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David Schwimmer doesn't want any ‘Friends' to help him promote his latest project |
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Written by Rick Bentley — MCT
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Friday, 28 March 2008 |
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The moment David Schwimmer walks into the small Ritz-Carlton conference room the urge hits to ask him all sorts of "Friends" questions. After watching him play Ross Geller on the NBC comedy for 10 seasons, it is hard to see Schwimmer in any other role.
That's one reason he is on a promotional tour as a filmmaker and not as an actor. Schwimmer's first effort as a feature film director, "Run, Fatboy, Run" hits theaters Friday. He wants only to talk about directing the romantic comedy, which stars Simon Pegg. "Run, Fatboy, Run" is about how far a guy will go to win back a lost love. In the movie, Pegg's character runs a marathon to try to get his girlfriend to return.
When he directed episodes of "Friends," Schwimmer didn't have to hit the road to promote the popular sitcom. But with this film he has to travel to get the word out.
Schwimmer doesn't mind that promotion is part of the director's job.
"I have to say, you should be so lucky," Schwimmer demurs, in the same tone Ross might take when asked about getting to date Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). "The odds of getting an independent film made, and then getting it to point where it is getting a release — you should be so lucky."
Getting the film made took some work. Originally it was supposed to be filmed in New York. Then production was moved to London, the same city where Ross married Emily in season four of "Friends."
That meant Schwimmer had to find just the right Brit to star as the romantic lead. It happened he was working with Pegg on the movie "Big Nothing." He also knew Pegg from when the pair worked together on (no, not "Friends") the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."
Pegg as a star and a scriptwriter helped Schwimmer make the switch to the new locale. One of the conversations he and Pegg had concerned the differences between British and American humor.
"What we landed on was that for the most part there is no difference. We both find the same things funny. There was very little we had to do translating the script to make it funnier," Schwimmer says.
The only changes were a few cultural references. Also, some of the dialogue was redone to make is sound more natural for Pegg.
The emotional parts of the script required the most revision. Pegg told Schwimmer that the British have far more trouble expressing their emotions than Americans. So they added humor to the emotional scenes to reflect British sensibilities.
The move to the director's chair is not permanent for Schwimmer. The New York native, who calls Jack Lemmon his greatest influence, likes acting too much. But he also enjoys being the guiding hand on a production.
Schwimmer became aware of the director's role when he was in his teens. Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg were his greatest influences. He learned through observing.
"Any time I got an acting job and I wasn't working on a scene, I would be watching the director and learning," Schwimmer says. "The television directing ended up being a perfect natural segue from the directing I did in college to being able to do this film."
And while he directed himself in a half-dozen episodes of "Friends," Schwimmer says he would never do so in a film. You want to ask him if he would be willing to direct Aniston, Matthew Perry or one of the other "Friends." But Swimmer just wants to talk about "Run, Fatboy, Run."
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