related items
It has to be said: Most “Saturday Night Live”-inspired movies, with the exception of “Wayne’s World” and “The Blues Brothers,” aren’t very good.
Yet Will Forte, the star and co-writer of the “Saturday Night Live” skit extension “MacGruber,” says people shouldn’t pre-judge the action-comedy based on the likes of “It’s Pat!”
In the film, opening May 21, Forte reprises his “SNL” role as an inept action hero whose limited skills are no match for the tremendous, life-or-death circumstances he faces constantly. (Just like the '80s TV character MacGyver, if MacGyver had absolutely no clue what he was doing.) The movie finds MacGruber taking on a villain (Val Kilmer) bent on destruction with the help of a team of defense experts played by Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig and a lot of WWE stars. It’s a tongue-in-cheek nod to extreme ‘80s/early ‘90s action movies. (Forte’s favorite? Rambo’s “First Blood.”)
From Boulder, Colo., Forte talked about turning an “SNL” skit into a great movie and why he doesn’t have his own chest hair assistant.
Between MacGruber, Hamilton and your Bon-Jovi-opposite-band Jon Bovi character on “SNL,” why do you have such a propensity for playing dudes with mullets?
I don’t know if I go to the mullets or if the mullets come to me. If you ask people at the show what they most associate with me, I don’t think that they would say a mullet. I think that they would say a mustache. ‘Cause I’m always trying to put on a mustache. I’m way more comfortable with a mustache. So it’s surprising that MacGruber doesn’t have a mustache. But he has a five-o-clock shadow. All my co-workers, if we were all on “The Newlywed Game,” they would say “mustache” instead of “mullet.”
What happens if you try to combine a mustache and a mullet?
Oh my god. Awesomeness. [Laughs] That would be pretty great. How would you do that? Would you drape some mustache hair through your nostrils and down the cavity into your mouth?
Definitely something to ask your doctor.
That would require years and years of work, but it might be worth it.
How much do you expect the MacGruber style to catch on? I picture a Jennifer Aniston-level phenomenon.
Then I don’t think you’re a good style predictor. That would be really funny if anything like that ever happened, but I don’t imagine it will.
When the MacGruber sketch was first pitched, what were the chances it would eventually become a movie?
If we talk about the very first time that it was pitched, I thought the chances that it would become a sketch were about zero percent. [Director/co-writer Jorma Taccone] kept coming to me … it was his idea initially, and I wasn’t really that into it. Every Monday when we do our pitches he would come and say, “Hey, let’s write this thing!” I would just say, “No, that’s all right. Do you have any other stuff?” And then we would do something else and it kept happening a couple weeks in a row. Finally, just to shut him up, I said, “OK, let’s do it!” I’m really, really happy that he was that persistent.
In terms of expanding something short into a full-length movie, how will “MacGruber” compare to the rumored movie based on the E-Trade babies?
[Laughs] Is there really an E-Trade babies movie? I’ll tell you what: I’m not going to shit on the E-Trade babies movie until I see it. And then if it deserves to be shit on, I will. I’ve learned through this that the worst thing that you can do is to judge something before you’ve seen it. Look at “Blues Brothers.” They had sung a song on “SNL” and they wore suits. And they made one of the best “SNL” movies of all time. I’m not in any way comparing us to “Blues Brothers” or saying we’ll be as good ... that’s an untouchable movie. But I just hope people will give the movie a chance and check it out. I think people go into it thinking, “This is going to be a movie [where] it’s just the sketch over and over and over again,” and it’s nothing like that.
What was the biggest challenge of making “MacGruber”?
Keeping the chest hair conditioned and lustrous. Because it tends to get greasy. And I like it to have a lot of body.
In the credits will we see “Will Forte’s chest hair assistant”?
Uh, no. I am my own chest hair assistant.
I hope you’re getting paid extra for that.
No, they lump it all in. It’s a real bummer. I’m getting screwed!
I hear that the movie has some pretty graphic sex scenes. How did you prepare for those?
I studied a lot of pornography. No, I did no preparation. I just tried to make sure that my chest hair was nice and luscious and well-conditioned. That’s about it. Maybe tried to do a couple push-ups, a few sit-ups. Throw those into my daily routine for a couple weeks before that.
Would you say that MacGruber is a sex symbol?
Oh, absolutely. I don’t think that there would be one person on the planet that would say that he’s not a sex symbol. Except for everybody on the planet except for me. And I’m backing off it now too.
Twitter questions from...
@JulieShenkman: How do you usually spend a Sunday after a full week at SNL?
God, we go nuts at “SNL.” It’s such hard work. We basically have two all nighters. On Tuesday night we’re writing all night. Saturday night after the show we have an after-party and then we blow off steam and sometimes stay up pretty late, much later than we probably should. So a lot of Sunday is just spent sleeping in and recharging batteries. My favorite Sundays are Sundays in the fall when I can just kind of wake up right around when the football games are starting.
@mspeeptoepumps: Who would win in a fight between MacGruber and MacGyver?
They would never fight. They would work in tandem. And beat all kinds of ass. MacGruber would be more behind the scenes saying, “There’s a guy coming on your right! There’s a guy coming on your left!”
Find showtimes for "MacGruber."
