10 Lessons from 'Hamlet 2'
By Fred Topel, Special to Hollywood.com
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Hamlet 2 stars Steve Coogan as Dana Marschz--a has-been actor and high school drama teacher whose department is being threatened by budget cuts. To gain funds, he writes a sequel to Shakespeare's greatest work, but since everyone dies at the end of Hamlet, Dana's idea involves a time machine, which also brings Jesus Christ into the Dane's moral dilemmas.
This outrageous comedy from Pam Brady, co-writer of South Park and Team America, and director Andrew Fleming is the latest in American successes for the British Coogan. There may not be many valuable lessons to be learned from such a delusional character, but the actor who plays him has plenty to share. He offers his lessons on what he's learned so far from Hamlet 2 as well as his previous work.
Lesson #1: Don’t make him British
"When I read the script, you got a feel that what was coming off the page to me was quite clearly someone who was American," said Coogan. "You sometimes hear an accent when you read something and I definitely didn't hear an English accent when I read it. Also the fact that he was so emotionally open and demonstrative is not really a British thing. However, people on the west coast of America explore themselves emotionally. You go into so many airport bookstores and there's self-help books. As a British person I think, 'God, how many books can you need on how to make yourself a better human being?' But this character, Dana, is the kind of person who I'm sure would avidly consume all those kinds of books. Also, I thought if he'd been British, it would start to become a defining thing. He'd have to start talking about English stuff and it's not about that. It's about someone who's creative and loves the arts. Thirdly, I thought I'd quite like to do something that's not English, especially in America so that I don't end up playing bad guys and butlers for the rest of my life."
Lesson #2: Keep Jesus sexy
"It's only the word ‘sexy’ that people get all hung up about. I don't know why. There are so many issues about sex and religion and repression of basic human things. You can talk about it 'til the cows come home but I think the notion of portraying Jesus in that way that looks kind of attractive was done in Jesus Christ Superstar. It was done in Godspell and if you look at the Sistine Chapel, you'll find that Jesus Christ looks reasonably attractive. I'm sure Michelangelo and Caravaggio also got there before me when it came to portraying Jesus in that way."
Lesson #3: Don't worry about offending people
"If you worry about, if you try to please all the people all the time, you wouldn't have a character like Barney the Dinosaur because Barney the Dinosaur insinuates to creationists that the world was born more than five and a half thousand years ago. Doing comedy, which is risqué, is a long tradition of comedy, sometimes rubbing some people the wrong way. Monty Python's Life of Brian did it in the '70s and a lot of people thought that was terrible and sacrilegious. Then as time goes by, they realize it was quite a film fondly remembered and it was sort of making a point as well as being funny. It wasn't just vacuous."
Lesson #4: Bit don't offend just to be controversial
"I'm not into the idea of being shocking for the sake of shocking, or the idea of being tasteless in a kind of teenage contrary sort of way, an adolescent way. There are several things. It's where comedy comes from, what the intention is behind a joke, what the spirit is and the context. This movie has a kind of generosity of spirit. It's not mean spirited. Within that context, I think people will find it acceptable. Also, part of the joke is the inappropriateness. By its very nature, it has to be credibly offensive because there are protestors within the film. So part of the joke is a slight lack of sensitivity if you like on his part towards those people. So it has to have credibility. You look at something like South Park, it takes some big risks. And Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder, on the face of it, ostensibly you could find that offensive. But you look at it within context, you realize it's making a point about something. If something is just done for the sake of being controversial, then it's invalid. I think there is such a thing as bad taste so I'm not someone who thinks you can do whatever you like whenever you want."
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