{"id":6391,"date":"2009-12-11T13:00:04","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T18:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=6391"},"modified":"2018-12-09T01:01:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T06:01:32","slug":"slammin-the-salmon-with-broken-lizard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/11\/slammin-the-salmon-with-broken-lizard\/","title":{"rendered":"SLAMMIN’ The SALMON With Broken Lizard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SlamminSalmonCast\"<\/a>The five man comedy troupe Broken Lizard have been steadily turning out dependably funny comedy since they first hit big with their second film, the cop comedy Super Troopers<\/strong>, in 2001. The film was such a hit that it lead to more Hollywood work for the group both collectively and individually.<\/p>\n

Their latest film, The Slammin’ Salmon<\/strong>, opens in limited release this weekend. Set in a high-end Miami seafood restaurant owned by a belligerent former boxer played by Michael Clarke Duncan, the staff find themselves under pressure to bring in a night’s worth of receipts to cover the owner’s debt to a Yakuza crimelord. Needless to say with one waiter off his meds, another slowly getting drunk and a waitress slowly burning her face off through a variety of accidents, things are not going to go as planned. The Slammin’ Salmon<\/strong> marks the first film from Broken Lizard that wasn’t directed by\u00a0 member Jay Chandrasekhar. Instead Heffernan has taken over the directorial reins, delivering the same trademark Broken Lizard comedy that fans have come to expect while spicing the movie with a few directorial flourishes of his own.<\/p>\n

I sat down for a quick interview with 40% of the group – Heffernan and Steve Lemme – to discuss the new film.<\/p>\n

We started off the interview with a confession.<\/p>\n

FilmBuffOnLine: I literally finished watching the screener for the movie about 20 minutes ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kevin Heffernan:<\/strong> In the car on the drive over?<\/p>\n

FBOL: Actually, sitting over in the Marathon Grill on my laptop.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Lemme: <\/strong>Nice.<\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>Did you at least have headphones?<\/p>\n

FBOL: Yes. After the first \u201cmotherfucker\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL: <\/strong>How is it to watch a movie like that under duress?<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/a>FBOL: Not the worst conditions I ever watched a movie under, but still\u2026 It was a lot of fun. Michael Clarke Duncan blew me away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n

FBOL: He\u2019s the secret weapon of this movie.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>Oh yeah. He steals it and it\u2019s something you don\u2019t expect. He gives you a performance like you\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\n

FBOL: What inspired you to cast him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>When we wrote [the movie], the premise that we came up with was if you\u2019re a waiter in a restaurant and the restaurant was owned by Mike Tyson, what would that be like? Would he beat the crap out of you, or what? We started writing this character in the voice of Mike Tyson. There were flights of fancy and there was all these kind of crazy things he says. And then you\u2019re like, oh shit, you got to cast that part. Who do you get to play a believable boxer who can terrify you and kill you and also do this comedy stuff?<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> We did consider Mike Tyson for a few moments.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> For a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> We were like \u201cCould we? Should we?\u201d There was the \u201cX-factor\u201d-<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> We couldn\u2019t get insurance for the movie.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> Obviously, he physically fits the role and he had done Taladega Nights<\/strong>. So we gave him the script and he loved it. What we didn\u2019t know was could he do what was on the page. Green Mile<\/strong>, he\u2019s nominated for an Oscar. But does he know comedy? Is going to improvise or what? The first day he had all his lines, he was great. He improvised, he had comedy\u2026 And you\u2019re like \u201cOh my God!\u201d And he just went from there.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> It\u2019s hard for us, especially with this character most of all. We find that when other actors come and read some of our dialogue\u2026 We intentionally twist logic around a little bit, so sometimes it is hard for people\u2026 It\u2019s easy for us, because we\u2019re writing it, but for other people to grasp it\u2026 And we were looking at this thing like \u201cJesus Christ.\u201d Not only are there these huge chunks of dialogue but they have to do with nothing that actually makes any sense. As an actor you can\u2019t grasp on to \u201cOh, it\u2019s about this particular theme,\u201d because its \u2013 Bam! Bam ! Bam! \u2013 all over the place.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> When we met him he was so funny and we were like \u201cMichael, why don\u2019t you do more comedies?\u201d and he was like \u201cI don\u2019t know. No one ever offers me.\u201d He\u2019s the big scary guy. Hopefully after this he\u2019ll get a chance to do more comedies because he is just inherently a funny guy.<\/p>\n

FBOL: In most of your films, you guys circle around an authority figure, almost a Margret Dumont character to your Marx Brothers. Is that a template you consciously pursue or does it grow organically out of the ideas you pursue?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> Well, our first movie was Puddle Cruiser<\/strong> and that did not have one. I think it was born out of necessity. I might be wrong, but I remember when we were writing Super Troopers<\/strong> the advice that was given was \u201cNobody knows who you are so you\u2019ll have to have some name actor with you.\u201d So we were like \u201cOK. We\u2019ll have an older gentleman, our police chief.\u201d It seems to be a good model.<\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>Even Beerfest<\/strong>, for example, we put Cloris Leachman in to that role. You can have someone who is outside of your food group like Michael or Cloris or Brian Cox and it opens up your movie a bit more. I think it is intentional. Also, when you are playing screw-ups or anti-authority people you always need that element of authority somewhere floating around in the script.<\/p>\n

FBOL: What is your process for writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> It\u2019s pretty much everyone sits around a table. It could be one guy has an idea or two guys have an idea, but ultimately you sit down at a table with five guys and you start throwing ideas out. One guy will be in charge of transcribing and keeping it all organized. You keep getting ideas until the point where you make an outline and then a script.<\/p>\n

FBOL: The script is pretty hammered down by the time you go in front of the camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> When we made a film like Puddle Cruiser<\/strong> you don\u2019t have the money to do multiple takes. It was always a good idea in our minds to have the script solid and you get in there, do your two takes and get out. As time has gone on, we\u2019ve become more efficient and have a little bit more money, so we can expand that. We tend to layer joke in the more drafts we do, and then if some things don\u2019t work you can take them out.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>SL:<\/strong> It used to be during rehearsals we would improvise a lot. Also, when we\u2019re writing, it would be hard to get a joke through. So if I\u2019m pitching a joke, I\u2019ve got to make four other guys laugh. We all have different senses of humor. So even if it doesn\u2019t go through, if you think it\u2019s good enough, you\u2019ll make a mental note to \u201cimprovise\u201d that while on the set.<\/p>\n

FBOL: See if it flies in front of the crew?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> Right, yeah.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> A new test audience.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> (Pointing at Kevin) There are some guys in the group who will ask the director, \u201cDo you mind if I try something like this?\u201d And they may get shot down. I don\u2019t ask. I just do it.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> Laughs.<\/p>\n

FBOL: (To Kevin) This is your first time directing. How did you wrestle the chair away from Jay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> Oh man, it was hard. We did wrestle. Indian wrestling. And surprisingly, he lost. The film came together very quickly because we shot it independently. So we were putting the financing ahead of the writer\u2019s strike last year, so it was a very quick process. At the time it all came together, Jay was obligated to another movie. We were working at Warner Brothers at the time and he was obligated to one of their movies, so he couldn\u2019t commit to the eight months to a year that it takes to do all the directorial duties. So I said, \u201cI\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBOL: Well, you worked on the editing for Puddle Cruiser and Super Troopers before\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> It\u2019s so collaborative. We all work together on all different facets of the filming anyway so it\u2019s not like we didn\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

FBOL: Were you chosen to direct by the time you guys were writing or after you were done with the script?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> We actually started writing this script at the same time we wrote Beerfest<\/strong>. We were getting ahead and we wanted to have a higher budget and lower budget script depending on what was available to us at the time. We wrote multiple drafts before we even got to the point where we decided who was going to play what parts and who was going to direct.<\/p>\n

SL: <\/strong>In truth, what happened was is that Club Dread<\/strong> came out and for a variety of reasons, one of which was for our fans it was a shift from Super Troopers<\/strong>, so the movie may not have been one of our fans\u2019 favorites. But we also opened against The Passion Of The Christ<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

KH:<\/strong> chuckles growing to a belly laugh while Steve relates the following.<\/em><\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> We like to say that the Lord smote us down that weekend. We weren\u2019t in a great place after that came out. So we were like \u201cAlright let\u2019s come back with a multiple attack here- a low budget, medium budget and big budget, which we had anyway just in case. We had some time on our hands, so we were able to do so many drafts of Beerfest<\/strong> and of this movie. If you\u2019ve seen the movie, you know it is very complicated. People are coming in doors, running around\u2026 Actually, I thought that would probably be the biggest challenge for him as a director. Everybody is somewhere in a tight spot at all times. I know Kevin had to choreograph the whole thing. If there is a scene going on here, I may still be in the background on fire or something like that.<\/p>\n

FBOL: That was a great set. Was that a found location or did you guys build that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>We built it. We got this soundstage in Van Nyes. We had a pretty low budget, so we hired this guy named Erich Schultz. He\u2019s predominantly a construction foreman on movie sets. He\u2019s also a production designer and he built this set for nothing. It was really kind of fun because it was like going to work in a combination TV set but also like a stage play. We had never shot a movie like that. It was 25 days in just that one set.<\/p>\n

SL:<\/strong> It also had that awful feeling\u2026 If you\u2019ve ever waited tables. Even after a month of being there, just seeing the restaurant, I definitely had that feeling. \u2018Not here again\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

KH: <\/strong>You wanted a little variety.<\/p>\n

SL: <\/strong>Yeah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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