Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis star in 'Due Date', Todd Phillips’ follow-up to the hit comedy 'The Hangover'.
Todd Phillips delivered one of the biggest comedy hits of recent times
with his 2009 film 'The Hangover'. Its popularity propelled Zach
Galifianakis, who played the film’s most memorable character Alan
Garner, from cult stand-up comedian (check his DVD, 'Live At The Purple
Onion', to see his unconventional style in action) to bona fide movie
star.
Phillips and Galifianakis are reunited in 'Due Date' and they’re joined
by Robert Downey Jr. who plays Peter Highman, a man desperate to get
home to witness the birth of his child. Unfortunately, an incident with
aspiring actor Ethan Trembley (Galifianakis) sees the pair kicked off
their flight, leaving the odd couple with no option but to hit the road
together.
Galifianakis will also be seen in Phillips’ sequel to 'The Hangover', which is due out in the summer.
Clash met the trio ahead of the movie’s DVD release.
This movie is really about fatherhood - about becoming a father and losing a father.
Todd Phillips:
I think that’s exactly right. You know, while it is a road movie and it
is a comedy, at its core it’s a movie about Zach’s character, Ethan
Tremblay, who’s going through a trauma, having just lost his father, and
Robert’s character, Peter Highman, who’s about to become the father for
a first time. And about why they needed to meet at this moment, and why
Robert needed to travel with this kind of man-child who was going
through this traumatic experience but really is a purely loving
creature, much like a child would be, who just needs some adjustments, I
guess.
Why did that story of fatherhood resonate with you?
Phillips:
I think it’s just an interesting take on it. For me, personally, it was
an interesting movie to make. I started making movies about college
kids. I sort of grow with my movies. They’re always about my age range,
it feels. And that’s sort of the next step in life, having a kid or what
have you, and fatherhood. So, it just seemed like an interesting thing
to mine, both for emotion and for comedy.
As a follow-up to that, Robert, were you channeling a bit of Todd in this, or the look for your character?
Robert Downey JR.:
Oh, well, I’m actually glad you asked that, because I think that every
time I feel that I really hit critical mass and I’m in the right place
is when I feel like the director and I become a third thing, and that’s
the character. And even though the central subject of the movie is
Ethan, the person who you’re kind of seeing it through is Peter. And
absolutely, particularly when he said, ‘This is just a lot of
hostility,’ and there’s a lot of fear. His attitude and his anger are
covering that fear. And we like to commiserate. We’re genuinely pretty
happy guys, but we love just getting crabby together. He is kind of like
a hostage child that we’ve taken, who is watching mom and dad or dad
and dad. They just hash it out. But you’re the first person who’s asked
that, and I think it’s absolutely true. I always feel like I’m playing
an aspect of the director, particularly when he’s an auteur. To me, it’s
a way of almost making him a proud parent. I’m a bit of an appendage of
some aspect of the director.
Was it refreshing and a
pleasure to play a character who had not been watered down but had so
many real, yet repellant moments in their arc?
Downey JR.:
Absolutely, and I don’t know why, but it was an invitation to me to get
in touch with everything that annoys me about everyone, and all the
fear I have about everything that everybody can relate to. So, in a way,
I felt like I was a conduit to this. I’m not a method guy. I can’t be
bothered to have a method. I just want to be part of a good movie, and I
can’t stand being surrounded by morons. But we had such a great group
of people, and the whole thing, it’s funny, because yeah, you could say
this is a two-dimensional commercial comedy. I feel that this is the
second greatest story ever told.
The first being?
Downey JR.: Oh, come on! The Bible.
Zach, is this character closer to your stand-up persona than the other film characters you’ve played?
Zach Galifianakis:
No, I don’t think that Ethan Tremblay is anything like me. God, I hope
not. My stand-up is more like how I am in real life. I don’t really do a
character thing in stand-up; it’s just a bunch of sentences that are
supposed to be funny. This Ethan guy is a lot more complicated, I think.
Your character makes random statements that end up being funny. What are his reasons for doing that?
Galifianakis:
Well, his reasons are not intentional, I think. I mean, when you’re
doing stand-up, you’re kind of doing, ‘Hey, I thought of this. This may
be funny.’ But Ethan has no idea he’s being funny. And I think people
that are not self-aware and kind of a truck with no brakes are really
kind of funny. He’s saying things, but he doesn’t understand why they’re
funny, which I think is inherently funny.
Can you talk
about the opportunities that have been opened up for you with the
success of The Hangover and how your character has become something of
an icon to the degree that it’s a Halloween costume?
Galifianakis:
We were shooting Due Date in Albuquerque last year for Halloween and I
went to a Halloween party. I didn’t really know anybody, and I went with
a couple people from work. And I was just dressed like this. And there
was a guy there dressed as the character from The Hangover, and I
thought it would be interesting to walk up to him and say, ‘Hey, you’re
dressed as me. I’m the real person.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, right.’ And he
just walked away. [Laughs] So that’s a little bit freaky. And, as far as
opening opportunities, well, Todd has told me of late that I’ve never
thanked him for anything and I’m here just to say that probably he’s not
gonna do it today. [Laughs] Todd helped me. He took a chance, I think,
and plucked me out of the stand-up scene. Nobody knows a movie’s gonna
be so big and we just got lucky. I got lucky and I’m thrilled that it
happened.
