Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis speak up on Kevin Smith's 'Cop Out'
What does the '30 Rock' actor say of the 'Jaws' 3-D remake rumors?
Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis in "Cop Out"
Credit: Warner Bros.
In a lot of ways, pairing Tracy Morgan with Bruce Willis seems previously unimaginable, practically conceptual: but fantasy becomes reality with Warner Bros.’ “Cop Out,” due Friday.
At a film junket in New York, there’s Willis -- one of the most famous faces of police action flicks -- sitting next to Tracy Morgan, a comedian with the presence of a human non-sequitur. As the two discussed the Kevin Smith-directed buddy-cop comedy, Willis would wait to answer his questions, speaking quietly as Morgan played sideshow, raising his eyebrows back at his handlers or giving the “these eyes are looking at you” double-finger gesture to the handful of journos in the room.
Morgan, like his character detective Paul Hodges in the film, looked to Willis (detective Jimmy Monroe) as his anchor, the one who talked sense, as they worked through the process of creating chemistry on camera.
“When I’m around [Willis], I’m always learning on how to do this stuff. I haven’t done this stuff a lot, but when we were shooting we never worried about that. We just went towards the funny,” Morgan said, tapping his co-star on the chest. “So we never got into worrying about stuff like [the] buddy-cop [genre] or who we’re going to be compared to. We transcended all that and just wanted to make you guys laugh.”
“Exactly right. I don’t think we ever discussed any other genre film that came close to ours—ever,” Willis agreed.
“I think we just jumped in headfirst.”
“We just hit the ground running.”
“He was on like popcorn.”
It’s difficult now to imagine the movie through a lens of who would have been the original leads -- Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg – with speedy and random dialogue and moments of raw improv.
“We had timing… to find that timing that allows dialogue to go twice as fast,” Willis says. “We kept a lot of hard-core sh** in the movie. But… there are some things that were too hard to stay in the film. Kevin’s job, more than anything, was to keep us from getting too wild.”
“There were some late nights, man! You get delirious. Woo!” Morgan shouted, his hands flinging imaginary confetti.
“A lot of those scenes you won’t be seeing in the film… [Smith’s] got a great eye. He’s got his own sense of timing and he’s got his own sense of humor—very dark sense of humor,” Willis says.
“Yeah. Like Dr. Frankenstein. He’s alive! He’s alive!” Scratching at the air.
Morgan plans to continue down this path of TV and movie comedy, so directing or producing is going to have to wait. “The whole process--the outcome, the finish, people laughing, people going to the movies with their family, getting Goobers and popcorn and walking out feeling good -- that’s what we shot for. We didn’t shoot for black cop/white cop thing. We never mentioned it because we went straight for the funny.”
The actor also denies involvement in a rumored “Jaws” 3-D remake, though insists that, were it to happen, he’s cast as Captain Sam Quint.
"Cop Out" opens nationwide on Friday. Get tickets and showtimes here.
After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.
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February 23, 2010 at 9:39PM EST Reply to CommentThey like this
Reno
February 23, 2010 at 10:30PM EST Reply to CommentThis movie looks like one of the parody movies in Tracy Jordan's dressing room on 30 Rock, but I'd rather see Who Dat Ninja or Fat Bitch.
mak
February 24, 2010 at 12:04AM EST Reply to CommentWill Ferrell and Marky Mark are in a different buddy cop movie - B Team. They were never the original leads in this.
katie, a princess Kevin Smith confirmed that Marky Mark and Will Ferrell were the original leads for this. stay tuned for his complete interview to be posted today.
February 24, 2010 at 1:17PM ESTJohn
February 24, 2010 at 1:53PM EST Reply to CommentAnyone else notice that Smith's name isn't being promoted overtly in the movie trailers or the TV ads?