![]() |
|||
|
May 18, 2000
Goofin' on the Road
By BRUCE KIRKLAND
That's the expectation being generated this week just before the release Friday of this deliberately bad-taste, nudity-filled, potty-mouthed, college sex romp. It was produced by Ivan Reitman, the Canadian who created and produced Animal House a couple of Hollywood generations ago. At the heart of the raunch in Road Trip is Ottawa's own outrageous comic Tom Green. He plays the unreliable on-screen narrator for the movie, the story of four goofs who set out on a 1,800-mile car trek from Ithaca, New York, to Austin, Texas. "To me," says the 28-year-old writer-director Todd Phillips, "Tom Green is funny because he brings in an element of danger to comedy. I like that. People have done that before, but he just does it well and he does it now and I think that's what kids like about him -- that anything can happen." Green, who is recuperating from surgery for testicular cancer, was not at interviews for the movie. No matter, his director and co-stars were all eager to extol his virtues. And Phillips, now one of Green's best friends, reports that he's healthy again. NOT THAT EXTREME "He's doing well. He's not able to fly yet -- that was a pretty major operation -- but he's actually fine now. It's done. It's just that it's a shock to the body." As for shocking audiences, Phillips says Green is not that extreme to him, especially when you consider that his first movie, Hatred, was a documentary on GG Allin, the notorious punk rocker. "Allin makes Tom Green look like Tom Bosley." But some of Green's fellow actors were apprehensive about working with him, at least those who had watched The Tom Green Show on MTV and others who had heard about his dead animal stunts. "I was scared he was going to be the way he is on the show," says 24-year-old actress Amy Smart, who plays a brainy blonde who goes topless to seduce her 25-year-old leading man, Brecklin Meyer. "He is so outrageous," Smart continues, still talking about Green. "He is so shocking, and he throws everybody off balance. I didn't know meeting him if he was going to play a prank on me. But he was just really cool and down to earth and quiet." Except, of course, on camera. "It's challenging," she says of doing scenes with him, "to come in straight and not be fazed by his silliness, because he really cracked me up." Rachel Blanchard, a 23-year-old Canadian actress best known for the TV version of Clueless, says Green charmed her. "In real life, he's pretty mellow and relaxed. He just does (in his comedy) what everyone else just thinks of doing and never does. "Then, people's reactions to things are really funny. He's so straight-faced with everything and so serious and it's such an absurd situation. People are so easy to trigger." Road Trip is going to trigger major reactions. No one is saying that this is a serious dramatic vehicle, says 23-year-old Seann William Scott, who made his movie debut as a high-school jock in another puerile comedy hit, American Pie. "It's like American Beauty is Olympic wrestling and Road Trip is the WWF (World Wrestling Federation)." Nothing shocked him about Road Trip when he first read the script. "After American Pie, I thought anything was possible." and, in teen comedies, probable. As for encouraging kids to laugh their guts out, Toronto-born co-star Paulo Costanzo, 21, says no one should get too worked up about bad taste. "It is what it is. Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I love this kind of movie. Entertainment is entertainment. Making people laugh is just as important as enlightening them. And people need a break sometimes. They need a no-brainer. It's very easy to watch." |
|||