British-American director Nicholas Stoller was joined by Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell at the UK Special Screening of their new film ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ at The London Palladium.
He spoke to our reporter about his favourite films, the Shakespearean roots behind his latest comedy, and the upcoming ‘Animal Farm’ adaptation with Andy Serkis.
‘You’re Cordially Invited’ launches on Prime Video from Thursday 30th January. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
He spoke to our reporter about his favourite films, the Shakespearean roots behind his latest comedy, and the upcoming ‘Animal Farm’ adaptation with Andy Serkis.
‘You’re Cordially Invited’ launches on Prime Video from Thursday 30th January. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Welcome to my house, this is where I live.
00:02I like what you've done, it's very white, very clean.
00:04Thank you, thank you, exactly.
00:06I got to tell Jason this a few years ago,
00:08but Spaghetti and Sour Marshall is my favourite film of all time.
00:10Oh.
00:11And it's in my top five films of all time, it just makes me feel good.
00:13Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
00:14What are the other four, I'm just curious.
00:16Oh, very different tonally.
00:17That's great, that's great.
00:18Like Dark Nights or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
00:20Oh my god, that's good, we're in good company.
00:22So we look at genres, right?
00:23Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24What's your favourite film of all time?
00:25You know, it's a tie, but I'm similarly like, love different genres.
00:28A tie between When Harry Met Sally and The Shining.
00:30Oh, so that ticks off the rom-com boxes.
00:32Exactly, yeah, both of them.
00:34Hey, you've done a lot of rom-coms, obviously, at this point.
00:37Had you crossed paths with Will Ferrell professionally before?
00:39Had he appeared in any, or was it a dream to get him in one?
00:42No, I've known him on and off for years,
00:44just our kids went to the same school,
00:46and I just know him through Comedy World,
00:48and I've been to various table reads of his,
00:50and I'd always wanted to work with him,
00:53but I knew him a bit.
00:55I did not know Reese at all, I'd never met her or anything.
00:58How hard was the sell to get her on board for this film?
01:01You know, it was, I pitched,
01:03I found out they both wanted to work together,
01:05so it actually was pretty fast,
01:07like the whole thing went pretty fast.
01:09I had the idea, I developed the characters,
01:11and then pitched it to them, they liked it,
01:13and then I developed the film for the two of them.
01:15What was it about a wedding which is such a good setting
01:18for comedy and calamity at the same time?
01:21Why are those things correct for it?
01:23I always sound pretentious when I say this,
01:25but it literally starts with Shakespeare.
01:27Shakespeare's comedies always end in a wedding.
01:29There's something about a wedding,
01:31since the beginning of time,
01:33that it's just a fun place to end up.
01:35I also think weddings are really heightened emotions,
01:37and all of the weird stuff comes out,
01:39and your family dynamics, and your relationship dynamics,
01:41and all that, and so I think for all those reasons,
01:43and also it's just romantic, and it's beautiful.
01:45People are trying to be as pretty as possible.
01:47What's your favourite piece of direction
01:49that you got to give one of the cast members
01:51during this film, because they do some wacky stuff.
01:53So what's the best thing that you got
01:55to shout at your cast?
01:57What is...
01:59I'm trying to think.
02:01Honestly, probably the dumbest moment,
02:03which really works,
02:05is when Will Ferrell is listening at the door,
02:07and he overhears Rhys talking
02:09about his daughter,
02:11and you can see him get really mad,
02:13and then I had him step back into shadow,
02:15and it always gets a laugh,
02:17and I remember telling my DP,
02:19I want him to step back into shadow,
02:21and the photographer was like,
02:23but there's no reason there'd be any shadows there.
02:25And I was like, it just has to happen,
02:27and it totally worked,
02:29and that was a very funny moment,
02:31and I told him to really film more
02:33as he went back into shadows.
02:35There were so many wonderful funny moments in this.
02:37I particularly enjoyed Chaos Monkey.
02:39Could you please explain what is Chaos Monkey,
02:41and when's the last time your Chaos Monkey came out?
02:43Chaos Monkey, I think, is self-explanatory.
02:45The funny thing is, we never explain it.
02:47They just go, we've got to go,
02:49and I think it's a group
02:51go nuts on someone or something,
02:53and so in this, it's the moment
02:55the siblings all bond, Rhys and her siblings bond,
02:57and they're like, we've got to take
02:59the Jim, Will's character down.
03:01We're going to go Chaos Monkey on his ass.
03:03That's what they say,
03:05and have I ever gone Chaos Monkey?
03:07I'm sure I have.
03:09I can't think of a time,
03:11but I'm sure I have at some point,
03:13and we all have at some point.
03:15You're always credited as a British-American.
03:17British passport.
03:19I was born here, but I am American.
03:21My parents were American,
03:23and I happen to be born here.
03:25I love England.
03:27My parents have a flat here.
03:29I came here a lot during holidays and stuff,
03:31but it would be disingenuous
03:33to say I'm fully British.
03:35We'll claim you.
03:37I'm in.
03:39I know that you're working with Andy Serkis
03:41on the upcoming Animal Farm.
03:43What can you tell us about this?
03:45I wrote it a bit ago.
03:47He's such a legend, Andy Serkis.
03:49I think it's been a dream project of his
03:51for a while.
03:53It's fully just an adaptation of the book.
03:55I reread Animal Farm.
03:57If you haven't read it recently,
03:59it's just incredible, that book.
04:01It's also terrifyingly appropriate
04:03for this moment in our history.
04:05It's darkly comic.
04:07He's going for a real comic tone,
04:09but it's dark.
04:11I tried to update it a little bit
04:13so it's not super old-fashioned,
04:15so it's not taking place in the 40s.
04:17Finally, what's on the career checklist
04:19that you need to tick off still?
04:21What's on the bucket list for your career?
04:23Gladiator 3.
04:25Good choice.
04:27It's just so timely.
04:29Enjoy yourself in London.
04:31Thank you so much.
04:33Thanks for coming to my house.