By Rick Duran, Senior Editor
The Frat Pack Tribute had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview session with some of the co-stars from The Comebacks, including Brooke Nevin (The 4400), and Matthew Lawrence (Mrs. Doubtfire.) We also had the chance to speak with Melora Hardin, best known as Steve Carell’s love interest, Jan, every week on NBC’s The Office. This time around, she’s playing wife to Carell’s onscreen and off-screen pal, Anchorman’s David Koechner.
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How many takes did you do of the boobie feel-up scene?
Brooke Nevin: Well, it was a lot of padding on that bra. I’m just saying in terms of it being terribly intimate, there was a lot of padding.
Matthew Lawrence: There was a good inch between us.
BN: (laughs) I will make a testament to Matthew Lawrence’s very gentlemanly behavior on set. He’s a joy to work with. It was nowhere near as awkward as it could have been.
Was making out in front of David awkward, where he’s watching you?
BN: Wow
ML: I didn’t even realize…
BN: We were just so much in our own world that I guess we didn’t realize he was there.
ML: In that scene it’s David and a thousand other people
BN: (laughs) It was like a huge crowd
ML: There’s a stadium full of people
BN: That’s why we weren’t so aware of David.
ML: They cheered us that first time. Remember that?
BN: I wish I had them around all the time. Whenever I kiss a guy, I’d love to have people cheering.
Were you all familiar with every sports movie being spoofed, or was there one that had to be explained?
Melora Hardin: I did; there were a couple that had to be explained to me. Like the “iPod” thing, I had no idea.
BN: Yeah, for me it was a lot of the little sports references, like when they had the lay-down coaches in history. A lot of those, you know, news or real life sports references I wasn’t in the know about.
ML: I pretty much got it. I mean, there were a couple movies I hadn’t seen. But I pretty much got all that with the Friday Night Lights and that stuff. At least my part, I knew what I was doing.
The director was saying you had already gone to sports camp for the other movie. So you were running around in some of those plays?
ML: It was actually for this movie. Yeah, he put us through two weeks of football camp for this movie.
No injuries?
ML: No, it was all good.
Melora, on one of The Office DVD commentaries, you mentioned that you and Steve had planned your love story back during the pilot. I’m curious if on this movie during your scenes with David, if you came up with ideas where your characters would ever interact?
MH: That’s so funny. Um, well, actually I was just recently talking with Greg Daniels about how David and I play husband and wife in this movie. He loved that pairing. He was like, “Oh, how interesting! I can’t wait to see the movie.” I saw his little wheels turning. That was interesting, we’ll see what he comes up with.
You two had a great dynamic, it seemed like fun to shoot those scenes.
MH: We did, we had so much fun. David’s a lot of fun and he’s a really nice person; As is Steve Carell. So I’m lucky; Very nice leading men. (laughs)
Sticking with The Office for a second, especially with the news breaking news that the strike might happen at any moment, or rather at the end of the month, are they like, “Can we fit in one more episode this month?” Are they trying to rush in?
MH: We have, we’re just moving ahead. We’re moving ahead where we’re going to do whatever it is we can do. You know, we’re doing an episode this week. We’ve got an episode next week. I think we’re going to try and squeeze in everything we can.
But it does feel sort of up in the air, like you don’t know what will happen come December?
MH: Well, you know, I think that the whole writer’s strike thing has been on-again off-again for so long. From some people you hear, “Oh, it’s definitely happening. It’s happening for sure.” And other people, “Oh no, it’s not going to happen.” And other people think it’s going to be happening in February or March. So I… who knows? I think you just have to business as usual until the time really comes. There’s certainly nothing else to do.
I wanted to ask Brooke if you’d seen Stick It? Wasn’t that you for some of that gym stuff up there?
BN: Oh no, it was for some of it, like when you can see my face. That was me! (laughs) While the boys were at football camp, I was at little kiddies gymnastics. And because I remember taking gymnastics, make that was like an after school program… um, yeah, I was running around on floor-mats doing little beam routines with four year-olds and five year-olds. There was one thing I added to my gymnastics routine which was, you know when they had me doing gymnastic routines. A lot of it was “Leap like a frog, walk like a bear.” I don’t know why he was making me do these things, like I was very intent on being a good gymnastics student. So I did incorporate a little animalistic behavior.
Matthew, throughout your career, you’ve worked with guys like Robin Williams, Rob Schneider and now David Koechner, do you ever feel like taking a stab at being the comedic lead?
ML: Oh boy, well, all those guys are really one of a kind. I think its something that has to be your thing. I don’t know if I’m really capable of that. Um, I don’t know, it’s something I’ve never really thought about honestly. I mean, when I look at roles, I don’t necessarily look at roles to step out as a really great comedian. I mean, working with these guys, it’s very intimidating. They’re naturals at it; I have to work at it. So I think somewhere in between I’d fall in. I love doing comedy, I love doing stuff that’s more serious. I love kind of that very real raw kind of comedy. And that’s probably where I’d kind of fit in better.
You’ve all made the transition from younger actors to adult actors. There’s so many teen actors out there. Making that transition is really hard. Some of them disappear for years. What kind of advice would you give to 14 or 15 year-olds who might want to come back. What should they do?
BN: I think if they feel the need to disappear for a few, then to do it. It’s um, when you’re acting, Melora and I were talking about this earlier about the idea of passion and being involved, especially when you’re younger… I know I made the choice at a young age and forced my parents to get me into acting, versus it being any other situation. It’s a career choice, so when you get to that age and need to make a decision about the crossroads in your life, you know, hopefully like any career you’ll make an informed decision and know that’s what you want to do.
ML: Well I think, um, I think if you are very exposed as a child and your image as a child is engrained in people’s mind. I think growing up, so to speak, becoming an adult is something that is hard to… It’s hard for you to get that in people’s mind when they’ve seen you as a child. So I understand that there is a very difficult role there. I think that it’s about work. Sometimes in anybody’s career, the work just isn’t there. And at that time, especially if you’ve been working as a child, you need to really step away from it and just have some very real experiences in life. Because if you do, or if you are really passionate about acting, that’s really the only way you’re going to be able to come back as an adult.
BN: That’s what you draw from.
ML: The things you apply as child just don’t apply. You have to have life experience.
BN: Yeah, cute smirks and subtle expressions…
MH: I would just say exactly that. You need to live your life because life is our well.
ML: Yeah
MH: So without that, you don’t have anything. And also, I think, sometimes you child actors who reach certain point in their development where they can’t quite take that step over the line. And that’s because they’ve relied so much on this ‘cute’ thing. Some of these ‘cute’ actors, they take cute only so far like Brooke said. You know, then sexuality comes into it, so it’s sort of like whether you’re comfortable with your sexuality and whether that can translate. That really needs to become a part of grown up performances.
BN: And health, hopefully it can be a healthy transition
MH: Yeah, right right
BN: For that to be on screen, and that can be an awkward transition for any girl, I think
MH: Or boy
BN: Yeah, it could be.
Melora, you’ve come from a very dramatic background and a lot of musical stuff. Now we see you a lot more on the comedy forefront. I was wondering how has that transition been for you?
MH: Yeah, it’s been great in the sense that when you do drama, everybody thinks you’re a dramatic actress, and when you do comedy, everybody thinks you’re a comedic actress.
BN: They forget more than…
MH: It’s kind of funny in that regard. I do both and I like to do both. We were talking earlier about, you know, all good acting comes from the same place and that’s truth and honesty. Good comedy from there, good drama comes from there. The greatest thing about this show is that it has opened huge doors for me because it’s a hit a show. And because people watch it, and because critics like it, and because we’re winning Emmys and SAG awards, blahbity blahbity blahbity… So it’s like, you know, the 14th pilot I’ve done in my career so I definitely have a lot of appreciation. (laughs)
Now the movie you’ve recently directed, was that before or after the show took off?
MH: I directed it last summer and I just finished it yesterday.
BN: Yay
MH: Thank you very much, it’s very exciting. And uh, yeah, I’ve been working on it all year. We actually made it last June and July.
Will it be competing anywhere? Submitting it to Sundance?
MH: We are going to be submitting it to film festivals, so hopefully it will find its way into something big and wonderful, and it’ll find a distributor. It was a very, very… a real passion project and a heart project. And I’m hoping it’ll find its wings into the world. And I know that it will. It’s a beautiful film.
Did you enjoy directing this project? Coming from being an actor and then being on the other side?
MH: Yeah, you know, I really loved it. I’m definitely looking forward to the next movie that I make. I’m already trying to option a book. I’m writing a screenplay with friends. It’s definitely going to be part of my life from now on. So it was very satisfying.
What made you choose to say I want to do this?
MH: Uh, my husband wrote the screenplay, he’s written a lot of screenplays, but he wrote this one and I read it and was weeping within the first six pages. So I said it just took me away and I felt like I really need to direct this. And if you will allow me to, I need to direct this. And he said, “I’d love you to.” And you know, we had many incarnations; it’s probably a whole other interview. But he was literally like, “Well, we’ll raise money. We’ll raise $5 million. We’ll raise $2 million. We’ll raise $1 million. $300,000! Oh, I think we’ll just make it for ourselves.”
(laughter)
MH: We made it, it’s really incredible, the film that we’ve got out of what we made it for.
What’d you guys shoot on?
MH: We shot on HD and Super 16, both. Mixed mediums and it’s just beautiful and it’s just a beautiful film. I mean, you have so much talent in my life around me. Amazing actors… there’s just incredible talent in this town. And if you have good relationships with people and you’ve been doing it as long as I have, you make good relationships and you end up with a lot of people that want to help you. I mean, people gave us their homes as locations. Actors worked for free or for SAG Experimental. We did it with SAG Experimental contracts and they donated it back to the film. It’s really an incredible kind of participation.
I’ve got to ask one more thing about this movie. The whole genre of spoof films, does anyone have a favorite? Was it one of the Scream ones or that Top Gun one, whatever it was called?
BN: Oh, Naked Gun
Well Top Gun, it was one of the other ones.
BN: Top Gun or Naked Gun?
Top Gun spoof with Charlie Sheen in it.
ML: Hot Shots!
BN: Oh yeah yeah yeah!
ML: I like that one too. I like that one too.
Does anyone have a favorite of this type of movie?
BN: I love Leslie Nielsen, the Naked Gun stuff
ML: Yeah, and Hot Shots was great.
MH: I like Airplane, Airplane was great.
ML: Ok, there you go. There’s a classic.
Brooke, I was reading that you have a background with Second City.
BN: A little bit
I was wondering if you and David had any kind of bond coming from that type of background?
BN: I’d like to say there was a little Second City mantra that we chanted during takes. Indeed there is not, or if there is, I’m not familiar with it. But no, no brotherhood of Second City. It was just good to have that kind of training in my back pocket for this movie.
For all three of you, was there one scene where it was difficult to keep a straight face during?
BN: You have to say the shower dancing
(laughter)
ML: Yeah, yeah, um, that was interesting. That was literally the first scene that all of us guys actually shot.
(laughter)
ML: We didn’t know the crew, we didn’t know anybody. After, everybody applauded, it was awkward. We’re wearing women’s underwear and we’re “Thanks, hi… Hey, good job.” Yeah, that was an awkward one, that was an awkward one. But the one where I couldn’t get it together was when David comes to the party and says we’re not partying enough. When he actually first did and there weren’t any cameras rolling, he went off harder than what you see in the movie. So for the first five takes, we were just… like this, you know? We couldn’t look at hi, we couldn’t… I remember, I think it was the guy that played Randy…
BN: Martin
ML: Martin was like this, “I can’t hear anything!” So that’s just funny. David, you know, he did so many things that made us laugh.
Is there anything they asked you to do where you said, “Uh no, I can’t do that”?
ML: Not on this one
BN: (laughs)
ML: Not on this one.
MH: Yeah, not on this one for me (laughs)
Your character gets crushed a lot
MH: Yes, trampled and crushed and tackled
Any stunt work on your part?
MH: Oh, I did that all. (laughs) I did all the tackling and trampling. But my stunt double flipped over the railing. I did the beginning of the flip and the end of the flip and she did the flip. I could’ve done it though!
BN: (laughs)
MH: She had a very large mat underneath her. I would’ve ended up with my head on the concrete, but I could’ve done it.
Was tone different for any of you? The director mentioned he really wanted to get some serious moment like real people and still throw in the comedy. Was tone difficult in any of the serious scenes?
BN: Um, that’s a good question because that’s a fine line. You’re doing a broad comedy but there’s some serious moments.
MH: I think Tom set the tone well. I think that he, you know… I think it’s pretty clear when you’re reading a script and working on a scene, what needs to be brought, where it needs to go, and how large it needs to be. And then, you know, it’s really interesting how you can walk into an environment, like you walk into the environment of The Office, you walk into the environment of The Comebacks, and you can feel where the ceiling is just on every different set. You don’t even have to really… it’s just sort of a feeling state. The ceiling’s being set by everybody, it’s a very feel-able thing.
Was there a lot of improvising from the three of you?
BN: Yeah, it was encouraged. Improvisations were encouraged a lot. A lot of the time we would stick to the script and then Tom would say, “Now this take, this one’s for fun.” Or do something extra or you know… we’ll just roll extra on this. Do whatever you want.
And nobody’s commenting on the DVD? Are any of you doing any commentaries?
MH: I don’t know, maybe if…
ML: If I get the call
BN: Yeah
MH: It’s possible
You’ve obviously got something huge with The Office. Do you guys have anything else coming up?
BN: I have a horror/comedy/thriller film called Infestation. Um, it’s about bugs, big bugs that take over the Earth. I am one of the few humans that’s alive and awake to try and stop them. That will be distributed by Icon hopefully within the next year or so in the States and around the world. And then I have a couple indie films. One’s called Sherman’s Way and hopefully that will be in festivals near you.
ML: I finished an independent movie just a month ago for Plum Productions. It’s called Trucker and it’s got a good cast.
Are you the Trucker?
ML: No, it’s actually an actress whose name is Michelle Monaghan. Yeah, she’s the trucker. It’s about her life. She’s actually a mother, she starts off, you know, not really seeing her son. She doesn’t really have any good people. And it’s just kind of her journey to become a mom and kind of realizing there’s still good things for her. And I just have a small role and I kind of… there are things about her established in the beginning of the movie. She’d randomly hook up with a guy that she’d meet at a restaurant. So it’s like that.
MH: I have a movie coming out in January called 27 Dresses with James Marsden and Katherine Heigl. I’m also doing a singing act, gig, with a guy named Richard J. Alexander who’s a big Broadway presence and just came back from Barbara Streisand’s European tour. He’s directed many people that have been at Carnegie Hall. He’s directing an act that I’m doing all of my singing and that will include some of my songs. There’ll also be some talking. That’ll be January 4th, 5th and 6th at the Catalina Bar & Grill which is in Hollywood, so I hope you guys might want to write about that if you’re a Hollywood or L.A. kind of publication.
And will there be another album?
MH: Yes, I’m going to make another record next year.
BN: Oh wow, cool
MH: Yeah
BN: And I want to, just because I love the show and am very excited that I’m actually going to be on it next month, is Grey’s Anatomy. Yes, I’m a patient and I have a body part that’s thematically featured.
(laughter)
BN: It’s, you know, I’ve done boobs in this movie and my bum will be broken and put back together on Grey’s.
What doctor will be working on you?
BN: Well, McSteamy is one of my doctors. Um, but actually Sara Ramirez is my doctor, yeah.
She’s so underrated
BN: Isn’t she great? She’s wonderful, yeah. So I had a great time on that show. I’m on in mid-November.
Versus television and film, for any of you, do you prefer one over the other?
MH: You know, I just want opportunities to be creative. And if I can be creative on television, I’ll be creative on television. If I can be creative on film, I’ll be creative there or maybe in theater or making records or making movies, whatever. The Office happens to be an exceptionally creative environment for television. I would say the most creative environment for television that I’ve ever been involved in. So I think that now my bar’s been set pretty high.
Brooke, are you going to go back and do any more stage stuff just to hone your craft?
BN: Um, yeah my only stage work has been skit shows and stuff like that, but I would love to. It’s a great opportunity. You know, audience feedback and always being on your toes. There’s nothing like it. So um, I hope so. (laughs)
Thank you so much
BN: Thank you, you guys
The Comebacks opened in theaters nationwide October 19th, 2007
This page last modified on
Friday, October 26, 2007.
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