Commenting on the people who actually make up the crews in real NASCAR races, Duncan said, “They’re really good though and that’s what I admired about the whole NASCAR experience. Not so much the drivers, but what goes on in that pit. When these cars come into the pit row… Not the actual race but like when they’re practicing, there is a pit row behind it, behind the grandstands. When that car comes around that corner, if you happened to be walking by, you get hit - and it’s not the driver’s fault. The driver is focused on, ‘I got to get in here. I got to get out of here. I’m in first place. Let me see how many seconds are going past.’ So it’s your fault.
The funny thing is, if a driver hits you during a race in pit lane you don’t get penalized. But if he drives over a cord, that’s a lap penalty. So if anybody’s get hit - no penalty. You drive over a cord, you get one lap taken away from you. That’s one of the rules of NASCAR.”
Interacting with NASCAR Fans: Duncan says there wasn’t much time to really get to know the people who follow NASCAR closely. “Not really because we were there trying to film and work. What we were doing was when you saw us in the cars [in the film], that was live. We had to wait for an accident to happen, then we did our thing and they let our car go in for five or six laps. Then when they got ready to start the actual race, we may have done one lap with those cars then we had to cool down until the next accident to do our thing. We were there all night, but it was so much fun seeing 170,000 people at Talladega. It was unbelievable.”
Improvising During the Filming of Talladega Nights: “I told somebody it was like being on a varsity team as a freshman and the coach says you’ve got to run with the starters now,” said Duncan. “When you get in there with John C Reilly and Will Ferrell, the first couple of words may be the script. After that it’s whatever they feel like doing.
…The hospital scene, all of that was not scripted. They just said whatever they feel and I was like - it was almost like jumping Double Dutch. You know how you’re like trying to get in there? You’ve got to get in there. They were in it and they were going. Adam would say, ‘You’ve got to jump in.’ But I’m thinking I don’t want to cut [anybody’s] line off. I come from the background where it’s like, ‘I’m sorry I stepped on your line. I won’t do that next take.’ But they’re like, ‘F the lines. Just say what you want to say. It’s all like this. It’s all confusion.’ So after about the third take I finally got it. I said, ‘All right Mike you’ve just got to get in there. You just got to get in there and say something.’ I finally got in there and got loose with them.”
On Reuniting with Will Ferrell: Duncan worked with Ferrell back in 1998 on A Night at the Roxbury which was inspired by a skit on Saturday Night Live. Asked if Ferrell’s changed much since then Duncan joked, “He’s still a jerk. He’s still funny as hell. …He was the executive producer, too, but, he didn’t act like. He acted like he was just there. He and Adam - it didn’t seem like they had anything behind their name. They were just cool and Will was just like a regular person. You could go talk to him. I would ask him constantly, I’d say, ‘Hey man what is funny? What do I say that’s funny or what can I say that’s funny? How do I say this as funny?’ He’d say, ‘Just be you, man. Don’t try to say it. Just be you.’
I know those guys know what they’re talking about, so I found out when you try funny, that’s when you’re not funny. It only happens when you relax and you just go with it.”
Michael Clarke Duncan’s Not Finished with Comedy: Duncan says he enjoys working in the genre. “Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. It’s not a background that I came from so it’s like switching sports. You know, you’re swimming and the next thing you know you’re on the track team now. So you have to get with it and as long as you [have] good writers and you’re surrounded by good people, anybody can be funny. But if you don’t have the writing and you’re not surrounded by good people, I don’t think you’re going to make it.”
What’s Happening with Sin City 2?: Duncan would love to return for the Sin City sequels. “I would love to. I think those sequels are pretty [easy] because I don’t think I have to gain any weight for it. Manute isn’t that big of a guy. He’s an imposing guy, just by what he says or doesn’t say. But I don’t have to get back up to like 300 pounds to be Manute so that will kind of be an easy transformation for me, if I decide to do that one.”
