And Speaking of Owen Wilson…: “Well, in fact, we’re different, our backgrounds, our training, whatever. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that Owen liked to work spontaneously. We did a fair amount of adlibbing and I found that very refreshing because I like to work that way. And in comedy that can be gold, because you never know what’s going to work. There’s a kind of magic that can work. When you’re spontaneous, it keeps you connected and so I liked the way Owen works. It’s very natural.”
Analyzing Dupree: “They say good neighbors make good fences, and this is clearly not something Dupree lives by. He has real boundary problems, so that is maybe the worst aspect of Dupree, worse than the fact that he burns down his living room, his sofa, and that he runs around naked. It’s more in a way of how he puts Carl in the dog house. That is sort of unforgivable in a friend to get your friend in trouble with his girlfriend – that’s really trouble – or his wife, in this case.”
Everyone Knows a Dupree: “I had that with all my brothers and with friends. I’ve had a number of Duprees in my life. Friendship is important to me so you end up putting up with some things because you like these guys, despite their short comings. They’re your friends. And then your brothers, obviously, really, they’re your brothers – flesh is, blood is thicker than water. But it’s hard to know [if I’ve been one] because Dupree is unaware of the fact that he’s this crazy-maker, so I’m sure I’ve been that to someone and been unaware of it. I’d say if I were a houseguest, probably, I have a tendency to like to play my music loud and that might be something that bothers people.”
Matt Dillon’s No Dummy: When it comes to stunt work and riding skateboards, Dillon knew his limits. “Thank God they didn’t make me do that. I wasn’t much of a skateboarder.”
While he didn’t do his own skateboarding, he did actually jump over a table for a scene in the film. “Yeah, I did launch myself over the table. That was fun, but there again, I tore up my vocal chords on that scene. The next day on the set, it was a scene with me and Kate in the kitchen. It was kind of a quiet scene. [The director] said, ‘We’re going to move on to a different scene today. We’re going to do a different scene.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because you sound like you’ve been beat up with a baseball bat. Your voice is so shot.’ So yeah, that was the extent of the physical –an injury.
I remember that day with the skateboard because we did all the stunts at the bottom of the ramp, the easy stuff. And I remember thinking to myself, ‘Here we are on this skateboard ramp, rolling around on the ground. This is a great job. We get to be kids; we get to have fun!’ And it really is a great job. We get to play, and that’s what we do as actors.”
The Secret to Hiding Porn: In You, Me and Dupree, to keep his wife from knowing he’s got a hidden stash of pornography, he labels the box 'Carl’s Camping Equipment'. Dillon thought that was pretty clever. “I thought it was a little too clever for his own good. How many guys actually write on the box ‘Carl’s Camping Equipment?’ You know what I thought was interesting was that he chose to keep the collection. He had a sentimental attachment to that porn collection and so when he’s throwing them out, it’s kind of like saying goodbye to an old friend…very slowly.”
What’s Happening with Factotum?: “It’s coming out the first or second week of August. It’s a comedy of a different variety, a character-based film. I had a really good time making that. The filmmaker was really interesting because he liked to do things – let the scene play out in front of the camera without doing a lot of editing, without doing a lot of coverage. And at first I had my concerns about that because how’s it going to work, how’s he going to bridge those performances? And then I discovered that’s really what’s great about it, that your performance can be unadulterated. It’s sort of putting it back in the actor’s hands.”
