There's something about Michelle
By Neil Davey
‘He’s lying about me.’ Michelle Monaghan announces her presence with a dig at director Peter Farrelly. In fact, Farrelly has been nothing less than complimentary, comparing her to Audrey Hepburn. ‘Oh you told me that last night and I just thought that was the sweetest thing you could have said,’ laughs Michelle throatily.
The two are in town to discuss The Heartbreak Kid, their remake of an old Neil Simon comedy. It’s the Farrelly Brothers’ first remake, so why this one?
‘We both loved the original,’ says Peter. ‘We were asked if we wanted to remake it and we were saying no, we can’t, it’s a classic. Besides you couldn’t do now what they did then. It’s an odd movie, it has an ambiguous ending, and he was a real anti-hero, the Charles Grodin character. [In that version], he told Cybill Shepherd that he was on his honeymoon and it didn’t bother her. Maybe it was a 60s thing, but we just thought doesn’t that make her a sociopath?
‘So we thought how would you have to do it differently for today? Then we thought what if the first girl was the supermodel one he left because it just wasn’t a good fit? And the other girl was more his “speed.”’
Even if she too looks like a supermodel?
‘She’s not so bad,’ says Peter with a grin.
Michelle plays Miranda, the girl of Ben Stiller’s dreams that he meets while honeymooning with his new wife Lila, played by newcomer Malin Akerman. Miranda is demure and sweet. Lila is... well, the opposite. However, for the chance to work with the Farrelly Brothers, Michelle explains that she’d have been willing to be wild.
‘I was literally saying to them I’ll do either part, I just want to do the movie,’ she says. ‘But I wouldn’t have done the role of Lila — and I think Malin wouldn’t have done the part of Lila — if it had been in the hands of other directors.
‘Thre’s an innate trust with the Farrellys, when you look at all the movies that they’ve done, they sort of do right by you. Even though it’s real R-rated, in your face, they’re able to balance it with a lot of charm and heart. I think a lot of directors have trouble doing that. I’d do it all over again.’ She grins. ‘I’m a little bit blue myself, so it was right up my alley.’
Malin does in deed get the classic Farrelly moments, from the noisy, aggressive sex to the surprisingly lively comedy pubic wig and genital piercing. How on Earth do you persuade actors to go so far?
‘The only person who ever really baulked was Cameron Diaz and that was on the day we were about to shoot the “hair gel” scene,’ reveals Peter. ‘She said, “I know I said I loved it but I don’t think I want to do it. I just feel that if it doesn’t work then my career is over. They’ll never look at me the same...”
‘We assured her that if we tried it and found the audience wasn’t laughing as much as we thought they would, we’d take it out. So she went along with it... Since then, they’re all pretty game.
‘Believe it or not we had a lot of actresses who wanted to play this role because it was so juicy. We auditioned everyone, but Malin just made us laugh. We pulled her aside and said look, there’s a lot of things here that you’ll have to do and we want to make sure that you’re comfortable with it and don’t pull out the day we do nudity or the peeing sequence. And if you are, tell us now, maybe we can rewrite it. And she said, “Oh no, I’m Swedish, I think it’s very funny!”’
While Michelle undoubtedly dodged a bullet, does she maybe feel a little, er, merkin envy? Not at all, she confirms, although that particular moment will always be special.
‘We shot that scene in the first week and that was the moment I went, “Oh my god, I’m really in a Farrelly Brothers movie!” ’
Although resolutely merkin free, Michelle does have one moment of action — a backwards tumble into the ocean. Stunt double or the real thing?
‘That was me,’ she says. ‘I really like to do stunts, I’m a bit of a thrillseeker. They had a stuntwoman there, but I asked if I cold do it and they were like, “Well, I guess we’re almost done shooting!” I ended up breaking my toe, but I just did that walking. It was throbbing, throbbing, throbbing... I was in so much pain, and the nurses and doctors came in and said: “Can we take a picture with you? You’re from Mission Impossible III!” I was lying there like this’ — she sits back, lifting her leg to approximately ear height — ‘and in pain but it was kind of a moment where I was thinking, “Well, they recognise me in Mexico!” ’