York and studying in New York. Everybody was kind of ashamed to be from California or especially from L.A. And I really made a point about turning that around, because California is pretty fricking great, man. So this was a movie about California and about Los Angeles and I loved the idea of that first and foremost. Secondly, Sean [Penn] and I were looking to do another movie together. We really had a great time working together and we’ve been friends for a long time. We had a great time working together on Milk, so we were looking for something else.

There was a great moment I had – I was just interested in the era. It was an interesting era that I didn’t really know a lot about, and especially about Los Angeles and learning the history of Los Angeles. But my dad came to the set one day, which he usually doesn’t do. And he came on to the set where O’Meara’s house is and he’s out on the porch, and we were looking out, and it was basically one of the streets that has not changed, the houses hadn’t changed, and we put all the old cars. And my dad sat, and he usually doesn’t do this, I don’t come up to him and say, “What was it like?” Because he denies his age or whatever.

And he was sat back and for like 45 minutes, he goes, “God, I remember when your uncle got hit by a thing there,” and he was like telling me all these stories. It was like he was in a full regression. It was innocence in his eyes. And I was like, “That’s why I’m doing this film. That’s why I love this. There was an innocence, even though it was hard, it was severe, all the gun battles, all that kind of stuff, there was an innocence to it that I really, really want to experience. So I did, through my pop, as much as through the movie.

What did you think about the 3D?

I loved it because it was a new 3D that I had never seen. I talked to Barry about it. In my experience, 3D is usually very invasive. It’s like scratch and sniff, whatever it is. And I felt like it was in the movie. It made the movie more beautiful. And as Avatar was an incredible experience, it’s so surreal. There is heart, but there’s no humanity in it. You’re watching these things flying and dragons and all this and this is a very different experience. And I thought this is a better movie because it’s in 3D. And I hadn’t seen it, I hadn’t seen any 3D. And Barry was like, ‘Can you watch 12 minutes. Come on.’ And I saw the movie as an entirety, which I was very happy about.

What do you think of the Rick Baker make-up?

It’s incredible and it’s always incredible. And not that this means what you think it means and seven Academy Awards and regardless, the guy, he is the beginning and he is the end. Because when he’s not around anymore, people are only going to be doing what they’ve been taught by him or the precedents that he set. Period. And Christian Tinsley, who is my makeup guy and did the makeup for Men In Black, and did for Jonah Hex and did it for W., and did it for a lot of things, he’s going to do it for Old Boys, he’s going to do it for Labor Day. He’s an incredible guy and Rick has a lot of respect for him, which I think Christian is very happy about, but no, there’s nobody like him, truly, and what a great grounded guy, too. And he was one guy who came and gave me – compliments are weird. I got used to The Coens, so I’ve gotten used to nothing and he was very complementary on the set. It was nice.

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Interview: Barry Sonnenfeld Talks ‘MIB III’, Casting Josh Brolin And Technology

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:08:42 +0000

It’s been 10 years since Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were seen battling aliens as Agents J and K. This week, the iconic duo returns in Barry Sonnenfeld‘s Men In Black III, with Josh Brolin playing a younger, slightly more optimistic version of Jones’ K. We recently got the chance to chat with director Sonnenfeld. He told us about the process of casting Brolin, why he refused to shoot in native 3D, and how technology made everything much easier for him this time around.

Check out our interview with Berry Sonnenfeld…

What was the biggest challenge on MIB III that you didn’t have in others?

Barry Sonnenfeld: Technology made it easier. It’s always the story on any movie. The hard part is getting your story together. Until you have your story, it’s really hard to finish propping a movie. It’s hard to figure out who to cast. It took us a long while to get the script right. I kept saying to Sony, “What a director needs is a script.”

One day Will [Smith], who really is my partner and best friend and ally on these movies, said, “Hey Baz, they know what a director needs. They know you need a script, we just don’t have one yet.” My wife would say, “Barry, if you tell one more person that what you need is a script, I’m going to throttle you.” The good news is that you can look at the movie that we made and not say, “Wow, it sure looks like they didn’t know what they were doing.” We got along great – Will, [Josh] Brolin, Tommy [Lee Jones] and myself.

You have a situation where the actors totally trust the director. The director loves the actors. We had a fantastic first act and we knew what our ending was suppose to be. We had a great ending. Most movies run into trouble in the second and third act when you’re writing a script. A lot of reasons that happens is you keep fixing the first act. You run out of time and you never get the second and third act right because you keep going back. I would say our biggest challenge on this movie was story. Least challenging was the casting, shooting or technology. I loved what we did with the 3D. I knew how I was going to shoot the 3D. I feel our 3D is unique to any movie you’ve ever seen in 3D. I was very confident about all that.

Did you ever worry that the project was going to fall apart?

I’m trying to think of a film I didn’t worry that it was going to fall apart. When we did Get Shorty we were ready to go, everything was set. This was after seven years of getting someone to let us make Get Shorty. No one wanted to make it. Right before we were shooting the studio said we had to lose $250,000, which was a lot on that movie, or they weren’t going to make it. There were a few days of horror on that. What I did on that movie was that I volunteered to take out what I knew was their favorite scene. I said, “We’re back on budget, we’ve taken out the scene with Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman and John Travolta.” They said that they loved that scene and we couldn’t take it out. I said, “You can’t have it.” They said, “We have to have it.” I said, “You cannot have that scene, it’s too much money.” The president said, “I’m the president of the studio, what is going to take to have that scene?” I said, “$250,000.” He said, “You got it.” [Laughs]

And by the way, the scene is not in the movie and it is the best scene, but it came out after several other scenes that were similar and the audience, I think, was getting bored. I took it out. You can see it at the end of the DVD. My point is, there were a lot of big challenges because the movie is about time-travel. What happened is we started the movie on a certain date because we wanted a) this to be Will Smith’s next movie and he was circling some other movies, and b) we didn’t know if the tax investment credit in New York State was going to continue. If we lost that, we lost tens of millions of dollars making this movie not able to be made for the right budget.

We knew we had a great first act, we knew we had a fantastic ending and we shot and went on a long hiatus. Now you’re in panic mode because you gotta start up again. I remember reading nothing but horrible stories about Titanic. I remember people going to see Titanic just to see how bad it could be. So, all these movies are hard. This movie was harder than a lot of them because there was a lot of pressure. We were reinventing a franchise and we’re doing time travel. What if we screw up and Josh Brolin is no good and the audience hates us for breaking up a fantastic and iconic duo which is Tommy and Will? That was my single biggest concern.

We never felt this was a one-hander. We always felt Will is only as funny as Tommy allows him to be. Gracie Allen-George Burns. We’re now taking Tommy out in the middle of the movie. We have to replace him with someone who feels equally perfect as Tommy, but on the other hard, isn’t Tommy. It was my suggestion to hire Brolin. The second I saw him I said, “I can’t wait to see what your head looks like in 3D.” He’s got the largest head, only second to Tommy Lee Jones of any actor in America.

It was hard. They were all hard. The only one that wasn’t hard for me was Big Trouble. 59 great nights of shooting, but it didn’t make any money. 11 days before it opened The Towers went down and we had to guys that had stolen a suitcase with a nuclear bomb so that wasn’t going to go anywhere. This one was hard, but not harder than others.

Was there ever any consideration of not casting a younger actor and maybe doing the Tron: Legacy technology by having Tommy play a younger version of himself?

Never. I felt the joy of going back in time was to make it feel like a different movie. If we had Tommy doing that it would start to feel like the other MIB movies. I think that going back in time and seeing young K and it not being played by Tommy Lee Jones was the best choice.

Did you try to direct Josh Brolin the same way you directed Tommy Lee Jones?

Well, I direct all of the actors the same way which is basically saying “flatter and faster,” except for Will where I would go, “flatter and more urgency.”

A lot of the Josh Brolin direction happened before we started. Josh and I spent a great deal of time saying that this couldn’t be an impersonation. It had to be an interpretation. What is amazing about Josh’s performance is that he looks like Tommy, he’s wearing prosthetic ears and a prosthetic nose to look a little more like Tommy, but they look very similar. If you look at Tommy when he was in his late-20s, he looks similar to Josh Brolin. Brolin can sound a great deal like Tommy. Everyone thinks Tommy has this flat voice, but it’s actually quite musical. There’s a real lilt and beauty to Tommy’s voice that you guys have probably never experienced.

The challenge for Josh and myself was to figure out to what extent is he a different guy because he’s 40 years younger and the event that changed him hasn’t happened yet. Josh and I felt it should be old Tommy, but a little bit more optimistic. Not a totally different guy, not like he’s Jerry Lewis. Before we started, some people felt the whole joy was to see a very different guy. I was very fearful that if we did that, the audience would immediately say, “I miss Tommy Lee Jones.” Brolin and I were in total agreement that there would be more optimism, but he was basically the same guy. The studio realized we had made the right decision. I do very little directing on the set. My direction is mainly about pace, syntax and urgency. I’ll just say, “Let’s do one take where you’re less mean and more amused.” I don’t go back to the chair and talk about your childhood.

Was telling Tommy that he wasn’t going to be in a large part of this movie a good experience?

I wasn’t the one to tell him. I was the one to fly down with the producers to Palm Beach and talk to him about being in the movie. Tommy’s initial reaction was that he wasn’t in the movie enough and that he loved working with Will and myself. He said, “We have a great time together.” I said, “We absolutely do, but the truth is we need to make a different movie. We don’t want to make MIB3 and it’s just another caper. We need to add something to make is very different. It’s not out you Tommy, it’s about what would work best for the film.”

After 10 years we felt we needed to re-engineer it a little bit. I was not the one to tell him. I think he’s extraordinary. I love spending time with him. I remember I was a producer on Lady Killers. I said to Joel and Ethan Coen, “You gotta hire Tommy for that role, he’d be perfect.” They were too afraid to, but I love Tommy and he loves me. I have pictures of me and Tommy smiling happily together.

Has your comfort level with technology improved?

The technology has exploded. For me, where the technology has gotten much better is in set extensions, like that we built all of Shea Stadium and we built 90% of Cape Canaveral. All those big digital set extensions you would never have done them in Men In Black I. We would have had to build them and we couldn’t have done that so that wouldn’t have been in the script. What you can do, in terms of creating worlds and all that, is fantastic. Magic is fantastic.

What still is the hardest thing is you really want actors to act to actors. You don’t want them to act to blue screen dots. I don’t like motion capture because I find it weirdly plastic and scary and spooky. I mean if I was going to do an all motion capture movie, I would just animate it. The challenges on this movie weren’t explosions, not rocket ships, but subtle things. Sometimes we use Avatar J or Avatar K in the shot and making them still feel as human as possible. That hasn’t changed.

We had a really great crew on this movie. It was all Image Works which is all owned by Sony, but that’s not the point. In spite of having a great crew, I stayed away from trying to create CG aliens interacting with actors. CG aliens can’t ad-lib, you can’t change things. What’s great about working with real actors is someone says something a certain way. One will say, “Drop dead,” while another can say, “Drop dead?” Technology has improved profoundly. I think I’ve convinced Sony that it’s actually a better way to go. We’ll see.

How does being “tech-obsessed” inform what you do? There is no state of the art anymore, it’s changing all the time.

BS: I’m not nearly the same level of “tech-obsessed” as David Fincher or James Cameron or those guys, but it sort of moves or stays the same. It does move but you still don’t want your aliens to be animated. There has been amazing stuff. What Peter Jackson did in Lord of the Rings was pretty great. There has been great stuff, but it’s unusual.

Do you keep all of the devices you review for Esquire?

No, I’ve left Esquire. After eight years I was too obsessed. I don’t keep what I review. I end up buying a lot of stuff.

Is there another one of these films in you with maybe Jaden Smith playing a young version of Will Smith?

I said to Will that we should do one when we go back and get Jaden just so I wouldn’t work with Will. [Laughs]

Can you talk about the 3D?

I think it’s the best use of 3D I’ve seen in a movie. We decided to convert. I knew we were releasing 3D. I knew we were intending to shoot in 3D. I did a series of tests with a reality rig, a pace rig, and I also shot on 35mm film and converted it. Then looked at all three.

It’s really stupid to shoot native 3D. First of all, native 3D, at the moment, the MapBox is very wide. I use wide angel lenses. When I tried to get a shot of Will Smith aiming a gun at the screen, the MapBox got in the way. The technicians are not set savvy. They are not fast. Every time you change a lens, you have to change both lenses. You have to calibrate. It’s a disaster. You can’t shoot on film, you have to shoot digital. I still prefer the look of film. When we took all the footage to release print, Rick Baker’s alien makeup didn’t look as good when you originated it on digital. It’s slower on the set. Also, here’s the other weird thing: When you shoot in native 3D, you have to choose and lock the interocular separation for that shot, which determines the depth. But since you don’t know your cutting pattern when you’re shooting, if the depth changes too much from shot to shot, people get headaches.

What 3D directors do is they have very narrow interocular separation. They put all the convergence at the screen and in most 3D movies you see, the convergence is at the screen and the 3D-ness is back there somewhere. It makes sense because Jim Cameron has reinvigorated 3D. His way of seeing is getting into a submersible, going down 7 miles and looking through a porthole at the world. I, on the other hand, am an only child. I use wide angle lenses. I want the audience close to me.

I feel, unlike Michael Bay, Michael Mann, the Scott Brothers, who use long lenses, whose movies are very handsome, very beautiful, but slightly absorbed. My feeling, from what I did with the Coen Brothers and Danny DeVito, I want to grab the audience and say “C’mon, let’s go watch this movie.” Because I use a 21mm, you unconsciously feel you are in the room with the actors. If you look at MIB3 again in 3D, I would say 80% of the movie is actually in front of the screen. If you see closeup of Will or even over the shoulders, they’re slightly in the audience. Not like we’re throwing darts at you or anything. None of that could have happened if we had shot native 3D. I feel for the way I shoot with wide lenses, on film, with the pace I want, converting was the best choice.

One last thing, when you shoot native 3D, it’s like a recording device. There’s no art to it. The amount of 3D is the amount of 3D. That’s set. The 21 mm lens shooting a closeup of Will Smith, which is what I do. Will’s ears are in Philadelphia and his nose is in Los Angeles. He’s got small ears and they are far away from the rest of his face. In 2D conversion, I actually control the depth and volume of his head in every single shot. We’re always cheating that. We’re always taking Will’s head and doing that to it. It’s imperceptible, but we knew what we were doing. We did a lot of tests. I think MIB3 is going to change the way studios and filmmakers think about how they shoot their 3D movies. You can use small rigs and shoot film, what could be more perfect than that for your movie?

How do you feel about the push for 48 frames coming out of Cinema-Con 2012?

I didn’t see it so I can’t comment on it technically. To me, anything that makes something shot on film or something that’s an art, a fantasy, look more like video, more like reality, you don’t want it. I once at a Sony store in midtown Manhattan and I was looking at something that looked like the making of Avatar, but it was Avatar. I said to salesmen, “Say is there something wrong with this television?” And the guy said, “You mean cause it looks like General Hospital?” And I said, “Yeah.” And then he presses a button that increases the refresher rate to 60. Don’t do it. It’s really this magical device that make anything turn into General Hospital.

I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on it, except to say I like the film look. I like it looking like art. I’m not saying I’m an artist, but I do feel anything that makes anything seem more like video doesn’t sound like such a great idea to me. You might as well stay home and watch the weather channel – which is my favorite thing to do, I admit that. [Laughs]

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Maggie Q teases ‘Nikita’ finale: “Not everyone’s going to make it”

Krystal Clark — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:30:05 +0000

There are only two episodes left of The CW’s best-kept secret, Nikita. The action-drama’s second season is winding down and the stakes are higher than ever. Over the past year, Nikita and her posse have lost their home (twice), a son (Max) and a mother (Senator Pierce) due to their mission. But they’re not going down without a fight. ScreenCrave recently chatted with actress Maggie Q, who plays the title character, to discuss the season’s final shocking moments. Unfortunately, another death is knocking at their door. Get your tissues ready.

Check out our interview below…

Last week’s episode of Nikita “Dead Drop,” ended on a hopeful note. The group successfully evaded Percy (Xander Berkeley), gained an ally in Kendrick and found a new place to stay. But according to Maggie Q, that happiness will be short-lived.

I think everything in Nikita is a precursor for bad things to come. It’s one of those things where nothing’s ever going to stay the same, which is great. It’s probably one of those fleeting moments of happiness she’s going to think back on and wish she had when she doesn’t. It’s so complicated what she’s done. This is all webbing together, but getting more and more complicated in [episode] 22. And then 23 is huge! I don’t know how they’re going to make it an hour. It needs to be 90 minutes!

Episode 22 is called “Crossbow” and it airs this Friday. The actress teases that a line will be drawn and Nikita will take a serious stand.

It is definitely the beginning of the end for something that Nikita is really, really sick of. There’s a scene that we did where she’s saying to the five of them that she’s not running anymore. She’s just done. It’s not that Nikita hasn’t meant this before. But she really is done. She’s not backing down this time. She’s pissed. She can continue to be in the fight, but to be running for her life from Percy and this threat — it’s not sustainable. It will hurt everyone she loves.

Nikita has gone from loner, to mother hen to a group of vigilantes. The family dynamic is something that’s been thoroughly explored this season. Those connections will play an important part in what’s to come.

The big question mark is going to be, ‘Can that family exist in this very alternate and strange universe that they’ve created and live in?’ I think the overarching theme is home, in season two. I think you find homes in very unlikely places and it’s definitely true for all of them at the end of the season. For me, personally, you’re home is where your family is. And that becomes very true for Nikita at the end of the season, and everyone else I think.

Amongst this new-found family, they’re missing one key element — Owen (Devon Sawa). The former Guardian is one of Nikita’s biggest supporters, but we haven’t seen him since January’s “Pale Fire.” What’s up with that?

Owen’s going to come back. He’s going to come back in the third season. We had plans to bring him back at the end of this season. The story was going that way but then it had to go another way and some big decisions had to be made. There’s no way in season three that Nikita’s not going to seek Owen out to join her. There’s no way. She’s going to have to, because some big changes are going to be made at the end of season two. She’s going to need all the help she can get.”

It’s no secret Nikita has her fair share of male friends, but she’s only got eyes for Michael (Shane West). So imagine our surprise when Maggie Q dropped a kissing bombshell!

Nikita kisses somebody who’s not Michael in the next episode. They’re going to like it. It’s pretty fun. There’s been an undertone about it in the show since day one. But I don’t think anybody’s going to expect it. When I read it, I was like, ‘Oh!’

The actress wouldn’t reveal if the lip-lock is with Ryan (Noah Bean), but she did discuss their interesting relationship.

I think that Ryan really cares about her. But it’s not overt. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m attracted to this person.’ I don’t think it’s that. I think he really respects her. I think that she’s so idealistic that he finds it amazing but also very stupid. It’s easy to fall in love with somebody who’s kind but careless. That recklessness is what keeps you locked on to them. I think there’s a little bit of that. But I think going into season three… that Nikita and Ryan will be getting a lot closer. That’s for sure.

On the Division side of things, we can expect a major change in Sonya (Lyndie Greenwood), the I.T expert who replaced Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford). All season, we’ve seen her wrestle with both Percy and Amanda’s (Melinda Clarke) questionable demands. She’s having some serious doubts about the agency and their “work.”

We are going to go into that. We are going into how Sonya feels about all this, which is kind of cool. She’s been sort of a very side character but important. She has had doubts. There’s been a few run-ins already with Birkhoff and Nikita. And her getting wind of things that are happening under their nose within Division that’s putting them all in danger. Nikita actually gets some face-time with her in the finale. That doubt is going to surface seriously. But it’s less about Sonya making a decision and more about a decision that’s made for them.

Over the past few weeks, Division’s former top-dog Amanda, has been M.I.A. After being exposed at Zetrov, she and Ari (Peter Outerbridge) were forced into hiding. They were holed up in a dank motel, broken and worried about their future. So will we see more of her before the season ends?

These two fallen powerhouses [Amanda and Ari], that just completely fell off the map. Lost everything. And they’re sitting across from each other on this bed looking at each other and probably wondering, ‘I don’t even know if I actually like you.’ Melinda’s character’s just sitting there all poised and still dressed as Amanda. Her back is arched and she’s trying so desperately to hold on to that position she had that she’ll never have in that capacity again. It was so pathetic. It was perfect. I was like, ‘This is so perfect!’ And I didn’t want to see her again until season three when it was like, Amanda’s back! ‘Ahhhhh [Laughs].’ We are going to see her before this season ends. But not in the capacity that you think. There’s just one other thing she’s going to do to set herself up for the third season, which is cool.

In season three, the mission shifts and Nikita will be like a totally different show. The second finale is filled with game changers. Deadly game changers.

The most important thing is, ‘Who will make it in this family?’ Not everyone’s going to make it. Not everyone’s going to make it out of season two. We’re not going to start season three with everyone we started with [in season two].

And don’t worry, she’s not referring to Security Guard Number #1. The death will be significant and heartfelt.

Yes, you will care. I definitely cared. I was very torn about it actually. It’s a very important element to the show. It’s one of those things. You have to build and destroy, build and destroy. You’ve gotta do it. Yes, you will care. I care very much.

With death around the corner and Amanda primed for a return, it sounds like we’re in for a cliffhanger. Or are we?

Not so much a cliffhanger. We are set up for season three that is for sure. It’s a nice wrap-up to season two. And some of the Warner Bros. executives did call me and say they felt the journey coming full circle and it felt good in the end. Although, there’s going to be tons of shocks before you feel good.

And as a final tease for Episode 23, “Homecoming”…

There is so much cool action, and some really big stunts. Just stuff I was really excited [about] and I always wanted in. We saved it for the finale. Like I said, not everyone’s going to make it. There’s going to be some epic bye, bye scenes. There is a full circle sort of thing that happens with Nikita and some of the other characters.

We can’t wait!

Nikita airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

Interview: ‘The Avengers’ Cast Talks Pressure, Power and Expectations

Krystal Clark — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:00:24 +0000

After four years, five films, and countless castings, The Avengers have finally assembled. In less than 24 hours, anxious fans will see Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye fight side-by-side on the big screen. The Avengers Hollywood premiere took place last month, and immediately after, the cast participated in a press conference where they dished on their characters and each other.

Check out some highlights below…

It all began in 2007, when Robert Downey, Jr. was cast as genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist Tony Stark in Iron Man. The film planted a seed that would grow and spread into the next Marvel films, leading to this cinematic event.

Robert Downey Jr.: Going back to 2007 when I was cast in Iron Man and Kevin Feige over there said, you know, this is all going to lead to where we’re going to have all of these franchises come together. And, we’re gonna do something unprecedented in entertainment. We’re gonna make this Avengers movie. And I just remember, I would get nervous about it and excited about it and doubtful of it.

Initially, director Joss Whedon shared Downey’s nervousness. He knew The Avengers would be a huge undertaking, and wanted audiences to be satisfied with the finished product.

Joss Whedon: I think the exciting thing kind of speaks for itself. That bunch of characters,that bunch of actors playing them,that much money. It was kind of a no brainer. The hardest part is and always will be structure. How do you put that together? How do you make everybody shine? How do you let the audience’s identification drift from person to person without making them feel like they’re not involved. It’s a very complex structure. It’s not necessarily particularly ornate or original, but it had to be right. It had to be earned from moment-to-moment, and that’s exhausting. That was still going on in the editing room after we’d shot.

No one knows about trying to identify more than Mark Ruffalo. The actor had the tough task of replacing Edward Norton, who played Bruce Banner in 2008′s The Incredible Hulk. After being cast, Ruffalo quickly learned how harsh and critical the fanboy community can be.

Mark Ruffalo: It was terrifying. I knew what my responsibility was — or I felt it just by making the mistake of going online and reading some of the fanboy responses to the announcement that I was playing the next version of Bruce Banner. That was a mistake. I will never do that again. I’ve never had a role be more scrutinized and criticized even before I shot a single frame. Coming onto the set with all of these guys was pretty daunting. I knew that I had big shoes to fill, so to speak.

Ruffalo wasn’t alone in feeling out of his element. Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, also had to switch it up. The majority of the film’s jokes are handed off to his counterparts, while he delivers earnest dialogue. As someone who’s spent the majority of his career playing smartasses (like Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four), Cap was a welcomed change.

Chris Evans: That’s his role. It’s necessary, and that’s kind of why I like it ’cause I am used to kind of leaning on cracking jokes and being a wise ass. It’s nice to kind of play it straight a little bit. You know, that’s — I think even in this film more than the first Captain America, he, Steve Rogers has some issues, some conflict, some trouble given the fact that he is, a man out of his time. But given who he is as a man, his nature, he puts that second. He puts the mission first, and he’s just selfless.

Chris Hemsworth‘s Thor couldn’t be more different from Captain America. In his first film, he was forced to eat a huge slice of humble pie because of his arrogance. And even though he’s learned the error of his ways, Hemsworth believes Thor’s stubbornness is one of his best qualities.

Chris Hemsworth: I like the sort of visceral, gut instinct that Thor has. I always thought the childlike quality in the sense that if he believes something or, he wants to do something, he does it and says it. You know how kids own their environment and there’s no opinions that they really care about. I think Thor is — it’s there. It’s surrounded by bravado and strength and all that, but end of the day he’s pretty true to who he is and what he wants to do.

Thor will have plenty of time to show off his strength and bravado when he (once again) goes head-to-head with his brother Loki. As the film’s villain, Tom Hiddleston has the honor of battling not one but six of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It’s a fact the actor has a hard time wrapping his head around.

Tom Hiddleston: It’s such a great character. It’s like playing an iconic Shakespearean character or something. It’s just a privilege to be asked to do it. With a character like Loki, he’s got such a level of complexity and so many layers to him. When I read it, I couldn’t believe my luck. The film was called The Avengers and yet Loki was almost on every page. I just was so excited about it, so I was, there was no trace of fear, just a huge amount of fun.

Two-time Oscar-nominee Jeremy Renner had an interesting way of preparing for his role as Hawkeye. As the team’s master archer, he does things with a bow and arrow Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) and Legolos (Lord of the Rings) could only dream of.

Jeremy Renner: I stretched a lot, and I prepared by stretching. I did take some archery, but I realized very quickly that I couldn’t really use it in the film. It ended up being superhero type archery. It is nice to know the technique behind it but then, you know, shooting behind my back and over my shoulder and using fake arrows and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I gave it a go and shot a few bales of hay and missed a few. And yeah, you get injured, banged around every day when it’s hand-to-hand stuff.

Cobie Smulders, who’s best known for starring on CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, opened up about making the transition from TV to film.

Cobie Smulders: I made it a point to do a lot of training to prepare myself for this role with weapons and to get myself mainly comfortable using them. That was the thing that I tried to do the most. In terms of schedule, it’s very different. I’m very blessed at my job at How I Met Your Mother. We have a very nice schedule,and this too was,very good. But we had a lot of stunts to do and a lot of fun things to explode, so it’s very different.

As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and foreman of The Avengers, Samuel L. Jackson revealed what he really loves about his character. And why Fury is dead-set on making this team work.

Samuel L. Jackson: I just like the fact that Nick Fury believes that these unique individuals deserve the love and admiration of the world. We pretty much owe everything to [The Avengers] because there are things out there greater than us.

The Avengers opens nationwide May 4.

1-1 Interview: Clark Gregg Charts His Journey to ‘The Avengers’

Krystal Clark — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:30:25 +0000

With the exception of Nick Fury, no one cares about The Avenger Initiative more than Agent Phil Coulson. He’s been there since the beginning collecting team members like Easter eggs in a scavenger hunt. After four years and five films, this week, we’ll finally see The Avengers puzzle solved. Shortly after the movie’s Hollywood premiere (on April 11), ScreenCrave spoke with actor Clark Gregg about his pivotal role in the superhero mash-up. Not only is Gregg a talented actor, but he’s also a huge comic book fan. This journey to The Avengers has meant just as much to him as it has to us.

Check out our interview…

Agent Phil Coulson has been a work in progress. In 2007, when Gregg signed on to play the character, he had no idea how important he’d become to the Marvel Universe. What began as a bit part in Iron Man, became a through-line for several blockbusters to come.

I don’t think they really knew who he was. The first script I got of Iron Man, I had like five lines. My ego was hesitant, but I was such an Iron Man fan, and a Jon Favreau fan, a Robert Downey, Gwyneth [Paltrow] and a Jeff Bridges fan. My wife was like, ‘Really? Even if you have one line, how are you going to feel when you’re not in that?’ I was like, ‘You’re right. You’re right.’ I signed up and they made everybody who spoke a word sign up for a couple of movies.

When the Iron Man shoot was winding down, Gregg realized something had changed. The character was getting legs. He was becoming more than just a mysterious authority figure.

Something just clicked and they started adding more scenes. When I got to the scenes where we were shooting at the end of the movie where she says, ‘Thank you Agent Coulson for all you’ve done.’ I thought, ‘Wow, this has really evolved into something.’ And then when I got to explain what the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division meant, that was the first kind of Marvel moment. Watching the early screening when I saw those scenes I went, ‘Wow. This turned into a really cool character.’

By Iron Man 2, Coulson’s position and objective was made clear. He was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. looking for a few good heroes. But Gregg still had no idea what would happen next. He kept hearing whispers about going to New Mexico on official S.H.I.E.L.D. business. At first, he didn’t understand but he quickly realized something big was happening. And he was right in the middle of it.

The nature of the beast is so secretive. I’ll be doing a scene — like I was doing in Iron Man 2, where I kept saying, ‘I’ve gotta go. I’m going to New Mexico.’ And then finally I said, ‘What’s in New Mexico? Why am I going to New Mexico? I want to stay and be here.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, because you found the hammer [Mjölnir]. You’re going to New Mexico because you’re really kind of in charge in Thor.’ I was like, ‘Shut up. Really? When does that go?’ They were like, ‘It starts in a couple months.’ Nobody told me.

Coulson went from (almost) having five lines in Iron Man to being a major character in Thor. That’s quite a feat. It only made sense that the powers that be decided to keep him around for the long haul. Gregg is just one of many actors brought together for the cinematic event known as The Avengers. But the road to this place wasn’t easy.

I think all it would have taken was for Thor and/or Captain America to not work as well as they did. And I don’t think we would have ever seen an Avengers movie. But these guys, they’ve really delivered enough every time to get us to this place.

As fans, we’ve watched The Avengers develop from a distance, but Gregg has been in the thick of it. Everyday he walked on set, he couldn’t believe it. The Avengers was really happening.

Everyday of it was like that for me. As an actor I walk on there, and it’s like six or seven of my favorite actors sitting around at a conference table in the Helicarrier. And then, the fanboy part of me goes, ‘I’m on the Helicarrier! And I’m going to go strive to talk and give some kind of bossy orders to Captain America and Nick Fury and Tony Stark.’

Speaking of Tony Stark, Gregg cites Downey as one of the reasons, Coulson’s become such a huge part of The Avengers storyline.

He was always so great to me from the first movie. I always felt, whether directly or indirectly, that Robert was one of the reasons Coulson became more of a factor. There’s a lot that felt like a circle. A lot of it felt like a journey. And Tony Stark’s a real big part of the Coulson journey. And I’m always happy, I’m always excited when I see on the call sheet that I get to go work with him.

When Gregg read The Avengers script for the first time, he was amazed by Joss Whedon‘s writing. He managed to do the impossible, which was make all these moving parts function as a well-oiled machine.

From the minute I read the script — I literally, I put it down and I was pale. I was like, ‘Oh my God. He did it.’ Not only does every character exist and have their moment, but they all progress. They all move forward in their personal journeys. Any one of these characters in their next movie is coming from a very different place now.

So between Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye, does Gregg have a favorite amongst the group? There are so many Avengers to choose from.

You know, it’s a dysfunctional family. But it is a family. I wouldn’t say Coulson’s the dad, but he’s kind of the weird uncle. The one who gets left in charge sometimes. I love them each in their different ways. Some more than others on certain days.

Clark Gregg has accomplished something that most actors only dream of. He’s created and embodied a character that’s been woven into film and pop culture history. To go from a small supporting role, to full-fledged member of an elite superhero squad with a comic book counterpart is a huge accomplishment.

I’ve been doing this a while, and I’ve certainly been part of some cool movies. I’ve had some great times. I don’t know how it happened to me. But it doesn’t happen to a lot of people who are 50. I’d be geeking out even if I wasn’t a geek. But I am, so it’s a little bit like I won the lottery.

The Avengers opens in theaters nationwide May 4.

Interview: Stan Lee’s Comikaze Co-founder Regina Carpinelli

Krystal Clark — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:30:50 +0000

“I didn’t start the show to make money,” declares Regina Carpinelli, co-founder of Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo. “I started this show to do something good for my community and something good for the geek world.” Regina and her brothers Fabiano and Mario (pictured above) did something most comic book fans only dream of. They took their love of pop culture and created their own geek-friendly celebration — Comikaze. Regina recently spoke to ScreenCrave about the expo’s humble beginnings and her plans for its future, which she says will be filled with “shock and awesome.”

Regina, Fabiano and Mario Carpinelli were raised in Southern California, where they spent most of their time watching cartoons, reading comics and collecting Pokémon cards. According to Regina, her parents encouraged their love of comic books, sci-fi and fantasy. The trio were regular attendees at San Diego Comic-Con, a tradition that continued well into their adulthood. It was their love of the Con and an unfortunate turn of events that led to Comikaze’s inception.

One year we couldn’t get tickets, which was two years ago, and we were majorly bummed. My brother found this other convention, and it had the word Comic-Con in it, so we thought it would be the same thing. We were like, ‘Oh it’s cheaper. It’s just probably a smaller one.’ But we were mistaken. It was like 30 bucks to get into and it was really lackluster. I brought $200 cash with me and after buying my ticket, paying for parking, eating — I had like 100 bucks left.

To say Regina and her siblings didn’t get their money’s worth would be an understatement. But like the saying goes, “Everything happens for a reason.” In a couple years, their negative experience would yield a positive result.

So we were really bummed out, and I was like, ‘How do people afford this?’ I can understand paying $175 for San Diego but how do people afford these other shows? Times are tough. Me and my brothers were talking about it and we were really upset about the situation.

The Carpinellis did more than talk. They turned their frustration into a plan of action. They came up with their own convention, called it Comikaze and brought a few close friends on board to make it fun, cool and more importantly, affordable.

The L.A. Convention Center, somehow gave us a hall, then we started promoting it. We went out and I was like, ‘We have to have Elvira [Mistress of the Dark]. We have to have Stan Lee.’ We begged Stan and Elvira to come to our show for months and finally they gave in. Hype just started building, because we would be everywhere talking about our show saying, ‘It’s going to be great. It’s really cheap. It’s going to be awesome.’ And the social media went nuts. The next thing you know we have 4,000 fans on Facebook and 3,000 on Twitter. We got to a point in the summertime where we had to get a bigger hall. We had this tiny little hall in the convention center and it was literally like that moment in Jaws when they’re like ‘We have to get a bigger boat.’ You have to get a bigger hall.

The last minute expansion came in handy on opening day. Comikaze made its highly anticipated debut on November 5, 2011 and was a huge success. The turnout surpassed everyone’s expectations including its founders.

We were so excited. We were sure that we’d get 1,000 people and it all of sudden grew from 50,000 square feet to needing 175,000 square feet. We were expecting 5,000 attendees, which would be really good for a first-year show. The day of the show happens, we ended up getting 40,000 attendees! We ran out of programs. We ran out of T-shirts. We only had [for staff] 10 people working for us. Everyone ended up having fun. Everyone had a blast. We ended up putting on this really badass big show that was a larger scale show but for $12 a ticket.

Comikaze’s explosive premiere didn’t go unnoticed. After its run, Regina received a phone call that would change the face of the expo forever.

A couple weeks after the show I get a phone call from Stan Lee. He’s like ‘I want to congratulate you. You did a good job kid.’ He was really happy with what we did. He said he’d never seen anything like it before. To hear that from Stan is a huge honor. And he goes, ‘You think I could come on board as one of your investors and be a part of this?’ And you don’t say no to Stan Lee. So we said ‘Of course!’ ‘You think you could call the show Stan Lee’s Comikaze?’ Of course! So now it’s Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo.

The Carpinelli’s good fortune didn’t stop there. Another pop culture icon wanted in on their new venture. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (also known as Cassandra Peterson) heard about their partnership with Stan and wanted to throw her hat into the ring.

Elvira calls and she says, ‘I heard Stan’s invested, I want to invest. Can I be a partner?’ Of course I love you. I spent two months harassing your manager for you to be a guest. So it’s really funny for me. Me and my brothers and my friends we were just big fans. We were just going to put on this small show and it turned out to be one of the biggest shows in America. And as fans, we are now business partners with Stan Lee and Elvira. It’s a cool Hollywood dream come true.

The team behind Stan Lee’s Comikaze is well aware of their competition. In California alone there are three major conventions that dominate the geek culture market — San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon and the Anime Expo. But Regina believes Comikaze’s high quality at a low price sets it apart from the pack.

All those shows you just mentioned, they charge a lot of money. They charge you over 20 bucks — sometimes over 100 bucks to get in. Right now, we have presale tickets for $12, it goes up to $15 in May and the day of the show it will be $20. We’ll always do the cheapest show and on top of it, kids 12 and under will always be free. If you’re a family of four — mom, dad and two kids under the age of 12, for $24 right now, they could have a badass weekend at the Comikaze Expo. That’s cheaper than a movie. The show’s for everyone. It’s for the city. It’s for L.A. It’s for our community. So everyone should be able to get into it, despite how rich or poor they are.

One of the primary complaints from fans of the larger conventions is the looming “Hollywood” presence. The emphasis is moving away from sci-fi and fantasy to broad dramas and comedies. TV and film have become a major part of these shows. And they’ve had both a positive and negative effect.

I don’t mind having the TV and film stuff come in, but I want everything to be relevant. I don’t want to have a Kate Hudson movie be shown at my show, unless it’s Kate Hudson fighting aliens. I don’t want any romantic comedies. Everything has to be relevant. We’re really strict with that. We’re pop culture and we’re comics but we’re geeky stuff. So I want stuff that’s relevant to the nerd culture.

The Carpinelli’s have a long-term vision for Stan Lee’s Comikaze, which is rooted in its strategic scheduling. This year, the show will run September 15-16, but will return to its November slot for 2013 and beyond.

My dream is to make Stan Lee’s Comikaze the Black Friday for nerds. San Diego Comic-Con previews all the big blockbusters for the summer, so why don’t we be like that for Christmas? That’s what we want to do. This is where you can demo, and play and buy the newest video games. See previews to the newest movies. Parents could do all their Christmas shopping at Stan Lee’s Comikaze.

Stan Lee’s Comikaze has a long road ahead, but it should easily find its footing. 40,000 first-year attendees is nothing to sneeze at and it’s all because of the hard work of three dedicated siblings. To go from fans of X-Men and Spider-Man to being business partners with their creator is straight out of a fairy tale, or better yet a comic book.

The Walt Disney of our generation has his name in front of our show and it’s such an honor. It’s so humbling. So many people supported us. And our fans, I love our fans on Facebook and we really interact with them. It brings a tear to my eye every time I think about all the support that we had. We had a dream to make this a cool affordable show. Apparently, other people felt that dream with us. And one of them happened to be Stan Lee.

Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo takes place September 15-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Tickets are available now at Comikazeexpo.com.

Interview: Jason Segel and Emily Blunt on ‘The Five-Year Engagement’

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:53:07 +0000

Jason Segel and Emily Blunt are together again. The Five-Year Engagement marks their third onscreen collaboration after The Muppets and Gulliver’s Travels. In Judd Apatow‘s latest production, Segel and Blunt play Tom and Violet, a couple that lives through the ups and downs of a very lengthy engagement (hence the title of the film). We recently had the chance to talk to both actors about their characters and what it takes to make a good romantic comedy.

Check out our interview below…

ScreenCrave: Emily, you seem to put your own spin on every character you play. Do you work hard on that?

Emily Blunt: That’s very nice. Thank you for saying that. I find it really hard to talk about approaching stuff. I don’t know how to talk about it actually. I always get very confused. When I read a script, I’ll have a very visceral gut reaction: what does this mean to me? How does she feel in my skin? Could I play this role? I think I know very instantly, but I can’t list why I know. I do try to pick roles that differ. I love that about the job; the variety that’s out there is to be taken advantage of and I enjoy that element of shape-shifting. I love character roles. I’m happier in them. Really I look for roles that have complexity. For this genre, it was a huge draw to work with Jason [Segel] again because we’re friends. The script was really fresh. I though it was a really original take on a relationship. It felt awkward and loving and flawed and messy and everything that love is. It was a very easy thing for me to jump into working with these guys. It felt like a really effortless experience. It was a blast. One of my happiest experiences.

SC: How were your brainstorming sessions?

EB: They tend to do that with every new actor that signs on. They do a complete rewrite simply for that character. I think that’s why every character is very rich and juicy and there’s a lot to play with. They really spend a few weeks doing new rewrites to who has just signed on. When I signed on, they brought me in and we had a big brainstorming session where they asked opinions and perspective on things. I do think this is one of the most personal movies I’ve done because these guys require you to bring a lot of yourself to the process. They want to make the scenarios feel real and that’s based on something you’ve experienced. That’s why I think it feels quiet fresh and not derivative of another romantic comedy.

SC: Jason, did you rewrite the Tom role for yourself when you realized you would play it?

Jason Segel: I have the easiest task when it gets time to actually act. I’ve done five years of writing at that point. I’ve done all the homework that all the actors have to do because I wrote it. I just have to show up and do exactly what I intended to do when I wrote it.

SC: So you intentionally put yourself through that emotional breakdown?

JS: Absolutely. I like to be challenged acting-wise. I like to do things that I’m scared of so I do write scenes that I hope that I’m capable of doing. It’s also the reason why I would take a part that I didn’t write. I like to feel that it’s going to be challenging.

EM: If you’re playing a historical figure you can do research and read books and listen to music and then when you get on set you just have to do it. As much as you can absorb beforehand, everyone has their own process. At the end of the day you just show up and you just have to do it. There are days when you’ve questioned what you’ve done.

SC: Was there any moment in the film you were seriously nervous about?

EM: The breakup scene.

JS: Yeah, the big breakup scene. But to go back to the other question, this may very well be a delusion, but when I walk on set, I think nobody can act this better than I can. I’m not saying that that is true. It’s an athletic mentality. It’s when you walk unto a basketball court, you think, ‘I am about to dominate this game.’ Doesn’t mean you’re right, but that better be what’s going on in your head or you’re about to get killed.

SC: On that note, was there any competition between the two of you?

EB: Be honest. I’m not competitive. I never think about those things.

JS: Okay, I am well aware, as evidenced by the opening of this roundtable that Emily is a more prolific and better actress than I am. [Laughs] I felt very much in my wheelhouse doing the comedy scenes, but when it came time for the breakup scene or the more dramatic scenes, and I come from an athletic background as you can tell, but I would think, ‘I am not going to let her out-actor me.’

EB: He would tell me this once the scene was done and I was like, ‘Jason, I thought that scene was really fun.’ And he was like, ‘You should, I was getting myself all pumped up.’

SC: So were you comfortable with the Chris Pratt scenes where he kind of stole the show?

JS: Part of my strategy is to setup people to be their best. We want everyone to come in a nail it. Ego-wise, I’m very happy to be the straight man in a movie. I’ve played the best friend before and the job of that is to be the person with the huge comedy pop in every scene you do. That’s the job of Chris Pratt’s role and he nails it. He knocks it out of the park.

EB: Chris Pratt is a comedy savant. He’s so spooky good.

JS: That’s the function of that part. And same with the Alison Brie part. They have to come in a kill it every time out story line is starting to bring you down a bit. You want to be able to cut to Chris Pratt or Alison Brie or her study mates – Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, Chris Parnell – they’re suppose to lift the script.

SC: Was there any fear that Emily’s character would come off as unlikable?

JS: It’s so funny when you do testing on any movie, people have a lot less leniency for a woman straying from a relationship than they do for men. They feel like they can understand why a man would leave if the woman is bit naggy, but it’s very easy for them to look at a woman and start saying that she’s cold or whatever. She’s human. I write every part as if I might play it whether it’s a man or a woman. People are all the same and I don’t think we should treat those characters differently.

SC: What inspired your transformation into ‘Mountain Man?’

JS: I call it passive aggressive facial hair. It’s a move that I’ve done in relationships. It’s a move that I’ve done when I’m unemployed like when people won’t hire me. I’m like, ‘Well watch this I don’t care either.’ It is a form of defiance.

SC: It’s one of the most disturbing beards I’ve ever seen.

EB: I loved it. I thought it was so cool.

JS: It is. If you saw me, not in a sweater, you would think, ‘He’s right up there with Chris Hemsworth.’ [Laughs]

SC: Was there ever any temptation to keep Tom and Violet apart?

JS: We knew that it was going to end in a weeding, however, seeing the movie, I am incredibly impressed and surprised at how much people think there might not be a wedding. I have always felt like romantic comedies are incredibly predictable, you look at a poster and you know those two are ending up together at the end of the movie.

EB: Even if they’re back to back. [Laughs]

JS: There is a legitimate section in this movie where you’re not sure if they are going to get back together. It was not planned. We really thought everyone would just be waiting for them to get back together, but it’s kind of interesting to see them with other people.

SC: Were you trying really hard to avoid cliches?

JS: Yeah, absolutely. Trying to avoid cliches or also just not defying this movie by a genre. I don’t know that it’s just a strict romantic comedy. I don’t know how you would label a James Brooks movie or how you would label Annie Hall. Is that a romantic comedy? I don’t even know what you call that. That’s what life is like, it’s the tone of life. That’s sort of what we were shooting for.

SC: If you’d written the script earlier, when you didn’t have as much street cred, would it have been difficult to get made?

JS: Yes! There’s no big plot movements. It’s about exploring relationships.

EB: We had one explosion, but it got cut out of the movie. All the movie for the budget went –

JS: At one point we have a talk about money and I can see that I’m broke and she admits that she has a huge amount of money saved in her bank account and I’m like, ‘What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me this?’ And she feels terrible and she gives me money to open my own restaurant in Michigan, and within two weeks it explodes.

SC: Can you talk about what you have coming up next?

EB: I’m not sure what I’m doing next actually.

JS: I’m going to take my first break. I’ve been churning them out. I think this year I had Muppets, Jeff Who Loves At Home, this movie, and then I’m in Judd’s [Apatow] next movie This Is 40. Plus a full-time TV show [How I Met Your Mother], which sometimes you forget is a full time job.

EB: That’s how I felt last year. I haven’t worked this year yet. I’ve been doing press. I don’t know when I’m going to work.

JS: I was doing a radio interview for Jeff Who Lives At Home and this reporter was like, ‘Well you must be exhausted.’ And I say, ‘Well, why do you say that?’ ‘Well you have four movies coming out over the span of a year and you wrote two of them and you’re doing the TV show.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, reporter. You’re right! I’m exhausted. You’re right reporter!’

The Five-Year Engagement opens Friday, April 27th.

Interview: Alison Brie On ‘The Five-Year Engagement’

Laura Aguirre — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:08:19 +0000

Alison Brie is a talented and fortunate actress. Not only is she a part of one of TV’s best comedies (Community), she’s also got Mad Men listed on her resume. Now she has something else to add – The Five-Year Engagement, in which she co-stars as Emily Blunt‘s impulsive younger sister, sharing most of her scenes with the very funny Chris Pratt (NBC’s Parks and Recreation). We recently had the chance to speak with Brie about her character, her faux-British accent in the film, and whether she prefers to be known as a serious or comedic actress.

You and Chris Pratt steal so many of the scenes in the film. Were you in charge of bringing up the mood whenever it got down?

Alison Brie: It was a great thing to be in charge of anytime. They were such fun characters. Chris and I were given this amazing gift of these incredible characters who are so fun and passionate and impulsive. On a project like this, where there is so much improv and freedom, it’s better to be playing these free and outrageous characters because then it’s constant fun and irreverence. It was amazing.

Do you find those kinds of roles hard to come by?

AB: It was a different role for me. I am usually playing more buttoned-up conservative characters for some reason. This character is more similar to myself so it was more fun. I was excited to get a bit of a change, well a large bit of change because there was also the accent.

Was that something you just had in your arsenal?

I had been working on British accent CD’s for about a month before I even knew about this project just coincidentally for no reason. I had been doing them in my car on my way to work because I thought, “You know, I should brush up on my British accent just in case.” Low and behold, then I got a call about the table read and then 20 minutes I got a frantic call from my agent saying, “Wait! Here’s the thing about the table read, they want you to do a British accent.” He was really bummed thinking it was off, but I told him, “Wait no, I can do it!” I never felt more prepared. It was a good actor moment of patting myself on the back. It was fate.

What other accents do you have?

AB: I have Irish and German.

Did you do anything else besides hearing the CDs?

AB: I watched a lot of Emily [Blunt] – the Devil Wears Prada so many times, just prior to the table read so that I could sound like her. After the table read, she made me recordings of herself and doing drills so that I could practice sounding like her. I wanted to sound like Emily because I was playing her sister. It wasn’t just about the accent, but also about her cadences and the way that she talks and jokes. I have a sister and I know that we talk alike, we don’t just have American accents, we like talk the same. Does that make sense?

What about when you two switch into Muppets?

AB: Well that’s the funny thing because after all the work on the British accent, I know because Nick Stoller has confirmed this, that it’s the elmo voice that got me the job. I did all this or on the accent and then maybe watched a YouTube video of Elmo two or three times and I said, “Oh yeah I got that.” When I did the table read, Nick runs up at end of the reading, super excited and said, “That Elmo voice huh? How’d you do that?” The Elmo just came naturally, who knew I had that gift. It was a surprise.

What was your relationship with Emily on set?

AB: Amazing. Very sisterly. I was lucky to go out to Michigan. They had us all come out about a week early so that we could all hang out. We all hit it off immediately. Chris is such a sweet heart; Emily is amazing; obviously Jason’s [Segel] great. I think that Emily and I felt a closeness immediately. She was so encouraging to me with the accent and everything like that and so it felt sisterly. It was like I was being taken care of by her, which was great.

Hearing yourself, did you feel unrecognizable?

AB: It’s cool to see and feel like it’s going to be so different from these other characters I’ve played. I was very relieved that the accent sounded genuine. It’s a daunting thing to do. My mother said that it wasn’t weird for her to watch it because it didn’t seem like she was watching me. I was like, “Thanks. Is it usually weird when you watch me in other stuff?” I think she was excited to see me in a movie, in this big movie.

And you were just saying that you felt this character was more like you. More than Annie [Brie's character on Community]?

AB: Well, Annie is a bit younger than me. I’m not as crazy as this character. I don’t cry as much or fight with anyone as much as she does. But in terms of the way, the banter and the way she jokes around felt more natural to me. There are so many similarities between Annie and I these days because that character has evolved so much, and I’ve put so much of myself in it as well. It’s probably a toss up between the two but they are on different sides of the spectrum.

What does your character do for a job? Is it ever mentioned?

AB: We never talk about it. It’s never brought up. Once she gets married and has kids, she does not work for sure. There’s a line where I say I wanted to be a kinesiologist and was never able to do it, but I always pictured her just working at like some vintage clothing shop or something. Her wardrobe is so wacky. She was like that girl who never had it figured out, or maybe going back to community college – well – taking a few classes here and there, but not commenting to anything and then maybe getting another job temping somewhere. I just picture her being all over the place.

At first when we see you and Chris interact, he’s making a pass at you. I love how it ended up playing. What was your reaction when you were reading that scene?

AB: I feel like I knew immediately where it gearing towards. Maybe it’s just girl instinct, but any guy that you say to, “Hey this isn’t happening,” is like so the guy that it’s happening with. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t say anything, you’d just leave. When I was reading it, I remember saying, “Uh oh.” Especially because they are such disasters at the start to the film that it makes sense.

They figure out how to have a more functional relationship though.

AB: Absolutely. It’s sort of the whole lesson of the movie which is that this other couple are trying so hard to control everything and they are waiting for everything to be careful, and then these other characters who are so impulsive act and then clean up the mess as they go. They’re life seems to work out perfectly, but it’s because of the way that the embrace everything that comes along. Their lives could have been disastrous, but they appreciate them and go with them.

How is it like working opposite Chris?

AB: So fun. Chris is so divine. He couldn’t be here because he’s shooting a huge movie. I just adore him. He’s the entire package: sweet, funny and whip smart. He’s improv skills are incredible. We just hit it off right away. Our characters were so out there, we got to have a ton of fun just getting super passionate in terms of fighting, then we had kids. We had a blast.

A lot of the cast comes from hit TV comedies right now, did you notice that at all?

AB: Yeah, Mindy [Kaling] and I were talking about it earlier. Is it a coincidence or is it not because there’s something about Thursday night comedies on NBC that have a certain tone and I think a certain quality level that’s set and so because it’s this comedic voice – Mindy has a better knowledge of this than me – but we were saying that a lot of the comedy that we’re doing on our shows, is reformed by [Judd] Apatow films and their sense of humor and that kind of realistic thing, especially because we work on single camera comedies. It makes sense that we would fit into this world since the work we are doing is fueled by it. We’re always ready for anything.

Was there anything challenging or that you dreaded doing for this movie?

AB: The accent was a big challenge and I put a lot of work into it. The accent and the improv at the same time were challenging. It was the two-punch thing.

What about the kids?

AB: The kids. [Laughs] That’s a good point. Kids can be tough to work with. Those little boys that played our son, they were adorable and wonderful but for some reason, terrified of Chris. The little girl was so sweet, but she was terrified of the crossbow scene, she hated having to hurt Emily because she would scream out and felt it was her fault. The little boys were terrified of Chris. The first day we met them was the day we were shooting the funeral scene. We were suppose to sit back there with our kids just looking great, but these boys would not stop crying because Chris would lean in and say something. Eventually we told Nick to just roll on them crying. That’s what in the film. We had a whole bit of me trying to get something from the bag and improving anything we could based on the kid. He dictated that scene.

You have a kid on Mad Men now.

AB: I do, little Tammy.

We haven’t seen you in the past few episodes, do you show up again?

AB: I believe so.

So far it’s been the season of the women.

AB: Yeah, they’re killing it. I love that show. I’m such a fan of it. It’s great to be on it, but when I watch it, because I don’t get to read the episodes I’m not in, when it airs, I’m always like, “Ah, this is a great show.”

Is there any show on TV that you would just kill to be on? A guest star role?

AB: It was Bored to Death, but that’s no longer on the air. I would have killed to be on that show. I loved Bored to Death. Charming guys. I love Children’s Hospital. We’ve tried to get me on it, but it has not worked out with scheduling. They are so funny. That’s my favorite show.

Did you ever have a specific career role about being a dramatic or comedic actress?

AB: When I was maybe in High School and very idealistic thinking that you could really plan your career, and naive about that, I’m sure I had certain ideas about it then and after college I did realize that I had to let that go. It was more about doing whatever role I could get my hands on because I wanted to work and to act and through that process learning what I loved to do which is almost anything. It’s been hard to limit genres for me. I just love doing this so much, I have to find a genre that’s not for me.

Do you have any interest in writing or directing?

AB: I don’t know about directing, maybe writing. I would consider it, but I don’t know. I have to have some ideas first. I have a few. We’ll see if I ever have the courage. If I have down time maybe I’ll explore that.

What do you have coming up next?

AB: I just finished working on a film called Get A Job, directed by Dylan Kid and it stars Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, and Bryan Cranston. It’s a great group of people. It’s a comedy about the job market today and these kids graduating from college and their trouble finding work. I play the head of human resources for this company who is very dirty, you could say. That was fun.

The Five-Year Engagement opens Friday, April 27th.

Interview: Judd Apatow and Director Nicholas Stoller on ‘The Five-Year Engagement’

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:56:26 +0000

Judd Apatow has become the face of modern comedy films. Whether it’s as director, writer, producer or all three, he’s the brains behind the operation. His latest is the upcoming romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement, directed by Nicholas Stoller, the man behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek (also movies of the Apatow universe). We recently had the chance to talk to Apatow and Stoller about the hallmarks of a successful comedy, as well as casting what feels like most of NBC’s Thursday night lineup in the film. Check out our interview below.

Where did the idea for this movie come from?

Nicholas Stroller: After Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason [Segel] and I wanted to do another romantic comedy and we’re both obsessed with long relationships that aren’t headed towards marriage, but aren’t necessarily headed towards breaking up. That seems to be something that is happening a lot these days. I was sitting in my office and the words Five-Year Engagement popped into my head and I wrote it down and got excited. I called Jason and he was like, “Oh yeah that sounds awesome.” And it went from there. I wanted explore the long romantic comedy movies, that take please over a long period of time like in When Harry Met Sally and Annie Hall, Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment. This was a way to make a low concept movie seem high concept.

In the Apatow universe, what are the hallmarks of a successful comedy?

Judd Apatow: We like comedies that are truthful and when people reveal something personal.

NS: Like Jason’s penis.

JA: In any type of art or music or movies, I always connect when someone is telling me something that I know means a lot to them. Whether it’s a song, like when you say, “I don’t think that person’s kidding around, Kurt Cobain means that.” I think it’s the same for comedy. You can tell when people are passionate about something. There’s just a quality to it when someone’s just funny and knows what they are doing. Why things work is hard to define, but originality also.

Are you good at identifying real moments?

JA: I’m a fan of television and movies and I’ve seen a lot. When we are kicking around ideas, there’s always a moment when we’ll say, “Oh I saw that in that Salma Hayek movie. Let’s not do that, let’s see if we can think of something different.” Even if we liked it in the Salma Hayek movie. The question is, what’s a new way to do this.

How would you describe working together?

JA: I just look for problems. I try to stay out of the way. At some point people say, “What do you think?” I just say, “I don’t understand this or I’m really responding to that.” Then I try to get out of the way again because you want people to go with their gut on it. Working with Nick is like holding a bird. You don’t want to crush the bird. I think about what I would want people to do to me. You want encouragement, you want to know what they understand – honest discourse – but you also want them to leave so you can do your thing.

NS: Yeah, Jason and I, for the first movie, we batted the movie around. We really worked on the outline, writing the script and all that, but we also come to Judd in the early stages of the process. The three of us, and Rodney Rothman, get together and really pitch a million ideas. It’s an all-day spew. We are all pitching all this stuff and a lot of this stuff ends up in the outline and then in the script. As you get more successful there are more and more yes people around. Judd isn’t one; he’s very hard on stuff which is what you need. Both Jason and I are really hard on the stuff and then we do the table read and Judd is really hard on stuff. You can’t even be happy with anything which is why I’m always happily surprised when people enjoy the film.

JA: We invite a lot of writers to come to the table reads. Our whole world is about everybody being allowed to be as critical as they want to be.

NS: You know you’ll get to do it to them later.

JA: [Laughs] We want people to just be very frank and vicious to us. And then sometimes we get back into another room and go, “That guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Did you read his last script? Don’t listen to him?” [Laughs] But for someone else, we’ll go, “Shit they’re right.”

Is is hard to deal a movie that takes place over a long period of time and not make it too long in the narrative of it?

NS: I watched all the movies I just named and graphed out how they did it, and then I ripped them off. It’s a lot of telling the story. You cut and suddenly it’s a year later. That’s the way that you keep the audience engaged. In Annie Hall they kind of cut back and forth between time, but Harry Met Sally has a brilliant way of cutting forward in time. You’re like, “Where are they now, who are they dating now?” We really copied that. We were also very strict on keeping the film from wandering, it’s always charging forward and charging towards important plot points.

Was there any struggle in keeping Emily’s [Blunt] character likable?

JA: That’s why we hire likable people. We make them do unlikable things. We talked a lot about that, but I think for all of our work, what we try to do is show people in good moments and their worst moments. We try to not obsess over making everybody likable or do the right thing. If everyone is a mess, then it’s okay. She means well. She got a great job and it’s the only job she’s been offered so one one level you could say, “It’s kind of brutal to have him come with you,” but those are the big decisions you make in your life. Who’s going to sacrifice in which moment?

NS: She’s so likable as a person. If we had had someone that wasn’t – like Harry and Sally, on the page are pretty irritating people, but in this movie it’s funny to see these people fight. It’s funny to watch Seth and Heigl fight; that’s what’s funny about it. If it’s not funny then you’ve cast the wrong person.

Was Emily always going to be British in the movie?

NS: Yeah, she was always going to be British. I broke this role in this movie, but I don’t love to have people do an accent that isn’t theirs. We had Allison [Brie] do an accent that wasn’t hers – but she’s great – it’s easier because we are doing a lot of improv. Allison nailed it. We did have long conversations that went like, “Could Allison be her sister and be somehow American?”

JA: Her half-sister like the Nolan brothers.

When you were casting did you just look at Thursday night TV and pull them all out?

NS: Yeah, that was it. Unfortunately Aziz [Ansari] wasn’t available. I didn’t even realize until after we cast that we had the cast of NBC’s Thursday night lineup.

JA: I didn’t even know who Allison Brie was at the table. I am such a fan of Mad Men, and then I saw her at the table and they said, “Allison Brie is great.” I had no idea who she was, I didn’t know that she wasn’t from England. Afterwards someone said, “She’s on Mad Men.” I thought, “What is the matter with me, how much cholesterol medication am I on that I didn’t notice that?” She’s so great.

She and Chris [Pratt] steal a lot of their scenes, did you intend to do that?

NS: I think they’re so funny. When you think of Harry Met Sally, the supporting characters Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher kind of steal a lot of that movie. It’s their role to comment on what’s happening. They could also do more because they aren’t as romantically invested in what’s happening between them.

When did you approach Allison?

NS: From the beginning we wanted it to be her. I don’t know what we would have done if she would have said no. In one of these long work sessions that we all have, we had Emily come to it and sit with us for many hours over the course of a few days. We basically had long therapy sessions asking, “When you break up with someone, how do you do it? When you’re mad at someone what do you say? How do you behave?” We’re really trying to get to know her. It’s basically a very lazy form of creating a character. We just form it around the actor.

Are these characters taken from people that you know?

NS: I think that Jason and I have a similar outlook on life, which is why we love to collaborate, it’s a big combination of things, it’s not just one person.

What inspired the hunting subplot?

NS: Yeah I think it was in one of those work-sessions with Rodney. They do a lot of hunting. That seemed like a funny way for him to be incredible passive aggressive and have this mental breakdown. And there’s no one funnier a mental breakdown than Jason.

How were the weird psychology experiments dreamt up?

NS: We consulted with a doctor, Bejamin Karney at UCLA. We ad a few meetings with him. It started as a behavioral economist which no one understood, so we brought a psychology experiment. Judd brought a marshmallow experiment.

JA: I had seen that because I’m fascinated by it with my kids. They do all these experiment where they say, “If a kid can’t delay gratification, their life is going to be really hard.” My kids have not shown that ability. [Laughs] I’ll tell my kids, “You need to learn to delay gratification, your life is going to be terrible.”

NS: Once we put that experiment, we thought it should become part of the story.

Was there a temptation to not have things work out at the end?

NS: At the very beginning we thought that maybe it didn’t have to end in happiness, but that didn’t feel like the story we were telling. With Audrey, who is played by the hilarious Dakota Johnson, we didn’t realize how funny she was, and we shot the breakup, which is crazy funny. One of our days of re-shoots we were like, “We have to brings her back and so we shot that whole sequence where she’s having sex with him and making him do Zumba, which is something Judd pitched –

JA: I pitched, but do not do. [Laughs] It requires exercise. That’s Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson’s daughter from Social Network. She’s really funny.

NS: She has the same lack of self-awareness that Jason has.

Why didn’t Jason’s penis make an appearance?

JA: We didn’t want his penis to jump the shark. [Laughs]

NS: He gets one or two more showings of his penis in his career and we didn’t want to use them in this.

JA: He has to save his penis for a Coen Brothers movie. He can’t overuse it. Or make a comeback. [Laughs]

What do you have coming up next?

NS: I’ve started writing the second Muppets with James Bobin. We’ve outlined it have been on it this week. It’s fun.

JA: I’m just finishing up This It Forty which it the sort-of sequel to Knocked Up.

How’s working with your kids?

JA: It’s really fun, but it’s harder afterwards because then they say, “Well I want to be in something else.” I have to tell them they can’t because I’m not just going to chop you off at a Fast Five set and have them do with you what they will. I tell them, “You only get to be in daddies movies because daddy doesn’t want to meet other kids.” [Laughs]

The Five-Year Engagement opens Friday, April 27th. Will you be seeing the film this weekend?

Interview: Dane Cook And Director Joseph Kahn On ‘Detention’

Guest Writer — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:03:12 +0000

With a cast that includes Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Dane Cook (My Best Friends Girl) and Spencer Locke (Resident Evil), Detention guides moviegoers through an complex maze of plot twists, onscreen graphics and a soundtrack of pop hits from the last two decades. In a recent interview director Joseph Kahn and Cook talked about making a movie for today’s media savvy kids. Check out our interview below (and be sure to read our review of Detention, and listen to us hash it out during our podcast).

Detention is one part horror flick, one part high school movie, one part sci-fi film and one part comedy all combined into a ’90s pop culture scavenger hunt. At the helm of the self-financed feature is Joseph Kahn, whose only other major movie credit is the cult motorcycle movie Torque. Kahn is best known for his award-winning music videos for artists like Eminem, Katy Perry, Moby and Lady Gaga and cutting-edge commercials for products like Adidas, BMW and Budweiser.

What was the original idea behind Detention?

Joseph Kahn: The original idea was that we wanted to make a high school movie that’s relevant for kids today. John Hughes made a certain type of high school movie and then it stayed static for 30 years. The only thing that changed was maybe it’s a little snarkier. But the actual language that kids live in today — like texting, motion graphics, Internet, that whole hashtag culture — doesn’t exist in movies today. Even the way the kids react with media today, is so completely different than what most movies have, that we just wanted to make a movie that challenged them. When I see a kid in a movie theater texting, I think it’s a failure of a movie. It’s not a triumph of Apple iPhone. It’s a failure of Warner Bros. and Sony in that they haven’t kept their attention. They haven’t challenged them. They’re smart little kids that are in fifth grade but they’re seeing sixth, seventh, eighth grade curriculum. And they’re not going to be excited until they see the ninth grade curriculum. I wanted to give them the ninth grade curriculum equivalent of a movie.

Dane Cook: I use my iPad during movies.

Were you concerned at any point that you were taking it too far or it would be too crazy?

JK: I don’t think the film is going to work for everybody, period. It wasn’t meant to be done for everybody. I didn’t four-quadrant this movie like Hollywood does. I knew that it was a very specific audience. We’re taking a shot in the dark. I’m imagining there’s a particular audience out there that’s younger and older, too. It works on two levels. Do they exist? I don’t know. I had to make it to find out. When you do something this experimental, that’s part of the process. That’s part of the risk. It’s also why I only spent my own money so I’m the only person who gets hurt if it fails.

Can you tell us about the movie-within-a-movie, Cinderhella?

JK: The movie was actually constructed with a new media perspective. If you really watch a movie these days, you don’t watch it once, especially if you’re a kid, because you have a different relationship with media. You expect that to be on your hard drive and it will look just as good at any time… So I knew that the film was going to be watched multiple times and that’s a lot like a music video. Music videos aren’t designed to be watched once, they’re designed to be watched hundreds of times. So on a certain level, the film was dream logic-ed like a music video. When you look at somebody like Cinderhella, on one level there’s a production design aspect of it, trying to find an interesting iconic character, having her face wrapped up in bandages and that was kind of funny. But on another level, on the dream logic level, you’ll see the parallels of that interesting connection that I made. For instance, there’s a reason why she’s called Cinderhella. Because [the lead character] Riley, herself, has one shoe through the whole thing and at the end she loses her shoe and she gets her prince charming to put it back on. Riley is Cinderhella. She is a Cinderalla story. And Cinderhella is both the thing that is attacking her and the metaphor for her life. It’s layered through the whole movie.

DC: There will be a college course that you can take.

JK: The film is loaded full of everything. That’s why it took us three years to write and we were very careful not to change lines because it is really layered and built on a million different ideas like that all throughout the film. And if you watch any particular scene you’ll see that we placed a foot here, we placed that there, he says a line here and the more you watch it the more wonderful little discoveries you’re going to find.

DC: My eyebrow was based on Julia Roberts’ in Pretty Woman. I had specific body parts that Joseph wanted me to make an homage to.

JK: Even the casting of Dane was purposeful.

How so?

JK: Well it’s anti-casting isn’t it? If you think high school principal, you don’t think Dane Cook. So for him to take his entire persona and wrap it into essentially the most uncool role in a high school movie is a very fascinating study. It’s a pretty selfless thing. Most people in his position would not do it. He plays a nerd basically, a guy down on his luck. The equivalent character to him, which is Sloane, a woman in her late thirties, you would think that a million actresses would want it. You always hear women in their late thirties have a hard time finding roles, and we wrote this really fun cool part, but every single person that was in their late thirties early forties would not play this role. Every single actress in Hollywood turned us down because nobody wanted to have an 18-year-old daughter. No one wanted to be identified as in their late thirties. Nobody wanted to be aged. So it’s an interesting comment about vanity.

Dane, what drew you to this unique role?

DC: I’ve been in a place where I want to make bold choices, whether it’s onstage in a comedy live performance or in projects that I’m reading. And when this came to me it was like Inception if the movie came to life and beat the s#*t out of you. It was definitely a part that I had never gone near, to play somebody that was very dark and mysterious. So that was a lot of fun.

Dane, did you base Principal Verge on any school principals that you had or any teachers that you had?

DC: Actually I based him a little bit on my own dad, who was a hilariously funny person and liked to play the part of the scary dad. So times my father would come home purposely, even though there was nothing wrong, and he’d be like, ‘I heard things today. I want this family to sit.’ He would do these long, drawn out moments, where he would be very pensive. So it was actually a little bit of a nod to my pop in there.

Can you talk about your process of the distinct vocalizing you used?

DC: The use of tone and modulation is something that always fascinated me. I used to do a lot of musical theater and I remember doing Cole Porter plays and all this summer theater. And I had a great mentor, Frank Roberts, and he was so much about voice and certainly about projecting and making sure that the people in the back row felt as enthralled and connected… I used to like to dig up and find those old radio shows — the use of tone and being able to be big and broad in your annunciation, but then quiet. To play with that was as important as physical prowess.

JK: I find on all my screenings — it was a revelation to me — that people were laughing at lines that weren’t even written funny. It was just the way that you modulated your voice. It was like you had such control over the audience. It was interesting to watch.

How exciting was it to get to die and then be reincarnated through time travel?

DC: All the accoutrements of time travel and all that was actually the bonus. That was the dessert for me. The movie was just wild. It entertained me first and foremost. I thought that character, again, was such a bold choice but I read this and one of the first things I said was, ‘If a pinball machine came to life and hung out with you for a day, then at the end of that day beat your ass and robbed you, that’s what this movie is. It’s whiplash. “

How closely did you stick to the original dialogue with the script?

JK: Completely almost. Except Dane improvised a couple nice lines there. But we treated it like a play for the most part… We worked for three years on the script and we finessed every single line and then what I did want was levels of interpretation. For instance Dane, because I know he’s an amazing vocalist, he has the best pitch of anybody in terms of being able to modulate his voice. He can tell a joke, he can say nothing and it’s funny. Some people complain about that, but that’s a f@#king gift. He doesn’t even have to tell a joke and it’s funny.

DC: I can speak to dolphins as well. I can go that high.

JK: So I would roll camera, I would let Dane riff on a line 30, 40 times and I would pitch him something. I would say like, ‘Do it as a CIA agent.’ Then he would do it. And I would challenge. I would say, ‘Do it as a dolphin.’

DC: I’ve never had so many, ‘Now you’re a CIA agent but his wife is angry at him, he came to work, he’s surly.’ It was a lot of fun.

JK: I had this amazing weapon and I wanted to fire it in all directions and see what happened.

DC: That’s the quote I want, ‘Dane Cook is a weapon.’

Did you know that Josh Hutcherson was going to be a big star from The Hunger Games?

JK: I will now take full credit for this, but I knew Josh was going to be a star. Even back in the day on Torque, I fought for Dane to get his cameo on Torque because he was an unknown entity. One of the things you do as a music video director is you spot talent. That’s one of my things. I don’t just do random people. I don’t turn Brittney Spears into a star. I have to spot that these people are going to be stars in the future and say these guys have cultural validity and they’re going to pop. I knew Dane was going to pop back in the day before the studios knew it. And I knew Josh was going to pop… When we were casting at that point, he wasn’t what he is now. I made that call and said, ‘This kid is going to pop.’ It’s just a matter of time.

Can you talk about your experience bouncing off all these young kids and new actors?

DC: That was another thing that I was enthused about… I like hungry people. I like people that feel like they’re in make or break situations, because I myself made a career by making some interesting moves early in my career. So to finally feel like the older veteran, in with a bunch of kids that I knew were coming to set every day really wanting to hit it out of the park for Joseph, but for themselves and for their futures, for their repertoires, that was also great. To get in there with a gang of people that were going to fight… Everybody here really came to really bring their A game.

Are you planning bonus features and added value for Blu-ray and DVD releases?

JK: We are putting together a narration. But it’s a little bit different. The version I have for the Blu-ray that I’m working on, it’s more like Pop-Up Video. I’m not interested in the director’s commentary stuff, I think that stuff is really boring and I think the director explains too much. It takes a certain mystery away from the interpretation that I think is very important for the audience. The audience should have their own interpretation. The filmmaker should make it and then the critic should interpret it. Period. If the director goes in there and starts telling you exactly what to think, you’ve just completely slapped the audience in the face and not given them the opportunity to interpret it and that’s terrible.

Detention opens April 13.

Will you be watching Detention?

Written by Amy and Nancy Harrington

Interview: Chris Diamantopoulos And Will Sasso Of ‘The Three Stooges’

Kit Bowen — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:03:09 +0000

Who are Chris Diamantopoulos and Will Sasso, you ask? The two funnymen (Diamantopolous has appeared in 24 and Up All Night; Sasso used to be on MadTV and does voice acting for Family Guy) play Moe and Curly, respectively, in the Farrelly brothers’ big-screen adaptation The Three Stooges, opposite Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) as Larry. ScreenCrave recently spoke with Diamantopoulos and Sasso about bringing the beloved slapstick characters to life in the new film, as well as their love for the Stooges trio. Check out our interview below!

ScreenCrave: Being that I’m a) female and b) was never a huge Stooges fan (until I saw the movie, of course), can you explain why all my male friends absolutely adore The Three Stooges?

CHRIS DIAMANTOPOULOS: I’m afraid it’s one of those mysteries in life. In its purest form, I think it comes from having watched The Three Stooges with your dad. What it was that struck me, ‘cause I was a big fan as a kid, was the Stooges were real-life Looney Tunes. You go back and watch the old Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Porky Pig cartoons, it’s amazing how similar they were to the Stooges shorts. Knowing that Bugs and Daffy were hitting each other and not getting hurt, and then oh my god! These guys are doing it for real!

WILL SASSO: I’ll tell you why, because back in the prehistoric era, men were fighting saber-toothed tigers and the like, so they could bring food back to the cave. It was a simpler time. And occasionally when that would happen, Ugg Mugg would get mauled by a tiger or stomped on by a wholly mammoth and the other cavemen would just laugh because hey, shit happens. The physicality of the Stooges appeals to the males for the same reasons. It’s physical comedy and motivated comic violence, at the same time.

SC: To be fair, I’m sure not all women hate The Three Stooges…

WS: Look, if the The Three Stooges were just starting today, I don’t think they would have that reputation, only appealing to men. Society has told women, “Nah, this isn’t for you.” It’s literally the punch line of jokes, “Women understanding The Three Stooges.” And they’re like, “Screw you, I don’t care, I’ve got Sex and the City.”

SC: There were a lot rumors swirling on who would be cast for this movie, with names like Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benecio Del Toro attached at various times. Tell me about finally snagging the roles.

CD: Well, it was grueling. When I first heard about the audition, I knew I wanted to be part of it. But I broke a lot of rules an actor shouldn’t break. They never met me out of character. I poured more of my heart into than I should have, especially since there was a big chance I wouldn’t have gotten it. In a course of four months, I read and met for it 10 times. I also mourned the loss of it a few times, when it was incorrectly reported other actors were taking the roles. I didn’t know.

But let me say this about the bigger names that were supposed to be attached. This is not Chaplin and what I mean by that is, you don’t want to see the sad clowns behind The Stooges, you just want to see The Stooges! I just think it’s easier for an audience to absorb Moe, Larry and Curly if they’re not looking at Sean Penn, Benecio Del Toro and Jim Carrey. No disrespect to those guys, I think they are incredible and can do anything, but…

WS: It was insane. I spoke to the Farrelly brothers about seven or eight years ago about it. They called me into a meeting and said they heard I used to do Curly when I was on MadTV. I said, “No. But you don’t want me to have done it on MadTV.” And they’re like, “Why?” “Because I would have done already on TV and it would be derivative. You guys are making a big movie, you’re the Farrelly brothers.” And now knowing Pete and Bob like I do, I find it interesting when they said, “Oh, yeah, you’re right. Good point. We’ll send you some DVDs and we’ll be in touch.” It finally came back around and for a lot of reasons it didn’t happen with those bigger names. But it was a long process. They saw everybody. When they were in talks with Jim Carrey, I was like, “Yeah, I’ll see that movie.” I would trust Jim Carrey. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter — what matters is Larry, Moe and Curly. Making sure we deliver The Three Stooges.

SC: What was it like when the three of you saw each other for the first time on set, in character?

CD: It was surreal. Watching the crews’ reactions was amazing, because the crew was made of primarily men over the age of 45. I had goose bumps for 16 weeks and it wasn’t just because I had the snot knocked out of me.

SC: What is your favorite Stooges move?

CD: It’s a non-violent one. Moe does this thing I like called “The Cobra.” When he says something and Curly seemingly agrees but says something idiotic and then Moe almost agrees but realizes what has just been said. Then he does this thing where he stands, with his fists by his side or folds his arms and rolls his head from one side to the next and then cocks his head. And you know Curly is going to get clobbered.

WS: One of my favorites we weren’t able to do in the film is when Curly would get slapped so hard, he would end up rolling backwards and literally standing on his head, up against the wall. We’ll have to do it for the sequel.

SC: Is there one thing about Moe and Curly we might not know?

CD: Moe Howard, the actor, was an amazing cook. He used to have the boys over all the time, made an incredible lasagna. But Moe the character is actually a real softie and an altruist.

WS: Curly comes from and is Curly Howard, the man. Curly Howard was actually kind of a quiet guy who didn’t hobnob with a lot of people. He really preferred animals to people. He grew up around animals on the farm, that’s why they are so many animal mannerisms in Curly the character. That mysterious man brought to life this character that people loved. He was the baby brother [to Moe Howard and Shep Howard]. Moe’s nickname for him was Babe. He always wanted his older siblings and his family to be happy and Curly brought that to the character.

SC: When I’m interviewing actors who are in very serious movies, I ask them how they would blow of steam, lighten things up when the camera wasn’t rolling. I want to ask the opposite here, would you guys read Shakespeare in the off hours?

CD: [Laughs] That’s a great question. I may be teased for saying this, but I really did look at this role as a serious undertaking. There are physical mannerisms, emotional nuances, facial expressions, intonations, which way to cock the head, where the eyebrows raised in this moment, how does he walk, how does he hold a spoon? It’s funny because we are talking about Moe, but why should it be any different from another role? A character is a character and if you’re going to immerse yourself, you’ve got to take it seriously. You want to know what we did in our trailers and on weekends? We’d watch The Stooges. I’m not kidding.

WS: We never got serious. Occasionally we’d be talking to each other, like we are talking now. If Sean was in his wig and Chris was in his wig, and we’d be eating lunch or something, every once in awhile, we’d just start cracking up. Look at you! You look insane! We were just laughing all day long.

SC: Do you think The Three Stooges will gain a whole new legion of fans?

WS: The Farrellys took the Stooges to the MPAA and asked what it was, and they said, it’s PG. So because of that, The Three Stooges is actually for the whole family. This is the legacy the Stooges gave us – and it’s PG! And I do think women are going to love it. There is a lot of heart to the Stooges. I mean back in the day, they made 16-minute shorts. They were never given the opportunity in their prime to make a 90-minute movie. And if they did, they probably would have been even bigger stars, to be able to infuse story.

SC: Working with directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly must have also been a hoot…

CD: I’d walk a thousand miles for Pete and Bob Farrelly, that’s all I have to say. Anything that Pete and Bob ask me to do, provided it didn’t mean stapling my genitals to something, I’d seriously consider it. I think those guys are true blue, incredibly talented and have hearts bigger than anyone I know. They just do it right.

SC: And now they are going to do a sequel to Dumb & Dumber!

CD: I know. It’s fantastic. I can’t even believe it! I’ve got to get in there, and I could probably do it, too, because I’m pretty sure Pete Farrelly still has no idea what I really look like.

WS: Maybe the Stooges could crash the film.

Will you be seeing The Three Stooges?

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