LOS ANGELES — Being Ashton Kutcher’s flunky on the celebrity practical-joke show Punk’d doesn’t necessarily brand you as a genius.
So who knew that field agent Dax Shepard actually has an anthropology degree from UCLA? Not Kutcher.
“Ashton, whom I’ve known for four years, said, like, a month ago, ‘You never went to UCLA!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I went to UCLA.’ And he’s like, ‘You got a degree? No one has a degree!’
“I don’t know what it is. I must exude some kind of stupidity,” says Shepard, who plays the character known as “The Astronaut” in Zathura the kids space fantasy opening today. “I’ve had it my whole life. I was in advanced chemistry and math (in high school in rural Michigan) and I’d show up and it’d be like, ‘Oh no, he’s in the wrong room.’ ”
Comedy and stupidity may dovetail thematically, but Shepard — a veteran of L.A.’s famed Groundlings comedy troupe — says, “I have not met a funny improviser who's not bright. You need instant access to information.”
But stupid is as stupid plays, so Shepard — who stole the surprise-hit dumb summer comedy Without A Paddle — is soon to be seen playing the world’s dumbest man in the Mike Judge comedy Idiocracy. “Luke Wilson takes part in a government experiment, wakes up 500 years in the future and America has dumbed down. And he’s now the smartest man in the world, and I’m arguably the dumbest man in the world. And we’re stuck together.”
That is why Shepard was grateful for the chance to play the hero in Zathura, a spinoff of Jumanji by the same author (children’s writer Chris Van Allsburg), in which two squabbling young brothers discover a game that sends their entire house flying into space somewhere near Saturn. There they encounter meteors, unfriendly aliens and a stranded spaceman, who helps them home.
Shepard was filming Idiocracy in Texas when director Jon Favreau (Elf) called him up to see if he was into a change of image. “I was flattered he knew who I was. He’d gone ahead and gotten my number, so it was creepy and flattering,” Shepard quips.
“So we had a meeting at his office and I said I’m not really comfortable playing a hero, and the movie’s not funny at all. I said, ‘I’m not sure you’re getting someone who can carry this movie and do everything you want to do.’ And he had no fear, he said you can do this, he had faith in me, and it gave me faith in myself.”
Shepard hit it off with child actors Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson, and it turned out they were allowed to improvise a fair bit of sarcastic dialogue. “I just had a blast with both of them. I’d go to work every day and act like I was nine years old and they’d send me a paycheque on Friday. I’d do a million movies with those two.”
Favreau, meanwhile, kept him on the hero track. In a scene where he flies through the roof with a rocketpack, he put on a ‘scared’ face. “And Favreau says, ‘Okay, we got it, you’re scared, it’s funny. Now do you want to make $9 million your next movie or $100? We’ll do it again and you’ll grit your teeth.’
“I just thought that was so funny. It’s ‘Do you wanna be an action hero, or do you wanna be quirky-weird-guy the rest of your life?’ ”
Not that he’s that determined to go ‘straight.’
“I mean, if Martin Scorsese wants me to play a gay janitor in the next Leo movie, I’m there. But am I one of those comedians who wants to prove he’s a great actor? No.
“In my opinion, it’s harder to prove you’re a great comedian than to prove you’re a great actor.”
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