Trivia and Quotes
Trivia
After the world premiere of I Love You Phillip Morris, the movie’s directors and actors talked about making the movie of the true story of one of the most daring con-men in recent history.
Posted by Claiborne Smith on Jan 21, 2009 at 06:01 pm.
“Actually, the whole point … was to just portray them as two people in love. Being gay had nothing to do with it; it was incidental.”
– I Love You Phillip Morris co-director John Requa
I Love You Phillip Morris is the improbable story of Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), a one-time cop and church organ player who suddenly comes out of the closet and, later, almost by accident, begins a series of wild con-man adventures that land him in and out of Texas prisons (Russell has a curious knack for extricating himself from supposedly inextricable Texas penitentiaries). In one of those prison jaunts, Russell meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), the love of his life, in the law library. As directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Bad Santa, Bad News Bears) take pains to reveal in the film’s opening sequence, I Love You Phillip Morris is based entirely in fact and is adapted from the book of the same name by Houston journalist Steve McVicker. After the world premiere, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa joined producer Andrew Lazar, and actors Carrey, McGregor, and Rodrigo Santoro onstage at the Eccles Theatre to answer the audience’s questions.
Q: What was it like kissing Ewan McGregor?
Carrey: A dream come true?
Q: What was it like playing a gay man?
Carrey: What was it like playing a gay man? Is that question for me, by the way?
Requa: I didn’t play a gay man.
McGregor: It’s the same as playing any other kind of man, like playing any other character.
Requa: Actually, the whole point … was to just portray them as two people in love. Being gay had nothing to do with it; it was incidental. We all agreed on that and I think that made it a lot more simple and easy and realistic, actually.
McGregor: You’re trying to play what it’s like to be in love with somebody … and it’s beautiful and it’s nice and it was never awkward or unpleasant.
Carrey: It’s hard to let go of it, though.
Ficarra: On the first day of Leslie Mann’s work, Rodrigo’s work, and Ewan’s work, they all got to kiss Jim Carrey – that’s a little factoid.
Q: Were you able to meet Phillip Morris?
McGregor: I met Phillip Morris on the way to start the shoot in Miami and I spent a day and a half in Little Rock; he picked me up at the airport. It’s an unusual experience to play people who are alive – I had never had a chance to meet them before. You don’t want to do an impersonation of someone and I certainly didn’t do that.
Carrey: I didn’t actually get a chance to meet my character. I was not allowed to go up to the prison; I don’t think [the Texas Department of Criminal Justice] was really nuts about us doing this movie in Texas. But I had some wonderful recordings that were done by Steve McVicker, who went in there and was able to speak to him at length. It was really fascinating to hear somebody for whom a certain amount of self-importance was crucial, thinking about and pondering the idea that somebody was going to make a movie about him, and that he would never get to see it, and that Phillip would.
Q: Will he ever get out?
Carrey: He will supposedly never get out. He could be here right now. They’re pretty serious about keeping him behind bars; he embarrassed a lot of people.
Q: Did he ever get to read the script?
Carrey: You can’t put it in a chocolate bar, no.
McGregor gay film too risque for cinema-
"I Love You Phillip Morris", which features a graphic homosexual romp, has failed to find a US distributor.
A prison comedy starring Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey as gay lovers may not be shown in American cinemas because it is considered too risqué.
I Love You Phillip Morris, in which the stars play inmates who find love behind bars, has failed to find a US distributor and is expected to go straight to DVD.
Film industry insiders said the movie, which features a graphic sex scene and frequent references to gay sex, had fallen foul of anti-gay prejudice in America.
Carrey plays Steven Russell, a married policeman from Texas, who comes out of the closet and then becomes a conman to fund his flamboyant gay lifestyle.
He is sent to prison, where he meets and falls in love with Morris, played by McGregor. Following Morris’ release, Russell escapes from prison four times to be reunited with him.
The $13m (£9.3m) film is based on the true story of Russell, who was sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars because of his repeated escape attempts.
The independent movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, has attracted mixed reviews, with one critic for Variety, the movie bible, remarking that the “clingy physicality of Steven and Phillip” and “spectacular, ride ’em-cowboy sex scene” would give some fans of Carrey’s mainstream movies a heart attack.
Lewis Tice, director of publicity and marketing, at distributors TLA Releasing, said he believed the graphic homosexual sex depicted in the film had turned off distributors.
“The depiction of the sexual activity was far more than I’ve ever seen in a mainstream film with a mainstream celebrity,” he said. “There’s a graphic sex scene in the first 10 minutes that I was surprised to see.”
Tice added: “Lesbian gay bisexual and transvestite cinema is still seen as an underground, specific genre. When it comes to Hollywood mainstream, they want the widest audience possible for the amount of money they spend.”
Scott Stiffler, author of Why Hollywood Avoids Gay Movies, added: “Mostly straight, multiplex-going audiences don’t want to see a romantic comedy in which two dudes get it on; unless it is meant as a joke.
“Even Brokeback Mountain, which grossed $83m domestically, couldn’t come close to the $120m gross that I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry [about two heterosexual men who enter into a civil partnership as part of a pension scam] made in the US.”
Britain is one of only a handful of European countries where a deal has been secured to show the movie, which is due for cinema release this summer. The film is currently being re-edited in a last ditch attempt to find an American distributor. If it fails to do so, it will go straight to DVD.
The failure of the movie to secure a cinema deal in the US will be a blow for both Carrey and McGregor.
Carrey, who was paid more than £10m per film following the success of The Mask, has had a string of recent flops.
Meanwhile, McGregor’s political thriller, Incendiary, in which he starred alongside with Michelle Williams, failed to set box offices alight.
Yesterday Andrew Lazar, the producer of I Love You Phillip Morris, insisted a deal will eventually be found.
Toby McDonald,
From The Sunday Times,
March 15, 2009
(timesonline.co.uk)
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Ewan McGregor
(as Phillip Morris)
with Jim Carrey
(as Steven Russell)
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