Eddie Griffin on Revisiting the Character of TJ for “Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo:” Griffin insists TJ hasn’t grown or changed since "Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo." "Hell no. He's still retarded. He just moved to Amsterdam because prostitution ain't legal in America. His entrepreneurial spirit took to Amsterdam where he could have a plethora of he-b***hes without worrying about going to jail."
Eddie Griffin on Gross Out Comedies: “Man, there is no line. Who comes up with the line? Who created the damn line? This is supposed to be a free society in America, but we act like we're policing adults. If you look at films in the '70s that Richard Pryor did, or even Bill Cosby with Sidney Poitier, they got away with more s*** than we get away with nowadays in film. Did the Vatican take over the MPAA board?"
Eddie Griffin on Filming in Amsterdam: “I'd never been to Europe, so this was my first trip to Europe, so it was a culture shock. I arrived there and they've got a coffee shop with no coffee. I'm calling back to the hood, I'm like, 'Dawg, I don't give a f*** how, get a plane ticket.' It's like a little candy story and they've got the little glass. You've got your chronic. You've got your hydro. Yeah. You sit out in front and [exhales]. That's when I knew America wasn't free.”
Griffin did manage to enjoy Amsterdam and still shoot his scenes. Griffin laughs as he says, “As you can probably tell, most evenings were 'Eddie's out at the club.' It was a balance. What was cool is you can see TJ was sprinkled throughout the film, so I had some days off at times where I could just go and wild out, and then go into recovery because you're coming back on Tuesday.
I've been an insomniac for a long time. When I was a child, they tell me I was hyperactive. They told my mother they wanted to put me on Ritalin. My mother just looked at the doctor and said, 'God made him fast. Tell the rest of them kids to keep the f*** up.'”
Eddie Griffin on the Stunts in “Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo:” “The stuntman never got to work. That's Mike [Bigelow, the director] trying to be funny. I had that cat strapped to my nuts. He wasn't that heavy. It was a really old, stuffed cat.”
On “Deuce Bigalow” Star Rob Schneider: “Rob, well…he's a charmer. Rob can turn on the charm. Women like him because he's like a little teddy bear. They can just pick him up and set him over there. Rob's humor is the not-knowing. He reminds me of Gene Wilder a lot. If you watch Gene, Gene's genius was not knowing. He's just not him. You watch Deuce walk through Amsterdam, it's the same s***, the naiveté.”
Eddie Griffin on a Third “Deuce Bigalow” Movie: Would he sign up for another one? Griffin says, “Most definitely. I want to do it in Shanghai, I told Rob. As long as they put an extra zero behind the check and make the first number real big. I told him I want to go to Shanghai because then it's an action comedy, man. We can throw some martial arts up in there. And I love the Asian honeys. There's nothing like a little dim sum. I'll give dim sum, dim sum and dim sum.”
