andPOP Speaks with Directing Duo the Farrelly Brothers

(andPOP) - I chat with the Farrelly brothers in a virtual round-table interview, with students from locations as diverse as the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, the University of Manitoba, Cleveland State, New York University, Oakland University, the University of Tampa, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and Arizona State.

"The first question should be something dumb," one of the reporters says, "like, 'do you guys remember There's Something About Mary? '"

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are, of course, the duo behind the landmark 1998 romantic comedy, along with several others, including Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, and Me, Myself, and Irene. Their films share several themes: gross-out humour, a lack of communication between the sexes, one or more politically incorrect themes that force us to question why we're squirming at it, an underlying sweetness, belief in true love, and a full-scale, life-affirming, three-handkerchief happy ending. They're currently hitting the promotional circuit for their latest film, The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller.

As it happens, the first question falls on me. While I refuse to ask them directly about their biggest hit, it occurs to me this is the first time they've worked with Ben Stiller since Mary, which made him a star. Did the dynamic change at all?

"It did change," says Peter, "but it's all good, you know. He's become a huge worldwide conglomerate since we last worked with him. Last time he was an actor, and now he's everything. And he's more hands-on, but he makes it better. It was like having a third director to be honest, but it was great."

But was there any kind of deference, I ask? After all, it was the Farrelly's movie that made him a star.

"It wasn't bullying in any way," says Peter. "It was just, you know, we have a lot of respect for each other so we listened to his opinion. Luckily, we're all in sync."

The next question is about the movie being a remake (The Heartbreak Kid was originally a 1972 comedy written by Neil Simon, about a man who meets the woman of his dreams three days into his honeymoon). Whose idea was it to do the remake, the reporter asks? And how did they approach that differently from a film they would have written themselves?

"We love the the original Heartbreak Kid," says Bobby. "It was one of the movies that really had affected us. We considered it a classic. So we were very reluctant to get involve with redoing a classic.

"But," he says, "showing it to some friends and looking at it, we thought – we started realizing that we probably couldn't redo the original shot for shot today just because, you know, society has changed. And we got to thinking about how you would redo it.

"And the main change we made is that in the original, he goes on his honeymoon and falls for a different girl, but he leaves a girl who is really not very attractive for a drop-dead gorgeous, you know, bombshell. And we thought, well, what if the first girl, what if, in today's story, he goes with a gorgeous woman and ends up meeting a girl who is a much better fit for him emotionally. So that was a major change we made."

The next question: "You've worked on a lot of really big hit films," the reporter says, "and I was wondering what film was your favorite to work on and what film presented the most difficulties?"

Peter pauses a moment before answering. "You know, movies are like – they're sort of like kids, you know," he says. "You love them all. We've never made a movie that we didn't love, honestly. In every one we finished, we felt it was our best movie, although that hasn't always proved to be case. But I guess the ones that I'm fonder about are the ones who didn't do that well, like when a movie like Mary or Dumb and Dumber goes off and makes billions of dollars, you know they're on their own, they're good, you feel like they're on the right track. But when Kingpin, which is only 25 million, and Stuck on You only did something in the 30's, I feel closer to those movies because there is some part of you that worries about them and feels bad, like 'why weren't they successful?' I'm still scratching my head and it makes no sense to me the Kingpin wasn't as big as any of the others, but it wasn't. And so you do feel a little closer to those."

Next question: where do they get their inspiration from?

"Most of our inspiration comes from the people that we grew up with and hang out with," says Peter. "Other films you can go more broad and it's a little bit cartoonish. But it works best for us when it's real. So we always kind of loosely base things on incidents that happened in real life."

The next reporter asks if the pair ever plans on departing the comedy genre and making a temporary foray into another genre like suspense or drama. And as part of that question, he asks what genre besides comedy they would most be interested in.

"That's a really good question," says Peter. "You know, we don't really plan our careers – like we don't have a 10-year plan here. We kind of finish a movie and we sit around and we look at it, like, 'Well, what are we going to do next?' We usually have two or three scripts that we're constantly working on and we look at which one is closest to being ready to shoot.

"The time will come," he says, "when we won't make a comedy, but I don't know when. We've thought about this a lot, like some day we're going to wake up and we're going to feel like we should be doing something more dramatic.

"We've talked about the possibility of doing a horror movie," says Peter, possibly remembering that Kevin Smith has promised to do one, "but we're not blood and guts guys. We don't like chopping heads off and reaching into bodies, you know, if we did something like that it would probably be in the Sixth Sense vein. Sixth Sense was a great movie, but, you know, we didn't need all the blood and guts, and it didn't have that. Just twist and turns will be more our style."

The next reporter asks which comedic actor (among the ones they haven't worked with) they would most like to work with.

"Sacha Baron Cohen," says Bobby. "He's a guy I wouldn't kick out of one of our movies, that's for sure. He's so inspired. And that's what you hope for – you think that you've written something, and you hope that a guy comes in and makes it even better than you can imagine. And there are a handful of guys (like that), but I got to think he's right up there."

"Yeah," says Peter. "I'd also like to work with Vince Vaughn. He's a funny guy, and I feel like he's done some good stuff, but I don't think he's done his best stuff yet, and I think we could do something great with him.

"And of course, for years we've been talking about working with Tom Hanks. I wish Tom would decide to do another comedy because, you know, he started in comedy and then he's done so many dramatic roles. It would be fun just to do a flat out balls to the wall comedy with Tom Hanks."

Another question: is there a movie out there the brothers wish they had directed or wrote?

"Yes," says Bobby. "Let me think. You kind of block them out. You can't live with that. We already mentioned The Sixth Sense," he says, "and I remember when I saw that, I was like, 'Wow.' I mean you could sit there and watch that whole movie and then that incredible twist at the end. That one really did blow me away."

"You know, Superbad really impressed me," says Peter. "I saw Superbad, I thought 'what are we, idiots? Why don't we do a teen movie?' It wasn't perfect, it has flaws, but man, it's funny. I had a lot of laughs with that one."

The next reporter thanks the brothers for Dumb and Dumber. He asks Peter how his university education contributed to his unconventional writing style? Did his masters in creative writing at Columbo University expand his mind and his talent?

"Well, at Colombo," says Peter, "it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I was in college, I was an accounting major. I went to Providence College and I just did business, never wrote anything, got out, and I was a salesman at Boston. And I was about 24 years old before it ever occurred to me to write. And suddenly, for whatever reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to be a writer and I was unsuccessful enough in my job to be able to walk away and not feel too bad about it.

"But you know, until Colombo..." he says. "I learned a lot. I got to say I learned a lot at Colombo just being around writers. I didn't – I was not at film school, of course, I never took film classes. But I took Creative Writing and I recommend it highly for anybody who wants to write. The great thing for me was, it gives you time, you know, when you're starting out writing, writing isn't something you do overnight. It could take a couple of years to get something together, and if you're a waiter or bartender or unemployed, it's a rough goal. But when you're in school, you at least have a little dignity and you're a student and you're getting better. And everyday I felt like I was improving.

"And also you make connections. Teachers explain how to get it done, how to get the stuff out, and you meet other students who were in the same boat as you. It's so hard sitting at home writing by yourself and having no connections to writers."

Finally, a fellow star-struck reporter asks, who are the Farrellys star-struck by?

"That's a good question," says Peter, "and the guy who – I can't even talk around, I've met him a couple of times and I can't speak, is Bruce Springsteen. I was in high school back in the 70s, and Springsteen was a god. And to be in the same room with him, I'm a bumbling idiot, and everything I say is just goofy."

"For me, I still defer to Bill Murray above all others," says Bobby. "Because of what he knows about making people laugh. I don't know that I'll ever catch up with him, so I always think that, you know, he's a guy that – it's difficult to direct him because you always get the feeling like he knows what to do, so he's a tough one."