 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
 Envy Production NotesWhen there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.
Tim (Ben Stiller) and Nick (Jack Black) are best friends, neighbors and co-workers, whose equal footing is suddenly tripped up when one of Nick’s harebrained get-rich-quick schemes actually succeeds: Vapoorizer, a spray that literally makes dog poop, or any other kind for that matter, evaporate into thin air.
Tim, who had poo-pooed Nick’s idea and passed on an opportunity to get in on the deal, can only watch as Nick’s fortune—and Tim’s own envy—grow to equally outrageous proportions. The flames of jealousy are fanned by an oddball drifter named J-Man (Christopher Walken) who takes it upon himself to help fix Tim’s situation, but only causes Tim’s life to careen more wildly out of control…taking Nick’s with it.
“The interesting thing about envy,” director / producer Barry Levinson observes, “is that it’s part of the human condition. We try to deny it, to hide it, to cover it up, but it’s in all of us. Early on, when I read the script for ‘Envy,’ I thought it was an interesting fable-like story about two best friends. One says, ‘I have this great idea; come on in with me.’ His friends answers, ‘Are you crazy? Of the 50 terrible ideas you’ve had, that has to be the stupidest.’
The next thing you know, that stupid, little idea becomes worth millions and millions of dollars. Where do they go from there? I thought that was worthwhile exploring in a comedic fashion.”
Screenwriter Steve Adams admits, “I generally want the scripts I write to be about things that concern me, too, and this story began with my own envy of other people’s successes. I found out it’s a common theme. When I would talk to other people about it, they knew just what I was talking about. In this case, it is the kind of envy that comes between two longtime friends who share everything…even their jobs. They are just everymen—guys who work together, come home, and wistfully dream of having more. Then this thing happens and one of them does get more…much more.”
Ben Stiller and Jack Black star as the two best friends who find themselves on very divergent paths. Stiller plays Tim Dingman, who passes up an opportunity to get in on the invention of a spray that makes poop disappear, appropriately dubbed Vapoorizer. Jack Black plays the man behind Vapoorizer, Nick Vanderpark, Tim’s best friend and now—thanks to grateful dog owners everywhere—filthy rich neighbor.
Stiller offers, “Tim Dingman is living a rather mundane existence, with a wife and two kids, and a job at a sandpaper factory. He’s a real practical guy, not much of a visionary like his friend, Nick Vanderpark. Nick is always coming up with inventions that are going to change his life, and Tim is the naysayer who thinks Nick has his head in the clouds. And, of course, Tim is wrong, tragically wrong. Tim becomes so driven by envy, it screws up his friendship. But what’s really eating away at him is that it’s his own fault. He had every opportunity to get in on the deal, so there’s that constant, nagging thought of ‘If only I had made that one decision…’”
Jack Black asserts that his character remains blissfully unaware of the envy gnawing away at his best friend, Tim. “Nick assumes that the Dingmans are as stoked about his newfound wealth as he is. He thinks they are happy for him…like if the team you were rooting for won the championship. Well, the Vanderparks have just won the Super Bowl of dog poop. They’re not just rich; we’re talkin’ stinking, filthy rich. They build a palace and have people attending to their every need. Nick even has the best hairstylists from Milan, so now the ‘do’ he has—you know ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?’—it’s part Oompa Loompa and part Little Lord Fauntleroy. It’s quite fetching, if I do say so myself,” Black laughs.
“Ben and Jack are terrific, the way they play off each other,” Levinson says. “Their energies are so different, which served us well for this movie because you want that collision of personalities. It allowed for these two characters to have a very interesting dynamic. Ben is great at building a slow burn, while Jack has the more expansive character. And for Ben, playing against that required more restraint, which I think is very hard to do.”
Despite their different approaches, Stiller and Black have only admiration for each other’s acting style. Stiller remarks, “Jack is really good because he doesn’t question it; he just goes for it. He commits to it 100 percent, which makes it a lot more fun to play opposite him.”
Black reciprocates, “Ben’s total commitment to whatever he’s doing is really impressive. There were times we’d be in a scene and I’d be in my own world. All of a sudden, I’d look over in his eyes and think, ‘He’s really listening. He’s totally in it.’ That’s what I tried to pick up from him—how to stay totally in the scene and in communication with the other actors.”
Tim’s envy might have burned itself out were it not for an oddball stranger, who calls himself J-Man, fueling the fire. Christopher Walken, who stars as J-Man, calls him, “a genuine bohemian. It’s hard to define, but he is reasonable in his own way. He sees an opportunity to make some money, but it’s not stealing. He thinks of it as a reward—they’re gonna give it to someone, so they might as well give it to him. He’s basically harmless, though.”
Barry Levinson says that he was thrilled to have Walken in the role, noting, “Chris is a really great actor, and extremely funny. He has a natural sense of comedy, but in a different way from what you might expect. He has a total commitment to any role he is doing; you can see it in his eyes. He is completely focused and just embodies the character. What makes him so great is he has such a command that he can find the essence of things in ways that continually surprise you. He had a line that was ‘Good for you, good for you, good for you,’ and he turned it into, ‘Good for you, good for you, good for you.’ It wasn’t meant to be hugely funny, but in that moment, he extracted something from it that wasn’t on the page. As a director, those moments are quite extraordinary.”
|
|||||
Sitemaps, RSS Feeds & Social Networks
|
|||||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amy Poehler, Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Rachel Weisz in Envy.