PETER SEGAL: Its pretty nice.
So, I’m glad hes here.
I want to have one other shoutout.
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Do you remember who the little flower girl was in the wedding?
Thats my daughterTaylor, yo stand up.
Taylor has been working for Lorne Michaels for nine years, so shes doing okay.
Image via Columbia Pictures
Ive never heard of Lorne Michaels.
SEGAL: No idea.
Okay, let me go backwards.
Image via Warner Bros.
Before we get intoTommy Boy,what do you think would surprise people about being a director in Hollywood?
SEGAL: It’s not easy.
Going to leave it right there.
Image via Paramount Pictures
That’s a very loaded question.
You don’t have to go further.
It’s up to you.
Image via Paramount Pictures
So, this is a great night.
But it’s up and down.
You directedAnger Managementwith [Adam] Sandler and Jack Nicholson.
Image via Paramount Pictures
That was one of Jack’s last roles.
What was that actually like for you working with a juggernaut like that?
He wanted to play in a different sandbox.
Image Via Paramount Pictures
What surprised you about working with him?
Did he always want direction?
Was he one of these people who could get it on the first take?
Image via Paramount Pictures
Did he want, like, eight takes?
What does he like, or what was he like to work with?
What did you fucking do?
Custom Image by Annamaria Ward
I said, Oh my god, what did I do?
He goes, I dont know, man.
He said something to me, like, I’m the world’s greatest actor.
You’d think Pete would like to know where I’d like to walk.
So, I said, Okay, jeez, I will let him find his way on the set.
If you’ve seenAnger Management, he’s his anger management therapist.
Image via Paramount Pictures
And he has to really analyze Adam’s character’s life.
So he said, I want to come in like a whirling dervish.
I want to go through the kitchen, see what he’s eating in the fridge.
Image via Paramount Pictures
I want to go into the living room and see what music he’s listening to.
So, I designed the set where we could pretty much do a 360 and everything.
So we had a rehearsal.
Image via Paramount Pictures
We cleared the set, and there’s a long hallway to this door.
He said, Kid, you really steamed my clams.
I said, What?
Image via Paramount Pictures
What did I do?
He said, You’re pushing me all over the place.
These are your notes.
Exactly what you said.
Go to here, go to here, go to here, all the way back again.
This is what you said."
He looked at it and went, You’re right.
I did say that.
SEGAL: That was a dream come true.
David Zucker gave me my first break, and it was fantastic.
[Simpson] getting arrested by a tree?
I looked up, and I was like, That’s a mistake.
They’ll figure that out.
Im just going to move on, theres nothing I can follow that with, really.
Get Smartmade, like, $230 million worldwide.
Did anyone ever talk about doing a sequel to that one?
It’s there where people could be talking about it.
No one really wanted to pick up his child and tend to it.
So it just went away.
SEGAL: He’s great, I love him.
50 First Dates, another one of your films, that one got okay reviews.
SEGAL: Pretty much my whole career is okay.
It’s one of those that has stood the test of time.
But you don’t really know until, well, here’s a good example tonight.
I thought, Well, that’s interesting.
So, more and more like that, I started to hear things similar.
[50 First Dates] andTommy Boyare two of the ones that really sort of have stuck.
So, it has been 30 years.
What were they hoping for?
Were they hoping for it to do okay?"
What were their expectations versus the reality?
Look, I think it was just a programmer.
I mean, Sherry would sometimes see a poster and say, It’s on the schedule.
And it was like, “Well, there’s no script yet.”
And she was like, I don’t care.
She was very intuitive.
We should say Sherry Lansig.
SEGAL: Sherry Lansing, the head of Paramount Pictures.
I just thought they saw it as a programmer.
I think the budget for the music was nonexistentthey thought it was going to be like a garage band.
But then we started scoring it with orchestral music, and it sort of changed everything.
It took on a different feel.
I remember when she saw the first screening, she said, Okay, my office.
But she had tears in her eyes.
That is not what I expected.
That was way better.
Where did that heart come from?
Throwing out the script caused absolute havoc.
That made everything really difficult.
So I watched it in 4K and it looked amazing.
What was it like for you tonight watching it in 4K with everyone?
SEGAL: It was cool.
I said, What are you talking about?
Are we doing it in 4K?
Later, I called him and said, Dude, Im still working on this movie 30 years later.
Since its now sharper than the original 35mm, I started seeing details I hadnt before, like cables.
I spotted a few other things here and there as well.
I wont bore you with the details, but it was satisfying to finally tweak them.
But you really need to say what one of them was.
SEGAL: A little piece of hair was in front of David’s forehead, like a stray hair.
I finally said, Guys, could you yo paint that loose strand of hair out?
And they said, Yeah, sure.
And Im like, Thank you!
It’s dumb, but it meant something to me.
Have you told David that you did this?
SEGAL: Absolutely not.
c’mon don’t repeat that.
What is it like when doing comedy on set versus the script?
Because the biggest challenge is time.
SEGAL: The interesting thing here is that Chris and Dave were mostly live performers.
They hadnt done a lot of movies.
They hadnt done any movies as leads.
Im like, Dude, this is just how it goes.
And David said, No, your face does, and I said, Thats going in.
Heres a little-known story, although now, I guess more people know about it.
Then I turned around on David and was focusing on him.
I said, Cool, great.
He goes, No, no, the singing part off-camera.
I said, What are you talking about?
You gotta go back and reshoot that.
You gotta get that on camera.
So, thank Bill Kerr for that.
I could be wrong, but it does sound like you didn’t have a completed script.
SEGAL: 100%.
It was a blessing and a curse going into theSNLseason.
I said, Fred, this scenes kind of dead.
And he goes, Well, describe the shot.
He goes, Flashdance.
Im like, Got it.
Thats all I needed to hear.
He would pitch stuff at Farley, and Farley would whack it out of the park.
You needed that pitch, though.
I’m not discounting Spades involvement.
SEGAL: I’m saying this, also, because I’m going on his podcast tomorrow.
So, he was fantastic!
Was there a tax break even back then?
SEGAL: Yeah, it was cheaper.
So now it’s happening in August.
Now it’s going to be the 30th, and it’s a three-day festival.
We shot it in Toronto.
They said, We don’t care.
Speaking of theTommy Boycar, you now own one of them.
Talk a little bit about the cars themselves and the fact that no one really thought to save one.
Let’s get into this.
SEGAL: So, there were four cars.
For the deer sequence, I had all these storyboards showing how the destruction was going to go.
When I met the animal wrangler, he paged through them, saying, Nope, nope, nope.
I asked, What will it take to do one shot?
Will I need a car for the entire shoot?
He said, Its going to take weeks.
Thatll scare it, itll jump off the car, and run away.
That was one of the cars.
Afterward, they asked if I wanted to buy any of them.
Keep the cars."
Well, history turned out differently.
I asked if they knew where the car went.
Then, one day, I got a call from Bill Kerr.
Dude, the car has been found!
It was a barn find.
Its at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Florida.
You gotta bid on it.
I knew it was going to be expensive, so I called Spade and offered it to him first.
It just felt like the right thing to do.
Spade bid on it and won.
I asked, What are you going to do with it?
He said, Nothing.
Its just a good conversation piece.
People can look at it, rusty and destroyed as it is.
Two years later, I was filmingHeelsin Atlanta when Spade called me.
I fucked up, he said.
Well, Barrett-Jackson called me.
I have this other Chevelle SS going up for auction.
Michael Strahan wants it.
It ended up selling for some crazy amount.
Then they asked if I wanted to flip the GTtheTommy Boycarand I said yes.
I should have just sold it to you.
I said, Okay, well…
He said, You should bid on it, Pete.
Its now at the Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson auction.
So I bid on it, and I got it.
Literally,the title says I bought the car from David Spade.
But I decided to restore it.
Its been two and a half years, and it might finally be done in two months.
Then, were taking it to Sandusky.
I have to ask, what does it cost to restore a car?
SEGAL: I am not answering that question.
Is it because your wife is in the audience?
SEGAL: Oh, she knows.
That’s why I’m not going to bring it up again.
It’s one more reminder.
It’s not going well.
I’m glad you’re doing it, though.
SEGAL: Well, thank you.
Lets talk about the deer, though.
SEGAL: Oh, I’ll tell you.
He wants to pitch it to you.
I will admit I was going, That’s mean.
We’re going to lose half the audience.
This is… And then Lorne just goes, Pete, It’s going to work.
It’s going to be good.
Then I got on board.
But then planning it, like I said,first of all, I can’t train a deer.
So, I got one shot.
How did we do the rest?
That’s not going to work.
The animatronic deer, I think, has one shot in the movie.
Then, how do we shoot the destruction?
Well, we had nothing left except a deer skin and some antlers.
The movie has payphones inwhat are those?
It’s just pretty crazy how far technology has come in those 30 years.
SEGAL: Yeah, you said it.
Well, even in those days, it was a pretty ingenious thing that our special effects department did.
This Rube Goldbergian thing made this little 10-foot sailboat do its thing.
That was pretty cool.
And that was so low-tech back then.
But that’s how you made movies back then.
I’m so curious about the editing process.
And did you know at that moment, Oh, wait, this is pretty funny?"
SEGAL: You dont know.
This was only my second movie, and you get it to a point.
What David took from that was his own version of testing: recording the audience to hear the laughter.
I remember I had just gotten a gifta Sony Handycamfor Christmas, and it had night vision.
I said, Ooh, I have an idea.
Lets put it up here, facing the crowd.
It was thefirst movie ever to use night vision.
Now, its an industry standard.
So what was it like, watching the crowd?
What did you learn from those early screenings?
I know the film has deleted scenes, and obviously, you had multiple takes on certain stuff.
SEGAL: I’m a nerd when it comes to the testing process.
I love the process.
Although, Bill, there are still some things I’d like to tighten up.
What are you most excited for people to see on the 4K release?
Is there anything new on it that hasn’t been out previously?
SEGAL: This is primarily the visual quality of the movie.
This is the best that it’s ever been.
It was better than the studio gave USC when I was doing a screening down there.
It was spectacular, but this looks even better than that.
What was it actually like in terms of the shooting schedule?
You mentioned you had $12 million, then it went to $15.
How much time did you actually have to make this?
SEGAL: I think, because of only shooting three days a week, it ended up taking longer.
I think it was in the 40s of days.
Is that actual shooting days?
SEGAL: Shooting days.
There were occasional things that we’d have to do if I didn’t have Chris.
I would shoot over a double; certain long shots from driving were doubles.
He said, That’s not how I walk.
I learned from that one moment.
I said, Okay, I’m not going to do that anymore.
So we’re just going to have to wait until you come back.
We just had to sit there, and the studio had no choice, so they went with it.
Talk a little bit about filming that sequence and what he went through, because he beat himself up.
I remember my agent saying, Why did you take this movie?
I said, Oh, there’s the airplane bathroom scene.
But when you have a set that small, oftentimes you carry it with you.
If it’s raining, you go, Okay, well, bring out the bathroom set.
If you have a little extra time, “Bring out the bathroom set.”
So it’s always being trailered around to all of the locations, that stupid bathroom set.
Everyone was looking forward to that.
We kept procrastinating when, when, when, and then finally we set it up.
The hard thing is also,how do you film something like that?
The bathroom is almost the size of this table.
And so, we had a couple of camera portals and did it from up top.
The rest was Chris, and then brilliant editing, bringing that all together.
That was all one day?
SEGAL: Oh yeah.
That took him, I don’t know, a couple of hours.
Thats so crazy because there are things hitting him.
I don’t know how he did it.
I really don’t.
SEGAL: Well, we helped key the diaper changing table.
We knew what was going to be destroyed.
But, yeah, two hours.
SEGAL: I honestly did not have a blast making this because it was so hard.
Thats a real honest answer.
SEGAL: Very honest.
So,I was pretty miserable.
I just felt like, Oh my god, I’m missing out on life.
It wasn’t just Farley and Spade, it was Sandler and Chris Rock and Mike Myers and others.
But the ratings were not good.
And I looked at him and I just realized, Alright, we’re in this together.
That was sort of hisBand of Brothersmoment, and so I’ll never forget that.
Live from New York, it’s the best ‘Saturday Night Live’ movies!
You cannot say that.
I cringe now hearing it.
People who weren’t around before 9/11, you could go to the airport and go to the gate.
There were things you just could do that 9/11 and
SEGAL: Oh, that part.
I was talking about the R-word.
That too, yeah.
Talk a little bit about the way moviemaking has changed.
This is all shot on film.
Another thing is you had aI forgot how good the orchestra issoundtrack that is not what I expected.
So, we went out, and that’s the good news.
This is like ripping off James Newton Howard."
But we did it in a way that it was legal.
Is it true that Rob Lowe only did the movie because he was friends with Chris Farley?
SEGAL: I don’t really know why Rob did the movie.
He didn’t put his name on it.
I think because he thought it might have sucked and wanted to distance himself.
He was going, Oh boy, this is going to be fun.
I think that’s whyI don’t really know.
Talk a little bit about filming that sequence.
And yeah, that one seems to have lived on in infamy.
That poor actorI don’t remember what his name washe was reacting to it.
He did such an amazing job.
His reactions were fantastic.
It was much more his joke.
Ours was the PG version of it.
Anyway, he said, Can you make this car flammable?
I want to light it on fire.
I’m like, Okay, and he follows with, And how many cars do you have?
Because how many takes do I get to destroy these things?
Not a lot, I think we have two.
He goes, Okay, and then the rest is him.
SEGAL: That was the earlier boat scene with Julie Warner.He poked himself in the eye there.
With the carpenters, we just put some glycerin on his cheeks.
But yeah, he would do that.
What is that like?
Is it right before you’re going to start filming, he just pokes himself?
SEGAL: He was an unusual cat, but he was very athletic.
He was so jittery and awake that I think he felt like he needed to do that.
I said, Chris, go run around the courtyard twice, and come back."
Or, “Chris, drop and give me 20.
He loved it because he sort of treated me like a coach.
Once I got him to calm down and breathe deeply, then he could perform.
So, that’s kind of the way we just worked it.
SEGAL: It was number one opening weekend with about $8 million.
It only made about $31, all in.
It was not released overseas.
But that’s not where it made its money.
For the 10th anniversary, they flew crews all over the country to interview the whole cast.
They did this whole big promotionbobblehead dolls, maps, all these things.
I said to Paramount, Wow, you guys are doing a lot for this.
What’s the big deal?
They said, Well, this is a top 10 seller for us.
I said, I don’t understand what that means.
This is 10 years later.
And they go, No,top 10 all-time Paramount home video.
So you mean with, like,Raiders of the Lost ArkandThe Godfathertop 10?
SEGAL: Thank you.
SEGAL: Well, I was just asked this past week about something which made me think.
Tommy Boy4K Ultra HD is available for purchase.
Your Rating
Your comment has not been saved
