I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry - Kevin James interview
Interview by Rob Carnevale
KEVIN James chats briefly about working with Adam Sandler on I Now Pronounce You… Chuck & Larry, improvising during filming and some of the negative reactions the film received from US critics…
You were the newcomer to the Adam Sandler comedy crowd in a way? Did you feel that you wete bursting into a new family?
Kevin James: I felt like I became family with these guys. I’ve known Adam and a lot of the guys who work for him for a long time. It was a nice family. In fact, I run the family now.
How many of the fire-related stunts were your own?
Kevin James: The double was definitely there with the falling down the ladder stunt for me. Adam wanted to do all his own stunts but that didn’t appeal to me at all [laughs]. If I could have somebody read my lines…
How loose is the script when you actually get going? Or is there a lot of improvisation as well?
Kevin James: We kind of stuck to the script. The film’s got to go from one scene to the next so you can’t just keep improvising like crazy and not following the story. It has to service the story. But once that was achieved there was freedom to have fun. Either Adam and myself, or the writers we worked with, came up with some great stuff.
Some reaction in the States has been negative from the critics… Does that bother you?
Kevin James: No, I honestly don’t even look at it. Like Adam said recently, a lot of people gun for him but he’s like Teflon. It doesn’t matter. He’s who the people want to see and he’s proven that time and time again. I enjoy what I do, we’re proud of what we do, and we make people laugh. Really, we’re trying to make people laugh. These critics have a job and I understand that – sometimes they’re right, but sometimes they’re not and it’s as simple as that. If I judged what I did by what the critics want, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.
Any chance you might do another movie together with Adam?
Kevin James: If I can work with him either on-screen or off-screen, in whatever capacity, for the rest of my career I’d be very happy. We had a good time together.
In real life, given a tolerant social planet, would you marry a movie actor?
Kevin James: I think my mother would be happy if I married Adam, because I’d be financially taken care of for the rest of life.
Read our review of Chuck & Larry
I LOVED this movie!!! It hit all the right notes and ticked all the boxes. as a gay man, though, it would have been nicer to have seen Rob the Post man marry the black fire fighter. Instead of the very, very queenie camp guy marrying the black fire fighter. Given the chance, I’d marry Kevin James (who played Larry), he wouldn’t need to ask me twice. BLUSH!
— John Sep 30 #