Hollywood.com: In the original Pink Panther—
Steve Martin: [Mock confused] What original Pink Panther?
HW: You mentioned that you don’t consider this movie to be a remake. What would you call it then? A “re-imagining?”
SM: It’s funny that you’d say that because the studio at first–this is when we were at MGM–they insisted that it be called a “re-imagining.” What does that mean? So it’s not officially a remake, because a remake to me is when you use the same script or the same story. So I don’t know what you call it. A play. I don’t know. I really don’t know. And who cares anyway? It’s the Pink Panther movie.
HW: Can you talk about any reservations–if any–you had about revisiting a character that’s as well-known and iconic as Clouseau?
SM: That’s where it all starts with: reservations. Not only for this film, but actually a lot of films [Laughs]. By the way, I don’t view it as a remake because it’s a totally new script, but you have these reservations and then essentially in this case what happens was the ideas for gags overcame my reservations, and I just fiddled with it–secretly, actually. Fiddled with the script that existed [and thought] “This is kind of funny, this is kind of funny,” just privately, and then I still wasn’t going to do it, and then I ran into [director] Shawn Levy in a parking lot, and he said, “You know this Pink Panther?” and I said, “Yeah, I was actually fiddling with it a bit,” and I told him some of the gags and he said, “Sounds funny,” and I said, “Why? Are you interested in directing?” And he goes, “Yeah,” and then we’re off and running. As soon as you have an ally that you trust, it makes things much easier.
HW: How hard was it to make the character your own?
SM: It would have been harder to imitate Peter Sellers, so actually it had been the easiest thing…I realized that Peter Sellers knew the character inside and out, and I figured, “Hmm, he could probably ad lib all day as that character,” and I thought that is the sign to me when I have it is when you can ad lib all day as the character and eventually that came. I first worked on the accent and then I worked on the outfit. The physical I didn’t have any problem with at all, and then finally when I realized, “Oh, I’m thinking like him,” now. I felt very comfortable and I felt different from the great Peter Sellers.
HW: Did you ever get to meet Peter Sellers?
SM: I did. I met him in 1980. And he said something really profound to me. I was in Hawaii. We were both promoting a film. And I was coming off this sort of hot stand-up career and you know the sort of cycle of criticism. Discovery, enthusiasm, success, slaughter. And so I was coming off the sort of slaughter years of my stand up career which I stopped in 1980. And I had just done The Jerk. It was not out. I was in Hawaii at a luau. It was at night and he came up to me, and he was, you know, a god to me and he said, “I know you’re under a lot of criticism right now, but I know what you’re doing.” I went, “Ah”’ It was kind of breathtaking, really. But it felt like a torch passed.
HW: How much attention did you pay to your mustache?
SM: Well, we didn’t know if I was going to wear a moustache. We were just sort of in the costume department trying on clothes and different ideas, and my make-up man came over with a pencil and he drew it on and I thought, “Oooh!” Suddenly it came to life, and then I did grow my own moustache because I can’t stand that pasted-on thing and your lip never moves, and so I said I can’t wear a fake moustache because your upper lip looks frozen and for comedy [that’s bad.].
HW: Did you ever find yourself slipping into the accent on your time away from the set?
SM: All the time. Oh yeah. I almost lost my girlfriend over it. [Imitating his thick French accent in the film] “Would you like to make love?” [He imitates his annoyed girlfriend with his hands on his hips]
HW: What qualities do you share with Clouseau?
SM: Lust. Well, I don’t know. It’s more like I love his innocence. I don’t know how innocent I am anymore, but I feel innocent a lot. In one sense, Clouseau’s will to believe in his own genius motivated me early on. Not genius, but will to naively believe you could do something and I think that Clouseau has that. He has the naïve belief that he can accomplish, that he can solve that, and my character onstage when I was doing stand up early on, he had great will, confidence and in that sense they’re kind of connected.
HW: How did it feel to go back to broad comedy?
SM: Lovely. I was actually looking. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this film. I wanted to go back to broad comedy, and this is a ready-made for broad comedy. The character’s so ready-made. It felt good. It feels really good. What I love about these kind of comedies, and our comedy Pink Panther in particular, is it’ll go from very physical to what I’ll call tiny, tiny verbal jokes, so it’s always sort of coming at you: big, small, smart, dumb.
HW: Do you miss doing stand-up comedy at all?
SM: No. I don’t. I do enjoy the occasional sort of five-minute monologue–introduce somebody, the Oscars, just those little things.
HW: A few years ago you said you’d be happier writing your “funny little plays.” Do you still feel like that?
SM: Well, my heart is so with Pink Panther, and I want to do it so we can make another because all of us loved it. It’s fun to play the character and it’s fun to think as that guy, to think funny as that guy and it’s fun to come up with these things.
HW: Do you ever bounce your writing off anybody?
SM: I bounce a lot, and if I laugh, that makes me feel good. And then I’ll maybe call somebody and say, “What do you think?” Or I’ll be at lunch [and ask a friend]: “What do you think of this?” The strangest one is I was writing a monologue for the Mark Twain Awards actually and I didn’t have anything, I didn’t have anything. It was at night. I was having dinner by myself, having a little glass of wine. I wrote this monologue and I started laughing and laughing. And the next day I was reading it to a friend who stared at me. He was a comedian. I threw it out. I realized I had made a mistake. So laughter’s not always the key.
HW: Did you have any writer’s block when you were writing this movie?
SM: Not really. Writer’s block is a fancy excuse for getting drunk. No, if I’m blocked so called, I just get up and walk away and do something else and focus on the problem a little bit and wait a couple days and go back. But I have that luxury.
HW: Where had you seen Beyonce before?
SM: Well, I live in an insulated world, but I knew who she was. I wasn’t that familiar with her music but everybody else was so enthusiastic. I heard her music when they mentioned her name, and then I found out that she was really fantastic.
HW: When you first met her, what were your impressions?
SM: Well, she was a little shy, but you’ll find a lot of people with enormous talent are actually kind of shy and that’s how they got the enormous talent. [They think] “I’m not going to sit in this corner. I’m going to stand up and sing.” And she had a very simple operation going. There wasn’t 84 members of an entourage and things, and she was totally professional and a sweetheart.
HW: What was the dynamic like between you and Jean Reno?
SM: We got along famously. He’s a big guy, a big spirit. [He would say] “I want to take you to the best restaurant in France!” And they come in and they’re [saying] “Mr. Reno, Mr. Reno,” and he’s just got a great personality and it would be so easy for him not to. It would be so easy for him to be dark, but he’s happy and he’s funny and he appreciates comedy.
HW: It’s hard not to think of Audrey Hepburn when you look at Emily Mortimer in the film.
SM: Yeah, I think that close-up of her by that tree when she takes off her glasses is one of the all time most beautiful close-ups of any actress. I mean she’s glowing. She’s dressed beautifully, her skin looks great, and her hair-anyway, I’ll stop.
HW: Describe your relationship with Shawn Levy.
SM: Oh, very strong. We have the same temperament. We don’t like to belabor a joke over and over. We like to move on. But neither of us will move on until we got it, but there’s no use doing 25 takes in a comedy. If you got it, you got it.
HW: Do you have any directing aspirations?
SM: No, I don’t. You know it’s so demanding and to think of writing, directing and acting–that’s a choice you don’t make casually.
HW: Cheaper by the Dozen 2 was one of the biggest holiday hits. You seem to be riding this crest of popularity. Is it because people just love you? SM: No, it’s not that. No, I think sometimes you just get lucky. I don’t know if this’ll be a hit. I think it might. But I’ve never had three hits in a row in my life. You have a hit, you can have five flops, and then you have a hit and you get to make five more flops.
HW: Do you want to make a trilogy? Could you go on forever?
SM: Well, with hip replacements I could. Yeah. I’ve often fantasized about this being my career. Like two more and…
HW: So you want it to be a franchise?
SM: Oh, I would love it. Secretly. Don’t tell anybody.
