While The Hangover receives a lot of credit for creating the recent R-rated comedy boom, the short-term memory of audiences has forgotten that back in 2005, director David Dobkin was behind the biggest R-rated comedy of all-time with Wedding Crashers. The film grossed over $200 million domestic off a $40 million budget, and raked up a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But even if you set those other factors aside, you would still have a hilarious movie that stands on its own as Dobkin skillfully wove together raunchy comedy, dark humor, and a surprising amount of heart. After taking a detour with the PG Fred Claus, Dobkin has returned to R-rated comedy and while eclipsing Wedding Crashers is a high bar, he may have cleared it with his new film The Change-Up. The film stars Jason Batetman and Ryan Reynolds as two old friends who piss in a fountain and end up switching bodies. Freaky Friday this is not.My fellow movie bloggers and I spoke with Dobkin on the set of the film and talked about his return to R-rated comedy, borrowing the visual language of the traditionally family-film oriented "body-switching comedy", what appealed to him about the story, and much more. Hit the jump to check out the interview. The Change-Up opens August 5th.You did Wedding Crashers and then you did a PG movie, so did you feel like you had to get back to doing R-rated raunchy material or was it just a great script that came your way?DAVID DOBKIN: It really wasnât about⦠itâs really about the material. This script was fantastic and I really lit up to it, and for me, the only reason to go back to this arena was there was something really worthwhile. In comedy in general in my opinion, thereâs not that many good scripts, just few and far between, and then maybe some cast members get attracted to the ideas and then you get in there. Itâs a lot of work putting it all together. This script came very fully formed, and it was easy to see that it was going to be very funny.Had The Hangover already come out or was that around the same time?DOBKIN: I think it had already came out when I got the script, when these guys sent it to me, yeah.There are some great visual gags in Wedding Crashers. Do you have a chance to play with that in this one?DOBKIN: Yeah, this movie is very visual. I got to do a lot of stuff with the camera, just yesterday there was a scene where⦠I donât want to give anything up. I havenât decided what Iâm supposed to say yet or not, but yeah, thereâs the opportunity to do that. I tend not to resist a little bit of that, and I think thatâs sometimes⦠I like the R-rating to be out there and really push things, but I think that part of the language of the camera is from a broader sensibility and I think that it makes it feel a little more fun and a little more safe sometimes. Sometimes, I wish not so much, but I kind of canât help myself. If someoneâs going to sit on someoneâs face, you want to be in the right place to make it funny.When distorting the line between high-brow and low-brow comedy, as far do you go as a direction in creating that distortion?DOBKIN: Well, I think I always look for ideas that are really far out there but Iâm always trying to tell a story through the characters and if you keep them grounded and youâre really actually following through the story in a dramatic sense. In Wedding Crashers for example, there are two stories that are happening in it, one is about a friendship thatâs about to splinter because one of them is growing out of something that the other hasnât yet, and the other is a love story that Owen has with Rachel and heâs kind of growing up, and heâs a little ahead of his friend and how that is going to fracture them. But youâre very much following his desire and his want to get close, to get curious about this girl and what thatâs all about. I think when youâre following the characters very carefully through the scenes, it really informs all the comedy and everything else and I think thatâs where the tone comes from. You put them in some absurd situations, but theyâre always challenging them on some sort of character level. Thereâs no scene where they should enter and exit from the same. You always want them to be challenged and either to take a step forward or two steps back out of any situation. You use the term âgroundedâ and so far from what weâve seen from Ryanâs character, heâs a live-wire, heâs kind of an A-hole, heâs selfish so what is the thing that grounds him.DOBKIN: Well, heâs sweet, heâs not grown up. I think the thing that really makes it really forgivable everything that he does is that he doesnât know any better, and this movie is very much a coming of age story for him. His side of the movie is⦠look, youâre going to know what it is. Itâs a body-switching movie and heâs a child that gets thrown into a domestic situation. What youâve just seen there, just imagine that guy getting inside your body and running your life. Like thatâs the fun of it, is that he completely doesnât understand children or relationships or how to have a daughter or anything like that, so that inherently becomes part of his journey and what he learns is not on that path. Wedding Crashers and The Hangover really marked these really big R-rated comedies because they made a ton of money while nobody thought R-rated comedy could do well. Do you feel like youâre in a position where you can push boundaries even further, like studios want to see R-rated movies pushing that envelope?DOBKIN: Thatâs a very good question. Can I answer it in two parts? Part one is what makes me curious to go in and do anything, because I think thereâs a conversation out there amongst the people that do this kind of comedy, and it really is the fun of it to me, and I was a kid that loved Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor is the stuff that seems to be pushing boundaries, and the comedy is an edge of what is acceptable or not acceptable and itâs helping to push things back. I donât think going in and doing R-rated comedy, especially now that so many movies are succeeding at such a high level with it, if youâre not trying things and pushing things, I donât think youâre in a place where people are going to laugh with it, but youâre really legitimately in the conversation and I think thatâs really an important part of the dialogue thatâs going on among the filmmakers, the actors and the writers that do this kind of thing. As far as the studios go, it depends from studio to studio. Obviously, this studio is really letting us run with it and theyâre very supportive, but Iâm always surprised that no matter how itâs worked, I think they still look at it as a fluke, I think thereâs something within the system that they just fucking donât believe it, and as you get close to production most of the time, theyâre all starting to question and backpedal and you feel like youâre in the 1950s. It gets a little bit mind-numbing at times and itâs a real drag unfortunately Ultimately, thatâs a little bit of a good sign if youâre doing anything that you hope is worth doing, hopefully youâre making somebody uncomfortable, right?Do you think the R-rating nature helps sell the body switch movie as something more enticing to modern audiences?DOBKIN: Man, I canât tell yet. Itâs a PG concept, it really is, and when I first heard the idea, and it was âa single guy and a married guy switch bodies,â I was like, âThatâs really kind of clever actually,â and I tried to wrack my brain and I was like, âI definitely havenât seen it.â But it was a fun way to address men and how fucking weird men are about stuff, and I was like, âOkay, this is kind of cool. I like it for that reason, and thatâs why to take the movie by the way, âcause itâs treating it in a very⦠itâs the R-rated point of view of it so itâs got a punk rock thing to it that I really dig, but it definitely as far as selling it, weâll see. Itâs not that easy to ⦠you guys saw a scene today but until you see it, itâs a little bit like, âWhat is it?â do you know what I mean? Iâll show you a couple scenes where youâll start to see a little of what it is when it happens, but I canât tell if itâs a premise thatâs so familiar in a PG world that people are going to be resistant of coming to see it in an R-rated movie. I donât know.You have a lot of screwball patter going on because Ryan is so quick with his lines. Is that something youâre consciously going for or is that a natural thing that comes out of his delivery and his style.DOBKIN: Itâs his style and his character. I like to up-pace my movies, and I think I get attracted to actors... Leslie can do it and Jason. I donât know if Iâm just attracted⦠You kind of put together the people youâre fans of, do you know what I mean? I couldnât be a bigger Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson fan, so I ended up working with both of them, so you naturally gravitate to something and I remember seeing âFreaky Friday,â the remake that Mark Waters did and loving the way he paced that movie, and âMean Girlsâ as well. Those movies kind of excited me. I know theyâre a little bit back in peopleâs memory now, but there was a really aggressive pacing to those movies thatâs really interesting and energetic and fun. I got attracted to that, and I think itâs something in me that is a rhythm thing these actors have, and the script had it, by the way. I could feel it when I read the script. This is an amazing screenplay. You move through it so quickly and you laughed out loud so much, it was a little bit shocking. It was actually a challenging piece of material because once you got in, the actors had to ground it, as far as making it believable. You realize how much sleight of hand these guys succeeded at. Youâre like, âHow much of that are we going to get away with when we shoot it and how much do we actually have to fill in the blanks and justify it?â The script was so flighty and so fast on its feet, that there were things that were happening before you could realize it and could kind of put it together, and you have to figure out, âWow, when people are now watching the actors, are they going to be okay with that kind of a choice from that character?â Iâm with it cause Iâm laughing and almost anything you laugh through youâll accept, but itâs quite a tightrope and itâs been really interesting.Does that pace also reflect whatâs going on with comedy now? People are digesting comedy through the internet in short burstsâ¦DOBKIN: Thatâs interesting. Itâs so funny. I watch comedy on TV and itâs too cutty for me. I get a little jarred and it succeeds. Itâs not like itâs not working, and I look at certain things and it has the cutting⦠itâs not like Iâd make terribly different cuts, but for some reason, it moves too fast for me. I donât know, I donât know.Itâs great to see this scene play in a masterâ¦DOBKIN: I always shoot big wides and let them open up and loose twos. I do a lot of coverage. It all depends where it lives. To me, as much as you can see people in the space with each other, itâs better than the heads, but itâs how much you have to orchestrate the rest of that.I was curious, when Ryan and Jason entered the picture because the premise is great, but itâs really up to the two of them to make it work.DOBKIN: I think the idea was not to⦠there was always a plan with the movie to keep the budget in bounds, and not make the movie bigger in scale than it felt the material was. Thereâs something always about a discovery. Iâm always looking when I cast people to do something that I think they havenât done. I felt what Ryanâs doing here I have not really seen him do, and what he does on the other side is brilliant as well. And same for Jason Bateman, by the way. Jason ends up being that guy for most of the movie which is really kind of awesome and freaky and weird. (laughter) Again, we treated the whole thing with an R-rated handle. Theyâre not imitating each other in the movie. Weâre not interested. I mean, they piss in the fountain so how fucking serious do you think weâre taking the body switching. Theyâre playing versions of the character that do track and are similar. Itâs the same character but itâs really interesting, but with casting, there was a very short list that the studio⦠I was very lucky. The writers brought me the screenplay, I loved it, we took it to studios, Universal understood it. They were very comfortable with the rating and what this was, and I think because of Judd, we were very comfortable with them. Itâs my first picture with them. There was a very short list, there was a budget number, and if you could get someone off this list and you can hit that budget, you have a greenlight. Weâre in a very strong position and Ryan and Jason were on that original list and they both said âYesâ so we were off to the races.Did that happen pretty fast after you first read the script?DOBKIN: It took a little while to just get the movie together and Ryan was already⦠I met with Ryan in February of last year and he was already in New Orleans doing âGreen Lanternâ and there was no way to start shooting until October, so we ended up waiting seven or eight months for Ryan until he freed up, but Jason was already on board.For both characters, are there glimpses of performances you've seen from Ryan and Jason before?DOBKIN: Yes, I see glimpses in both. With Jason, you can see him play the married guy but also the guy with the sarcastic, sardonic wit. And then the other thing that was really cool was with Ryan was, you know what I loved him in? Adventureland. He was fucking awesome in that movie and you could not tell if you were worried about him or if...he played that right in the middle and then on the edges and you were scared he was going to fuck over Jesse [Eisenberg] and then he takes him again and then you're worried he's going to fuck him over again and he kind of did and then he kind of took him but it was so interesting. I remember e-mailing Ryan after I saw it and saying "That was a fascinating set of choices." And he was very slow to respond and then he said "Oh, I haven't seen the movie yet." Well he's coming off these different kinds of movies like Green Lantern and then The Proposal...DOBKIN: You see The Proposal and you see...their rhythm in that movie is crazy. I think it took me 20 minutes to get used to it. Everyone talks about the Hepburn-Tracy repartee but that was it. You were like, "Wow. I'm getting all the information I need and I'm getting it so quickly that there's no air in it." It was pretty extraordinary. And he has so much warmth and so much charm that going into something like this with him...because I always want the characters to be lovable. I don't know how to follow characters that aren't flawed and making mistakes. So you gotta pick guys you're already going to believe in. And so Ryan has some challenging stuff in the movie as far asâI mean he ends up in many situations and opportunities where it's like "If you had a hall pass, what would you do?" And it is a conversation about men and marriage and fidelity and it's complicated. And you have to be honest or it's bullshit. And he really knew how to ride it. Most of that shot he stuff already and he kept you with him on difficult decisions, which is the most fun. Because we do know it's him because his mind is there, but it's that. But some of those questions are really fascinating and he did a great job with it.How about Olivia? She's not here [She had already wrapped on the film] and we haven't really see her do a lot of comedy. Does she actually get involved in any of this stuff?DOBKIN: She does get some funny moments. It wasn't necessity for her character to have that and she found it anyways. She's done so much and she's so young and this was really something very different for her. It wasn't necessary for her to have moments where you're going to laugh and be with her but she found stuff for her character and really played it through. It's not really huge stuff like set pieces or anything like that but she's the center of a lot things that happen in the movie. She's the dream girl of the film.Is this movie really more about their friendship? I'm thinking back to Wedding Crashers where there's a romantic angle but really it's about the friendship between the two main characters. It's bromance.DOBKIN: Yeah, it is. That moment, when you find it as a filmmaker, you try to find that moment where you say "That really talks to me," and I think we all in life as you get older, there are friends you were really tight and then, it's very specific to the situation, some friends get married and some friends stay single. And the dynamic shifts. At least I know with men, the deeper you get into marriage and kids it's not that you change, but if your friends are out there chasing tail, it gets weird. And you start to drift apart. And there are crossroads moments where you ask yourself "Am I holding on to a chapter that's ended? Are we holding on for nostalgia? Or when we have a drink will we have something new to talk about or are we just going to taking about that time in high school or 'Remember when the cops came...'", you know what I mean? And I think that's a very real moment for people. You know I'm 41 and these guys are in their 30s and you start to realize, sadly enough, that you're not at the same station in life. And this movie is about re-finding each other and the importance of each other is a big part of the film. And they learn about each other and themselves individually.How would you describe Olivia Wilde's character?DOBKIN: Olivia, what's interesting the movie, is that she's super-intelligent, she's very well-spoken, she's a lawyer, and it's someone that he works with and he thinks to himself, "She's distractingly beautiful, she's an associate," but he's such a sweet guy and a family man that it would never cross his mind. There's not a fucking chance that Jason Bateman is going to make a move or is even interested in making a move. One night when they're out drinking, he tells Mitch about her, of course, and Mitch asks "Is she #1 on your list?" And he's like "Dude..." And Mitch says, "Is she #1 on your cancer list?" And he's like "What are you talking about?" And Mitch says, "If your wife died of cancer, is she your number one girl?" And he's like "Dude, that's horrible. That's the mother of my children. But yes. 40 years later if I could ever get an erection, I would." Oh, I revealed a joke. They're going to kill me. But inherently over the course of the film he's put into a different situation and his friend is put into a different situation and it becomes a little bit of a problem and a question as it moves forward. I remember seeing Blake Edwards' 10 when I was very young and being very fascinating. And I wonder how I would feel as an adult with kids watching that movie. But Julie Andrews is his girlfriend in the movie and she's like America's sweeheart. The whole thing is he goes chasing this girl in a mid-life crisis and it's fascinating to me because men can be retarded like that. They just don't fucking grow up when it comes to women no matter what happens. It's shocking to me. It's a question of men and I think The Hangover and Wedding Crashers and a lot of these movies right now are about good dudes who are behaving badly and really need to be taught a lesson and for some reason it's really funny.Because this comes from a PG premise, are you shooting it in that style or is it more of an R-rated approach or do you take the visual language of a family-oriented film.DOBKIN: I took some of the visual language. I have a bad habit of that. I don't know. I don't know if I fall into the trap. It's an instinctual thing. I think sometimes when the content is really edgy, I like to find the language that returns you to the conversation you can understand what the conversation is. And with this movie, I think the fun of it isâthere are some push-ins and dollies that you'd find in a traditional movie and it's of people doing crazy shit and it's just kind of fucking weird and I like it that way. For more The Change-Up coverage:Collider Goes to the Set of the THE CHANGE-UPJason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds On Set InterviewCo-Writer Jon Lucas On Set Interview THE CHANGE-UP
Director David Dobkin On Set Interview THE CHANGE-UP
An interview with director David Dobkin on the set of The Change-Up. The Change-Up stars Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, and Olivia Wilde.