Chicago, IL -
"Without a Paddle" starring Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard opens in theatres on August 20th.
A high-speed comedy-adventure in which three young guys go into the Oregon wilderness in search of lost treasure. They take a canoe upriver and everything that can go wrong does. Hunted by two backwoods dope farmers, they encounter death-defying rapids, tree-hugging hippie chicks and a crazy old mountain man played by Burt Reynolds. [Movie Stills]
Enter the "Without a Paddle" ChicagoPride.com contest, running through August 20th.
We've got a quick Q&A with Seth, Dax and Matthew.
SETH GREEN
In the movie, you have some great outdoor adventures. Are you an outdoorsy kind of guy?
Look at my complexion. Do I look like I’ve ever seen the sun?
“Without A Paddle” is kind of a coming of age story for thirty-year-olds. Do you see yourself making any kind of transition to more serious roles?
I go where the work is. I mean, “Party Monster” was a more serious role and I did that because it came to me and it was the right thing to do... I find things when they come to me and when they’re important I’ll chase them, because that’s when I know I can do my best work. Donald De Line, who produced the Italian Job, called me and said “I think we got something here,” and I read it and there were a bunch of good ideas. Then they talked about Matt and I said, “Please put Matt and I on a movie together.” And then I got to read with Dax and I was like, “Oh my gosh! If you put the three of us together in a movie, we will do the job for you, we will do the job!” And we did! We all came to play.
Your character is more serious than the others. Did you have to reign in your comic instincts?
Everybody had straight-man moments in this movie. There wasn’t going to be a competition of comedians. We all had the opportunity to be funny, to be sincere, to be romantic. It was great and as a result we were a support for each other. You can see how well we got along and how much fun we were having when you see the movie.
Let’s talk about the bear attack, because that is one of the funnier scenes.
Whenever I read a script, if I start getting a lot of ideas, I know it’s something that I should do. And the second I read that bear attack scene I was like “Dude! This is a great moment for an hysterical crying jag!” Like it’s sad and upsetting when you see somebody crying hysterically but at the same time it’s really funny.
And they used a real bear?
It was a 1,500 pound eight-and-a-half foot bear. Let me just tell you that guy does not necessarily understand where his marks and cues are. It’s all catch is as catch can. It’s a trained bear but it’s a bear, so there was a healthy amount of respect for that. We were instructed in the script to do everything that you’re not supposed to do to a bear; look at it in the eye, run in fear, display any kind of emotion, you know what I mean? What you avoid doing around a bear is what we were doing every day.
You survive a bear attack and a shoot-out in the pot field, do you have any wilderness tips at all to share?
Stay out of the wilderness. I’m a city mouse. It’s like urban jungle for me!
Seth, how do you deal with fame? It’s funny because we just spoke to Tom Cruise about living an anonymous life--
Hold on a just a second. That’s kinda like asking Gary Coleman how his foray into politics compares with John Kerry.
But you have a huge following.
(with sarcasm) Oh, don’t get me wrong! I’m famous, man! I can’t walk down the street without someone yelling my name. But, I live my life normally. I do my own thing. There are certain things that I avoid because it’s smart to avoid, you know, hanging out in public schools or going to the mall in the summertime. I try to avoid things that I know are stupid, but if I get approached, it’s usually a pretty comfortable approach. It’s manageable, it’s manageable. We’ll see if it maintains that, but for the last few years, it’s changed and evolved and I’ve changed and evolved with it, it’s manageable.
MATTHEW LILLARD
They say you’re the responsible one of the group.
I am the responsible one. The funny thing is to keep up with those guys is ridiculous. [When] Dax is on his A-game, he’s a funny, funny man.
What about you?
Me? I’m not so funny. I’m a hack. It says right here, (grabs my notecard) Matthew Lillard is a hack.
So you’re just a good actor?
Yes, I’m only funny when I’m cut together well.
How much fun was it to do the scene where you’re running through the pot field?
It was great. In fact the director’s cut of that will probably be extraordinarily funny, but because it’s a PG-13, we couldn’t do a lot of stuff because it dealt with marijuana.
Did you have to prepare yourselves for it in a physical way?
To be high for two days at that level would be nothing but exhausting. Plus, I don’t smoke dope.
What about the white water?
You know, it’s crazy. It doesn’t look that bad from the shore but when you’re in the water, it’s just a mountain of white wash. And it’s a pretty famous class three wave. There’s a reason why it’s famous, because it’s pretty big and, you know, I just watched playback from the shore and it’s a little scary. It’s a lot scary!
Where did the motif of the 80’s movies come from? Is that anything you guys brought to the table?
No, that was one of the elements of the script… We are relatively apt at improv. And Steve coming from the level of Sandler is ready to improv. So we did a lot of improv work. A lot of the moments in the trailer and the moments throughout the film come out of improv.
Do you think because it’s guys on a road trip it’s going to be more of a guys movie than a girl movie?
My character is a thirty-year-old guy who has a great girlfriend and a great job and is just looking for something else… I think men are apt to escape in a moment’s notice. It’s just escapism, right? It’s a journey, it’s camaraderie.
DAX SHEPARD
Did you guys get into much trouble in New Zealand when you weren’t working?
You know, we all had our hobbies. Seth’s hobby was drinking…and staying up ‘til six in the morning and then working at seven in the morning and be completely fine and better than all of us. I really got in to all the ridiculous action/adventure hobbies you could do there... They have this mountain…where you get on this plastic cart and its got no brakes and you just go down this hill at fifty and everyone’s got road rash at the end. There’s no suing in New Zealand so they let you jump off a building into a bucket of syringes – ten bucks and everyone’s happy with that.
What was it like working in the cold waters of a river?
I think it’s very clear I separated myself from the boys, established myself as the man on this shoot. “Oh, I’m cold. This sucks! Blah, blah, blah!” Here’s me, “Bring it on! Put some ice cubes in it! I don’t care!”
Along with the laughs, there’s some feeling and emotions. Was that a tough part of the piece to make them real and make us care rather than to just laugh at you?
I think the dynamic of the friendship is what makes you at the end of the day care for each one of these characters, because my character could be very unlikable; I make fun of Seth the whole time, I’m irresponsible at every turn, but you see that those guys still love me a lot and somehow, as the viewer, you can kind of see why they like me… I think that palpable friendship that we all had in real life kind of transcended into the film and does help you care for us.
Does it make it easier when you have to audition having done improv?
I think it’s been valuable to me… Generally auditions aren’t perfect. They haven’t been written specifically for you, and I feel like you can put your own spin on it… They’ve (directors) heard someone read the same thing you’ve read probably 2,000 times before you come in there. I mean anything you can do differently, in my opinion, is going to help you and make you stick out in their mind. Anything I’ve ever booked I’ve gone crazy with...
You were talking about movies with cars. You mentioned “Smokey and the Bandit” and now you’ve worked with Burt.
Exactly! “Smokey and the Bandit” is my single favorite movie because it has fast cars and Jackie Gleason – the ultimate master of improv… I was in cab in Las Vegas and I was talking to the director and he said we got Burt Reynolds today, I wanted to punch the cab driver from the news, and just go “Do you understand what is happening? Not only do I get to be in a movie, but I get to be in it with my hero, Burt Reynolds!!” I was just a giddy eleven-year-old girl in the scenes with him just staring at him.
So was working with Burt Reynolds everything you thought it would be?
He was not as good of a kisser as I had anticipated. He was everything and more. He immediately put himself on our level and was just like one of the guys. He just hung out with us and was hilarious.
Do you still talk to him?
Yeah. I talk to him to this day. I’ve been to his house for lunch, it was awesome.
A high-speed comedy-adventure in which three young guys go into the Oregon wilderness in search of lost treasure. They take a canoe upriver and everything that can go wrong does. Hunted by two backwoods dope farmers, they encounter death-defying rapids, tree-hugging hippie chicks and a crazy old mountain man played by Burt Reynolds. [Movie Stills]
Enter the "Without a Paddle" ChicagoPride.com contest, running through August 20th.
We've got a quick Q&A with Seth, Dax and Matthew.
SETH GREEN
In the movie, you have some great outdoor adventures. Are you an outdoorsy kind of guy?
Look at my complexion. Do I look like I’ve ever seen the sun?
“Without A Paddle” is kind of a coming of age story for thirty-year-olds. Do you see yourself making any kind of transition to more serious roles?
I go where the work is. I mean, “Party Monster” was a more serious role and I did that because it came to me and it was the right thing to do... I find things when they come to me and when they’re important I’ll chase them, because that’s when I know I can do my best work. Donald De Line, who produced the Italian Job, called me and said “I think we got something here,” and I read it and there were a bunch of good ideas. Then they talked about Matt and I said, “Please put Matt and I on a movie together.” And then I got to read with Dax and I was like, “Oh my gosh! If you put the three of us together in a movie, we will do the job for you, we will do the job!” And we did! We all came to play.
Your character is more serious than the others. Did you have to reign in your comic instincts?
Everybody had straight-man moments in this movie. There wasn’t going to be a competition of comedians. We all had the opportunity to be funny, to be sincere, to be romantic. It was great and as a result we were a support for each other. You can see how well we got along and how much fun we were having when you see the movie.
Let’s talk about the bear attack, because that is one of the funnier scenes.
Whenever I read a script, if I start getting a lot of ideas, I know it’s something that I should do. And the second I read that bear attack scene I was like “Dude! This is a great moment for an hysterical crying jag!” Like it’s sad and upsetting when you see somebody crying hysterically but at the same time it’s really funny.
And they used a real bear?
It was a 1,500 pound eight-and-a-half foot bear. Let me just tell you that guy does not necessarily understand where his marks and cues are. It’s all catch is as catch can. It’s a trained bear but it’s a bear, so there was a healthy amount of respect for that. We were instructed in the script to do everything that you’re not supposed to do to a bear; look at it in the eye, run in fear, display any kind of emotion, you know what I mean? What you avoid doing around a bear is what we were doing every day.
You survive a bear attack and a shoot-out in the pot field, do you have any wilderness tips at all to share?
Stay out of the wilderness. I’m a city mouse. It’s like urban jungle for me!
Seth, how do you deal with fame? It’s funny because we just spoke to Tom Cruise about living an anonymous life--
Hold on a just a second. That’s kinda like asking Gary Coleman how his foray into politics compares with John Kerry.
But you have a huge following.
(with sarcasm) Oh, don’t get me wrong! I’m famous, man! I can’t walk down the street without someone yelling my name. But, I live my life normally. I do my own thing. There are certain things that I avoid because it’s smart to avoid, you know, hanging out in public schools or going to the mall in the summertime. I try to avoid things that I know are stupid, but if I get approached, it’s usually a pretty comfortable approach. It’s manageable, it’s manageable. We’ll see if it maintains that, but for the last few years, it’s changed and evolved and I’ve changed and evolved with it, it’s manageable.
MATTHEW LILLARD
They say you’re the responsible one of the group.
I am the responsible one. The funny thing is to keep up with those guys is ridiculous. [When] Dax is on his A-game, he’s a funny, funny man.
What about you?
Me? I’m not so funny. I’m a hack. It says right here, (grabs my notecard) Matthew Lillard is a hack.
So you’re just a good actor?
Yes, I’m only funny when I’m cut together well.
How much fun was it to do the scene where you’re running through the pot field?
It was great. In fact the director’s cut of that will probably be extraordinarily funny, but because it’s a PG-13, we couldn’t do a lot of stuff because it dealt with marijuana.
Did you have to prepare yourselves for it in a physical way?
To be high for two days at that level would be nothing but exhausting. Plus, I don’t smoke dope.
What about the white water?
You know, it’s crazy. It doesn’t look that bad from the shore but when you’re in the water, it’s just a mountain of white wash. And it’s a pretty famous class three wave. There’s a reason why it’s famous, because it’s pretty big and, you know, I just watched playback from the shore and it’s a little scary. It’s a lot scary!
Where did the motif of the 80’s movies come from? Is that anything you guys brought to the table?
No, that was one of the elements of the script… We are relatively apt at improv. And Steve coming from the level of Sandler is ready to improv. So we did a lot of improv work. A lot of the moments in the trailer and the moments throughout the film come out of improv.
Do you think because it’s guys on a road trip it’s going to be more of a guys movie than a girl movie?
My character is a thirty-year-old guy who has a great girlfriend and a great job and is just looking for something else… I think men are apt to escape in a moment’s notice. It’s just escapism, right? It’s a journey, it’s camaraderie.
DAX SHEPARD
Did you guys get into much trouble in New Zealand when you weren’t working?
You know, we all had our hobbies. Seth’s hobby was drinking…and staying up ‘til six in the morning and then working at seven in the morning and be completely fine and better than all of us. I really got in to all the ridiculous action/adventure hobbies you could do there... They have this mountain…where you get on this plastic cart and its got no brakes and you just go down this hill at fifty and everyone’s got road rash at the end. There’s no suing in New Zealand so they let you jump off a building into a bucket of syringes – ten bucks and everyone’s happy with that.
What was it like working in the cold waters of a river?
I think it’s very clear I separated myself from the boys, established myself as the man on this shoot. “Oh, I’m cold. This sucks! Blah, blah, blah!” Here’s me, “Bring it on! Put some ice cubes in it! I don’t care!”
Along with the laughs, there’s some feeling and emotions. Was that a tough part of the piece to make them real and make us care rather than to just laugh at you?
I think the dynamic of the friendship is what makes you at the end of the day care for each one of these characters, because my character could be very unlikable; I make fun of Seth the whole time, I’m irresponsible at every turn, but you see that those guys still love me a lot and somehow, as the viewer, you can kind of see why they like me… I think that palpable friendship that we all had in real life kind of transcended into the film and does help you care for us.
Does it make it easier when you have to audition having done improv?
I think it’s been valuable to me… Generally auditions aren’t perfect. They haven’t been written specifically for you, and I feel like you can put your own spin on it… They’ve (directors) heard someone read the same thing you’ve read probably 2,000 times before you come in there. I mean anything you can do differently, in my opinion, is going to help you and make you stick out in their mind. Anything I’ve ever booked I’ve gone crazy with...
You were talking about movies with cars. You mentioned “Smokey and the Bandit” and now you’ve worked with Burt.
Exactly! “Smokey and the Bandit” is my single favorite movie because it has fast cars and Jackie Gleason – the ultimate master of improv… I was in cab in Las Vegas and I was talking to the director and he said we got Burt Reynolds today, I wanted to punch the cab driver from the news, and just go “Do you understand what is happening? Not only do I get to be in a movie, but I get to be in it with my hero, Burt Reynolds!!” I was just a giddy eleven-year-old girl in the scenes with him just staring at him.
So was working with Burt Reynolds everything you thought it would be?
He was not as good of a kisser as I had anticipated. He was everything and more. He immediately put himself on our level and was just like one of the guys. He just hung out with us and was hilarious.
Do you still talk to him?
Yeah. I talk to him to this day. I’ve been to his house for lunch, it was awesome.
