In this brand new adventure, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is given the near impossible task of hunting down the person responsible for murdering a world-famous soccer coach and then stealing The Pink Panther, the coach's priceless diamond ring.
Steve Martin on His Clouseau Accent: “I worked on it with a great accent coach named Jessica Drake. I just walked around for months and months before the movie, talking with my little accent. She taught me some nice rules - four or five rules - and then it's all about making it funny, too.”
Martin said he even slipped into the accent at the grocery store. “I would find it coming out a bit like that sometimes, and of course the people that I know are sick of me. [In the accent] 'What are you doing over there?' There was a lot of talking with the accent,” said Martin adding, “My dog got the most punishment of all having to hear it.”
Steve Martin Steps Into the Large Shoes of Peter Sellers to Play Inspector Clouseau: Martin said Sellers’ take on the character inspired him. “I mean, he and Blake Edwards created this character that turns out to me is playable, is actable, by someone else.
I noticed after we finished filming…I didn't look at the movies again before I started because that would just be too much influence…but I noticed that in the first film, 'The Pink Panther,' he was in it just a little bit and he was almost English. He really didn't know what he had. I think that he was just working it out. Then in the second film, 'Shot in the Dark,' he was more French and in third film the accent got really silly. He was kind of all over the place with it. You could watch him learning in the films what the character was.”
Steve Martin Dissects the Comedy of “The Pink Panther:” “There's so many different kinds of comedy. There's silliness… And I think that this movie has it all in that there are verbal jokes. There are big jokes. There are little tiny jokes. There are jokes from character. There are impossible jokes, things that could actually never happen in life. And that's what I loved about the original 'Pink Panther' movies – it did it all. It had quite a range of rising and falling, of levels of comedy. To pull that off, usually you must start with the comedy and stick with that tone all the way. I think that our movie is actually quite consistent in tone, but I don't know how you get from the tiniest little verbal joke to some falling out of a window joke and still have it feel coherent, which it does to me.”
Steve Martin on Casting “The Pink Panther:” “The director is certainly in charge of the casting, but I sat in some of them. Kevin Kline you don't audition. Beyonce [Knowles] you don't audition. Jean Reno you don't audition. Emily Mortimer auditioned and was instantly hired. She's fantastic in the movie and has the perfect sensibility. There was really no problem, and all of the other parts I think are cast so well, which I give the credit for to Shawn Levy. He did all of that. I love those official Frenchmen who surround Kevin Kline. I just think that they're so right, and they seem like those characters.”
Jean Reno, Kevin Kline, Emily Mortimer – and Beyonce? Martin said he wasn’t involved in the decision to cast the pop star-turned-actress, however that role was written specifically for someone with Beyonce’s pop star history. “I think that was a director and studio decision. We knew that we wanted a diva. The role was written for a pop star and I think that there is a practical issue involved with her fame for a certain kind of audience,” said Martin. “She has the number one record this week, and she also motivates Clouseau, and you know, I'm not in that world at all. I don't really know it. I don't know the hit songs. I don't have time to know it. So I was just surprised… First, she was extremely professional. She's really good in the movie. She's beautiful in the movie. The singing is great, and she brings a younger demographic.”
Page 2: Steve Martin on More "Pink Panther" Movies and the DVD
