To celebrate Tommy Boy’s 30th anniversary and new 4K Ultra High-Definition release, director Peter Segal spoke to ComingSoon about the legendary Chris Farley movie. Segal discussed the amazing amount of improv, the film’s legacy, and more.
“Holy Schnikes, one of the funniest films of the 1990s, Tommy Boy, has been remastered for 4K Ultra HD. Celebrating 30 years of gut-busting laughs, Chris Farley and David Spade are two ne’er-do-well traveling salesmen who hit the road to save the Callahan family’s auto parts business, resulting in one disastrously funny consequence after another. This larger-than-life comedy features Rob Lowe, Bo Derek, Dan Aykroyd, and Brian Dennehy,” says the official description.
Tyler Treese: Peter, such a pleasure to speak with you, especially about the 30th anniversary of Tommy Boy, which is one of my favorite movies. This film is just filled with perfect casting. I wanted to ask you about working with Brian Dennehy. He’s so charming as Big Tom. How was it seeing him and Chris Farley interact? Because they just are so perfect together.
Peter Segal: Oh, thanks. Well, we had a few people interested. Charles Durning originally came in and auditioned. Well, not an audition, but came in to to talk about it. But Brian was going after this part. It was really sort of campaigning for it.
He really admired Chris. The Chippendales sketch had just recently come on SNL, and he just thought, “My gosh, the bravery of that dude,” as a big guy like himself. So, I remember the night that Chris and I, we left the writer’s room and went to go have dinner with Brian. And that’s when I really got to see their chemistry, you know, at the table.
I could tell that Brian was even a little intimidated being around Chris, because I’ve seen that with certain older actors when they know they’re in the presence of something new and fresh, and I think it inspired him. He wanted to show that he had comedic chops.
Of course, Chris was in awe of Dennehy’s career and resume. And so it was kind of fun. It was almost the same kind of thing that I saw between Jack Nicholson and Sandler.
That’s really cool and special. One thing that really stands out – on your first watch, you’re just blown away by the humor of this film – but I think upon rewatch is really getting to see that genuine emotion from Chris. That’s really what sticks out for me. We see a more vulnerable side than we usually see from him. How was it getting that from him?
Well, that was the thing that I thought could make this movie a little bit different was to have a heart to it, not just be about jokes. That’s where I saw what you’re talking about. He had a tremendous range, and that’s the sad part about his life being cut short because there were so many other opportunities dramatically that he could have taken on.
But yeah, I think what you see there was I think one of the only movies where he really demonstrated, that skillset. And so that’s why it’s so valuable now to see, to look back on it and watch that.
For my generation, Tommy Boy has always been such a beloved classic. So I was surprised that it wasn’t like a giant box office smash when it came out. How was it seeing this film really get reassessed and become such a beloved comedy over the years? Because I was shocked it wasn’t super well received upon release.
Well, it opened number one in theaters. It ended up doing like, I don’t know, $31 million or something on a $15 million budget. But that’s not where it was successful. At the 10th anniversary when they were doing a new DVD, they had film crews going all over the country interviewing the cast, and they put out a Bobblehead doll and all this stuff.
I said, “Why so much attention? What’s going on?” And they said, “Oh, this is a top 10 seller for us.” And I said, “But this is 10 years past its premiere, what do you mean, top 10?” He goes, “Well, top 10 on home video.”
I said, “Top 10 for this year?” They said, “No, in Paramount history.”
I said, “Wait, you mean like with Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Godfather?” He goes, “Yeah.”
So that’s where it really made its impact on VHS back in the day. And so a lot of people don’t know that, but that’s what they told me.
That’s incredible. I watched the film yesterday, and Rob Lowe is just as funny as ever in this film. He’s the villain. I was always wondering why he was uncredited, though. What led to that?
I think that was Rob’s choice. I think he came in as a favor. He had just done Wayne’s World with Lorne, and we always thought, “Did Rob just think our movie was gonna tank so bad that he wanted to hide?” That could be I wasn’t sure it was gonna work either. It sort of became lightning in a bottle, but he certainly owns it now.
I wanted to ask you about the two leads because, obviously, they had amazing chemistry: David Spade and Chris Farley. I could have watched them do a thousand more movies. What an advantage is that when you have people who already have that ability to play off each other without having to put in any additional work? How key was that?
It was absolutely essential because we didn’t really have a script. We started filming with 66 pages. And so I would literally follow these guys sometimes with a pad and pen because their interactions — which were natural to them — were gold to me.
And one day, Chris came out of a wardrobe test, and he came out of the wardrobe trailer in his now iconic brown tweed sport coat. And he said to David, he goes, “David, does this suit make me look fat?” And he said, “No, your face does.” I went, “Oh, that’s going in.”
So it would be like that fat guy little coat stuff that happened between those two guys. At the offices at Saturday Night Live, either myself or Fred Wolf would write them down or remind them, “what was that bit that you did, you know?”
Because we were so desperate for anything just to fill pages. So, the fact that they had built-in chemistry made this movie possible.
You mentioned the face line, which is so funny. There’s a lot of improvisation in this film. What was your favorite improvised line that wound up making it into the movie?
Gosh, there’s a lot.
It’s interesting, though, because [with] the hooks scene, we know that these big powerful hooks were gonna be, at the factory going by Chris. And we said, “Hey, here’s an opportunity for Chris to just do improv.”
We didn’t write anything. That scene was almost cut from the movie because he was dry that day. He didn’t have any stuff ’cause we probably started as usual at 7:00 AM, and he’s not used to being funny until later.
So sometimes improv would get in, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s sort of the risk with improv, you know. But Spade was great at pitching the ball to Chris, and Chris would always knock it outta the park. So I think Spade was a quite a bit of the engine of that chemistry.
Thanks to Peter Segal for taking the time to talk about Tommy Boy’s 30th anniversary and 4K release.
