We Got This Covered: Jason, we heard that you threw an actual Panini maker at Melissa.
Jason Bateman: That was a mistake. It was regrettable.
Melissa McCarthy: I don’t know about that (laughs). There were about 14 fake Panini machines that weigh about a quarter of an ounce because they’re foam, and then there was one real one that weighs 32 pounds.
Jason Bateman: And it was a little shinier (laughs).
Melissa McCarthy: And the first time we did that run to the door, he picked up the real one and let that thing fly toward my head.
Jason Bateman: Missed her.
Melissa McCarthy: And he was like “I didn’t know! I thought it was a fake one!” There was like a 32 pound difference!
Jason Bateman: Well I didn’t know that there were any light ones. I thought they were all real! It was like clearly someone’s checked with Melissa on this!
Melissa McCarthy: It was a dicey shoot!
Jason Bateman: Yeah but we made it through!
We Got This Covered: I was just wondering, with this movie or another movie, is there a limit to how far you’ll go for comedy or are you always all-out for a laugh?
Jason Bateman: I would shit in a sink for a laugh.
Melissa McCarthy: For me, I think as long as it makes sense for the character. I like to see if you can, on the worst day or the most extreme circumstance, I like to see how far you can push it. But to me it’s not funny anymore if it doesn’t make sense. And I don’t like to do anything that’s mean-spirited just because I don’t find it funny. I’d rather be the jackass than make fun of somebody else because that just seems too cheap and easy. So those are my only limits.
Jason Bateman: Well said. I second that.
We Got This Covered: Jason, Seth Gordon called you the best straight man of your generation. When you’re in the scene in the car with Melissa and she’s dancing and going nuts, how do you keep a straight face?
Jason Bateman: Well they don’t have those takes in the movie, and there were a lot of them where I broke up. There were only a few where I kept a straight face, which you only need one, and that’s what I kept telling the crew as they got frustrated with me. She makes it very, very difficult because she does it in a way that’s different on every single take, so even if you know what’s coming it’s going to be a little different. And then when you think you’ve gotten used to that funny line that’s written, and we do that 7, 8, 9 times and get that real good, she’ll then on take 10 or 11 say something completely different just to make you laugh or make the crew laugh. Sometimes those make it in the movie, but we certainly didn’t need to do that with this great script by Craig Mazin. She made it tough.
We Got This Covered: Did you two ever get stir crazy while sitting in that car doing those scenes, and can you tell us more about those funny moments that came out of that?
Melissa McCarthy: The car scenes were my favorites because you’re confined to this car and a lot of times you’re locked on both sides because they have camera rigs, so you literally can’t get out. So you kind of get cabin fever and you get punchy, and just sitting next to…
Jason Bateman: Jason.
Melissa McCarthy: Sure, for that long of a time. By the end I had to do a lot of weird stuff. For a time I stared at his forehead instead of his eyes because I couldn’t keep it together. But those are my favorite things because you actually start to feel like you’re on it because you just get crazy. You start to go a little loopy.
Jason Bateman: And then you came up with that idea to just sleep your eyes open, and it’s in the movie.
Melissa McCarthy: Sure (laughs).
We Got This Covered: What made you choose Seth Gordon to direct this movie?
Jason Bateman: Because, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to talk with him yet, he’s just a really, really nice guy and great at what he does, and you don’t really want much more than that. We happened to be on the press junket for Horrible Bosses when the film was really starting to come together. Melissa and I had this great lunch where I talked her into doing this, and I told Seth about it and he said yes. It was that quick.
We Got This Covered: Melissa, you grew up on a small farm in a small town. Does that influence you when you pick your roles?
Melissa McCarthy: I don’t know. Maybe it does. In terms of the characters I think are really fun to play, a lot of times it’s someone in my head saying “I know that woman.” There are women like that in my hometown and there’s one like that the Midwest. I guess I do kind of always go back to that them and draw from there because I really love them. I find them great and interesting and quirky and eccentric. I think everything that any actor does, I would assume, is shaped by how and where they grew up. I steal a lot from a lot of Midwestern women that I weirdly watch, that’s what I should say.
We Got This Covered: Melissa, your character in this movie does some pretty horrible things that can ruin lives, and yet the audience is pulling for you all the way. How do you straddle that line and make us cheer for you even though your character’s not very nice?
Melissa McCarthy: Well I think that’s a testament to the good script and Craig Mazin writing a fully developed person. I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t just kind of a one-dimensional mustache twirling villain because I thought that’s kind of interesting for a scene but I don’t know how you play that for a whole movie.
And I love the thought of someone doing criminal acts but not doing them to be me menacing. She does them because I think she’s lonely and doesn’t have anyone, so it’s like she kind of steals identities just so she can go out to a store and kind of pretend to have these lives; pretend to have a husband, pretend to have a family, pretend be engaged. We did so many versions of the different mall scenes and I think that to me is what really locked me into her. She’s not even stealing from people to be menacing, she’s just so lonely. I felt like I found the heart of her and something interesting that made her tick, so hopefully other people will see that too.
We Got This Covered: Jason, you had planned to make this movie for a long time and Melissa’s character was originally written to be a man. Was it just Melissa that made you change that, or did you just think that this part could also be played by a woman?
Jason Bateman: It was just Melissa. This script was just sort of sitting there for a couple of months and I went to the premiere of Bridesmaids and the following morning called Universal and talked with one of the producers on the film, Scott Stuber, and said “I’d really like to work with this woman. Can we please change the thief from a guy to a girl to make it Melissa?” And they could not have liked the idea better and they said “well why don’t you see if you can go get her?” Fortunately this was the premiere so it was not yet in America’s hands, so we still had a chance at her. So I took her out to a quick meal and had her sign something while she was passed out from all the booze.
Melissa McCarthy: [laughs].
That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Jason and Melissa very much for talking with us. Be sure to check out Identity Theft, in theatres this Friday.