Hollywood.com: Having played Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia on stage, you typically had to play you’re already larger-than-life characters in a big way. Were you worried about needing to lower the volume for the film version?
Roger Bart: “Gary and I had many conversations about that, because obviously we played to 1,700 seat houses so much. The very first scene we shot was a rather farcical scene known as the cop scene, and it’s the only time where we run around screaming our heads off.”
Gary Beach: “It’s the scene we talked about the most because it’s very broad. Will [Ferrell] comes with a gun shooting the cast, the whole thing. We’re thinking ‘Is this going to be over the top?'”
Bart: “What are we going to do? Be small in that scene when some guy is going ‘I will kill you with a gun for doing that show and insulting the Fuehrer’? We came in totally prepared to do this independent film version. We wanted to do Bareback Mountain for a long time. Then sure enough, we have no choice: we know we have to scream. We know he has to say lines like ‘Darling, quick back in the closet.’ And it’s really hard to tone that down.”
Beach: “It’s Mel Brooks‘ world and that’s the world we’re living in, at that point.”
Bart: “We were screwed, at that point. Then later we had to go through the first scene and I literally had a mantra: ‘Tone it down, tone it down.’ And I think I went in and did one take and then everyone says ‘Bigger!’ They trusted it and they trust the style. Really, we’re both convinced that after about 60 or 70 minutes of the movie you’re really going to adjust to it.”
HW: The roles replaced by Uma [Thurman] and Will. I was curious if you had talked to the actors who played them originally on Broadway and how was it working with someone new?
Beach: “When we heard Will was cast we said ‘Of course.’ I mean, who better to play Franz Liebkin? He’s goes there, he’s a little mad, and trust me, he fit right in to this crowd. He was wonderful. Uma I danced with a few times and she was so spot-on, she’s great, she’s gorgeous, she looks like Ulla.”
Bart: “And what was cool about the movie, although it didn’t really make the editor’s cut, Uma and Carmen Ghia had a huge, huge fight with karate and a lot of blood and it somehow ended up on the floor. [Laughs]”
HW: In putting the play on film did the filmmakers succeed in keeping it gay or did it have to be toned down for American audiences?
Beach: “It really didn’t have to be toned down. It is what it is. It’s our world. You walk into the home of Carmen Ghia and Roger De Bris.”
Bart: “Yeah, because we’re here, we’re queer–come on over! That’s really what it was like. When they had the GLADD Awards, the first people they called were us and they wanted to do ‘Keep it gay,’ so I mean they loved it. Gary and I played an incredibly successful couple. We were happy, we fight in the middle of a scene and I come back a minute later with a smile on my face. I know I am the only man in his life.”
Beach: “We play a very, very happy gay couple.”
Bart: “I think that people just thought we were joyous. That’s the most important thing. We were joyous because we were in a loving relationship, and we were joyous because we do what we want to do which is get dressed for the Choreographers Ball.”
Beach: “And put on shows. I always say if you have done two musicals you know Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia.”
Bart: “I don’t know if anybody would ever come across Carmen Ghia.”
HW: How big of a kick is it to be able to see your own work in the film version?
Beach: “I thought the top of my head was going to blow off while I was watching the movie the first time actually. There’s excitement, your adrenaline is going, and you are going ‘Everybody else is great.’ You watch everything you do, and now I’m looking forward to seeing it a second time with my friends.”
Bart: “Matthew said it best about two months ago to me: ‘I don’t know if I ever wanted to see me do this.’ So it is a little strange that way. But Gary is right: Some time around 2009 when I am lying in bed and it’s on cable and I happens to flip to it, I will probably enjoy it a little bit more. It’s still strange seeing myself.”
HW: Why has The Producers, in all its incarnations, been such a phenomenon?
Beach: “I have no idea but I do have a guess. I think people were ready for Mel Brooks again. He hadn’t disappeared but, I had been living in Los Angeles, I came back to do this and I was getting a satellite dish hooked up. This guy is in my living room on his hands and knees and said ‘What brought you from California to New York?’ And I said ‘I’m doing a new show. The Producers.’ And he says ‘I’ve got my tickets already.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ It appealed to absolutely everyone, the idea of this show. There is such a fondness for Mel throughout this country, and I think the chance to revisit that and have this kind of humor… When was the last time you were in a movie theatre and heard people really laughing?”
Bart: “Nothing against [Stephen [Sondheim, too, because I like him and I like doing his music, but Mel Brooks did not have to put an article in the New York Times explaining the show. Do you know what I mean? It was just nice to come to the show and have something that people immediately felt it was there. It’s smart, and it’s not so complicated. It’s just nice to do a show that’s character driven and has a great story and has fun jokes.”
Bart: “I just never forget Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles with his eyes crossed looking at a pair of 38F breasts and going ‘Hello Boys!’ You know? That’s the guy who wrote this show.”
Beach: “And Mel, very early in rehearsal, he came in with a statement that I think says it all: ‘Don’t tap the bell – Ring the bell.'”
Bart: “Go up and ring it, so we certainly did. Probably a little loud.”
