Ryan Reynolds stars as Van Wilder in Artisan Entertainment's college comedy/romance, "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." Van is a perpetual college student who has everything a guy could want including good looks, an adoring group of admirers, and a personal assistant ('Taj' played by Kal Penn). When Van's father (Tim Matheson) finds out that after seven years of tuition payments, Van still hasn't graduated, he cuts off the funding, leaving Van to fend for himself.
Reynolds recently sat down with director Walt Becker and fellow cast members Kal Penn and Curtis Armstrong to discuss the film, college comedies and the daunting prospect of headlining a National Lampoon film.
RYAN REYNOLDS (Van Wilder)
Is there any room for subtlety in a character like this?
I don't know, I practically did this movie in mime if you ask me. Yes, there is room for subtlety. I thought initially when I was given the script, I felt it was actually much broader and I kind of toned it down a little bit. The character albeit is not subtle, but I definitely felt like he didn't need to do a back flip in every scene to make a line funny. I thought you could reel them in and earn the bigger, broader moments later. I think this character needs to do that.
How do you manage to accomplish that?
A lot of young comedies rely less on character because it's really hard to cast a young comedy; they rely more on devise. They rely on pre-set gags, some of which were still left in the movie obviously judging by the éclair scene and other stuff like that. For the most part, it's a character driven comedy. You have to rely on character, which they rarely do in a young comedy.
Do you have any experiences from college that helped with this role?
No, I don't have any college experiences. I did go to college - briefly. I left about 3 ½ years early to go to LA. Also, I grew up in Canada and the colleges in Canada don't have the social dynamic they do in the United States because there are no sports teams. Our Spring Break is just like a blur of figure-skating and “Kum Ba Ya.” We don't have the huge Cancun craziness where you wake up in shallow pools of your own bodily fluids and get up and do it all over again. It's sort of a different kind of deal. I wish it were like that because that would make school a lot more fun, that's for sure.
You said you were an introvert in high school. How far did you have to go to find the character of Van Wilder?
I'm not an introvert at all. In school I was definitely introverted. It wasn't like a huge big deal or anything; I just wasn't a very boisterous kid. I just wanted to get through it, to get out of high school and move on. At home, the funniest place I've ever been is the Reynold's family dinner table. I have three older brothers; I'm the youngest of four. We have a painter, an RCMP officer, an electrician and me. Picture us all 10 years ago, it's just the most bizarre dinner table you'll ever sit at. You've never taken so many right crosses or peed yourself laughing at the table so many times. That to me was a huge inspiration.
How did you feel about the responsibility of being the lead character in a National Lampoon film?
Actually I was terrified to begin with. It's a daunting thing. You basically have a legacy or moniker that was immediately familiar with certain people. National Lampoon had Chevy Chase, Belushi - all these guys that are sort of heroes in a sense. That's kind of scary to have to pick up that torch where those guys left off. I was terrified. I spent a lot of time actually working on it. The movie's definitely not “National Lampoon's The Piano” but I spent a lot of time working on it, picking my battles and picking my beats. I had a definite idea how I wanted to do a young comedy.
Getting the role was a whole other story. The studio hired me from this other film I did with Walt Becker called “Buying the Cow.” They saw it and said, “That's our Van. Let's have a meeting with him because he has no box office or anything like that.” So I really went in there with a song and dance to show them how I really felt I would like to do a young comedy my way, if I may be so bold to say. All said and done to make this long story even longer - I got to see the final product screened in front of an audience of 600 people who didn't know I was there and I feel a lot better now after seeing that. Walt was gracious enough to let me in the editing room as well so I saw every frame and second and millisecond of that movie cut. I stayed right through the scoring process. It's something I really put a lot of heart into and after seeing it screened twice now in two totally separate cities across the United States, I feel a hell of a lot better. I can't believe the way they reacted to the movie, I mean, [they laughed] at all the right places and then some. It's just amazing.
The scene with the older woman must have been very interesting to film.
People say, “How was it kissing that 80 year-old woman?” And I say, “It's probably just as hard for her as it was for me.” It's not easy doing that. I equate it to Daniel Cosgrove, he's in the movie and he plays the bad guy, that's a hard job to do. You show up to work every day and willfully have your face kicked in. It's tough. On that note, that being said, it was damn hard kissing her. You've never experienced anything until you've had a mature, darting tongue in your mouth.
How many takes was it?
It was all day. There were gratuitous takes that did not need to be done (laughing). I know it, I know it. I was like, “You guys have this from every angle.”
What did your girlfriend have to say about that?
At the time I did have a girlfriend but I don't now. Maybe that had something to do with it? I did find myself in a gentle spoon with Ms. Haver in the morning. No, my girlfriend then really knew it was work. She was a real sport, the woman who played Ms. Haver. She's a lovely, lovely woman.
Is raunchiness or gross-out comedy expected in a teen/young adult comedy?
I'm certainly not going to make an argument that raunch is a valid part of contemporary young comedy, but some people would. They are not my favorite parts of my movie or of any other movie. The only reason I'm so excited to be a part of this movie, not just because of the response it's getting, but it's because 90% of the movie is character driven. My favorite scene is when Van is invited to Gwen's parents' house sort of unwittingly. He shows up there and he's forced to basically turn the tide on this entire room using nothing but his strength of character, so to speak. I just love how that is used to push a plot forward [instead of] just using those gross-out gags.
Is it hard to make a guy like this likeable?
Yes it is and that's why, if I may be so bold to say, I think I was hired. I think I saw his likeability right through. In fact, he's a good person which is a rare thing in these young comedies. You have this character that actually cares about the people around him. In the middle of all the melee and all the shit that's going on in his life - he can't believe this girl's written this article about him - he remembers to go see Sick-Boy. I just love the fact he reminded me of Ferris Bueller in that sense. Sure people love him and sure he's the most popular guy on campus, but at the same time he's a good person. That's how you can get behind him, otherwise you are dead.
Your style is similar to other National Lampoon films. Did you research past National Lampoon releases or did you rely on your own natural comedic style?
It's all me in the sense that Lampoon came about while we were shooting. It wasn't even something before. I think that part of the reason that we are all together here is because they felt this is such a National Lampoon movie when they saw some of the dailies from it and read the script.
Do you think your portrayal or Walt Becker's direction made them interested in it?
I think so, yeah. They certainly wouldn't have jumped on board when they did unless they saw some potential in it. Same thing with the studio, and it's also infinitely frustrating because they gave us no money to shoot this film, of course - which is fine. But they see the movie, they flip out, and our marketing budget quadruples what we spent on the movie. It's like, we could have just used an extra million here or there. How often do you get to say that, by the way? We could have just used an extra million (laughing).
The poster for the film has you wearing a toga. Is that your face on someone else's body?
That's totally my face on someone else's body. That guy is ripped!
Did you set out to be a comedic actor when you first started out?
No, but it was my default in Hollywood. When I got here I thought, “Okay, I can strive to be yet another Aaron Spelling jockey" but I can't do that. I'd just as soon laugh at myself and that's sort of what brought me into it a little bit more, why I was sort of adept at doing sitcoms. When I started out here I couldn't get casting directors to even look at me. It's a hard thing when you do readings during pilot season. They are reading so many people that they sit there with their script and you're across [from them], and they don't even look up. I was like, “If you just looked up for a second I would maybe not get it, but at least get a little closer than this.” So, finally, I remember seeing somebody who looked up and kind of cocked their head and I was like “Gotcha.” Then I ended up on a sitcom so I think it's just sort of my default as opposed to anything else. It's my strong suit.
Was anything trimmed from the film because it just went too far?
Yeah, we have an entire sequel on the floor called “Apocalypse Van.” There's a lot of stuff cut out. When you assemble the film with what you have, you do a rough assemblage which is what we call the 'suicidal assemblage.' It literally makes you want to kill yourself when you see it - it's almost 3 hours long. You assemble everything with just the first takes of everything, even if it's a blooper. And, you sit there and slowly sink into your couch. I really found that dynamic in the editing process. We started to trim the fat and it's like, “Oh, this is kind of funny.” Then you keep going and you're like, “Oh my God, I think we've got something here.” Then they show the studio and they said, “Let's throw $30 million into the ad campaign.”
There's lots of stuff that we lost. There's a great scene with Dr. Joyce Brothers that's on the gag reel. I've got 95 year-old makeup on and it took 6 hours all for naught because Dr. Brothers couldn't remember a line. We had some trouble with that. There's lots of stuff. There's probably a good, usable 30 minutes but you can't have a small comedy like this go any longer than 90 minutes. Right now, it's 82 minutes which is perfect.
