Dupree's a wandering spirit who turns to his good buddy Carl (Dillon) and his new wife Molly (Hudson) for a place to crash after finding himself homeless and jobless. The sort of guy who marches to a different drum, Dupree complicates life for the newlyweds who get a lot more than they bargain for when they offer him a place to stay.
The Inspiration for the Character of Dupree: “Well, part of Dupree definitely was kind of a little bit like… We had this Dalmatian that we had when we were kids that my parents got us named Nutmeg. This dog, at the least, was just insane and tore up everything. My parents wanted to send it to go [using quote marks in the air] live on a farm. That’s what they were telling us, where it would have more space. We were crying ‘noooo’ and finally my parents began to fall in love with the dog, and Dupree has a little bit of that quality. That was the inspiration, after some of our family dogs growing up.”
The Threesome of Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon and Owen Wilson: “I think with chemistry, seems like every movie I’m in they talk about, if you’re in it with another person, they’re always talking about the chemistry. It just seems to be based on if the movie does well. ‘You and Vince [Vaughn] have great chemistry, but you and Eddie Murphy, your chemistry wasn’t so good [I Spy].’ All I know is that when Eddie and I were working, we had a great time together. We were really laughing a lot. But, for whatever reason, it just didn’t quite play or connect.
I think it’s just enjoying the people that you are around and kind of play offing them. I know with Kate [Hudson], I think why Matt and I liked her - and the crew loved her and the directors - is that Kate is very easy to get laughing. She’s always kind of smiling so you feel like, ‘Wow, I’m really on fire today!’ Then you realize she’s like that with the prop master and the caterer. She kind of makes everybody feel like they’re great. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s super pretty.”
We See a Lot – Literally – of Owen Wilson in You, Me and Dupree: “I was thinking,” laughed Wilson, “of that scene where I run out of the house practically naked. I’m just covered by those pillows. Yeah, this might me one that maybe I should give my mother a little heads up on. She might want to go see Cars for the second time.”
Was there any embarrassment involved in doing that scene? “Yeah, there’s a lot of embarrassment. Believe me, there were other shots that they had in there that I was like, ‘No, we’re not puttin’ that in.’ People would say, ‘Was it hard not cracking up doing the scene where I have the sock and there is an adult-themed movie playing?’ I was like, ‘No, it was really embarrassing,’ so it worked for the character. You’ve got all the crew standing around and teamsters and stuff, and there you are kind of simulating something that is probably not meant to be simulated in front of 50 people.”
Does Love Conquer All? Wilson shares his take on the ‘love can conquer all the challenges you might have’ theme in the film: "That’s what I think is kind of nice about Dupree, is that he definitely wears out his welcome and he doesn’t have a job and he rides around on a bike but he’s not like a cynical, jaded slacker. He’s got this sort of Labrador-like enthusiasm and he really does want their marriage to work out.”
Playing the Straight Guy: Wilson considered playing the role of Carl, which ultimately went to Matt Dillon. “I definitely could identify with a lot of Carl’s feelings and the lines that he says. When I originally started working on the script with the writer, he pitched me the idea, I did think of myself as maybe playing Carl. There was a possibility, at one point, that I was going to play Carl. I think I could have definitely related to some of the stuff that he goes through, but I think everybody can. You’ve either experienced a Dupree or you’ve been a Dupree and, in my case, I’ve had both.”
Wilson said he’s actively pursuing roles which don't require him to do such broad comedy. “I would definitely like to do a movie where the burden wasn’t on that you had to get big laughs in set pieces. I think it would be nice to do a movie that had funny stuff, but it was more sort of from the characters. I loved that movie Sideways. That has really funny stuff but it has a lot of emotional stuff.
I think Wes [Anderson] and I tried to do that in some of the scripts that we worked on. I can’t imagine ever doing a straight, serious movie that didn’t have anything funny in it because I don’t think that life is ever really like that. Even in Raging Bull the scenes between DeNiro and Joe Pesci, some of those are hilarious.”
Page 2: Owen Wilson on Friendly Competition and the 75 Year Plan
