What I love about Brit comedies is that you guys bank on awkwardness or discomfort. Why do you think Brit comedies are funnier than American comedies in many cases?
Dan Mazer: What the Brits have is that they’re very reserved. We’re very worried about what people think about us. We’re not kinda outgoing and extroverts in any sense, so we’re worried about politeness and manners and propriety, and that’s always exciting from a comedic point of view because that gives you something to work with, work against. The thing about rules, it’s good to have rules because then fighting against them is funny. I love school, not for the normal reasons of learning, but I like the fact that there’s an authority to rebel against and react against. That’s the same I think in comedy, if there’s something that you’re supposed to do then equally there has to be something that you’re not supposed to do.
What does it say when you bring a Stephen Merchant in, what does that do, because everything he’s saying is true, you can’t say that, but the fact is he does say it.
Dan Mazer: Stephen’s amazing. He’s sort of a national treasure in Britain, and doesn’t really do that much stuff that isn’t his own or isn’t with Ricky [Gervais]. I sorta knew Stephen a bit, and he’s the only part that I wrote particularly with him in mind, because he’s so foot in mouth, say the most inappropriate thing, better than anyone else. And there’s something, even though it’s unbelievably offensive, there’s something innately charming about him that only he can get away with, because he is so awkward, and he is that uncomfortable that you just think, ‘oh, it’s fun.’ It’s just him in some sense. He’s got such a brilliant and unique humor. It’s just great to have somebody so funny in their own rite in your cast because you have the lines, and he improvised around them and made them his own, and just made it brilliantly funny.
Most of the actors in your cast have great comedic timing. How is your directing style with people who have already done comedies in the past? Do you just let them have creative freedom or how touchy are you?
Dan Mazer: A bit of both. I was pretty hands on because I knew how I wanted this thing to be, but what was great was that most of the time they knew how things should be anyway so they basically got it right. And the thing is, because of what we do, people ask me “Was there a lot of improvisation in the movie?” – and actually there was a bit. Not as much as probably people imagine. The thing is we’d get the scene as scripted, and then we’d go off and do a couple of takes where people did there own thing. Here’s the thing, if you have people that are as funny as Anna Farris, and all of them – Rose, Rafe, Stephen – it would crazy to constrict them in any sense, so they’d go off and they’d do their own thing, and make things funny. But they’re also funny people in their own rite, I never felt like I had to tell them ‘this is funny because..’ They’re not just actors who can be funny, they are funny people who could act.
In the threesome scene, with Anna Farris, was that just them kinda going for it or did you specifically want certain positions, or movement, or how did that work out? As a director, how did you figure out that stuff?
Dan Mazer: It was a bit of both, actually. That was the scene we probably rehearsed more than any other, which was incredibly awkward to do, I have to say. Especially as a British person. I can’t even sorta say the word ‘sex’ without kinda blushing or even right now, I kinda close my eyes in embarrassment. That was pretty tightly choreographed, but then things would go wrong and people would end up in a different position. What was brilliant about Anna was that she just absolutely rolled with that, and made it her own. It’s so brave as a performer to just kinda throw yourself into that. A lot of that came directly from Anna, actually.
And the line “You guys still have your underwear on,” was that in the script or was that just her improvising?
Dan Mazer: Actually, we did that in post. I just wanted a button for that scene, I just wanted one line, and you’ll notice it’s kinda off-camera. I sat there in the edit and thought what would be great, and a couple [of people] said to me before “Does it bother you that they’ve got their underwear on?” – and I said, what’s the option? I can’t do an entirely naked scene because we’d be NC-17, so I thought I’d embrace the kinda idiocy of that.
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