Source: FilmForce
June 11, 2003 - Two things become apparent upon meeting Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd's titular duo. First of all, Richardson is a dead ringer for a young Jeff Daniels, shy smile and all. Secondly, Olsen...well, Olsen looks absolutely nothing like Jim Carrey or even Jim Carrey playing Lloyd Christmas, the bowl-cut-wearing goofball from the first Dumb and Dumber.
The pair is chatting with reporters at a recent press event in Beverly Hills, and Olsen takes the opportunity to explain how he transformed his blond, surfer boy physique into the character. "I walked in there [to audition], and they were like, 'Who are you and why are you here?'" he remembers. "I had just come off another job – I was doing a show on FOX called 24. I was in the best shape of my life, I was surfing, like, every day and working out and [I had] long, blond hair. I went back, like, four or five times, and [director] Troy [Miller] believed in me... When [Derek and I] read together, the chemistry was there, the energy was there. I dropped 13 pounds in two weeks, dyed my hair brown."
Adds Richardson, "He would have mixed green salads. I'd be like, 'Can I have a steak and a milkshake?'"
"He'd be eating anything he wants and I'd be sitting there with, like, a carrot," laughs Olsen.
Richardson's transformation took considerably less effort: "I gained a little weight and threw on a wig."
Dumberer is set in the '80s, taking us back to a time when the duo from the 1994 blockbuster was still in high school. The film chronicles the first meeting of Lloyd and Harry and their initial adventures together. Though the characters may be a bit younger, their attitude towards the world remains essentially the same.
"People talk about playing dumb and innocent," says Olsen. "These guys aren't dumb, they're just really committed to this false reality, where everything makes sense to them. In their own minds, they're rock stars and they're super cool and they're confident... That's where the innocence comes from, that's what makes them so likable and lovable together, cause you totally buy these characters."
Adds Richardson, "They did that in first movie, too. They were so good about keeping them sincere and honest and giving heart to these characters, which I think is really important. In the end, it's about this relationship with these two guys who you follow on this journey. And if you don't have that relationship, you don't have the whole thing. And that's what I think was so important about making it work for us, is having the connection between those two guys."
It was essential, then, to have a pair of young actors with the right chemistry. Big screen newcomer Richardson was cast first, and says that it was immediately apparent that he and Olsen, previously seen in The Hot Chick, Not Another Teen Movie and the FOX series Get Real, were right together. "I remember I was reading with other people for the Lloyd part, and it's a hard part to play... He came in and we just connected really quickly."
In addition, Olsen says that it was important to him to not merely do an impression of Carrey. "I think the key to this one is, you study the original film. You watch it, like, 30 times, you pick up the mannerisms and the nuances and the elements and then take that...and throw it all away," he says. "Just be that character. Find the reverse arc to that and begin evolution of those characters. And I'm such a huge fan – and I know [Derek] is too – of the first film and what those guys did with the first film, which is one of the best comedies of the past ten years, if not the best buddy comedy of the past ten years. And [I wanted to] do justice to that, you know?"
Adds Richardson, "I think one of the nice things about doing a prequel is that you have more freedom with the character. Because you can capture those nuances and those mannerisms. Because you want people to identify these characters as a young Harry and a young Lloyd. But it was nice, cause you have all this new back story about the characters, which you really didn't have before. So you can use that along with the stuff that they created in the first movie and sort of make it your own."
In fact, the two actors became so immersed in their roles that they unwittingly picked up a few nuances while filming. "[Derek] picked up this walk, this Harry walk, which is kind of this little wobble thing that he does and he did it all the time," remembers Olsen. "And I remember the stuntman being like, 'Listen, you're going to be doing a lot of your own stunts, but we're going to bring in somebody for Derek, because he's kind of feeble.' They were really worried about him! I was like, 'No, you guys, he's a really good athlete, trust me!' They were like, 'We just don't want him to get hurt, he looks like he might break!'"
Speaking of stunts, both actors have at least one solo scene wherein they're allowed to improvise with physical comedy. For Olsen, this is an opening dance sequence in which he cavorts through the high school hallways. When asked about the choreography of the scene, Olsen says, "Oh, there's no choreography. The choreographer was the same person that was the medic... Um, no, we just rolled film on that. Set up two cameras and Troy's like, 'Hmmm, look like Lloyd and dance.' So I just ran out there and danced like an idiot for half an hour. I had bruises, pulled every muscle in my body."
Richardson's scene, on the other hand, is something of an homage to Daniels' infamous bathroom sequence from the first film. Let's just say it involves a melted chocolate bar and some spazzy moves on the part of Richardson. "It was a fun scene [with] a lot of room to improvise and you just kinda go for it," he says, insisting that the suspicious-looking chocolate was, in fact, made of...chocolate. "Oh, come on, I was eating it!" he says.
Given these antics, only one question remains: is there anything too over the top when it comes to Harry and Lloyd? "That's the thing – nothing's over the top for them, it all makes sense," says Olsen. "We're not being dumb, we're just really committed." -- Sarah Kuhn |
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