Perhaps no filmmaker today has a better grasp on a college guy's sense of humor than Todd Phillips. The director who cornered the market on frat-boy comedies - Old School, Road Trip - played Twenty Questions in an exclusive interview with Street at the Four Seasons downtown Tuesday to promote his new movie School for Scoundrels.
Street: What's it like working with Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite)? What's he like in real life?
Todd Phillips: In real life, Heder is a Mormon, did you know that?
Street: I heard the cast from Napoleon was shipped in from Utah.
TP: They're all like Mormon guys. He's a really decent, nice guy. He doesn't really have the sort of college experiences that you might have had. He's married at a very young age, but he's got a great sense of humor. He grew up with like 15 brothers. I think that's kind of shaped his humor and his ability to be picked on, his resilience.
Street: What's his wife like?
TP: His wife's really sweet, a young girl, like his age. They're just very normal. We cast Billy Bob [Thornton] first, and the key really was to cast someone who is the direct opposite of him. If Billy is the devil, the anti-Christ, we wanted to find the direct opposite. Heder is sweet, unassuming and real, and that's where it came from. For this film, that kind of naivet‚ and innocence really worked for us.
Street: Out of all the films that you've made so far, which has been your favorite on-set experience?
TP: Hands down, Starsky & Hutch. It has to do a lot with where I was; by your third film, you're more sure of yourself. It had a lot to do with the cast. Working with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, but also we had Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and other guys, whom I was used to working with.
Street: And there's no Tom Green.
TP: Tom Green was Road Trip. That was fun for a different reason. We didn't know what we were doing, any of us. It was my first movie and it was like the inmates were running the asylum.
Street: Can you give us a preview for Old School Dos?
TP: Old School Dos is being written right now by Scot Armstrong and myself. There's no real preview to it. Here's what I will say: it hasn't been cast yet. Obviously, we want to make the movie with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson. If one of those guys would not want to do it when we hand them the script, we will not make Old School Dos.
Street: You were originally slated to direct Borat. What happened?
TP: I worked on that movie in pre-production for a while. I'm friends with Sacha [Baron Cohen, of Da Ali G Show], and Sacha is a complete and total genius in every regard, and the movie is great. It was just more of a . it was taking a very long time because his process is an intense one. About three weeks into the shooting of it, we were going to have to shut down production for other reasons, and it just became a timing issue really.
Street: Do you think you'll ever work with Cohen again? The media spun it as if there had been a falling-out between you two.
TP: I wouldn't say there's been a falling-out. When people say there's creative differences, people dig for something deeper than what it is. I would say yeah, I ultimately probably will work with him. It's very difficult to work with an actor who has created the entire character who you're doing something based on. It's very tough to have input, because it's his baby, so to speak. But there isn't any bad blood.
Street: Were there any egos that clashed on the set of School for Scoundrels or was everything hunky-dory?
TP: The truth is, when you do comedies, all these guys show up with no ego, because it wouldn't work for a comedy. It might happen in other movies with Hollywood stars, but when you're doing this kind of comedy, it's so important that you set the tone of the movie on the set of the movie. When you're doing a stupid comedy, you gotta keep it kind of light. I think all these guys that I've made movies with, whether I'm there or not, it doesn't really have that vibe with egos and stuff like that.
Street: What advice do you have for college kids trying to make movies?
TP: It sounds clich‚, but sometimes, you just have to do it. Right now, it's never been more accessible, with MySpace and YouTube and all these places to show stuff. People are making these little shorts and they're getting seen by tons of people.
