Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, responsible for bringing us such masterpieces as Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, have once again teamed up for The Heartbreak Kid-a remake of the 1972 comedy about a man who experiences a conflict of love with two women. The Farrelly brothers recently answered questions about working with Ben Stiller and remaking a classic.
Has Ben Stiller changed since the last time you worked with him?
Peter Farrelly: He has changed, but it's all good, you know, now he's become a-this is Peter talking by the way-he's become a huge worldwide conglomerate since we last worked with him. Last time he was an actor. And now he's everything. But, and he's more hands-on, but he makes it better. The guy's instincts are so right on that it was like having a third director to be honest, but it was great.
Whose idea it was to do the remake? How do you approach that differently from films you write yourself?
Bobby Farrelly: Now, we really thought the original Heartbreak Kid, it was a Neil Simon movie directed by Elaine May. It was one of the movies that really had affected us. And it was, but we considered it a classic. So we were very reluctant to get involve with redoing a classic. But after showing it to some friends and looking at it, we thought, we started realizing that we probably couldn't redo the original shot-for-shot today just because the society has changed.
We got the thinking about how you would redo it. And the main difference we, the main change we made in the original is that in the original, he goes on in honeymoon and falls for a different girl, but he leaves a girl who is really not very attractive for drop-dead gorgeous bombshell. And we thought, well, what if the first girl, what if-in today's story-he goes now with a gorgeous woman and he ends up meeting a girl who is a much better fit for him emotionally with more ground and cool. So that was a major change we made.
You've worked with really funny actors in the past such as Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Greg Kinnear and Jack Black. Say you were doing a movie right now, which funny actor that you haven't had a chance to work with would you choose?
BF: Go on. You know, I got to think that- I'm drawing a blank. Sorry, guys, but Borat, what's his name?
PF: Sacha Baron Cohen.
BF: Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen. He's a guy that I wouldn't kick out of one of our movies. That's for sure.
PF: Yeah. I'd also like to work with Vince Vaughn. I just think Vince Vaughn, we could do something really great with him.
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