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Interview: Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson
"Starsky & Hutch"
Posted: Monday February 23rd, 2003 11:00 AM
Author: Paul Fischer
Location: Los Angeles, CA
In casting the new comic version of the TV series Starsky and Hutch, you couldn't ask for a more ideal acting duo than Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, close friends off screen since Wilson starred in the Stiller-directed Cable Guy. In Starsky and Hutch they play initially unwilling partners in the seventies-set action comedy. PAUL FISCHER caught up with both actors sitting, and sparring, together on occasion.
Question: What was it like jumping on a naked Chris Penn?
Stiller: He's a big guy, a big guy -- a very solid guy. I was actually really excited to work with Chris because I've known his work for years. I was really happy that he did the movie. But, it was fun, in the moment, to get a little physical
Question: Why were you so keen to do this?
Stiller: I just had a great time doing it, I loved the show growing up, it was one of my favourite shows as a kid. It was really different for me to be able to do this sort of genre, it was a chance to get out of that genre a little bit and yet still do it in a way that made sense comedically. So it was just fun -- it was a fun time. I worked with Owen -- I love working with Owen, you know...
Question: Were you nervous to meet the real guy (Paul Michael Glaser)?
Stiller: I was nervous, yeah, definitely. I got to sit down with Paul before we started shooting. He was great. He was so supportive and really into the idea. He had seen Owen and I do, I guess do something on the Oscars a couple years ago and had thought we had good chemistry in it and got behind the idea of us doing the movie. He was just totally supportive. That really made a difference to me, it kind of gave me the freedom to go off and do whatever.
Question: At what point did it become a comedy or parody?
Stiller: I don't think we ever looked at it as a parody. I think our characters take it pretty seriously in the movie. I don't think we're ever doing jokes that are commenting on the genre -- I know that, for me, was the way to look at it was that these guys are in a serious movie.
Question: Did you ever betray that for the sake of a great joke?
Stiller: Not in my mind. It's tone is what the tone is, but in my mind [the physicality] that's Starsky's routine that he does to warm out and get his body going in his '70s sort of work out thing.
Question: Owen, were you also a fan of the show?
Wilson: Yeah, that was the first cop show that I was into, was that and then 'Magnum P.I.,' then 'Miami Vice,' but 'Starsky & Hutch' sort of began it.
Question: Was there a childhood fantasy involved in trying to relive those days?
Wilson: Yeah, I've had and it seems like, in other movies kind of played like, I played an astronaut in 'Armageddon,' I played a soldier...
Question: What is it about each other that keeps drawing you back? And what is going to take to get a "Heat Vision and Jack" (the never-aired pilot Stiller directed featuring Jack Black and Owen) on one of your DVDs?
Wilson: Ah, 'Heat Vision and Jack'...
Stiller: I don't know. We just enjoy each other's company and have fun working together and I think as long as people allow us to work together, it'll just keep on going -- I think.
Wilson: But I think even if people didn't allow us, I'd like to think that we'd be in the Marina doing community theatre.
Question: What kind of play would that be?
Wilson: It would probably be maybe a one-man show, and Ben would play a supporting role.
Question: Ben, what made you decide to bring the 'Do-it' character back?
Stiller: For years, actually, we were looking for a way to do that. To tell you the truth, originally in 'Zoolander,' the part that my dad played was going to be that character with me playing that character, but we could afford to do it with the visual effects, so we changed it. But it's been one of those things that I've wanted to do for a long time.
Question: So this was a character that you did before?
Stiller: I did it on the show about 10 years ago.
Question: Did you put a lot of your own stuff into this?
Stiller: I guess so, I mean, Todd wrote the script and he did a great job and it's sort of his own tone. I guess that's what I thought was interesting because I think 'Zoolander' was obviously more of my own sensibility and this was working with Todd's sensibility, but I think Owen and I brought whatever it is we are as people to the characters -- but it's through Todd's eyes.
Question: Are you more comfortable, Owen, doing buddy comedies -- because you seem to have almost carved a niche for yourself as almost a...
Stiller: The uber-buddy
Wilson: Yeah, it does seem like I always ... in buddy movies there are always sort of specific beats that you end of hitting and there's sort of the break-up and then getting back together and those scenes are always kind of funny for me to film.