Bedtime Stories Press Conference
Adam Sandler: "Anyways, when I met the young Russell Brand, I thought the guy was hilarious. I was on his MTV show, and I went over to England with four or five of my friends and we all talked about Russell afterward. 'That kid was incredible.' So funny, so smart. I was guest on his show. I didn't have to say much, Russell did most of the talking, but was very cordial. Like he'd ask me a question, I wouldn't come up with anything too funny, Russell would button it with a huge laugh and girls would gasp how great he was. It was one of the… I told Russell this, two times I was on a show with N-Sync, one time no one looked at me and I was on a show with Russell in England, no one looked at me. It was just girls staring at Russell. 'My god I want that man!'"[Laughing] "And so anyways we had this great part here for the room service guy who was kind of my best friend and kind of loose with the kids, you know? He was more comfortable with the children than me. And we mentioned Russell doing it, we got excited and Russell was cool enough to say yes. And then when we screened the movie the first time, to my dismay, they do those scores at the end of the movie? And, 'Who was your favorite character?' and I looked at Skeeter Bronson. What did I get? 'Ooooo a 91. I'll take that.' And I looked at old Russell's guy. '96?' [Laughing] How dare this man?"
Adam Shankman: "I mean seriously, who says Disney more than Russell Brand?"
Keri, this is your return to Disney after being a Mouseketeer. How was that and did you earn your ears back?
Keri Russell: "Oh I hope so! I don't know. Yeah, it's fun. I mean, it's a Disney movie but I think that's what's cool about this one: it's a Disney movie and what Disney does best. But it has the Sandler factor in it, which sort of keeps it like a current, modern Disney movie. And I think that's what's great about it."
Adam, what kind of bedtime stories do you tell your kids? Do you make them up or do you read books to them?
Adam Sandler: "I read in the morning a lot to little Sadie. I'm not great at the bedtime stories. The bedtime stories are supposed to put the kid to sleep, my kid gets riled up and crazy and my wife has to come in and go, 'All right, get out of the room.' [Laughing] But in most of my stories, it's similar to the movie. She gives me a subject and we go from there. And every subject she brings up has to do with food. It's always like waffles, okay, 'There was a giant waffle.' 'Pancake.' 'And he met a blanket made out of pancakes.' 'Syrup.' 'And then the river made of syrup they had to cross.' I swear to god, every story. And then at the end of every story she's like, 'Cookies.'"
Was that Matzoball in the movie?
Adam Sandler: "That's not Matzoball. Poor Matzoball passed away. But, this is a bad thing, I have a new dog named Babu and I showed the movie to Sadie, who's two and a half. I brought home a copy, a DVD, and she watched an hour of Bedtime Stories and it was going well and then she started saying, 'Later, later.' I said, 'No, c'mon, let's finish it. Let's finish this thing.' 'Later, later.' And I said, 'C'mon, we're almost done.' And she said, 'Babu, eat Daddy's movie.' [Laughing] "So I was like, 'Oh, all right.' It's not a good review."
Keri, did you do any of your own stunts in the movie?
Adam Sandler: "What stunts did you have? Yeah, when we knock into each other. Yeah, she was on a motorcycle."
Keri Russell: "Yes, we did do some stunts. We horseback rode a little."
Adam Sandler: "Are you referring to the kissing scenes?"
Keri Russell: [Laughing] "That I did not do. That I would not do. I draw the line. Yeah, we did some of the stuff. This is true, this is true. And I did do my own rollerblading. I don't know. Yeah, we did a lot of that stuff."
Adam Shankman: "And she actually turned into a crow. [Laughing] That was her."
Keri Russell: "That's one of my many, many talents. Yeah, there were a lot of physical [stunts], but it was mostly like me and Adam wearing crazy helmets and going, 'Get on the back and just scream a lot.' We're like, 'What are we doing? I don't know, ahhhh!'"
This is for Shankman. I was amazed at your family-friendly restraint. Will we see some of the other side on the outtakes on DVD?
Adam Shankman: "Okay, so this is the sad part. Because the kids were always around, there's not really another side. There are some bloopers but - and even with these two - they are very family-friendly bloopers, you know, because people were pretty aware… I mean, there's always parents around and kids around. Those kids are in like most of the scenes."
"And I was sitting there going, 'My restraint? What have I done that's so dirty?' And I'm like, 'The Pacifier? Yeah, that was pretty filthy. Cheaper by the Dozen 2? Yeah, that's good porn.' [Laughing] But I like to think that there is stuff for the parents in there. I think parents seem to enjoy… In fact, parents, when we tested in the scores, parents loved the movie and that was deeply satisfying for me because that was the goal for us. When we got together, it was like, 'Let's go and do family, which is great.' But yeah, sadly there's not too much other stuff in there."
Russell, what drew you to this film specifically, and what can we expect from you moving forward? More U.S. films?
Russell Brand: "Yeah, I'm doing some more U.S. films. I wanted to do one with Adam. He said, 'Do you want to do this film?' and I said, 'Yeah, all right.' It would be like, 'I'll learn stuff and it will be a laugh.' Then, as I spent more time learning about it, I had to meet other people. Adam Shankman was involved. I found out that all these movies make loads of money. [Laughing] Now, if people associate you with the idea of loads of money, they in turn will give some of that money to you. Then, for example, you see how they're only allowed to buy their family one Christmas present? I like used to be poor. I've got loads of money now. My family's getting loads of things for Christmas. [Laughing] I'm giving the stuff away! I'm buying things for people I don't even know. I'm like Willy Wonka, but more manipulative. Imagine if Willy Wonka had a devious goal."
