MARC LAWRENCE: It’s based on food, basically. She eats all of my food so it’s a very symbiotic, parasitic relationship.
Does she have any favorite foods?
MARC LAWRENCE: Corn muffins, corn muffins. I have not finished a corn muffin in four movies. Other than that, she’s just great. She’s the funniest actress in Hollywood and a great friend. And if you’re a writer, it’s an absolute gift to be able to write for her.
What was the reasoning behind making “Miss Congeniality 2” into a female buddy comedy?
MARC LAWRENCE: I feel like we couldn’t do anything new and find any fresh ground if we were going to repeat that same exact arc of her finding a guy. And there are, frankly, a lot of movies about women getting their salvation, finding themselves through a man, and it just felt a little bit fresher and more unique and more interesting to go the other way and have her find it through a friend – a woman.
Why don’t we see more female buddy comedies?
JOHN PASQUIN: That’s a good question. I don’t know why we don’t. It’s certainly one of the reasons why I wanted to do this one. And these two women - you don’t think usually think of Regina King but she’s wonderful in the movie. And Sandy was very gracious and very giving with her, and totally sort of stepped aside and let her share the movie with her. That’s definitely a kind of testament to the kind of person that she is.
Were you worried about doing a sequel and not having it stand up to the original?
MARC LAWRENCE: Yeah, they’re hard. Sequels are really hard because you want to give people something new enough so that it feels like a new movie. On the other hand, they are coming to see characters they love and a world that they love. It’s a big, big challenge and it’s hard to do. But I think we found some fresh areas. And fortunately that character, Gracie Hart, as Sandra plays it, is interesting enough to I think warrant a whole other chapter.
Did you have any second thoughts about taking on a sequel when you didn’t direct the first movie?
JOHN PASQUIN: Well, you always worry because if the movie is a success, it’s because the first one was a success. And if the movie isn’t a success, it might be because of you. But this movie… I mean the thing that I thought about was that there’s enough in this movie that’s different from the first movie, that sets it apart from the first movie. First of all, it’s a buddy movie. It’s basically a relationship movie between two women, which is drastically different from the first movie. And I thought I could do something sort of interesting with it. It has a heart and we had a lot of fun shooting it.
What was the hardest scene to direct?
JOHN PASQUIN: The drag club scene. That’s a sequence, that’s about 10 days worth of shooting. We started it and then we totally re-wrote it on the second day. We were all sort of writing as we’re going. It’s very complicated because it’s a lot of lip-synching going on and everything had to be very precise. And it was hot as hell because we were in a studio. We built the entire club and it looks wonderful. A lot of the drag queens came and said, “You’re tearing this down? This is the best club we’ve ever been in.” That was a tough one. And being out in the desert during the day with a lot of dust and a lot of wind. That was nasty.
If “Miss Congeniality 2” is a hit, would you consider a part 3?
JOHN PASQUIN: I don’t know. I don’t know if I would or not. Show me the script and I’ll tell you…
ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS FROM THE “MISS CONGENIALITY 2” PREMIERE:
Sandra Bullock / Heather Burns / Diedrich Bader / Abraham Benrubi
Premiere Guests – Shohreh Aghdashloo / James Denton / Kim Raver
