With his new movie Date Night, filmmaker Shawn Levy has made an action-comedy aimed at adults. Although that may sound peculiar on its own, you have to consider the Montreal-born director’s work. After all, Levy is responsible for such huge family films as the Night at the Museum movies and Cheaper by the Dozen – not big action films involving mobsters and car chases.
In his quest to craft a older-skewed comedy adventure, he’s enlisted heavy-hitting comic actors Tina Fey and Steve Carell to play a bored New Jersey couple hoping for a little excitement when they hit Manhattan on their weekly “date night”. Instead the pair get caught up in a case of mistaken identity and end up running from the mob.
I caught up recently with Levy to discuss working with Tina and Steve, an unusual car chase and the powerful opinion of David Letterman:
STEVE GOW: I thought Date Night was great. You know, it’s interesting because obviously compared to Night at the Museum, there’s less CGI, but definitely a little bit more maybe organic action – is that fair to say?
SHAWN LEVY: Exactly. That was the goal and so I’m glad that’s how you would describe it. Its my first non-family film and I think (it’s) a little more organic in its character study and in kind of the nature of its action.
SG: What was it in that regard – what was the trickiest thing in making this – I mean there’s a big car chase?
LEVY: Yeah, we could talk about that specifically but I think the goal was to make it really, really funny but to also try and make it relatable to grown-ups in relationships. We’ve shown it to our first big batch of journalists and critics and the extent to which people have said, ‘oh my God, that scene in the blah, blah, blah made me cringe it felt so familiar’ and that’s what Steve, Tina and I really wanted – a broad, funny comedy that was also honest about married life and adult relationship life so keeping that balance of tone. That was a big thing. And then where there is action, frankly to do action like we haven’t seen before. No one has seen a Siamese car chase through Manhattan which is why it was a nightmare to develop and research and design.
SG: You’ve said that a lot of your job is coming up with the idea, get the perfect actors and then get the hell out of the way. How perfect were (Tina and Steve) for that?
LEVY: Well, I think they’re so well-suited to this movie - that the fact that they had never worked together was crazy – and I had a feeling that whoever put them in a movie first was going to reap the benefits. And to put them in a movie, but a as a married couple especially feels so organic – they may both be married to other people (in real life) but you sure buy them on-screen as a married couple.
SG: Yeah, they have great chemistry in this film.
LEVY: Because not only do they look great together but the style and tone of their comedy is so well-matched.
SG: One of the great surprises of the movie is the end-credit outtakes.
LEVY: Yeah, we had a lot of fun on this set.
SG: It looks like it. You really get the sense through those outtakes how loose Tina and Steve are with each other.
LEVY: And that’s how (I shoot). That’s how I shot the Museum movies, I really believe in keeping a free-flowing, energized workplace. Its very much part of how I like to work. I think you get the best out of your actors that way.
SG: Tina was really funny on David Letterman the other night. Did you catch it?
LEVY: No, I missed it. Letterman loved the movie though! He’s like the Comedy Pope.
SG: Is he?
LEVY: Yeah, that’s what we call him – the Comedy Pope.
SG: Is he finicky?
LEVY: He does not like that much. In fact, I heard from Tina from New York, she’s like, ‘oh my God, Letterman really liked it’ so that always feels good.
