00:00Welcome to my house, this is where I live.
00:02I like what you've done, it's very white, very clean.
00:04Thank you, thank you, exactly.
00:06I got to tell Jason this a few years ago,
00:08but Spaghetti and Sour Marshall is my favourite film of all time.
00:10Oh.
00:11And it's in my top five films of all time, it just makes me feel good.
00:13Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
00:14What are the other four, I'm just curious.
00:16Oh, very different tonally.
00:17That's great, that's great.
00:18Like Dark Nights or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
00:20Oh my god, that's good, we're in good company.
00:22So we look at genres, right?
00:23Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24What's your favourite film of all time?
00:25You know, it's a tie, but I'm similarly like, love different genres.
00:28A tie between When Harry Met Sally and The Shining.
00:30Oh, so that ticks off the rom-com boxes.
00:32Exactly, yeah, both of them.
00:34Hey, you've done a lot of rom-coms, obviously, at this point.
00:37Had you crossed paths with Will Ferrell professionally before?
00:39Had he appeared in any, or was it a dream to get him in one?
00:42No, I've known him on and off for years,
00:44just our kids went to the same school,
00:46and I just know him through Comedy World,
00:48and I've been to various table reads of his,
00:50and I'd always wanted to work with him,
00:53but I knew him a bit.
00:55I did not know Reese at all, I'd never met her or anything.
00:58How hard was the sell to get her on board for this film?
01:01You know, it was, I pitched,
01:03I found out they both wanted to work together,
01:05so it actually was pretty fast,
01:07like the whole thing went pretty fast.
01:09I had the idea, I developed the characters,
01:11and then pitched it to them, they liked it,
01:13and then I developed the film for the two of them.
01:15What was it about a wedding which is such a good setting
01:18for comedy and calamity at the same time?
01:21Why are those things correct for it?
01:23I always sound pretentious when I say this,
01:25but it literally starts with Shakespeare.
01:27Shakespeare's comedies always end in a wedding.
01:29There's something about a wedding,
01:31since the beginning of time,
01:33that it's just a fun place to end up.
01:35I also think weddings are really heightened emotions,
01:37and all of the weird stuff comes out,
01:39and your family dynamics, and your relationship dynamics,
01:41and all that, and so I think for all those reasons,
01:43and also it's just romantic, and it's beautiful.
01:45People are trying to be as pretty as possible.
01:47What's your favourite piece of direction
01:49that you got to give one of the cast members
01:51during this film, because they do some wacky stuff.
01:53So what's the best thing that you got
01:55to shout at your cast?
01:57What is...
01:59I'm trying to think.
02:01Honestly, probably the dumbest moment,
02:03which really works,
02:05is when Will Ferrell is listening at the door,
02:07and he overhears Rhys talking
02:09about his daughter,
02:11and you can see him get really mad,
02:13and then I had him step back into shadow,
02:15and it always gets a laugh,
02:17and I remember telling my DP,
02:19I want him to step back into shadow,
02:21and the photographer was like,
02:23but there's no reason there'd be any shadows there.
02:25And I was like, it just has to happen,
02:27and it totally worked,
02:29and that was a very funny moment,
02:31and I told him to really film more
02:33as he went back into shadows.
02:35There were so many wonderful funny moments in this.
02:37I particularly enjoyed Chaos Monkey.
02:39Could you please explain what is Chaos Monkey,
02:41and when's the last time your Chaos Monkey came out?
02:43Chaos Monkey, I think, is self-explanatory.
02:45The funny thing is, we never explain it.
02:47They just go, we've got to go,
02:49and I think it's a group
02:51go nuts on someone or something,
02:53and so in this, it's the moment
02:55the siblings all bond, Rhys and her siblings bond,
02:57and they're like, we've got to take
02:59the Jim, Will's character down.
03:01We're going to go Chaos Monkey on his ass.
03:03That's what they say,
03:05and have I ever gone Chaos Monkey?
03:07I'm sure I have.
03:09I can't think of a time,
03:11but I'm sure I have at some point,
03:13and we all have at some point.
03:15You're always credited as a British-American.
03:17British passport.
03:19I was born here, but I am American.
03:21My parents were American,
03:23and I happen to be born here.
03:25I love England.
03:27My parents have a flat here.
03:29I came here a lot during holidays and stuff,
03:31but it would be disingenuous
03:33to say I'm fully British.
03:35We'll claim you.
03:37I'm in.
03:39I know that you're working with Andy Serkis
03:41on the upcoming Animal Farm.
03:43What can you tell us about this?
03:45I wrote it a bit ago.
03:47He's such a legend, Andy Serkis.
03:49I think it's been a dream project of his
03:51for a while.
03:53It's fully just an adaptation of the book.
03:55I reread Animal Farm.
03:57If you haven't read it recently,
03:59it's just incredible, that book.
04:01It's also terrifyingly appropriate
04:03for this moment in our history.
04:05It's darkly comic.
04:07He's going for a real comic tone,
04:09but it's dark.
04:11I tried to update it a little bit
04:13so it's not super old-fashioned,
04:15so it's not taking place in the 40s.
04:17Finally, what's on the career checklist
04:19that you need to tick off still?
04:21What's on the bucket list for your career?
04:23Gladiator 3.
04:25Good choice.
04:27It's just so timely.
04:29Enjoy yourself in London.
04:31Thank you so much.
04:33Thanks for coming to my house.
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