By Fred Topel | Image property of Walt Disney Pictures.
Talk about stunt casting, Donny Osmond plays the most annoying person you could possibly meet on a road trip. Doug (Osmond) is an overeager father taking his daughter on a tour of potential schools. Oddly enough, overprotective dad James Porter (Martin Lawrence) takes a liking to him.
Donny Osmond Talks College Road Trip
"It was a typical Hollywood situation where your manager calls up and says they've been thinking about casting you in a Disney film," said Osmond. "I thought that would be kinda cool. As what? Then they told me about Doug Greenhut and I was like, 'Oww. Noo.' Then I had phone call with Roger [Kumble], the director. He was so convincing. He went out on a limb to cast me in this film because he didn't know what I would bring to it. It was such an important role in the film but as soon as we started talking, he realized I was willing to take it to the limit. This guy who sings terrible show songs or whatever and he said, this could work if you'd be willing to do it. I thought I've got two-week window between tours. We could plug it in. It'll be a nice little-no pun intended-little road trip for me and my youngest son, so we went to Connecticut and I made an idiot out of myself."
As the butt of many jokes, Osmond decided to spoof his own public image of what people thought he was. "Did you guys ever get a chance to see Weird Al Yankovich's video, 'White and Nerdy.' If you haven't, Google it, and you'll understand where Doug Greenhut comes from."
College Road Trip
Doug sings random songs, though no Osmond numbers, with his daughter. Obviously, film music has to pass through clearances, so he could not totally improvise.
"A little of both. Obviously, you've got to get licenses to use certain songs but there were some things like 'People,' at the very end, that was something that Roger said we've gotta get clearance for this one because that's the one we need to do. The thing like getting the bug in the throat and all that stuff, that's the way Roger works. That was something we made up spontaneously before the cameras rolled."
Of course, Osmond's biggest contribution was kissing Martin Lawrence. "That was the first scene we did. I'd never worked with Martin before. I didn't know how he'd react but I had to break some ice here. How do we start this movie off on the wrong foot? Roger and I talked about it. I said I want to do this. I want to do this. And he said, 'Go for it.' So I hugged him. Hugged him again and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The look that he gave the camera was real. That was a real look. [Afterwards] he started laughing. [He said] something like, 'This is going to work. This is going to be fun.'"
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