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SINGAPORE : Kevin Smith may be too big for his airplane seat, but the hefty director is apparently a fan of wham-bam action.
Smith's latest film "Cop Out" is a buddy-cop action-comedy. That's right, the man who brought us cult favourites like "Clerks", "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma" has gone all Hollywood by directing (not even writing) a homage to a genre that kept everyone and their best bud of a different race glued to the big screen for most of the mid-'80s and early '90s.
That would be the constantly-recycled story of two cops with very different, contrasting personalities having to solve a case together, working through their differences with a few explosions and chuckles by the time the credits roll. Also known as "Beverly Hills Cop With A Lethal Weapon Stuck In Rush Hour For 48 Hours".
Isn't the buddy-cop comedy genre kinda ... vintage? Cop Out stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan point to their impressive chemistry to politely disagree.
What was it like working with each other?
Tracy Morgan: Well, working with Bruce, first of all, he's a real cool dude, down to earth. And just going to work every day and telling my friends and my family that I'm working with Bruce Willis was the coolest thing. They didn't believe it but now there're billboards all over the place with me and Bruce like this.
I didn't get a chance to work with Bruce Lee - Bruce Willis, right next to Bruce Lee, baby, you know what I'm sayin'? (Laughs)
Bruce Willis: I went to work every day knowing that I was working with a consummate professional, a truly funny guy that I could count on, that I could throw the ball to and know that he would hit it out of the park. And when you have that kind of confidence in your partner, you can take risks that you might not normally take.
Tracy: I feel like when I started working with Bruce it just solidified. I'm not saying I won an Academy Award, but it makes you authentic, you know? It makes your career authentic. I worked with Bruce Willis. I can have that conversation.
Bruce, with a movie like this, is it more or less fun when your stunts are intentionally falling down stairs instead of jumping in and saving the girl in an action film?
Bruce: Those were my ideas. I just thought, "Wouldn't it be kind of goofy if I just fell down the stairs here?" (Tracy laughs) And he said, "Yeah, are you going to do that? You want to do that?" And I said, "Yeah, all right. We'll try it."
Because, look, no stone was left unturned. We looked for every stupid thing that we could possibly do. Everybody was looking for stuff to do. Once we got going, everybody saw what kind of film we were making. It was really just about entertaining the audience.
How many times did you shoot the scene where one of you steps on the other's head to put him through the window?
Bruce: That's an old Three Stooges gag. We stole that from the Stooges. Yeah, we stole from everybody. We stole from Abbott and Costello, from Art Carney and Jackie Gleason. We really just dropped the reins. There were very few rules, except that a scene couldn't go on too long.
Kevin Smith said you were all trying to make each other laugh, especially making Bruce laugh.
Bruce: There are scenes of me in the film where I'm just coming back from looking out the window and coming back to the scene, and trying not to laugh. There were a lot of times that we broke up - it wasn't just me. There were a lot of times you could hear the whole crew laughing because they were all watching the monitors and listening on headphones.
What did both of you see in the script that made you want to do this film? And was Tracy's character written to be an African American?
Bruce: "Cop Out" really is a 2010 version of a genre of films that has been around since the '40s, really, or the '30s gangster films, cop films, all kinds of cop films.
I've seen a lot of things lately talking about comparing our film to films like "Beverly Hills Cop" or good cop/bad cop and they always choose to mention that there were racial overtones in those films. And we never gave a thought, not one time, not one day, about if this should have some kind of racial content. We were having so much fun and getting along so well that there was never any time to ever think about it.
On the other hand, I'm really proud of the fact that we'd never felt the need to mention it. We never felt the need to make it about some kind of racial struggle or the fact that we get along so well. And you know, we loved each other so much and we were such good friends that it just wasn't necessary.
Tracy: And it's not what I saw in the script - it's what I didn't see. I didn't see that I'd have to drive nobody around, to call nobody "Miss Daisy". And I didn't have to lift any heavy boxes. So I was down. I had to work at Fed Ex. I was good.
Bruce, you've been embraced by the New York Police Department. What do you think they'll think of this comedy?
Bruce: I think cops need to laugh more than anybody else in the world. I can't think of another group of people who work at really hard jobs, and who get shot at every night for their jobs, who couldn't use an opportunity to go out and have a good laugh. I like cops. I like emergency room guys, firefighters.
Tracy: And strippers. (Laughs) Strippers need to laugh more, too, walking around in them heels all night.
Bruce: Strippers need to laugh.
You two seem like you really have a nice chemistry.
Bruce: We're going to do another movie.
Tracy: I love that, dude.
Bruce: Yeah, we're gonna do another movie. If it's not the sequel to this, then it'll be something else.
- TODAY/il
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