On Friday, Oct. 5 The Heartbreak Kid will hit the silver screen for the second time, only this time directed by The Farrelly Brothers and starring Ben Stiller, Malin Ackerman and Carlos Mencia.
The Heartbreak Kid tells the story of a sporting good store owner, Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller), who can not find the right woman to marry and finally marries someone after friends and family “force” him to do so. On his way to his honeymoon with his wife Lila (Malin Akerman), he finds out that she is different than before they got married. Lila ends up getting a teribble sunburn and stays in the hotel room. Eddie decides not to stay in the hotel room with his new wife and ventures to meet Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) at the bar. He falls in love with her and struggles to find a happy medium between the two women in his life.
Several college newspapers around the country had the opportunity to speak with both Peter and Bobby Farrelly. The Farrelly Brothers directed movies such as Dumb and Dumber and Fever Pitch. Another conference call included Carlos Mencia, who is known for his racially flaring jokes on Comedy Central, about the movie and his role.
The first question during the Carlos Mencia conference call asked Mencia about the feeling on the set with Ben Stiller and The Farrelly Brothers.
“I think the reason why they (The Farrelly Brothers) do good work is they just – they do what they think is funny and go with it. Their set is just relax, it’s chill. You know, I remember, I think it was the second day of shooting, right in the middle of shooting, somebody goes, “All right, we’re going to have an egg tossing contest.” And I was like, “What?” And then everybody puts 20 bucks into a pot and they get a bunch of eggs and everybody tosses eggs and whoever, you know, ends up tossing the farthest and catching it without breaking it, wins the pot. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ And I couldn’t play most of the time because I was in full makeup and prosthetics and stuff, so I had to watch and call it. But it was fun, man. The atmosphere is just amazing.”
The second question, which happened to be mine, asked how this movie would be different than anything else Mencia had ever done before.
“Well, A, the huge difference in this movie is, in any movie, you know, look, if I tell you something that’s funny and you laugh right now, I know that it’s funny. On my TV show, it usually takes about, I don’t know, a week and a half or two weeks turnaround. This movie we did about a year ago. So, I told a joke, it’s kind of like a year ago I went ‘knock knock,’ and in about a week or two, somebody is going to go, ‘Who is there?’ It’s really like difficult for a comedian. On the other hand, it’s awesome that the characters are there. You know, when I’m doing standup, I have to imagine characters being there. Looking at somebody, reacting to somebody, that’s really fun because it’s real. So, this was a fun, fun departure for me. I can’t wait to be doing more of this stuff, to be honest.”
Another question asked Mencia how he was casted for the role as Uncle Tito.
“You know, what was funny about this movie was that the casting director just really, really, really wanted me to be a part of this. I mean he was just a big, big fan of mine. And I went in there and I read – and the Farrelly brothers weren’t there. It was on tape. And this was after they had already like sent me the script. And of course, when they sent me the script I was like so excited to read it. And when I read it, I was so, so excited just to even attempt to be a part of it. And I read it the first time and I read it again. I was like, ‘This is really funny.’ So I went to go audition for it and they called me back and they said, “Listen, we really think you can do better.” And I was kind of hurt by that, you know what I mean? But, you know, because when you’re told you can do better, you’re like, ‘Oh man, did I suck? What happened? But sometimes that just means there’s something different that they want.’ And what it was is, a lot of times even, believe it or not, even though I know I’m funny — I have a TV show where I’m funny, I go on stage and I’m funny — believe it or not, once they take me out of my comfort zone. I found out that the Farrelly brother’s kids are big fans of me and big fans of Mind of Mencia and they really rallied for me to be on in the movie, and the guys, you know, who were fans and fans of the show, and that’s how it came about.”
The Farrelly Brothers interview was a two for one. One call with two people. Two great directors that have brought some of Ameirca’s favorite comedies to the box office.
The first question asked if Ben Stiller had changed since the last time they had worked with him.
“He did change, but it’s all good, you know, he’s, you know, now, he’s become a – this is Peter talking by the way. He’s become a, you know, a huge, you know, worldwide conglomerate since we last worked with him. Last time he was an actor and now he’s everything. He’s more hands-on, but he makes it better. His instincts are so right on that it was like having a third director to be honest, but it was great.”
The next question, one of mine, asked about their inspiration and what had inspired them in the past.
“Most of our inspiration comes from, you know, the people that we grew up with and hang out with and, you know, things that happen in real life, you know, University of Tampa type people (Yes, he actually said it). When something that’s funny that happens to them or something, you know, that – something that’s based on reality, you know, like we like our humor based in, you know, in reality. Other film makes us kind of – you can go more broad and it’s a little bit cartoonist. But it works best for us when it’s real. So we always kind of loosely base things on incidents that did happen in our real life.”
Other questions in the call included who they would like to work with. They answered Sacha Bara Cohen who played as Borat. They were also asked which movie they wish they had directed and one was Superbad.
Being a part of the interview was pretty awesome. It opened my eyes to the real people behind the scenes. Be sure not to miss the premiere of “The Heartbreak Kid” on Oct 5.