Steve Martin
Steve Martin is aware that some people may think "The Pink Panther 2" movie was unnecessary, but Martin hasn’t always let naysayers and critics deter him from what he wants to do. In "The Pink Panther 2" (the sequel to 2006’s "The Pink Panther"), Martin reprises his role as the bungling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, who gathers a "dream team" of investigators to stop a mysterious criminal who’s stealing historical artifacts.
"The Pink Panther 2" (out June 23 on DVD and Blu-ray) will inevitably get compared to the "Pink Panther" movies starring Peter Sellers, but Martin says he hopes that his "Pink Panther" movies are seen as a reboot of the franchise, rather than trying to remake what Sellers did. When I caught up with Martin at the January 2009 press junket for "The Pink Panther 2" in New York City, he also talked about reuniting with Lily Tomlin, his love of bluegrass music (Martin’s bluegrass album "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo" was released earlier this year) and what he thinks about the kind of media coverage he gets.
When you were doing "The Pink Panther 2" were you channeling Charlie Chaplin, especially in "The Great Dictator"?
Well, I’ve certainly seen all of those movies. I take it as a compliment. I was watching that "Make ‘Em Laugh" show last night and seeing how great Charlie Chaplin was. I felt like, "What a pretender I am." Anyway, it’s just something I do. I didn’t really study up on anything, although I did have an idea. I thought, "Were making a kind of a — I don’t want to say ‘slapstick,’ because that’s so the wrong kind of word — physical comedy. We should go back and look at all those films and evaluate those gags. There must be a hundred gags we could just take." But no, we didn’t do that. But I do appreciate those films.
You take a jab at the media in this movie. Is that a reflection of how you feel about the press?
There’s a line in the movie that I actually heard Norman Mailer say one time … Norman Mailer had just come out of this trial of someone, a criminal, he had championed and then the guy when out and murdered somebody. [Mailer] was humiliated. He comes out of the trial and an interviewer said, "What do you think about the trial?" And he said, "No comment." "Can you tell us how you’re feeling right now?" And he said, "If I said a comment after I said, ‘No comment," I’d look like an ass." So we put that in the movie. I don’t have a problem with the press. I have a problem with negative press, but we’re all sensitive.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
Why is Inspector Clouseau such a beloved character?
He says jokingly] Because I’m playing it. It’s strange what film does. The qualities of Inspector Clouseau — which are pettiness, egocentricities, lack of intelligence and bungling — in film are lovable, but in life, it could get me out of here. And arrogance. I forgot about arrogance.
How do you balance physical and verbal comedy?
It’s mostly done, for me, in my head. I visualize the scene … and you kind of get a feeling for what the timing should be. You try to get in physical shape to do it. I think there’s an intellectual property to physical gags, because in my world, they have to be set up. You just don’t walk into a door. You walk into a door for a reason that’s been laid down.
I think there are scenes in the movie … where you just know trouble is coming. It’s a logical scene; it’s not just getting bumped around. I think it’s very important; otherwise, you just lower the film a little bit. The bottle-juggling scene has a certain elegance to it. I utilized some of my high-school skills of juggling.
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Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
There weren’t any digital effects in that scene?
Some were digital, but those were actual jugglers in the scene. But most of them were real wooden bottles. The struggle, of course, is to make the jugglers look clumsy, because they’re so elegant. We had to make it look like it was really happening …
Harald [Zwart, the director of "The Pink panther 2"] used a great technique I had never seen before in this modern, digital world. A special effect I’d never seen in all my years. For example, the scene where I get run over by a team of horses: What he did was I walked up to the doors and started to open them and then I froze. And on the video monitor, he took a crayon and drew around my body and the cameras stayed put. And then I left, and they put in a dummy dressed in my clothes in the exactly the position as the crayon [drawing] on the video screen. I thought it was fantastic. They could’ve done it a million different ways. They just did it right there on the camera. It was fantastic.
Now that you’ve played Inspector Clouseau in more than one movie, do you feel less pressure to live up to Peter Sellers’ version of Inspector Clouseau?
When I was pitching the story to Sony … Well, other writers came up with the dream-team idea for the story, but I was sort of dealing with other arcs of the story, I said, "I have to tell you that every movie I’ve ever done that ends in a wedding or me holding a baby has been a hit." I was being cute, but I really think that in our film … I think that [Clouseau] is a classic character that Peter Sellers invented, fortunately for me. But I do think we’ve taken it somewhere else and made it our own. We haven’t stolen anything from them. We view the character like James Bond, where other actors can play. I realize I’m the fourth actor to play this role. I keep thinking I was the second, but I’m the fourth. And three of them were done by Blake Edwards, the original director.
Steve Martin and Emily Mortimer in "The Pink Panther 2"
Can you talk about the romance between Nicole (played by Emily Mortimer) and Clouseau in "The Pink Panther 2"?
We just discovered, as we were making the film, that there was a romantic thing happening between Nicole and Inspector Clouseau. And in this movie, I think it’s a great thing to use. It’s happy and nice.
Lily Tomlin, who plays Mrs. Berenger in "The Pink Panther 2," co-starred with you on 1984’s "All of Me." What was it like working with her again?
It’s a delight to work with Lily. And there’s a thing in show business, which I’m sure you’re aware of: You can work with someone for three intense months 20 years ago, maybe see them in passing in 20 years, but when you’re finally back together, you’re finishing a sentence you started 20 years ago. Life is like that. We had no warm-up period, Lily and I. We were close friends doing that movie, and it’s very easy to work with her.
What did you think of Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration?
I was ecstatic. My wife was crying It was a great day.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
You’ve become a children’s book author. Did you think you that influenced doing a more family-oriented "Pink Panther" movie?
We learned something from the first ["Pink Panther"] movie — which by the way, I love the first movie — but we were kind of dealing with the legacy of Peter Sellers/Blake Edwards movies, which were kind of risqué. We had some of that in the movie, and we realized that for this movie ["The Pink Panther 2"], the audiences that loved it were families.
And so you have to be very careful that you don’t suddenly start trying to appeal to a specific audience, and then you’ve sold yourself out. Because what they loved about the first movie is that it might’ve been a little risqué. So you have to be very careful that you don’t become pandering … The hair-washing scene works, because these are two lonely guys in Paris who think, "Let’s go out on the town!" And they end up shampooing each other’s hair.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
You do so many stunts in the movie. Do you want to do more action films?
I’ve always dreamed of doing an action picture, because I know that they would spend days shooting a car and I would be home relaxing and I’d come in at the last minute and sit behind the wheel and go, "What?" And then I’d go back home, have dinner and go to a play and then come back two days later and go, "I told you so." It doesn’t work out that way, actually.
I would say the stunt I felt the trickiest on was the every opening scene where I’m giving the guy a parking ticket, and then I get my hand caught in the car and I’m running alongside the car. The way that was actually done — don’t tell anybody — there was actually a little running board they put by the car, so I didn’t have to run on the ground. But you know how hard it is to run in place? It’s harder than running. And I have to make it look like my legs are hitting a foot below that point, make it look genuine. So I did that stunt, but then there was another high angle where someone else actually did [the stunt].
What about the scene with you walking on the globe?
I did the walking on the globe, but it’s a contraption ... You know, special effects. I was supported by wires.
Steve Martin
You’re a musician who performs bluegrass. What are your early memories of performing bluegrass?
I was 23 and I worked at a club called the Metro and there was me (I was the headliner, I think) there was Tony Trischka’s band and there was Buckingham Nicks. We opened and not one person came. I went to the owner and said, "You don’t have to pay me. I’ll just go." He said, "No, let’s give it another night." The next night, no one came. And then he said, "OK." I was strictly interested in three-finger bluegrass. Earl Scruggs … and those Appalachian mountain players.
What can you say about working with your "Pink Panther 2" co-star Jean Reno?
The rapport that Jean and I have onscreen is real. He has a very dry sense of humor. He’s way ahead of the game when it comes to understanding comedy.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
What was the biggest challenge writing your autobiography, "Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life"?
The biggest challenge was remembering. It’s interesting how your own history can be found outside your own mind in talking to other people, going through memorabilia, which I just, through the years, just throw in a cardboard box. I described it in the book like it was an archeological dig. Everything was in sequence. At the bottom was the oldest.
It was also a writing challenge, because I felt you had to be very careful. I don’t want to brag, but I don’t want to deny accomplishments. That was the little challenge that I enjoyed. It’s really because I know that we’re lucky, and I know that I’ve received inspiration from other people, you naturally are humble.
I was talking to someone to someone on the phone yesterday, doing an interview, and they said, "You sound so humble." I said, "Comedy makes you humble, because there are opportunities to miss and strike out."
Do you think you’ll write a follow-up to your autobiography?
No, and I’ll tell you why … I wanted to write step-by-step what had happened to get me to a certain place. But then, after 1980, I was just doing movies. Then it becomes an anecdotal "then I met" … and there’s no story.
I’ll just say one thing about comedy. In any other profession when you make it, you end up wearing a suit, sitting behind a desk. But when you make it in show business, you end up in a clown suit riding on an elephant.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
What can you say about working with Emily Mortimer and Aishwarya Rai on "The Pink Panther"?
Emily is such a delight. She’s also funny in life. She has a great sense of humor. Going to work with Jean [Reno} and Emily [Mortimer] and John Cleese in the morning, you’re not walking into a tense situation; you’re walking into a funny situation already.
Aishwarya, I didn’t know about her before the movie and that she’s a major star [in India] and can’t walk down the street, which of course, I’m jealous of. She married one of India’s top actors, so they made headlines. She was very, very nice and sweet. You never know what you’re going to get into and he was great.
You hold the record for hosting "Saturday Night Live" the most times. How do you feel about hosting the show after all these years? Do you get nervous?
It’s still live, so it never gets to be old hat. There’s still that little surge of energy before you go out there. I tend to prepare for it.
Do you still keep in touch with Martin Short and Chevy Chase, your "Three Amigos" co-stars?
Yeah, we do. We talk every once in a while. Chevy doesn’t live in California, so we don’t get an opportunity to see him as much, but definitely Marty.
Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther 2"
Do you think acting keeps people young at heart?
Well, I think it’s true, because you have to think. I’ve said before that acting keeps me alert to people and life, because you can sense bad acting, which is essentially lying. If someone’s acting poorly toward you, you can feel it and tell something insincere is happening. There’s something about going into work early in the morning and working hard and having to stay concentrated. It keeps your mind alive.
At one point did you realize that you wanted to put out an album of bluegrass music?
It’s really that I had enough songs. I realized, "Oh, I have 15 songs here. That’s enough for a record." And I wasn’t doing anything that summer, and I thought, "If I don’t do it now, my fingers might slow down or I might forget the songs." So we quickly got some people together and did the record. It was really fun.
How do you feel about the being in the public eye and losing a certain amount of your privacy as a celebrity?
I wrote it in my book. I said, "I might sound like I want celebrity when I want it and don’t want it when I don’t want it." That is absolutely true.
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