Four years ago, writer-director Sean Anders and writer-producer John Morris made a very funny teen comedy called SEX DRIVE, which, for a variety of reasons - no big names, tough release date, young studio focused on the launch of a sparkly vampire franchise - did not catch on at the box office. Fortunately for Anders and Morris, people in the industry liked their little movie ("little" being crucial here in that it didn't lose anyone a significant amount of money), and so, over the next few years, they kept busy. Their 2006 Black List screenplay, SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE, got made (by another director), while studio writing assignments - e.g. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE and MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS - were plentiful. Finally, having proved themselves reliable to the bean counters, they got attached to direct (and rewrite) a coveted, long-in-development project at New Line called WE'RE THE MILLERS. They were thrilled. Then Adam Sandler called and asked if the duo would like to direct his first R-rated Happy Madison star vehicle. While that was thrilling, too, it also complicated things. Considerably.
Most aspiring filmmakers would kill to have their careers hijacked by Adam Sandler, but that doesn't mean Anders and Morris cheerfully abandoned WE'RE THE MILLERS. As Anders explains in the below interview, this was a tough call, one that will likely determine the kinds of projects the duo are offered over the next few years. If WE'RE THE MILLERS lives up to its potential, he'll have turned his back on one of the best American comedies of the last decade. That'd be a bummer.
Not that Anders is seeking any degree of sympathy. He's just as gracious and surprised by his success as he was when we spoke four years ago in a Northridge mall food court for SEX DRIVE. This time, we were at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons. I'm pretty sure neither of us missed the fluorescent lighting or wafting scent of burnt Ms. Fields coffee.
Mr. Beaks: When we talked for SEX DRIVE, you had a film that people liked, but were anxiously waiting to see what would come of that.
Sean Anders: And now we know. (Laughs)
Beaks: But it worked out. You've been busy since then. You've had a number of screenplay credits. And yet it took four years for you to get back behind the camera. What took so long, and how did that feel?
Anders: Good. What happened there was... you have to juggle projects to get greenlights. In the case of SEX DRIVE, the movie was pretty well regarded by people in Hollywood who saw it. That was good. It got us meetings, and got people interested in us. But in Hollywood, the main thing that gets you your next movie is this movie making a ton of money, and that didn't happen on SEX DRIVE. So we were writing a lot, writing projects we were hoping to direct; in order to get that greenlight, you're putting a few irons in the fire hoping that one of them is going to heat up. We ended up along the way banking on a couple of things that we weren't going to be able to direct. And then we were just so busy, and time went by so fast, we got to a place where we were like, "We've got to get back behind the camera, or it'll look like we're not interested in it." We were working on this project called WE'RE THE MILLERS that was at New Line; it was something that we fell in love with, and worked our asses off on it. We spent a lot of time working on it, and really loved the people at the studio we were working with. We had just gotten it to a place where everyone was feeling, "Okay, let's go out to talent and make this thing happen." And then we get a call out of the clear blue sky that "Adam Sandler wants you to direct his next movie. Maybe." And we were just like, "Fuck you! That's not true!" We didn't believe it, so we were just like, "Okay, you let us know how that shakes out. Meanwhile, we'll focus on reality." Then we got a call a couple of days later saying, "Adam wants you to come in and sit down with him on this thing." And then we got a call from New Line saying, "What's going on?" And we were like, "Uh..." (Laughs)
[New Line] was super cool about it. The way that my agent put it... he said very straight out to us, "You guys made a movie that nobody saw, and now you have an opportunity to make a movie with arguably the biggest comedy star in the world. That just does not happen." So it was an opportunity we really had to jump on. As hard as it was to let go of WE'RE THE MILLERS - and now the movie has been greenlit, and is going into production. That's so bittersweet for us because we love it. Rawson [Marshall Thurber] is directing it, and we've emailed back and forth. He's a really great guy. And I'm so happy that the movie... from what I hear, the script is more or less in the state that we left it in. I'm really excited that the movie is getting made, but at the same time I'm intensely jealous that I'm not going to make it.
Beaks: That project has been around for such a long time. I remember talking to the WEDDING CRASHERS writers [Steve Faber and Bob Fisher] in 2005 about it.
Anders: It was really fun to write on. We were so in love with it that we almost didn't do [THAT'S MY BOY]. But this was just such a huge opportunity, and the script was just something we were so in love with, doing this father-son, Adam Sandler-Andy Samberg movie. But for me, I get very entrenched in whatever it is that I'm working on. I had never had to walk away from anything voluntarily like that. It was hard, but it was also just too great of an opportunity to pass up. And as soon as we started writing pages on [THAT'S MY BOY], we got entrenched again. Anyway, I'm really excited to see what they do with WE'RE THE MILLERS, and I'm very excited that Jason Sudeikis is starring in it. I think he's awesome.
Beaks: So how was it collaborating with the Happy Madison crew? How did your sensibilities mesh with Sandler's and so on?
Anders: We had a lot of trepidation. We had a project in WE'RE THE MILLERS that was definitely a smaller movie, but was something that meant a lot to us. And then over here we had this crazy Adam Sandler movie, and the opportunity to do Adam Sandler Rated-R comedy. It was so exciting. We were really like, "Would he even do this?" It was such a crazy character that we weren't sure he'd go there. So in our trepidation about leaving the one and going to the other, we a) wanted to know that Adam was really going to go for it, and b) we didn't want to get ourselves in a situation where we're the new guys who are such outsiders to this whole existing machine that we'll just be hired guns calling "Action" and "Cut".
The truth is when you make an Adam Sandler/Happy Madison movie, you're working with Adam every step of the way. I'm not going to lie about that. We knew that going in: we're not directing a movie that Adam Sandler happens to be starring in; we're working with Adam to make this movie. But we felt that as long as that's what it is, as long as we're really working with him, then great. We had some trepidation about that, but it was instantly alleviated when we turned in the first few pages that we wrote on the script. Adam actually sat down and read them in front of us, which was really nerve-wracking - and he giggled and laughed, and was really happy with them. He said, "Yeah, write some more pages!" Then we wrote more pages, and Adam called me and was very excited about the pages we wrote. I think we'd turned in about fifty pages of the script that we had rewritten, and Adam called me and was riffing; he was coming up with ideas, and we were batting things back and forth. It was a crazy moment. Again, the perspective of who I am and where I am in my career, and Adam Sandler's calling me on the phone... it's nuts! I called John right after I got off the phone, and I said, "Dude, we're going to be able to have an effect on this process. We're going to be creative partners in this." It was really exciting, and made us really happy that we'd signed on.
Beaks: As in so many Happy Madison films, there are so many casting decisions that are out of left field. I brought up Tony Orlando earlier with Andy, and he had nothing but great things to say about him. How did he get involved in the movie?
Anders: Tony is the nicest guy in the world. I'm serious. I don't know if you could meet a nicer guy than Tony Orlando. Adam met him at a party, and he said, "You know, I met Tony Orlando, and I have this crazy idea. I'm thinking of him for Spirou." I thought it was really brilliant on Adam's part, because Tony really is the nicest guy ever; that's all he knows how to do is to be nice. But he's playing this bastard of a character, and that's what was fun about it. And he didn't come in and try to be a bastard; he came in and played it like Tony Orlando, and that really made us laugh. There's this moment in the movie where he says, "I've decided who my new partner is: Phil! Eh, I'm just fucking with you, Phil." But he didn't overplay it. He just played it like he was doing something nice for him. And Tony isn't one of those guys who's weird about his fame. Some young PA would come up to him on the set and say, "Mr. Orlando, my mom is such a huge fan." And he'd say, "Get her on the phone!" And pretty soon, Tony would be calling someone's mom and singing into the phone. He just couldn't be a greater guy.
Beaks: You said at the press conference that you had enough footage of Will Forte to make a movie just about his character. I mean, he's willing to go-
Anders: Anywhere.
Beaks: (Laughs) Exactly. Evidently, you never have to worry about going too far with him.
Anders: No. Look, I'm a huge MACGRUBER fan, and apparently you are, too. He never had to go anywhere near the abortion speech from MACGRUBER. (Laughs) He has the one moment outside the strip club; that was something that just came up on the day, and he was so funny doing that. The thing that's amazing about Will, though, is that if you didn't know that he's MacGruber and has this sick sense of humor, you would just think... he's like that kid in the neighborhood that all of the parents wished was their kid. He's the nicest, sweetest, most polite guy. He seems like such an innocent person when you're talking to him. But he's got this amazingly dark sense of humor. He's one of my favorite people.
Actually, let me tell you this story. So Tony Orlando comes to the set, and he's really nervous. He feels like he's from the old guard, and he's in here with all of these young people. He's just nervous being in this situation. So Will Forte comes in, and goes up to Tony and says, "Oh my god, Tony Orlando! A friend of mine and I, when we were trying to make our way in this business, we saw one of your shows, and it was so inspiring to us that we both wrote you a letter thanking you." They were on a road trip, and I think they saw him in Branson. But anyway, Will says, "You got us both reenergized to just try harder. So we both wrote you these thank you notes, and by the time I got back to L.A., there was a letter to me in my mailbox from you, and I'm bringing it tomorrow." (Laughs) And he really had a letter from Tony Orlando! Tony was so moved by that. It was one of the greatest things ever to see these two super nice guys meet each other on the set. It meant so much to Tony. I love that Tony Orlando is in this movie.
Beaks: So how do you use this film as a springboard to other projets? I wonder about perception, because this is an Adam Sandler movie and it's expected to do a certain amount of business. How does that work going forward for you?
Anders: I have no idea. I really don't. When we were weighing the decision as to whether or not we wanted to do this, that was one of the things we thought about. We wanted to make sure that we could collaborate. We were able to do that, and... look, I have no idea. I've been so close to this movie for so long, but I'm really proud of it. I love it. And I think that people haven't seen Adam do anything like this in a long time, or maybe ever. I know there are going to be some people who are really upset by it, and I know there are people who are going to quote every line for the rest of their lives. I'm really happy with the movie, and I learned a ton from the experience. How it affects the career going forward, I have no idea. I would think that it will open some doors for us - and it already has. But we've flown by the seat of our pants from the beginning. Like I told you last time, we weren't guys who went to film school and plotted out having a career in this business. We were just guys who made a movie to make our friends laugh, and one thing just lead to another. I'm constantly surprised - and I don't mean that in an interview-y way. I'm constantly like, "What the fuck is going on? I'm sitting there by Vanilla Ice! His number is in my phone! What is going on in my life?" It's great, but I'm not one of those guys who's got the career mapped out. I'm not like, "I want to win an Oscar by such-and-such an age." I just want to keep making movies, and I've got to think this will help.
It also helps that Anders is a funny, talented and, most importantly, a nice guy. He'll be around for long time.
THAT'S MY BOY hits theaters Friday, June 15. If you've been waiting for Adam Sandler to return the vulgar glory of THEY'RE ALL GONNA LAUGH AT YOU and WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME, this is your movie.
Faithfully submitted,
