The raunchy comedy film "Hall Pass" is based on the premise that men constantly think about sex with multiple partners and woman are more concerned with monogamy. In the movie, two married couples who are friends — Rick and Maggie (played by Owen Wilson and Jenna Fischer) and Fred and Grace (played by Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate) — try to deal with the problems in their marriages by giving their spouses a "hall pass." As part of the "hall pass" agreement, the spouses decide to give each other permission to do whatever they want outside of the marriage for a week, without any obligation to tell their spouses what happened during their "hall pass" week.
Rick and Fred check into a resort and spend most of their time trying to pick up women, while Maggie and Grace spend their time away from home by partying with college kids. The question looms throughout "Hall Pass": Will any of the four spouses actually cheat? "Hall Pass" was directed by brothers Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, who were two of the producers and writers of the film.
If you think men and women have pretty much the same ideas about monogamy, think again: At the Los Angeles press junket for "Hall Pass," the male stars (Wilson and Sedeikis) and the female stars (Fischer and Applegate) of "Hall Pass" both expressed very different viewpoints of whether or not they would take a marital hall pass in real life — and the women even say whether or not the "hall pass" concept is a good idea for relationships overall. The four stars also talked about some of the film’s risqué content, as well as what they do to keep from laughing in hilarious scenes where they’re not supposed to laugh.
Interview with Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis
Would you say that "Hall Pass," for all of its raunchy humor, also has a lot of heart?
Wilson: There are funny scenes that kind of make you go kind of like the fake sneeze, but there is a lot of heart. The hot-tub scene [with full-frontal male nudity], there’s a lot of heart there.
Was there anything in the "Hall Pass" script that kind of shocked you the first time you read it?
Wilson: Not really. I don’t know if that makes us jaded comedians. Everything was like, "I can see this being really funny."
Sudeikis: Yeah, it all tracks emotionally, so it makes sense. With the Farrelly Brothers, you almost have to treat it like a musical: "OK, the world is that people are going to break out in song for no reason out of nowhere, and they’re all going to know the dance, and that’s the reality here." With the Farrelly Brothers, you know you’re going to get outside reality, to a degree, as long as it’s reality up until that moment.
Wilson: There is stuff that when you’re reading it and it’s funny on the page, and then when it’s time to actually film it, you’re like, "Now, wait a second. Are we really going to do this? And the studio is OK with this?"
Such as the hot-tub scene?
Wilson: I was never able to get a straight answer if those were prosthetics or what. There seems to be a little controversy there. Going in, how do you prepare to film a scene like that? I had done "Anaconda," so I guess that was some jumping-off point. [He says to Sudeikis] And with you, with none of that kind of background …
Sudeikis: Time spent in a mirror, I guess.
Wilson: Yeah. [He laughs.]
When you do an R-rated film, do you like seeing how far you think you can go?
Sudeikis: It’s a dance we do with the censors. We do get away with dirty stuff. It’s just a little that’s a bit more subversive. But you don’t want to just inundate people with filth, filth, filth — because it’s diminishing returns. But when it has that hook of some emotional narrative, especially [in "Hall Pass"], being pro-love, pro-marriage at the end of the day, it allows you to go to some creepy, goofy places.
Wilson: Wait ‘til you see the DVD! Wait ‘til you see the extras from this movie.
How do you know when you have comedic chemistry?
Wilson: Opening weekend usually tells you a lot.
Sudeikis: Yeah, box office.
Wilson: Reviews is another place to sometimes go. But it did at times feel like "Cannonball Run." We were cracking each other up. It was like, "We’re dying at this stuff! This is the funniest thing ever!"
Sudeikis: [He pretends to choke on laughter.] You would just smack me.
Wilson: And then we just put it front of an audience and "chirp chirp."
Sudeikis: And you and I would be in the back, just rolling.
Wilson: Still rolling! "No, please tell me I did not do that!"
If you were married, would you ever consider taking a hall pass from marriage?
Wilson: Of course!
Sudeikis: I’d consider it.
Wilson: I think men would die for a hall pass. I think a lot of women would probably die for a hall pass. I think there is something to the idea. They probably do it in Scandinavian countries. They’re more evolved. You can’t do it in Latin countries. There’s too much passion.
Sudeikis: Crimes-of-passion pass.
Wilson: A hall pass in Scandinavia, there wouldn’t be anything to it. They’d just be like, "Oh, OK."
Sudeikis: They might freak out of we had to be monogamous for a week.
Wilson: "Hall Pass" in Argentina, you’d have to have Kevin Costner and Anthony Quinn and Madeline Stowe, and it would’ve been a thriller.
How do you keep a straight face in scenes that are really funny?
Sudeikis: Pretend that what you’re looking at is real. I would never laugh in someone’s face if they had stomach problems in a bathroom, to the extent that they had in the film. I think I’d probably be understanding, and then move on with my day.
Wilson: Something that does sometimes help in keeping a straight face is that you don’t want to wreck the take, especially when somebody’s doing something funny. And if you break up, you’ve kind of wrecked it. Sometimes you can’t help it though. Sometimes you get surprised by something.
Sudeikis: Getting a good night’s sleep helps, so you’re not slap-happy at 3 a.m.
What is about the Farrelly Brothers that makes them funnier than many other filmmakers?
Sudeikis: I think those guys have been funny from the womb.
Wilson: I remember Woody Harrelson, when he was on "Cheers," they would ask him, "Who’s the funniest person you know?" And he was rooming with the Farrellys before they had done [any movies]. And he said, "The funniest guys I know are these guys, these brothers from Rhode Island." And it was before anybody had heard of them. It goes to what you’re saying: They’ve just always been funny.
Sudeikis: It’s in their bones.
Interview with Christina Applegate and Jenna Fischer
Was there anything in the "Hall Pass" script that kind of shocked you the first time you read it?
Applegate: I was kind of shocked by the fact that I was expecting this Farrelly Brothers script, and I got this script with a heart and conscience. You could see that they love their wives. I was really shocked by that. I think people are going to be really surprised by that.
Fischer: I was expecting a "dude" movie, but I think the movie really pays off for women. Something they’re really not showing in the previews is that we get a hall pass, too. And so the girls have fun in this movie as well.
Applegate: We had more fun. That’s not giving it away. We didn’t go to Applebee’s!
Fischer: We don’t.
Applegate: We know exactly where to go. College baseball games. We know where the hot boys are.
In all seriousness, do you think married couples should ever give their spouses a hall pass?
Applegate: Not on your life, so don’t even bring it up!
Fischer: Never! It’s a horrible idea. No sane person would do a hall pass.
Applegate: No sane woman. Guys are like, "I’d do it!" Because two days in, they’d be calling their wives going, "Are you sleeping with anybody?" And freaking out.
Fischer: They would realize that they’re on a hall pass and we would probably be more successful.
Applegate: It’s like a threesome: good in theory, but never ends up a good idea.
Fischer: Bad in reality.
And as we see in "Hall Pass," when it comes to sex, some people are more talk than action, right?
Fischer: Right. What people forget about your single life, people romanticize it. Once you’ve been a couple for a long time, you think back to your single days, and you think, "Oh that was so much fun. I was always out drinking and partying." What you were doing was looking for true love. That’s what you’re doing when you’re out and single.
Applegate: And you’re in a perpetual state of being hung over and unhappy.
Fischer: And rejected.
When you do an R-rated film, do you like seeing how far you think you can go?
Applegate: Did we "R" it up?
Fischer: Did we [our characters in "Hall Pass"] even curse?
Applegate: No.
Fischer: We’re not in a very R-rated section of the movie.
Applegate: I didn’t even hear the "f’ word.
Fischer: We should do it again. We were in this unique situation where we were in a raunchy Farrelly Brothers movie, but our section of the movie was rather PG. As women, we kind of come out unscathed, which is awesome, because we got to work with the most fun directors ever, without having to do any …
Applegate: We didn’t have prosthetics in our face.
Fischer: Nothing. No body fluids.
Applegate: We got boys. And we got to play volleyball. And we walked away. That’s it. We got to hang out with one another. And we’d text each other from set, like if she was working one day, and I wasn’t. We’d text, "I miss you so much." We were like a newlywed couple.
Fischer: She was finished [with the movie] two days before me. Those two days were so sad. I hated it.
How do you know when you have comedic chemistry?
Applegate: It just fits. It’s something you can try for, but the best is when it just fits, when your energies sort of work off each other.
Fischer: Yeah, you can’t force it. It’s just sort of there or not. And I think we got really lucky on this movie, because I think Jason and Owen have it in spades. It’s amazing. And we [Christina Applegate and I] have good chemistry, if I say so myself.
What’s it like working two directors on the same movie?
Applegate: They have it worked out, down to a science.
Fischer: Peter does all the talking, but Bobby’s like the Godfather.
Applegate: I like to think he’s the brains behind the whole operation.
Fischer: He kind of is. You knew you were finished with a scene if Bobby got up.
Applegate: Bobby sits at the monitors, and Peter is the messenger. That’s not to take away from Peter’s part in this. But Bobby might be the brains behind this whole operation.
Fischer: He’s like the secret wizard behind the curtain.
Applegate: Peter’s going to kill me. [She laughs.] But they work really well. They know that having two people in the radio in your ears is not a good thing, so one comes with the message. And they discuss it. And then in the middle of that, they’ll play some weird games and then don’t pay attention to anything we’re doing. [She laughs.]
Fischer: They play a lot of games.
What’s the secret to keeping a straight face in really funny scenes?
Fischer: It’s editing. It’s true. You can only not laugh at something that’s really funny for so long. Eventually, you break. And luckily, you get to do it a bunch of times. And hopefully, by the seventh time … But sometimes you get so tickled by it, you can’t stop.
Applegate: I liken my ability to not laugh to being a child actor in that kind of environment, where we would actually get in trouble for that. You learn to keep it under wraps. But the problem with me is that once I go, I’m gone, and I can’t pull it back. So I have to be really, really aware of it. Otherwise, I get "church laugh," and I’m done forever. It’s the worst thing ever when you can’t stop, but it’s the best laugh you’ll ever have.
Before doing "Hall Pass," have you ever heard of "fake chow"? That’s not a commonly used phrase.
Applegate: No, I know. When I heard that, I was like "What is that?" Who does that?
Fischer: Peter claims that’s a thing.
Applegate: It’s not a thing!
Fischer: He says he has a friend who does fake chow, and that’s where he got the [idea]. I’ve never heard of it.
Applegate: Just the word "chow." I hate it. It makes me nauseated.
Fischer: You know what drove me crazy? "Spank bank. I’m going to put that in my spank bank."
Applegate: Fish taco. Oh, that’s not in the movie.
Fischer: That’s just something that popped in your head. [They both laugh.]
Applegate: It just bums me out when I hear that.
For more info: "Hall Pass" website
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