Anyway, the reason I got to participate in a roundtable interview with Shooter (Christopher) is that he’s the villain in “Superhero Movie.” The film is a spoof of all the popular comic book movies to hit the screen recently, but it’s mostly spoofing “Spider-Man.” So if you’ve seen Spidey… Chris essentially plays The Green Goblin. The film is from writer/director Craig Mazin and he’s previously done Scary Movie 3 and 4, so if you enjoy those kinds of spoofs, I’m sure you’ll like this.

And while I won’t have the time to transcribe all the interviews I participated in for “Superhero Movie,” if you’d like to listen to the audio of the interviews just click on the following names - Marion Ross, Director Craig Mazin and Producer Robert K. Weiss. And if you’d like to listen to the audio of the Christopher McDonald interview same thing. Click on his name.

Finally, if you want to watch some movie clips from “Superhero Movie” they’re here. And with that….here’s Chris.

Question: How are you doing today, sir?

Christopher McDonald: I’m great. Thanks.  Did you guys see the movie?

Question: Yes, we did.

Christopher McDonald: Did you see it last night?

Question: Yeah, we saw it.

Christopher McDonald: I wanted to see it with an audience - even a tough crowd like you guys.

Question: They invited people into it.

Christopher: Oh yeah, they did, yeah.  But it was good.  I got some laughs from the people.  I was like, “oh my God.  It’s infectious” and then everybody starts going, you know it is pretty funny. The farting is going on a little long but it is pretty funny.

Q: I want to let you know I had the loudest laugh for the I shat my pants.

Christopher: Oh good thank you. Thank you.  I shat my pants. That was one of my audition lines and I thought God, I’m going to say that in a movie and I love it.

Q: Do you embrace that kind of stuff?

Christopher: You know, I’ve never done a spoof movie before. I mean, everybody who does a straight movie always spoofs it on the side, you know, but they never bring it on.  And the producers and directors were really bright to go, now let’s really do this Superhero because we all love superhero movies and then to see them do this was a challenge.  As soon as I sat down with Craig Mazin, I was supposed to be the crazy editor part.  And I was just coming to meet and greet, he said  “yeah, I love you.  You’re great. I love you. You can do it.  Nobody can do it like you.  You’ll be terrific.”  And then we just started talking and doing this whole thing and God, he’s so funny.  Have you sat with him yet?

Q: Not yet, no.

Christopher: He’s one of the funnies human beings I’ve ever met.  He’s just quick.  Just smart and I love him.  I just thought it was great and we did the old “okay kid put here there” like we were old moguls at old Warner Brothers. It was so funny.  So on the way out the door I said hey, who’s playing the Hourglass/Lou Landers?  He goes why don’t you just take that material and come in tomorrow and give it a run and we’ll play with it.  I went, “great”.  I took it home, went in the next day and worked for like an hour and a half and he said it’s great.  Bob Weinstein walked in and he said I was the easiest casting of everybody. So I said, “yes!”.  So my one day part turned into the run of the movie which was really fun.

Q: So what’s the difference, you’ve done the villain in a lot of the straight comedies is a weird way to say it but so what’s the difference to do the outright spoof of it?

Christopher: Laughter.  Laughter is good.  It’s just funny the way he says some of the stupidest lines in the world.  Craig Mazin said to me, “you know how hard it is to write those stupid lines?” It’s like it’s so funny.  You basically getting carte blanche to be as big and chew as much scenery as you can because first of all a superhero needs a super villain or else it just you know…they made a movie about it called “Mystery Men”.  It was like, “We need a super villain.  Who can we get?”   But it’s just carte blanche to do everything, plus when they give you the kick-ass, sexy, hot, uncomfortable costume. Oh my God. I loved that.  It took forever to put it on but once you’re in it you’re tougher and bigger and meaner than anyone around.  It was just an absolute riot to do it.

Q: Did you keep the costume?

Christopher: No, but I’m working on that. I’m working on that.  It only takes 4 people to put it together that’s the problem.  I’d have to train my children.  No, not that way! Because everything is like little tiny screws and things like that and pull it in and I had to wear a man girdle. Yeah, I said it.  I had to look like this, so it was fun.

Q: How much ad libbing is done on a set like this?  I mean where you think of bits or a pratfall or whatever and how much did you have input into maybe your character or maybe the costume.

Christopher: I had a lot of input into how I walked and moved in the costume but mostly everything was scripted.  I did ad-lib a couple of things, I don’t think they made it to the movie, but Craig really knows what he wants. He knows what’s funny.  On the set there was like…on the day…a thing that did last in the movie was I’d go to kill him and say douche bag.  That was one of the funniest moments with douche bag night was unbelievable. But anyway, I go backstage and I throw the thing away and he goes, “finally I got you Lou Landers” and I turn around he looks away, it could be that guy, and I go to kill him because that’s how I suck his energy out, and then he said okay, pull your hand back, pull your hand back and put it in your nose, yeah, yeah. Do that.  So we did it like 8 times and I’m going, “oh my God.”  It’s funny and then it’s like oh my God it’s probably going to end up in the movie.  That’s how other smarter actors protect themselves.  They just go, “I just can’t make that work.  Was it one finger or 2? Is it a thumb?” and they go, “yeah, okay we’ll move on.”  But I, of course, will try anything and actually it was kind of funny.  But at the time it was an improv moment that I thought was going to go to hell but it actually worked.

Q: So you’ve been playing the villain in these comedies for a long time.  When did that start for you?

Christopher: That’s a good question and to think they didn’t think of me right out in front and say hey, you’re a super villain.  You’re perfect.  You’re a villain in all these things. It started with I guess “Thelma and Louise” when I was like this villainous husband, but you know, they had to either choose to go back to their husbands or go over the cliff.  So you gotta figure you gotta be pretty whooo out there and they chose the cliff clearly.  But that’s what really started it and then I was offered every red-neck hayseed in the world and I just tried to do a different spin on different things every time.  Like immediately after this movie I went and did a serious drama.  You have to balance them out.  But I’ve been doing a lot of villains like in “Happy Gilmore” and so it basically started with “Thelma and Louise” and I started really enjoying it.  I played the other guys and it’s sort of like you know, it’s good you’re right there. You’re the lead guy and you have a lot of empathy and that’s good.  I like playing the villain guys that also have flaws, but they don’t let you do that sometimes.  They want the story to be black and white.  Not a lot of gray, which is unfortunate because I’ve been asked to do that and I put that it and it never makes the movie. I’m like oh, God.  You can’t play him as a villain.  You gotta play him as a person first, you know, that has different needs.  But not Lou.  Lou just wanted to take over the world, so you can’t blame him.  But he had that accident in the chair so you can’t really blame the guy.

How many times have you turned around with someone saying “Shooter”?

Christopher: Oh, a day?

Yeah.

Christopher: About 8 a day.  Yeah, it’s a lot.  It’s good. I used to be…like in airports it’s the worst because people they’re getting a little bit more bold now, but back in the day it was like [whispering] “it’s Shooter McGavin” and as I walked about 8-15 yards they went “Hey Shooter!” and I went “yeah” like this and just keep walking and it’s just so great but now it’s like “Dude.  Shooter” and then “Yup, how are you doin’?” It’s great that they…I just heard from the military, I was doing a thing last night meeting some of our brave men and women coming back and they said it’s the number one comedy they always watch and they watch it every week.  It’s like “Happy Gilmore” put her in and just laugh and that’s a good thing.  But I do get it a lot and especially at sporting events and airports and things like that.

Q: I was also going to… you were in “Fanboys” which has been delayed and all that stuff.  Could you talk a little bit about your character in the film and also do you know what’s going on with the movie?

Christopher: The first question: I play the lead boy’s father, Sam father.  And I have wanted him in the family business and that kind of thing and I still think it’s basically cameos and they brought a lot of people as you know they’ve got everybody but Harrison Ford from the “Star Wars” movies, but he was busy doing something else. Anyway, it’s Dimension Films.  What I was told was…so anyway let me tell you about…he plays my son and goes on this road trip and I wanted to give him the business and my older son is like a total buffoon and he ends up running this car business and I spend too much time in the sun clearly because it’s really…they wanted me to be tan.  You remember like that old lady in the Farrelly Brothers movie “Something About Mary”? She looked like a leather suitcase?   Yeah, that’s me in this movie. “It’s a tough guy who talks like this and he says c’mon kids let’s do this” and he’s a used car salesman. A lot of fun to do.  Anyway, the movie is 75% great, so the 25% is being rewritten and re-shot. Because they liked this movie they just said, “hey it’s almost there.  Let’s put a little bit more time and money and effect into it and make it just a winner”.

Q: Are you going to go back and re-shoot anything?

Christopher: Me?  I don’t think so.  No, they said my stuff was great.  It’s story.  It’s basically story.  They wanted to get a little bit more of a …and this one was gags so let’s bring in some tits, oh yeah, Pam Anderson let’s get her in here.  Let’s bring in some you know…who else can we spoof.  Hmmm.  Wolf Man, let’s bring him in.  That kind of stuff.

Q: Do you think they’ll leave the cancer part in it?

Christopher: Yeah. 

Q: You know there’s a lot of stuff going on with them thinking about removing the cancer storyline.  They’ve been testing it with both versions.

Christopher: Oh no kidding?

Q: Yeah.

Christopher: I didn’t know that much even.  I thought they’d leave it in because I thought that was the script we made.

Q: That’s exactly what most fans are thinking, but the Weinstein company…just sorry for taking this out of turn but the Weinstein company is doing 2 different versions. One with cancer and one without and they’re testing it and Steve Brill has come in and they’re kind of fucking with the movie.

Christopher: Well, yeah but they’re ultimately trying to make it better because the movie is supposed to be quite great, but it just needs a little bit of a tweaking.  So I thought the cancer thing gave it impetuous to go.  That was…there’s cancer everywhere, so I hope they don’t lose it.

Q: With this film, which scene did you do that you just couldn’t get through without laughing?

Christopher: In this movie?  Let’s see.  It was the I shat myself.  That scene…we did it a lot and we just tried to get each other going and then it was—and we tried different ways of doing it and different things but I think what we have is one of the earlier takes.  But it was so silly and my job was to crack the crew up because your only audience is right there.  It was working pretty good there and then it’s amazing, I mean, when I watched the flatulence scene if you will, I said I cannot believe—it’s funny and then oh my God you get repulsed and then it goes this way whoooo and you go it’s too funny.  The tears and the thing up her nose and oh my God it’s funny.  So I was watching them when they were doing it because I came in the…blew in door the next minute. And you want to react to things like that.  Like I wanted to do this take where I was going, ooosh or something because of the gaseous smell, but didn’t.  Didn’t make it, so anyway.  It’s amazing when they get into the editing room on a movie like this and they know what they’re doing God knows that they’re successful.  It’s cut, cut, cut, gag, gag, gag, gag, air?  No cut that out.  Gag, gag, gag.  It’s really something and that’s why I think people that’ll see it will want to see it again just because they missed it.  Missed a lot of it because of the laughter. They were laughing last night and the people missed the next joke…next 2 jokes.  I thought that was great.

continued on page 2 ------->

Page 2 >>>