Makeup.
Yes.
This is in the trailer, so it’s not a spoiler, but your special ops character who’s trailing Harry and Lloyd has some very good camouflage ability. How long did you spend in makeup?
That took a while. I had to put on a unitard, be painted, be absolutely still for six hours. They flew in an artist from England, Caroline Roper, who did fantastic work. You saw it. Really detailed. Six hours is a long time to stand still and it was outside in the freezing, morning winter cold. But she did a great job, so it was worth it.
It did get a big laugh in the theater.
Great. Okay, it was definitely worth it.
When you were similarly being painted for the vending machine, did you fight for any particular chips or candies to be included? Or like, no Twizzlers! I hate Twizzlers!
I had no say in it. They had a plan, I let it be and I stood still.
“It was so cold, I couldn’t even say my lines. The scream was real.”
But if you had to tattoo a snack on yourself, what would it be? Today’s the day after Halloween so you have a fresh memory spread of snacks.
Probably, something Little Debbie. Actually, you know what, I’d just tattoo “Little Debbie” and that would leave a lot to be interpret. I could play it off a little different ways.
Actually, Little Debbie could be your character’s name in 23 Jump Street, now that Mr. Watson has a vagina.
[laughs] That would be awesome. Just a big, huge guy. I love it. [deep voice] “Hey Little Debbie, you got a visitor.” All the guys on the cell block could have fun with that.
Post-explosion makeup, did you look at yourself in a mirror and say, “Man, I look like Alfred Molina?”
Well, I only remember one thing about the pool day. When I had to jump into that pool it was freezing. It was late November.
Where were you shooting?
[under breath] Atlanta.
Oh, it gets cold in Atlanta. All that humidity, moisture in the air, when it’s 40 it feels a lot colder.
Yeah, the moisture gets in your bones, man. But I asked them if the pool was heated, and they said, “Yes.” It wasn’t. And when I jumped in, it was freezing. It was so cold, I couldn’t even say my lines. The scream was real.
I was talking to the Farrelly Brothers earlier and they said they weren’t trying to do any parallels to the original, and they realized how similar they were in plot structure later. Did you take any cues from Mike Starr (who played the enforcer that tags along with Harry and Lloyd) at all?
I didn’t. I loved his performance. I didn’t think about it until after the fact how similar our roles were. I just tried to make it real for me.
So, as a comedian, what did the original Dumb and Dumber mean to you?
Well, I still quote it to this day. Here we are 20 days later and I’m still quoting it. That speaks volumes.
Yeah, I hadn’t seen it in 15 years and I was surprised how many scenes I could just do the entire back and forth dialogue for…
That’s a good sign for a movie. When it becomes part of the lexicon and pop culture for an entire generation. I’ve been in many movies, luckily, that get quoted. As a comedian, I’m always quoting Caddyshack and Dumb and Dumber.
Anytime I’m in a beautiful area, and it’s not beautiful outside, like it’s overcast, or if the Grand Canyon is foggy, or whatever, I’ll look out and say, “Man, that John Denver is full of shit.” It’s so good, you wait for the time when you can use a line like that in real life. I think that definitely means they did something right.
Brian Formo is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianEmilFormo.
