Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little interview I did recently with three members of the Broken Lizard troupe (SUPER TROOPERS, BEERFEST). The offer to conduct this interview came shortly after the trades announced Broken Lizard were getting a new film off the ground pre-strike, with Kevin Heffernan stepping behind the camera for the first time to direct.

The interview is me, Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar and Paul Soter. This is the third time I’ve interviewed the Broken Lizard guys and I always have a blast talking with them. This one was beset by some tech glitches, but despite all that I think you’ll dig it.

So, for a little peek at what’s up with their new flick, THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON, give the below a read! Enjoy!!!

Jay Chandraskhar: How’s it going?

Quint: It’s going very well. It’s been a busy day; you guys are following up Frank Darabont.

Jay: Really? Nice!

Kevin Heffernan: So now you’ve got high expectations for us…

[Everyone Laughs]

Jay: Were you talking about THE MIST?

Quint: Yeah, we’re seeing it tonight and I’m really looking forward to it.

Jay: I’ve been waiting for that movie to come out for forever.

Quint: I don’t get to do these kinds of things too often, where there’s a project that’s announced and then immediately get to talk to the guys that are doing it, but it takes such a weight off of my shoulders, because I can be completely ignorant about it and not feel like I’ve been really lazy, so could you tell me a little bit about what the project is, THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON?

Kevin: It’s about one night in a restaurant… basically we play waiters and it’s kind of a Glengarry Glen Ross competition where the chefs are phoned by this heavy weight champion, like a Mike Tyson type of guy, who is kind of crazy and he has this contest where the top selling waiter gets ten grand and the lowest selling waiter gets the crap beat out of him by Mike Tyson. This is one night in a restaurant, where madness ensues…

[Long pause]

Quint: Sorry, but the connection got really bad there and it was hard to hear what you were saying. I was fiddling with the recorder, setting up the input level a little bit, so it’d pick up more sound.

Kevin: Oh, OK cool. Do you need me to repeat that then?

Quint: I think I got it, but if you read the transcription and it’s missing every other word or something, then you know that it was a technical error. Yeah, for some reason Kevin got really really faint, a lot fainter than when we first got on. Are you guys on a speaker phone?

Jay: We’re on various different phones…

Quint: I can hear you guys, so I guess it’s Kevin’s phone that hates me.

Kevin: Of course!

[Everybody laughs]

Kevin: It’s one night in a restaurant and you see Mike Tyson, heavy weight champion and he puts together this competition where we have to compete to see who can make the most money in one night and the top selling waiter gets ten grand and the bottom selling waiter gets the crap beat out of him by Mike Tyson.

Quint: I heard it that time.

Kevin: It’s really funny.

Quint: So why is it this one that you get to use your directing skills? Was Jay voted off the island or something?

[Everyone Laughs]

Kevin: It’s all alphabetical… like I do the next four movies and then Lemme does the next four movies.

Jay: Easy fellas, this is a one time gig. (laughs)

Paul Soter: He’s getting uppity already!

Jay: Kevin was with me in the editing room and the mixing room and was always just sitting there, so it seemed like the perfect movie to try, where it’s totally contained and we’ll all be there. I think it will be a great great time for him to try it out.

Quint: That’s cool. Are you looking forward to getting to kick back and let the weight of the world rest on somebody else’s shoulders for this one?

Jay: He’s already starting to crack under the pressure. He’s snapped a few times…. I don’t think he’s even going to make it through the first week.

Kevin: I’ve completely shaved my head… half of my head.

Paul: The rest of us are waiting hungrily in the wings, waiting for him to have his anxiety attack, so we can swoop in.

Quint: Also sitting back and critiquing everything that he does? “You really sure that you want to go for that framing…”

Kevin: “Well, that’s not the way I would do it, but eh…” Both Soter and Chandrasekhar directed a film and now I’m like the “baby.”

Jay: I’m going to be uh… I think we’ll just have to signal him telepathically. We don’t want to undermine his authority on the set.

Paul: I do.

Kevin: I’ll set up a shot and you and Jay will just be shaking your heads…

Paul: Jay and I will just look at each other cocking an eyebrow…

Quint: “I don’t know if that’s going to work, but it’s your movie…”

Paul: “Your funeral!”

Quint: Can each of you tell me a little bit about the character that you’re going to play?

Kevin: I play a character whose name is Rich Ferente and he is kind of a spineless pussy. He’s the jerk of the restaurant and yet he’s the guy who is the most afraid of the Champ, so he’s holding things together over the course of the night.

Quint: Nice.

Jay: I play a guy named “Nuts,” who is on medication and…

Paul: …has huge nuts.

Jay: And has huge nuts! So, it’s a little easy for me, because I’ve got huge nuts.

Quint: So you’re just being lazy… just typecast now…

[Everyone laughs]

Paul: I’m playing two characters. They’ve got me working double duty here. I play the chef, the angry asshole chef, and I’m also playing his twin brother, Donnie, who shows up to bus tables and ends up getting sucked in to the competition against his will, so it’ll be my first time playing a dual role, so I’m very excited. It’s like being on a soap opera… I get to do evil twins.

Quint: So obviously you’re going to be able to sneak this one in before the strike, hopefully…

Kevin: That’s the plan and since we’re doing it all independently and independently financed and the money kind of came together very quickly, so the point was just to try to get something going quickly before the strike happens.

Quint: Is the strike affecting your other stuff or is it kind of just getting caught up in studio red tape?

Jay: Yeah, the strike is definitely affecting the other stuff, because there’s just so much unknown out there… We went down our list of films we’re producing and it’s like they’re all sort of sitting on hold, waiting to find out how this gets resolved.

Kevin: We actually just sold a TV show that we were going to do, too, and it got put on hold because of this strike, so things went a little bit quiet, which is good that we have this movie.

Quint: I think your fans would like to see you go back to doing a quickie low budget one anyways, though.

Kevin: Yeah.

Jay: A very down and dirty… very much in the spirit of our early stuff.

Kevin: We were literally building a restaurant inside of soundstage and were just going to shoot in there for 25 days.

Quint: Cool, where are you shooting? LA?

Kevin: Yeah, probably in Van Nuys.

Quint: So you guys line up any good supporting characters? In all of your other films, you really find some great actors to surround yourselves with.

Kevin: Yeah, we actually just started the casting process and there are a lot of great roles and there are great roles for women, like two waitresses and there’s the Champ… So right now we are just starting the casting process, so we haven’t really cast yet.

Quint: That’s cool and when do you think you’re going to have to start shooting?

Kevin: We’re going to start shooting on January 7th and we will shoot for 25 days and be done the second week of February.

Quint: Sweet, so is there anything else that I should know about the movie or anything you want the fans to know about the flick?

[A baby crying is heard in one of the backgrounds and Paul has to get off of the phone.]

Kevin: No, I think you said it though. We are trying to get back to what we did in the past when we had a lot of control of things and just have some fun and make up fun characters.

Quint: It is smart to have a little bit of control over your destiny and not sit around and wait for other people to figure out what’s going on.

Kevin: And with the strike that’s going on, it’s hard to get things greenlit and getting things moving along, but we’re able to do that.

Quint: Cool. I don’t know what else to talk about, so I think that we’ve got a good idea and hopefully you guys get Drew up on the set or something.

Kevin: I should plug Soter’s movie.

Quint: Yeah, plug the movie!

Kevin: Paul directed a movie called WATCHING THE DETECTIVES and it’s coming out in February. He directed it and its got Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu.

Quint: I remember when we talked… I think he had just shot it when I talked to you guys last when you were in Austin for BEERFEST.

Kevin: That’s right; yeah he shot that in the summer.

Quint: Sounds really sweet. Have you guys seen it?

Kevin: Yes, it’s good. It’s really good.

Quint: Well, he’s not here anymore, so you can tell me your honest opinion.

[Everyone laughs]

Kevin: Everything’s great about it, except for its directing.

Quint: Cool guys, well hopefully next time we’ll have a little more in-depth interview, but I think this is really cool to get word out on what you guys are doing and I appreciate you talking to me.

Jay: Thanks a lot, we appreciate it.

That’s it. Got that interview with Darabont going up a little later today, so keep an eye out for that one.

Also, you’ll be seeing a pair of set reports in the next couple of days, coming from one really known geek project and one that’s flying under the radar at the moment. Keep an eye out for those!

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com