Charlie Day on ‘I Want You Back’ and Guillermo Del Toro’s Generosity (original) (raw)
Charlie Day has wanted the chance to play an affable leading man in a romantic comedy for quite some time, and he finally made it happen in Jason Orley’s I Want You Back by re-teaming with a familiar collaborator. In 2011, six years after Day’s beloved TV series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia put him on the map, he had his breakout film role in Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses, which was co-produced by John Rickard. Rickard and Day quickly hit it off, and the duo would eventually collaborate on four other films, including the Amazon Studios rom-com I Want You Back. Ultimately, Day is grateful for the opportunity, especially since the much-loved genre has been all but abandoned by the major studios of late.
“I’m glad that the streaming services have provided an opportunity for these movies to exist,” Day tells The Hollywood Reporter of the film, which bowed on Amazon on Feb. 11 “I think there’s still a massive audience for them. Maybe the audience isn’t as big as it is for Superman, but we shouldn’t eradicate a whole genre of movies just because it’s not as potentially lucrative as another one.”
In 2018, it was reported that Day would be writing and starring in his feature directorial debut, a Hollywood satire about a silent character. The untitled film, which was formerly known as El Tonto, began shooting with a star-studded cast in late 2018, but just as Day was in the process of selling the project, his downtime during the pandemic helped him realize that he wasn’t quite satisfied. That’s when his friend and former collaborator Guillermo Del Toro stepped up to provide him with an assist.
“I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Guillermo Del Toro,” says Day of his Pacific Rim director. “I was just stuck creatively on some aspects of the movie. So I was able to pick Guillermo’s brain on several occasions, and when I was in the process of selling the movie, I had one last conversation with Guillermo about my doubts [regarding] where the story was going. And Guillermo convinced me to just take a beat. So I wrote 27 new pages. And I can’t believe Guillermo did this; I cannot thank him enough. I would send him pages, and he would send them back with his notes. But he really helped guide me, and he gave me the confidence to just go ahead and do this reshoot.”
Day then gathered some of his actors — including Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody and Ray Liotta — for a week-long reshoot, and now, courtesy of acclaimed editor Leslie Jones, he has a new cut of the film that he much prefers to the original.
“It was a really interesting creative journey, one with lots of ups and downs,” Day says. “The pandemic — and being forced to stop and not do things — helped me to really take a good look at it. If I didn’t have a really great and talented friend in Guillermo [Del Toro] — and if it wasn’t for Ken [Jeong], Kate [Beckinsale] and Adrien [Brody] coming back — I would not have gotten the movie into the shape it is now. So we’ll see how audiences feel, but the main thing for me, creatively, is that I feel better. And your gut is the only thing you can go with at the end of the day.”
In a recent conversation with THR, Day also discusses the current state of the studio comedy and the genre’s shift to streaming. Then he looks back at season 15 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and how the FXX series managed to have such staying power.
Congratulations on the strong response to I Want You Back .
Thank you. I’m very happy with it. I knew I liked the movie, but you never know how people are going to respond to something. (Laughs.)
So most romantic comedies follow the “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” formula, but I Want You Back defies that convention in a way. Did that unique approach appeal to you?
Honestly, I would say it was the opposite. When I read the material, it didn’t seem outside the parameters of what a traditional romantic comedy is, but it seemed as though it did it well. So that is what drew me to it. On my side of the business, I’ve read my fair share of less-than-inspiring romantic comedies, but when I read this script, it seemed to honor the traditions of romantic comedies in a good way, without being meta about it. I think [co-screenwriters] Isaac [Aptaker] and Elizabeth [Berger] did something very smartly where they said, “There are certain traditions to these types of movies that audiences enjoy, and we’re going to stay true to the traditions.” Ultimately, the main thing was staying true to the characters so that the comedy never betrayed the truth of who these characters are. And vice versa with the romance so that it doesn’t get so overly saccharin that you don’t feel like you’re still able to laugh. So this is a long-winded way of saying that I like the traditional aspects of the story.
Charlie Day and Jenny Slate in I Want You Back Amazon
Don’t get me wrong, it definitely has the familiar pillars of the genre, but they don’t happen in a straight line.
That is true. It’s not a straight line. I was curious how that would work because you bring Jenny [Slate] and I together early in the story and then we’re apart for a chunk a… But I haven’t written enough romantic comedies to know what is the correct formula or not. But you’re right; that was a unique approach to how they get into it.
The major studios aren’t making comedies, especially romantic comedies, at the rate that they used to. So that’s created an opportunity for streamers to fill that void. Did you notice this shift well ahead of making this movie?
That’s true. It did seem like the major studios were making less and less comedies. And certainly less romantic comedies and a lot more superhero films. But I’m glad that the streaming services have provided an opportunity for these movies to exist. I think there’s still a massive audience for them. Maybe the audience isn’t as big as it is for Superman, but we shouldn’t eradicate a whole genre of movies just because it’s not as potentially lucrative as another one. So I’m thrilled that there are still people in town making them, but who knows, maybe these things are cyclical and ebb and flow. Maybe the studios will return to making these types of movies. I certainly hope so.
Horrible Bosses probably wouldn’t get made by a major studio today, let alone have a chance at making $212 million. Does that bum you out?
Well, the money aspect doesn’t bum me out, although I guess it’s directly related to whether or not it gets made. In terms of having a movie career, I sometimes joke with friends that I feel like Indiana Jones when he slid under the wall and grabbed his hat at the last second. The door on comedy and the door on the types of movies that had guys like me was closing, and I got to be in a handful of them before that door officially closed. But I also realized that it’s a shortsighted and pessimistic point of view of the industry because we’re still making tons of movies. Whether they’re finding an audience on a streaming service or in the movie theater, people are still watching movies. So I can feel both ways. Sometimes, I can be doom and gloom about it, and on the other side, I’ll turn on my TV and say, “Look how many projects are out there.” So people are making big, fun commercial movies, and they’re still making comedies, albeit on streaming services. And they’re still making really great independent works of art. This is a year where we had West Side Story, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley, and the Star Wars movies haven’t eradicated any of those films or I Want You Back. So I try not to be all doom and gloom about it.
When Adam Sandler signed his first mega deal with Netflix in 2014, a lot of people were left scratching their heads, but now he looks rather prescient.
If someone doesn’t respect Adam Sandler, they are lying to themselves. (Laughs.) That man is talented and savvy. He saw an opportunity and he ran after it. I can’t say for sure, but I would imagine that he’s created lots of opportunities for lots of other people to go and make comedies. His movies are big hits for Netflix, so I suppose we all owe Adam Sandler a debt of gratitude. That’s going to be my quote. (Laughs.)
Charlie Day and Gina Rodriguez in I Want You Back Jessica Miglio/Amazon
Back on the subject of I Want You Back , did you have any existing ties to the cast or the creatives involved?
Yeah, John Rickard, the producer, and I have worked together on several films. In between projects, I reached out to John and said, “Let’s try to find something to do again.” So he had two movies: one was a horror film and the other was a romantic comedy. And for whatever reason, he thought I wouldn’t be interested in the romantic comedy, but I said, “Send me both, but I’m really curious about the romantic comedy.” So of course, I loved the script, and then John took it over to Amazon. We then reached out to Jason Orley because we’d seen Big Time Adolescence, and after that, everything seemed to fall into place. I’d also worked with Scott Eastwood, and we’ve always gotten along really well. I was excited for Scott to play this role because Hollywood loves to put everyone, including me, in a box, and I get it. It’s a business. But this was a chance for him to not be a scowling tough guy; it was a chance for him to be a big sweetheart. So I knew that it would be a winning thing for him.
Did you always imagine yourself playing an affable leading man in this genre?
Absolutely. I didn’t get myself into this position by not picturing myself in these positions. (Laughs.) I certainly always think I’m capable of any type of acting. I don’t think I’m capable of playing for the Dodgers, but I do think I’m capable of pretending to be another human being. And with this genre, it’s not a Merchant Ivory picture. (Laughs.) It’s less of a stretch for the audience, but I do realize that I have to be a bit strategic about what I try to take. I also have always enjoyed these roles, and if you look at the people who’ve done them well, whether it’s Tom Hanks or Billy Crystal, they play affable everymen. So that didn’t feel like too much of a stretch.
Did you rewatch When Harry Met Sally… , Sleepless in Seattle and some other classics as you prepped for the role?
I did, actually! And Broadcast News with Albert Brooks. Heaven Can Wait. I know people don’t love to talk about it because of the man’s personal life, but Woody Allen has made some really romantic films. I’ve always been a fan of that style of film because I love to laugh, but I’m also a bit of a romantic. I’m sentimental about things, so I just enjoy it.
The 15th season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is now in the books. Since you guys never anticipated lasting this long, is there anything you would’ve done differently to prepare for such longevity?
There are certain things that we’ve been talking about on our podcast. We probably wouldn’t have killed off Anne Archer so early. She was so wonderful on the show. Maybe there are character things, and maybe earlier on, we would have written more recurring roles for some of our more talented guest stars that came in. But what we’ve done seems to be working, so I wouldn’t go back and change much.
What prompted the relatively new podcast involving you, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney?
I was nudging those guys to do a podcast for a while. Rob and I actually had a funny laugh about this the other day because he said that he brought it up for a while. This is very us. It’s something that kept popping up, and we kept blowing it off. And then Rob reached out to Megan Ganz, who’s a talented writer-producer for us on both Sunny and Mythic Quest. She’s also a co-creator on Mythic Quest. And she was like, “I think it would be really fun to start recording.” I think they were already doing a Mythic Quest podcast with some of the cast, and she thought it’d be pretty fun and easy to record. So we just thought, “Why not give it a shot?” and we’ve really just been enjoying the time together. This is the time of year where we’re not always together, and just taking a couple hours a week to try and be funny is something we enjoy.
I listened to an episode called “Charlie Has Cancer,” and it answered one of your favorite age-old questions regarding the Thrice stickers on the show.
(Laughs.)
That band is the pride and joy of my hometown, and it was heartbreaking to learn that none of you are actually fans. It was just a set decorator trying to impress me and 12 other people.
Yeah, I’m sorry. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It would also be unfair of us to take credit for something that was untrue and say, “We had this vision that Thrice fans would be enthralled.” (Laughs.)
Danny DeVito and Charlie Day in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Courtesy of FX
I have to imagine that it’s difficult to find inspiration this far into the show. So have the experimental episodes like the film noir episode been a shot in the arm, so to speak?
Yes, they’re always fun to do, not only from a performance standpoint but from a camera standpoint. The three of us have all gotten a lot better at how to make something with a camera. Sunny has a very limited stylistic look, and it’s fun to push ourselves outside of that for the occasional episode. But I will say that I don’t think it’s the secret to the show’s success. They’re good as one-offs, but we really have to be judicious about how often we do it because the real heart of the show is these characters. It’s believing that these characters really want what they want and then watching them do these despicable things in the service of some insanely narcissistic want but yet a relatable want where the audience can say, “Oh, I can see feeling that way or thinking that even though I know it’s wrong and I would not act that way.” So for the 15th season, I really do think we got back to some core storytelling principles. We got to do a little bit of both. We got to go to Ireland, which is doing something outside of the box, but I do feel that we were able to ground those episodes in some relatable, emotional want for the characters that was very real, whether it was my character reconnecting with his father or Mac [McElhenney] trying to understand his identity. We were rooting the episodes in something a little more honest. It’s very interesting to go back and watch the older episodes and say, “I feel like this worked or that worked. We were doing this better or this worse.” So we’ll see if it informs the work moving forward. It’s hard to know.
So fans shouldn’t necessarily expect you to dive even deeper into the genre experiments, such as a heist episode or a space opera episode?
I’m not highly motivated to do that, but when you said space opera, it made me chuckle. (Laughs.) So the laugh always wins in the room, and the best idea wins. You’re trying to come up with something from nothing. You’re trying to not repeat yourself. You’re trying to stay interesting and engaging for the audience, but it’s really hard to have a game plan as to how that creative process is going to happen. It has to be more organic than that. It has to come out of a group of people sitting around and talking. And then some idea will light a match in the room, and there’s an energy around that idea, which starts to suck all the other thoughts towards it. And then, inevitably, you’re doing a four-episode arc in Ireland, or you’re doing a film noir, or you’re just doing an episode where the gang replaces Dee [Kaitlin Olson] with a monkey. The right idea just draws you to it.
Returning to the subject of things you would’ve done differently, do you wish you could’ve found a way to monetize that Pepe Silvia meme? Because I can’t go a day without seeing it.
Oh, do I ever! (Laughs.) Absolutely! If I had a nickel a meme, we wouldn’t even be talking right now. (Laughs.) I’m just joking. I’d still talk to you.
I spoke to Matt Shakman a couple times for WandaVision , and we talked a lot about how he went from It’s Always Sunny to Game of Thrones and WandaVision . Were you remotely surprised by his foray into huge-scale productions?
No, I wasn’t. Before Matt came to Sunny, he was already going down that road. I could be wrong, but I think he directed some episodes of Six Feet Under, which was certainly a bigger, flashier show than Sunny. And he comes from TV and the theater. So he’s got a great theatrical and cinematic brain, and that’s the reason we hung on to him for so long. I think there’s a season or two where Matt did the entire season of the show. We thought, “Let’s not mess with a good thing here. Just give him the season and off we go.” So it comes as no surprise to me. He really has it all, when it comes to what you want from a director. I don’t know if it’s something that can be learned or if it’s just intangible qualities that someone has, but Matt has it.
I really enjoyed Zoe Lister-Jones’ How It Ends , which you popped up in at a certain point. Did you really need to do something creative at that point in the lockdown?
No, I didn’t need to do anything! (Laughs.) I was really enjoying locking down, and I was going down a creative rabbit hole on a rewrite for a film that I directed. But I really love and adore Zoe, who reached out, and it seemed like it would be really simple and fun to do. I enjoyed taking the time to just be close with my wife [Mary Elizabeth Ellis] and son. Obviously, being in a worldwide pandemic is not an enjoyable thing, but I tried to make lemonade out of lemons. So I was really just enjoying the quiet time at home with my family.
You mentioned your long-awaited directorial debut. Can you offer any update at this point?
Yes, I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Guillermo Del Toro. I did his movie Pacific Rim, and he had been on two episodes of Sunny. He was a big Sunny fan and asked if he could be on. So I said, “Of course. I’ll write you something.” Guillermo is always a busy guy, but we stayed in touch. So I was just stuck creatively on some aspects of the movie. There were less directing problems and more writing problems. There were some things that I had missed. So I was able to pick Guillermo’s brain on several occasions, and when I was in the process of selling the movie, I had one last conversation with Guillermo about my doubts [regarding] where the story was going. And Guillermo convinced me to just take a beat. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes the movie to get out. Rewrite it. Bet on yourself.” So I wrote 27 new pages. And I can’t believe Guillermo did this; I cannot thank him enough. I would send him pages, and he would send them back with his notes. And he’s a busy man. He’s out promoting his movie now, and I think he was just finishing Nightmare Alley at the time. But he really helped guide me, and he gave me the confidence to just go ahead and do this reshoot. So I reached back out to Ken Jeong because the reshoot focused a lot on his character. I said, “Listen, I know it’s been a long time, but I’d love for you to come back.” And Ken was thrilled to come back. And then I reached back out to Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody and Ray Liotta because I needed them, too. And everyone came back which was hugely flattering. So I shot seven days right at the end of December, and right after the holidays, I jumped back into the editing room with Leslie Jones, who’s an incredible editor. You might know her work from The Thin Red Line, The Master and other amazing movies. So Leslie and I started recutting the film, and I finally have a cut that I’m much more happy with. I think we’ll try to submit to a few festivals, and hopefully, it doesn’t feel like old news. So we’ll see if it gets in somewhere. I’ll also do some polishing and take it back out to the town. So hopefully, I’ll find a good home for it, but it was a really interesting creative journey, one with lots of ups and downs. The pandemic — and being forced to stop and not do things — helped me to really take a good look at it. If I didn’t have a really great and talented friend in Guillermo — and if it wasn’t for Ken, Kate and Adrien coming back — I would not have gotten the movie into the shape it is now. So we’ll see how audiences feel, but the main thing for me, creatively, is that I feel better. And your gut is the only thing you can go with at the end of the day.
Is it still called El Tonto ?
For now, it’s The Untitled Charlie Day Movie. I lost that title thanks to Guillermo. (Laughs.)
Since you put Guillermo on my mind, is it true that you were electrocuted on the set of Pacific Rim ?
(Laughs.) I can’t say without a shadow of a doubt, but whenever I was wearing that glowing helmet thing, I felt some sort of sharp edge that was cutting my ear. So I could never find what it was, but I didn’t want to seem like a whiny actor, so I never said anything to anyone. And I just love and admire Guillermo so much that I didn’t want to slow things down. So I just kept shooting. But then there was a scene where Burn Gorman put it on, and Burn had the good sense to realize that the sharp edge was actually an electric current. (Laughs.) The second he put it on, he said, “Oh, it’s shocking me!” and I thought to myself, “So that’s what that is.” (Laughs.) But it was a mild shock. Nothing too crazy.
The first film I covered for THR was the sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising , and while hindsight is 20/20, did that experience reinforce that certain projects are best served in the hands of their original author, meaning Guillermo?
Guillermo wanted to do it for the longest time, and I don’t want to put any words in Guillermo’s mouth … I shouldn’t be drumming up press about it; he can make his own press. But I was disappointed when he dropped out of the film, and it was completely rewritten from what he had originally intended. But I also love and respect Guillermo so much that I wanted to stay involved in the project because I thought, “Well, if he ever wants to come back and do the third one, I don’t want them to kill me off.” So that was my primary motivation. Guillermo had given me this opportunity in the first place, and he created the character. So if the franchise went on, I wanted to be a part of it for his sake. But yes, he’s such a singular vision and talent. Someone else can do someone else, but no one can do him. He’s a true auteur, and when you give an auteur a big franchise thing, they’re going to do something really interesting with it, which I think he did.
I know you turned down an audition for Charles Manson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood because you were focused on making your own movie. But once you finally saw Quentin’s movie, were you glad that you were able to enjoy it as a fan on the outside?
I’m a bit of a movie nerd, and with the Guillermos, the Quentins, the Paul Thomas Andersons of the world, I adore anything they do. And I don’t miss anything they put out. But there was a side of me that didn’t want to be watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — because I was very excited about it — and then be taken out of the film by seeing myself in it. It’s a really dumb way to think as an actor. Talk about limiting your opportunities. (Laughs.) But the truth is I couldn’t really see myself as the character, and Damon Herriman was amazing. I think he played the character before on Mindhunter. [Writer’s Note: Herriman shot Mindhunter season two first, but it was released a few weeks after Once Upon a Time in Hollywood .] So it was one of those things where I was like, “I don’t want Quentin to not cast me, so if I’m going to read for something, let me make sure it’s something that I feel like I can really shine in.” But that contradicts what I said earlier about always picturing myself in whatever. (Laughs.) So I guess there was a side of me that thought I could do it…
What’s next for you? Is writing underway on season 16 of It’s Always Sunny ?
I have a little window right now. I’m finishing up press on I Want You Back, but we’re not going to be able to get into the writers’ room for Sunny for several months, just based on the Mythic Quest schedule and Danny’s [DeVito] availability. The truth is that I really want to take projects that challenge me and push me outside my comfort zone. It was really refreshing to play a more grounded character in I Want You Back, and I would like more opportunities like that. At the same time, I can’t stop myself from making things. So I’m probably going to start to write the next thing and maybe direct another movie in a couple years. It’s tough to know, but I try to really enjoy the whole process, whether it’s trying to get something made, or talking about it once it’s actually done and then hopefully moving on to the next one. I also love connecting with the audience and I love connecting with them in a surprising way. I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me after watching the Sunny finale where my character had an emotional breakdown. So it’s really nice to hear that you’re connecting with people and that your efforts are successful. Maybe I’m addicted to that, but I’m going to keep trying.
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I Want You Back is now streaming on Prime Video. This interview was edited for length and clarity.