In the Azazel Jacobs-directed Terri, Reilly stars as Mr. Fitzgerald, a blustery vice principal who takes a shine to the film's titular teenager, an overweight misfit who wears pajamas to school every day. It's a perfect role for Reilly -- broadly funny, but with an underlying sense of real humanity -- which isn't all that surprising since his wife, Terri producer Alison Dickey, was the one who suggested he take a look at the material in the first place.
The Oscar nominee spoke to Movieline about the new film, the pros and cons of young co-stars, and what fans can expect from two highly anticipated upcoming projects: Roman Polanski's adaptation of God of Carnage and the potentially happening Step Brothers 2.
Your wife Alison Dickey produced Terri. How did she approach you about appearing in the film?
She got the manuscript that [author] Patrick deWitt wrote originally -- way early on, before it had even become a script -- because Patrick was going to write a book based on these characters, and then Azazel Jacobs and he turned it into a script. I trust my wife, she's got great taste! It's so funny -- so many journalists have asked, "So you worked with your wife -- was that a nightmare?" Mostly guys! It's like, "Wait a minute, I think you're talking about your marriage, not mine." It was great working with my wife. She's got really great taste -- she reads a lot, she was an English major in college -- so I trust her. So when she says, "You got to really read this; this is a great piece of material," I definitely listened. And I agreed, once I saw Fitzgerald on the page.
Mr. Fitzgerald is so kind and well-meaning, he really reminded me a lot of the role you played in Magnolia.
You're the second person who said that. It hadn't occurred to me while making it, but looking back I have to admit, yeah, that's true. That person who's trying to make it through life, and understand it all, but trying to be as direct and as honest as can be. Yeah.
So, was the script changed at all to suit your particular strengths once you signed on?
It was there. It was there. We did a little bit of editing, me and Aza, on the day. "This speech I give to the kid is four pages long." I mean, literally: there were a couple of speeches -- seven pages, all at once, in one take. "Maybe this is repetitive here, maybe we can drop this." But I didn't really improvise. I think I only improvised one line in the whole movie. So for the most part it was just great writing by Patrick deWitt, and then you just surrender yourself to the character.
One of the things that really surprised me about Terri was its honesty and heart. When you have a tremendously overweight teen who wears pajamas to school, it seems like a recipe for cheap jokes and easy laughs. Was there a concerted effort during production to shy away from the obvious?
I think that's a reflection on Aza, as a filmmaker. He's not a mean-spirited person at all. He's extremely compassionate; he has a lot of empathy. He has a real commitment to honesty and storytelling and truth, in terms of the way the characters were portrayed. He wasn't trying to push some agenda that he had; he was trying to be patient and listen to what these characters needed. It's a real testament to him. I was just trying to do the best I could to make the guy as honest as I could. When I was doing it, I thought it was a lot broader than it ended up playing. Because some of that stuff he says is pretty odd, but then it just seems of a piece in the movie, and he really does seem like a real person in the film. It was nice to see that come through.
You obviously share most of your scenes with Jacob Wysocki. On the whole, do you enjoy working with young actors?
When they're good, I like working with new actors. Luckily, Jacob was really good. I auditioned a bunch of people for the film with Aza, and I was a big fan of Jacob's from the moment I met him; I like that quiet confidence he has. The fact that he had a background in improvisation really helped a lot because he was someone who could give and take in a scene, and would be really reacting to what's going on. Some younger actors practice their little thing at home, and then they come in and [stilted, sing-song-y] they do what they practiced. And you can go, "[SCREAMS]," and they keep doing their scene. it was great having Jacob there. Jacob, literally, from moment to moment would react with his eyes to what was really going on.
I liked him. Young people can be annoying, let's face it. But they can also be really refreshing to be around and full of enthusiasm. There's nothing worse than a bunch of old people complaining about how uncomfortable they are on set. And kids come in, and they're like, "We get to make a movie, man! Oh my God, what scene are we doing today!" It's kinda cool. It's contagious.
You've been cast as a mentor a couple of times in 2011: Mr. Fitzgerald, Deansie from Cedar Rapids. What is about you that makes casting directors go, "We need a mentor; call Reilly!"
If Deansie is your mentor, you're gonna end up in AA. [Laughs] I don't know. Why people pick me for the roles that they do is a bit of a mystery. To a certain extent, you know yourself, and to a certain extent, all of us don't really have a truly objective view of what we really look like to other people. We're living one reality inside here, and what people see or feel or experience in our presence is often something different. I'm just glad I'm working.
You work a lot. And in recent years you've bounced around a lot, too. One minute you're in Chicago, the next Talladega Nights, and then something like Terri.
Yeah, it's like Whac-A-Mole.
It is exactly like Whac-A-Mole. Do you intentionally try to change it up on a regular basis?
You have to. If there is anything deliberate about what I do, it's that. I don't deliberately go into comedy or go into indies, but I do deliberately try to keep changing tact, because I think that is the key to longevity in a career. To continually surprise people. It just gets boring. If you start to do the same thing, it just gets boring on a personal level. I try to keep myself from being bored. I'm sort of a restless person, in general, so I try to do stuff that keeps me engaged.
Have you found over the years that you prefer indies to big studio productions, or vice versa?
I like the salary of one more than the other. [Laughs] It would be great gross participation in an indie film that becomes a monstrous hit. That would be like having your cake and eating it too. Look, I obviously don't pick things based on the size of their budgets -- you can see that from the stuff I've chosen to do. I'm just looking for people that seem like they're inspired and know the stories they want to tell; good scripts and characters that seem like I could do well with. It's as simple as that.
You mention good scripts, and I would imagine the adaptation of God of Carnage that Roman Polanski directed would qualify. What was that like for you -- especially being in a cast with such heavy-hitters?
It was amazing. Living in Paris, first of all, was amazing. I was there for about 10 weeks altogether. It's 90 minutes in real time in one location with these four people. It was a really intense experience getting to know everyone. Intense in a good way. Jodie Foster plays my wife, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz are the other couple; luckily there wasn't a diva in the bunch, Roman included, because it would have been tough. The set was the size of two rooms. We were in there everyday, all day, five days a week. Every character is in every minute of the script. There's no time jumps at all. It will be really interesting to see how it works as the film, because it really is -- this script you could perform on stage, easily. Even the movie version of the script. I heard it was coming out in October in Europe. It's going to be at the Venice Film Festival in September.
Speaking of other upcoming projects, what's the status on Step Brothers 2?
We've met, so we're talking about that. We're kinda in the spitballin' stage; we're thinking about it. Where it goes from here, I don't know. Whether it actually comes together, we'll see. I think we're all interested in it. No one wants to make a lame sequel, cause it's such a beloved movie; people really respond to that movie.
With The Hangover Part II being a notable exception, it seems that a lot of the successful studio comedies -- I'm thinking Anchorman, Wedding Crashers, Zoolander -- never get the sequel. Why do you think that is?
I think because most people are interested in doing the next original idea, creatively. The studio has been asking about doing a sequel to this movie for a long time, and all of our first reaction was like, "Well, we could do that, but we also just could do some other new movie." But, lately, we've been thinking it might be pretty fun to go back, and we've started to think of some ideas, and there's a lot. It's very fertile ground.
[Photo: Getty Images]