I think that we do work in the same way in that it's a laidback manner, but we still try and get the job done. This is a movie where I had more dialogue than I'd ever really had before. People say, “'How do you remember all of those lines for a movie?” They don't know that you spend one day on half a page. It's not like a play where you have to get it all down. I think that we do [work the same way], and I think the fact that it's a comedy dictates the mood.
Did you improvise at all?
Yes. Rob Reiner is really good about taking good ideas, and not taking ones that don't work. When I first get an idea, I'm real high on it, and Rob was just really good about hearing me out. He'd be like, “That's not funny,” or “That doesn't work, Luke.” Then other times, he'd really like stuff. That was really fun and he's just one of those people where he's got such a great sense of humor. He's just such a funny, smart guy, it kind of relaxes you in a way.
What did you think when you read you’d be playing other characters and going back and forth in time?
That was one of those things that I kind of figured out early on with Rob. It's a comedy and [I needed to know] the way he wanted to do it. I was asking, “Do you want the guy different in the period? Do you want him talking more Shakespearean or something like that, in an accent?” But he wanted it to where it was the exact same guy. It was just like you had taken Alex from present day in Boston and dropped him in the period. He just wanted it to be like a guy out of place.
What was it like to play the dance scene with the Cuban dancers?
Those guys were both real nice, those actors. They were big, and it was one of those things where you don't realize until you do a scene [that] just getting grabbed all day hurts. I kept saying, “I hate to sound like a weak actor, but you're just getting hunks of me.” Those guys were just grabbing a hunk of [my] stomach and just yanking me around. At the end of the day, I'd just be kind of limping around. But they were both real nice guys - and neither one was actually a real Cuban.
Did you feel any extra pressure on this film because you’re the romantic leading man?
I had tons of dialogue in this movie and working with Rob, I just wanted to be particularly focused. I don't know if it's an attribute or a negative, but I don't really think in terms of, “Okay, this is my first lead in a romantic comedy, and if this baby doesn't open at fifty million, I'm dead.” I just tried to do a good scene that day and [tried] to have fun trying to make something work.
Interview with "Alex and Emma's" Kate Hudson
Interview with "Alex and Emma's" Director, Rob Reiner
