What Happens In Vegas - Rob Corddry and Lake Bell interview
Interview by Rob Carnevale
SPARRING couple Rob Corddry and Lake Bell talk about appearing in What Happens In Vegas, whether they really bicker and the worst thing they’ve done whilst being drunk…
Q. How did you both get involved with What Happens in Vegas?
Rob Corddry: I’d played a lot of best friends, and/or bad guys, which seems to be my lot in life. In romantic comedies there’s always a best friend and the woman has a best friend and they always antagonise each other and then they end up together at the end of the movie. But that didn’t happen in this movie, it really messed with my expectations and happened in a really strange way. That, in addition to the rest of the script, I thought was a really innovative take on a traditional kind of comedy.
Lake Bell: I totally auditioned for the role. I read it, I love comedy, and I came in and met with these guys and Cameron. I went to do a screen test, which was a little scary, because it’s just you and the other girl [who’s up for the part] sitting there, waiting to go in. So, Cameron walked up and she was on the phone and she was going: “Perf, perf, okay perf, bye.” I just said: “I say ‘perf’ too!” And then we hugged.
Rob Corddry: And I bet the other girl was going: “Shit! I don’t even know what the hell ‘perf’ means!”
Q. What was the best thing about working with Cameron Diaz?
Lake Bell: I think that she’s such a naturally generous, nice person. I think the characters that she plays are always so funny and light and wonderful, you just want to hang out with that person, and the truth is she’s really like that. She’s incredibly down to Earth and cool, that’s just really who she is. And she can kick your ass at anything because she’s really competitive. We went kart racing, and she can pretty much do anything. She completely spun me out, it was scary.
Rob Corddry: She’s one of those people, and I’ve met very few people like this, who have a lighthouse behind their head that shines out at you. It makes you feel good, apart from the fact that she’s beautiful, funny and cool, she really has another power that just makes you feel comfortable. I think she might be a superhero.
Q. How did the two of you go about playing characters who hated each other so, given the revelations of what happened in Vegas that we saw at the end of the film?
Rob Corddry: We fear each other, you might interpret that as hate but mostly it’s just fucking terror. I’m terrified of that woman. She could spring out of that chair at you and be at your throat and snap it in seconds. You’re dead.
Lake Bell: It was a bit, err, [puts her hand to her mouth and looks embarrassed]
Rob Corddry: Are you burping?
Lake Bell: [Laughs] Yeah, that was a good lunch, sorry.
Rob Corddry: Men and women are so different…
Lake Bell: I’m so sorry. That was it in a nutshell!
Rob Corddry: Women just burp whenever they want!
Lake Bell: We do actually.
Q. What’s the worst thing you’ve done while drunk?
Rob Corddry: I peed in my wife’s boot once. On honeymoon, in Madrid, we were drinking absinthe and somehow made it back to our hotel. I don’t remember a second of this, but my wife woke up to this noise. Two of her boots were in the corner, one had fallen down and the other was standing up and I was peeing into it! It was a hole, and it looked like a toilet. She said: “Rob, wake up, you’re peeing into my shoe!” Apparently, I looked back and went: “Come on, lighten up!”
Lake Bell: I really can’t top that. I was sitting here thinking about it and I can’t reveal to you what it was.
Rob Corddry: Did you murder somebody?
Q. If you hit the jackpot and won three million dollars and had to spend it there and then what would you spend it on?
Rob Corddry: If you had to spend it? I’d put it on red. Double down.
Lake Bell: I’d give it to charity.
Read the review of What Happens In Vegas