To celebtrate the home release of the Ben Falcone directed comedy Tammy,
We are proud to be able to share this conversation with the man himself.
Director Ben Falcone.
Tammy is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 10th November
QUESTION: Okay, so this is your first feature film as a director?
BEN FALCONE
Yeah, yeah.
QUESTION: What was that experience like? You had a dream team cast to work with…
BEN FALCONE
Because I had a dream team cast and an amazing crew, it was great. It was so much fun. I was surrounded by experienced people on both sides of the camera that were able to help me not ruin it. It was wonderful. It’s a great time.
QUESTION: Kathy [Bates] said that there was never any pressure.
BEN FALCONE
No.
QUESTION: That you made the set so fun and it was like a big family affair.
BEN FALCONE
Yeah.
QUESTION: How do you do that?
BEN FALCONE
That’s just how I was raised and how I like to live my life and how I like to work. The people that I’ve worked with — and been lucky enough to work with, as Iunabashedly steal their directing style — they do the same thing. My whole thing is like, “It’s really hard to make comedy in a stressful place.” It may be good if you’re making a movie about a stressful subject or stressful time — perhaps that’s helpful. To me like the whole thing about a comedy is you’re trying to have everyone feel loose enough to feel free to do something a little off angle, because that’s usually where the best moments are. I just wanted to create a kind of fun, place where people felt safe. It was a good time. I’m glad to hear Kathy said that, that’s nice.
QUESTION: Everybody has said that it’s been a great experience. I’m curious… you wrote the script with Melissa [McCarthy], who’s your wife…
BEN FALCONE
Yeah.
QUESTION: And you’re directing her…
BEN FALCONE
Yeah.
QUESTION: You fire her.
BEN FALCONE
(LAUGHS) Right.
QUESTION: And you act opposite her.
BEN FALCONE
Yup.
QUESTION: What is that like –with a marriage, and on-set where you’re not playing married people?
BEN FALCONE
(LAUGHS) It was actually really fun for us, because we got to spend more time together. She works a lot. She’s been traveling and I’ve been working and running around. We really try and make a lot of time to spend with our kiddos and that’s great, but it was fun. We just got to hang out as creative adults and it was a neat time for us just to get to spend extra time together. I had a blast.
QUESTION: Is there ever any time when she doesn’t like a direction you gaveor anything like that? Or is it just very easy and natural?
BEN FALCONE
Sure, I think there were some times that I said wrong things to all of the cast. Wrong ideas, but that’s part of what I was talking about with a safe environment. That means hopefully it’s safe and if I say an idea and someone doesn’t like it enough to even try it — which is very possible — or we try it and it’s like, “Oh, sorry gang! Okay, let’s try something new.”That wasn’t just Melissa, it was a larger collaboration. It was me and Melissa — it was kind of a family affair and we tried to make everyone feel a part of it, because they all were. We didn’t even try — everyone was a part of it. It was a very big collaboration and it was just a fun time.
QUESTION: How did you come to Susan Sarandon to play Pearl? I don’t normally think of “granny” when I think of Susan…
BEN FALCONE
Yeah, you know, her name came up and it was just like, “Wow, Susan Sarandon. Okay, I know she’s an amazing actor and I think she’s funny.” One of the things that I really tried to force myself to do was to be really open-minded at all times, and one of the things I had to be open minded about was aging up Susan Sarandon.And then once I thought, “Well, they can make dinosaurs out of nothing, can we knock Susan Sarandon’s beauty down a little bit? Make her seem a little bit older?” Once we did that, we were like, “Well of course, she’s incredible”–and then you feel silly for having that doubt in the first place. Especially once you see her deliver in it. It’s so effortless and she brought so much to it. I’m so happy that she agreed to do it.
QUESTION: It’s a very funny movie with a lot of physical humor, butit’s very much grounded in reality…and that was surprising for me. For me, that what I really loved about the movie.
BEN FALCONE
Oh thanks.
QUESTION: Because that made it feel like it could be anybody.
BEN FALCONE
That was really what we wanted to do. We wanted to make a really grounded, funny movie with heart. That was totally our goal because that’s our favorite style of movie. We’ve been lucky enough to be around some of those movies and we just thought, “Boy if we could make one like that ourselves.” So I’m happy to hear you say that bit –that was totally our goal.I think things are funnier when you believe that the people would really do that, there are funny things where you don’t believe that people would really do it and it’s still funny, but I don’t know how to write that, personally. Other people can write that great. There’s a place for it and I love to watch it, but when I’m watching a movie and I just see, like, “Oh, this person is struggling, and they’re trying and they’re doing bad and now they’re failing.” It’s really funny to watch and you buy it all as from coming that person. I think that’s a special spot to be.
QUESTION: What can you tell us about the DVD?
BEN FALCONE
There are some really funny deleted scenes. Melissa is so funny in them. In terms of the movie as a whole, people might see the scenes as a piece and be, like, “Why wasn’t that in the movie? It’s so funny.” But when we screened the movie as whole, we found thatpeople wanted to see the story and where Tammy going next, so there’s some really funny stuff that we just couldn’t squeeze in the movie. So we’re excited about that.
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