[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: I believe you once said to Leslie Nielsen “I will never let you do anything that isn’t funny.” How could you make such a promise?
David Zucker, Director/Writer/Producer: Well, I promised Leslie that I’ll never make you do anything that isn’t funny. I can make that promise because if something wasn’t funny that he did and it didn’t get a laugh, it was out of the movie.
So I could make that promise easy.
The other aspect of that is that I remember the first table read for Naked Gun, Priscilla Presley was very nervous and said I don’t know how to be funny.
I said Don’t worry, you don’t have to be funny. Just let the lines do the work.
And I’ve said that to many actors and actresses since then.
I just said Don’t ever try to be funny. Just let the lines do the work.
It’s when somebody tries to clown and be funny that it gets into trouble.
Film Courage: Why don’t you like to cast comedians in your movies?
David: We have a rule that we do in MasterCrash: The 15 Rules [David’s course] called Jerry Lewis.
Don’t ever try to be funny. Just let the lines do the work.
It doesn’t mean that we especially don’t like Jerry Lewis but we don’t need comedians. That’s the whole thing. It was easier to do Airplane without having to put in an expensive actor like Chevy Chase at the time who’s wonderful or Bill Murray who’s wonderful or later Jim Carrey. These are great comic actors, Robin Williams, but they don’t belong in our movies because the actors have to be just completely serious.
So that’s why we never have a comedian. It’s just kind of the uber-ization of comedy. You don’t have to be a skilled taxi driver to know every address and all this stuff and have to communicate with a dispatcher. All you need is a license and a cell phone and with Waze on it and can drive anywhere…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
MASTERCRASH: A Crash Course In Spoof Comedy
BUY THE BOOK – Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!
About:
Born on October 16, 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, director/writer/producer David Zucker, along with brother Jerry (Ghost, 1990) Zucker and longtime friend, Jim (Hot Shots, 1991) Abrahams, has established himself among Hollywood’s (or at least Wisconsin’s) most successful filmmakers. Starting out after college, with a borrowed video tape deck and camera, the soon to be legendary trio created the Kentucky Fried Theater, on the UW Madison campus, and moved to California in 1972, quickly becoming the most successful small theater group. in Los Angeles history.
After parlaying this success into The Kentucky Fried Movie, the three conceived the idea that would create a whole new film genre. Airplane! (1980) broke all conventions, featuring dramatic actors like Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen performing zany jokes with straight-laced sincerity. The spoof became the surprise hit of 1980, beginning a streak of hilarious movies including Top Secret! (1984) and Ruthless People (1986), after which David branched out on his own to direct The Naked Guns (1988, 1991, 1994), BASEketball (1998), Scary Movies 3 (2003), and 4 (2006), and others.
David also found time to produce the successful, but somewhat less hilarious A Walk in The Clouds (1995) and Phone Booth (2002), and recently completed a feature script, The Star of Malta, a comedy set in the Film Noir era, and an international spy thriller, “Counter Intellijence!”.
MORE VIDEOS WITH DAVID ZUCKER
CONNECT WITH DAVID ZUCKER
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New book from Film Courage! – See it on Payhip here
New book from Film Courage! – See it on Payhip here
