“I’ve had a number of Duprees in my life. Friendship is important to me, so you end up putting up with some things because you like these guys despite their shortcomings–they’re your friends.”
That’s Matt Dillon on relating to his hapless You, Me and Dupree character Carl, whose friendship with the guest-who-wouldn’t-leave (Owen Wilson) threatens to derail his relationship with his not-as-tolerant wife (Kate Hudson). And the Oscar-nominated actor was a gracious host indeed as he invited Hollywood.com to chat with him about his latest film.
Hollywood.com: Was it easy to develop that buddy-buddy camaraderie with Owen Wilson?
Matt Dillon: Well in fact, we’re different—our backgrounds, our training, whatever—but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Owen liked to work spontaneously. We did a fair amount of ad-libbing, and I found that very refreshing, because I like to work that way. And in comedy, that can be gold, because you never know what’s going to work; there’s a kind of magic that can work. When you’re spontaneous, it keeps you connected, and so I liked the way Owen works. It’s very natural.
HW: You scored an Oscar nomination for the thought-provoking, issue-oriented drama Crash, and you scored major laughs in wild out-there comedies like There’s Something About Mary. Do you prefer working in one genre over the other?
MD: I like to do comedy, but I’ll be perfectly honest: I like to do drama and more character-driven-based stuff, generally. But I like to do comedy and I found this is one of the more difficult roles that I’ve had to play recently, because the character’s the straight guy, he’s very reactive. And I think where the comedy is with that type of character isn’t like a look or a reaction. God knows, I’ve had plenty of those in this film. Also, he had a hand in all this chaos; in fact, he was the one who made the decision to invite Dupree into his home, so he kind of deserves, to an extent, whatever he gets. But I think Carl is the character that most people will identify with because I certainly have had multiple Duprees in my life over the years.
HW: Have you ever had a girl come between you and another friend?
MD: Well, they say good neighbors make good fences, and this is clearly not something Dupree lives by—he has real boundary problems, so that is maybe the worst aspect of Dupree. Worse than the fact that he burns down his living room, his sofa, and that he runs around naked. It’s more in a way of how he puts Carl in the dog house. That is sort of unforgivable in a friend, to get your friend in trouble with his girlfriend—that’s really trouble.
HW: Have you ever tried to win a girl back?
MD: Yeah, yeah, I’ve come back hat in hand on many occasions. But it’s better not to get yourself in that position in the first place if you can avoid it. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, and sometimes you never know what the reaction’s going to be, and so you have to be prepared for that. It may not go the way you want it to go, but fortunately, in this film, it all works out for the best—true love prevails.
HW: Have you ever been a Dupree?
MD: It’s hard to know, because Dupree is unaware of the fact that he’s this crazy-maker, so I’m sure I’ve been that to someone and been unaware of it. And I’d say if I were a houseguest, probably, I have a tendency to like to play my music loud and that might be something that bothers people.
HW: Dupree thinks Audrey Hepburn in the perfect woman. Describe the perfect girl for you.
MD: Well, I like a girl with a good sense of humor. I think that’s really important, someone who’s easy going. I think the best relationships you have with a woman is a woman who knows where your buttons are—you don’t want to be in a relationship with a woman who knows where your buttons are and pushes your buttons. But you want them to know where they are, you want them to be clued in to where they are. You don’t want to be in a relationship with someone who’s clueless to who you are. I think that’s pretty ideal, in that situation, in a relationship. I don’t know, if you’re talking about specific actresses, I always liked Carole Lombard, if we’re going to go back that far. Talk about Audrey Hepburn, but to go back even further, I just thought she was a great comedienne, very funny, and I kind of had a crush on her.
HW: Do you think you’ll ever work with your brother Kevin on his series Entourage?
MD: I don’t know. I think the hard part about that show is he’s got a brother already, so I don’t know if that would work out. But we’ve talked and I have said I’d love to direct one—we’d love that. But we’ve talked about it over the years, we’ve just never found a script. In fact, I had a part for him in City of Ghosts, at the beginning of the film and it got cut out. Hopefully we’ll find something and I think it’ll be a lot of fun.
HW: Has getting an Oscar nomination changed your life in any way?
MD: Yeah, I get more bad scripts! [Laughs] No, I wanted to say that that was a great experience. That was a lot of fun. That really was a great experience. Obviously, it doesn’t happen every time, and you can see that; there were a lot of terrific films made last year that didn’t get recognized, and performances, so it’s really an honor to get recognized like that. That was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. I was very honored to be part of that film. To me, I just show up to everything, and the weightiness of that character lent itself to the work I like to do… I don’t think I’ve ever been at a better time, career-wise. And I think it was fun to do this comedy with these people, a bigger studio comedy. It’s different and it’s a nice contrast to what I did with [Crash]. It’s just been a really good time for me lately, and I’m excited about the future. I really feel like I couldn’t be in a better situation from where I’m at right now.
