By Fred Topel | Image property of Paramount Pictures.
The Heartbreak Kid
The Heartbreak Kid may be a new title to modern audiences, but it is a remake of a '70s classic Neil Simon film. The Farrelly Brothers were hesitant to touch a remake, but various drafts of the new script sold them on it.
A Farrelly on The Heartbreak Kid
"Somebody asked us to make that about five years ago," said Peter Farrelly. "No, why would we, it’s classic. Then about two years ago, someone came back and said there’s a new draft of The Heartbreak Kid. They really did something smart. It was written by Leslie Dixon and Scot Armstrong at separate times. What they’ve done is flip the original. The original was a he goes on this honeymoon and meets Cybil Shepard. This one he marries the Cybil Shepard woman and goes on his honeymoon and meets a more down to earth girl. It really opened the door for us because first it of all it was a different movie."
They also hope that this switcheroo makes the lead character more likeable. "In the first one, as funny as it is, it’s a masterpiece, Charles Grodin was a cad. He’s just dumping the homely wife for the beautiful girl. Cybil Shepard is a sociopath. He tells her I’m on my honeymoon and she’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t care.’ So there’s a point where you don’t know what you’re rooting for. Once the wife is out of the picture you don’t really care if you get together. You follow it through because you’re curious, but you really don’t. This one, the likeability factor helped make it a fuller story for us and permitted us to put our kind of humor on it."
Perhaps there is more sympathy for the rejected bride than the confused groom. He is still betraying his vow. "The trick is to love her and then you are kind of annoyed by her, then you start to hate her, then you start to like her again, then you kind of find the sweetness. That was the balance. We never wanted to lose her. We never didn’t ever want her to come to the point where you don’t give a s**t about her. Even at the end you do. It doesn’t work if you don’t do that. That was the real acting trick there because she has to show us. It’s not what she says or what she does. It’s just in her face. When she’s in bed looking at him like, ‘I love you Eddiebear,’ you feel like this is a human being and despite everything, she’s going to be hurt and this isn’t good."
The Farrellys kept Akerman's character likeable to hold Stiller's guy a little bit more accountable for his actions. "We didn’t want to let Eddie off the hook. Forgive me if I’m repeating myself because you do so many rooms you can’t remember what you’ve said, but there was an earlier draft where she became a racist down in Mexico. She became a complete racist. We said, ‘What are you doing? No. That’s too easy because you’re like f**k her. Go to the other girl.’ We didn’t want that. Eddie should be in a tough position so we dropped that. We always tried to keep her in the game."
The Heartbreak Kid opens to theatres on October 5th.
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