Todd Phillips, Robert Downey Jr., and Zach Galifianakis Talk Due Date
Où on apprend que la première rencontre entre Robert et son partenaire à l'écran ne s'est pas super bien passée!
Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. seem like an odd pairing for a movie, which is precisely why director Todd Phillips chose the two actors for Due Date, his follow-up to The Hangover.
The movie has an expectant father (Downey Jr.) traveling cross country to see his child's birth, in the process ending up with an unlikely travel companion (Galifianakis). Phillips told Collider that directing is mostly "about casting,", though the first meeting between Galifianakis and Downey Jr. didn't go as smoothly as he would have hoped.
It was awkward because Zach always makes very off-color jokes. Thinks that everybody's on the same page as him. I know Zach well after doing The Hangover, and Robert was a little ... we were at Robert's house in fact and Zach was 15 minutes late because he rode his bicycle there. So he comes in all sweaty and like Zach does not look like Josh Duhamel. So he walks into Robert's house, you know, sweaty and starts making some off-color remark that was a personal affront to Robert. I don't want to get into what it was, and it just started off on the wrong foot. But that's what the movie's about. It's about this left-footed relationship, so in one way it worked really well.
While Phillips described the duos initial meeting as "instant non-chemistry," he claims that Downey Jr. was eventually won over by Galifianakis.
Robert Downey, I think we can all say — whether you want to see Due Date or not — is a phenomenal talent, and Robert Downey just was blown away by Zach. I mean really thought he was special. Just his acting ability.
The pair seemed to be getting along famously in an interview with The Associated Press. Galifianakis was quick to praise Downey Jr.'s performance.
To me, the funniest part about the movie is Robert's reactions to things. There's antics that I do, but any time you go to Robert's face, that to me is the real great thing about this.
Meanwhile, Downey Jr. praised Galifianakis's ability to improvise. I've never worked with anyone like ZG, because there's no telling what he might do. Just because you're on set doesn't mean that's where the scene's going to go, which to me is even a step beyond my own managed insanity. But it's not because he's not contained. He's just completely free.Part of that is due to Phillips, who says he tries "to inspire anarchy more than control" and "let it just be really loose," which meant lots of room for Galifianakis to improvise. Luckily, Phillips was happy with the results.
We're showing [the movie] to [the studio] next week, but I always think what comes through in the footage is just this sense of abandon and sort of recklessness in a way and so that comes from not trying to control too much.