Being funny isn’t easy.
Rob Schneider, star of The Animal and Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo, said that “Comedy is like drowning, the thing that keeps your head above water is the laugh. You have to fight the fear, suck it up and drag the audience along.”
Or as former Simpson’s writer and first-time director Tom Brady put it, “You have to believe in your sense of humor and what you can do.”
Schneider has spent the past decade making America laugh.
His next two movies, Eight Crazy Nights and The Hot Chick are due out for the Christmas season (both also re-team him with buddy Adam Sandler).
Temple News sat down with Schneider as well as his co-star Anna Faris (Scary Movie I and II) and director Brady to discuss their latest offering and muse about Hollywood comedy.
In The Hot Chick, Schneider plays Jessica, an all-American cheerleader who finds her life turned on end when her mind is transferred into the body of a 30-year-old male criminal.
“This movie was Tom’s way of mocking me,” said Schneider.
“The more I have to recover from embarrassing situations, the more entertained Tom is. It was a pretty frightening proposition. I got excited about playing an 18-year-old girl. But if 10 minutes into the movie the audience doesn’t believe me as a girl, we got a problem. And if 35 minutes into the movie they are sick of me as a girl, then they are in agony.”
Not only did Schneider have to work to squeeze into baby half-tops and walk in heels, but the female co-stars had hurdles to cross in playing high schoolers.
“Before the movie started we had two weeks of cheer camp, trained in cheerleading by real high school cheerleaders,” Faris said.
“That was a sight.”
Comparing her work on The Hot Chick to her previous turns with the Wayans brothers, Faris said, “Scary Movie was chaos all the time. That movie was so much improv. The Hot Chick was structured. Our time was more budgeted. This was Rob’s project and Tom’s vision.”
Schneider had praise for his leading lady.
“Anna and all the actresses were incredibly fun to work with, and I have to say, and I’m not embarrassed about it, I loved being one of the girls,” he said.
“I think girls have more fun than guys.”
Being one of those girls was an interesting exercise for Schneider.
“It was an eye opening experience,” he said.
“Being able to physically and emotionally be a woman was amazing but very tiring. Very emotionally draining. I was exhausted for weeks.
Guys don’t realize how in touch women are with their feelings. I think my wife would now admit that I am not the same guy I was when I started this movie.”
With three extremely talented and funny creators, it could be assumed that the filming was a hysterical process.
“Most of my fun was on the sets, surrounded by 20 funny actresses and Rob in Power Puff Girl T-shirts,” Brady said.
“We giggled all the time,” said Faris.
One of the film’s producers, Sandler, makes a cameo appearance.
Schneider admitted that their collaborative friendship is special for him.
“It is a joy to work with Sandler,” he said.
“He is legendary. We have that Jewish humor thing in common. I am proud to narrate the upcoming Eight Crazy Nights. It is a special movie.”
After The Hot Chick and Eight Crazy Nights, Schneider will be taking a bit of a break.
“This is a movie we spent a year of our life on,” he said.
“Rob has co-writer credit, but he should have ‘co-‘ in front of every title. The writing process basically comes from Rob and I playing off one another,” explained Brady.
“Rob and Tom are such hardworking guys,” Faris said.
“They spent a lot of time fleshing out my character.”
Schneider summed up his experiences as a “hot chick” with a comment on womanhood.
“Women listen better. They have a softness to movement and a different kind of physicality that is funny. Women have a secret strength, if guys had to walk around as women for too long they would break.”
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