  Will Ferrell (left) & Jon Heder in Blades of Glory |
HOLLYWOOD -- The last time we saw Jon Heder, he was causing a comic sensation as eccentric high school outcast, Napoleon Dynamite in the hit indie movie of the same name.
Well, okay, technically the last time we saw Heder, he was starring opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the formulaic School for Scoundrels, and then, before that he sat down with David Spade and Rob Schneider in The Benchwarmers.
Oh yeah, and before that he had a part in that Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy, Just Like Heaven.
But if there was ever a movie that should have been the follow-up to Napoleon Dynamite, in terms of sheer, goofy inspiration, it's Blades of Glory, in which Heder and Will Ferrell join forces as the world's first competitive male/male pairs figure skaters.
The concept alone is the stuff of fertile comic gold, but Heder, in the guise of the narcissistic but naive Jimmy MacElroy, has found a character worthy of that previous promise.
He's the golden-haired yin to Ferrell's rock-and-roll bad boy yang, with his natural gifts for physical humour neatly complementing Ferrell's more verbal, improv-based talents.
Together, they make for an ideal comedy dream team, exhibiting the most non-sexual male, um, bonding since Borat and his producer wrestled naked.
But it almost didn't happen.
For starters, Heder (rhymes with leader) was originally supposed to be paired up with Ben Stiller, but after testing the ice he rethought his workload and opted to limit his involvement to a producing capacity.
Ferrell then signed on, and the two non-skaters then underwent some intensive training so that they wouldn't look like klutzes doing lutzes. But shortly after shooting commenced Heder broke his ankle, forcing a six-week break in the production.
"There was talk of them recasting my part," says 29-year-old Heder, his hair much darker and straighter than in his on-screen appearances. "But Will was like, 'No, I signed on to do this with Jon, amongst other reasons,' so there were a few moments when it looked like they were going to shut it down, which made me feel even worse."
Fortunately Heder healed sufficiently to satisfy the insurance people and shooting resumed, sparing him the fate of becoming a future Trivial Pursuit question.
"Who was originally slated to portray the role of Jimmy in Blades of Glory?" announces Heder, reading from an invisible card. "Oh, no one could have played it better than Jack Black! Who? Jon Heder? Really!?"
While some eagle-eyed viewers might be able to catch him walking with a slight limp in a couple of scenes, he more than made up for lost time, even managing some neatly executed spins and jumps.
"He's an incredible physical comedian," says Blades of Glory co-director Will Speck. "Although Jon didn't write or direct Napoleon Dynamite, he created the character's physicality on his own."
Three years after that film made him a household name, Heder still marvels at the loyal fan base that 2004 film brought him.
"I got the top quality stalkers," Heder says. "There are no letters dripped with blood or other bodily fluids.Actually, that was the most exciting thing about the movie -- seeing the demographics. I kept hearing over and over again from parents who said, 'I can't tell you how much my son and I have enjoyed watching it together.' They found a movie they could quote together."
He's hoping to make more movies with that kind of universal appeal with Greasy Entertainment, the production company he started late last year with his twin brother Dan and older brother Doug, which has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures.
"We were all in the film program at Brigham Young University," says Heder, a practicing Mormon. "We want to make movies ranging from comedy to animation to sci-fi-fantasy, basically the kinds of movies we enjoyed when we grew up."
They hope to get one of their projects up and going before the end of the year, but let's get back to that twin brother for a second. Given the proposition of a double Heder (sorry, couldn't resist), did he ever call upon Dan to take his place on set if there were days he didn't feel like showing up?
"As if we don't have identity problems already, you think my twin brother wants to deal with any more?" Heder says. "We did it a lot as kids to mess with our teachers and our friends, but on set it would be like saying, 'I want you to be the lesser version of me.' I don't think he would have been cool about it."
As it is, brother Dan finds himself getting stopped a lot on the street by ardent Napoleon fans holding out for one measly "Sweet!" or "Gosh!"
"He'll tell them he's my twin brother and they'll totally think it's just a cop-out," Heder says. "They say, 'Okay, whatever. Can I still get a picture with you?"
This June, Jon will be heard as one of the voices in the animated feature Surf's Up, and will be seen as Diane Keaton's clinging son in the just-completed Mama's Boy.
When told he shares a lot in common with Keaton's Father of the Bride co-star Steve Martin, especially in terms of creating memorable characters with a core likability, Heder looks pleasantly surprised.
"I never thought about that or heard it before, but it's definitely cool," he says. "I admire (Martin's) commitment to his characters, and he can do dramatic works as well, which I would love to do. That would be great."
BLADES OF GLORY
Starring Will Ferrell,Jon Heder, Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer, Will Arnett
Directed by Will Speckand Josh Gordon
opens Friday
After being stripped of theirs medals at the world championships for fighting, rival skaters are forced to hook up in the pairs competition.
bladesofglorymovie.com
JON'STRIPLE HEDER
The three movies that made Jon Heder famous:
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Synopsis: Okay, it's really just this one -- the huge teen-cult hit movie featuring Heder as the titular, lovable loser-geek.
Box office: $44.5 millionin North America
The benchwarmers (2006)
Synopsis: Heder co-stars with David Spade and Rob Schneider as three loser-geeks who challenge Little Leaguers to baseball games.
Box office: $17.8 millionin North America
School for Scoundrels (2006)
Synopsis: Heder stars as a -- shock!!! -- loser-geek who enrolls in a confidence-building class to win over a girl.
Box office: $59.9 millionin North America
More Artists
