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Co-stars Jessica Alba & Dane Cook at the Teen Choice Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif. on August 26, 2007.
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In the Lionsgate comedy Good Luck Chuck, Charlie Logan (Dane Cook) sets out to break the curse that has made him wildly popular with single women: Sleep with Charlie once, and the next man you meet will be your true love.
At the age of 10, Charlie broke the cardinal rule of spin-the-bottle, refusing to lip-lock with a demented Goth girl, who put a hex on him as a result. Now, 25 years later, Charlie is a successful dentist, who is still cursed. While his plastic surgeon best friend, Stu (Dan Fogler), pursues as many of his patients as possible, Charlie can’t seem to find the right girl. When he meets Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba), Charlie sets out to keep her from falling for another guy. As a genuine romance develops between Charlie and the accident-prone penguin specialist, he realizes he’s got to find a way to break his good-luck curse, before the girl of his dreams winds up with the next guy she meets.
Not known for her comedy, Jessica Alba, who is best known for being part of the Fantastic Four franchise, says that she had to make sure Hollywood knew that she could be funny too. “I hosted the MTV Movie Awards two summers ago, and I used it as my audition,” the 26-year-old from Pomona, Calif. tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “I hadn’t really done any comedies and I couldn’t get into those rooms for meetings because people just didn’t think that was my thing. They thought I was ‘action girl.’ So, I hosted the Movie Awards knowing that I was going to be able to do funny skits, and Dane was at the show. That’s when he made the call that he thought I could do comedy and that I could do Good Luck Chuck with him.”
{quote_top}Comedian turned big screen star Dane Cook says that he was very impressed with Alba. “She never ceased to amaze me,” the 35-year-old Boston native reveals to MediaBlvd. “I come from the world of stand-up comedy and, in that world, when you’re on stage, it’s about going forward. You can’t hold back. You have to really be willing to put yourself on the cusp of fear, at all times. And, the thing about her that was so rewarding was that we not only laughed our asses off quite a bit, but she really came in there and said, ‘I don’t care how I look. I don’t have any ego.’ When your co-star says that, and it’s Jessica Alba, you know that you’re making something great together. We had a blast. Everything meshed and, on top of that, we had a great story with a really unique and clever twist.”
Once she fully committed to just going for it, Alba reveals that she was shocked by how very precise comedy is. “When you find the funny moment, you have to stay within those boundaries. Even though it’s free and open, it’s very controlled and premeditated. It’s hard to try to make an organic moment when everything is so contrived.”
Alba says that she most enjoyed filming the scene with Dane, when their characters have their first night together. “We are hanging out, and a bunch of random events happen. He needs to take me to my house, so I can get a key, and it was the first time I had done a lot of physical comedy. I could just be free and have fun. Dane and I have a really great chemistry, and we were just playing off of each other and having a great time. We turned the scene into something better, which was really cool because I think it makes the movie better as well. You can see the connection that these two people have. You want them to be together.”
{quote_middle}Much like her character, Alba says that she is quite clumsy in her personal life. “It was fun, not having to hide that. I usually have to be incredibly self-aware, self-possessed and self-conscious. Even walking in heels and trying to pretend I’m a superhero is difficult. In this, I just really got to be goofy and have fun. I didn’t have to be so self-conscious. I related to it on a personal level.”
Because she didn’t have prior experience doing physical comedy, Alba admits that she got a bit carried away during filming. “I chipped my front tooth, doing a kiss with Dane. I chipped my top tooth, and he chipped his bottom tooth. We were doing a comedic Mr. & Mrs. Smith type love scene, slamming into walls and breaking things, and tumbling over couches and stuff. He slammed my head into a picture and, while my head smacked into the wall and broke the picture, his teeth slammed into my teeth. I have a bond on my tooth now. When I take it off, I look like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. I look really silly.”
Helping him make the transition from editor, both Alba and Cook have nothing but praise for the first-time film director Mark Helfrich. “Mark’s list of editing gigs is vast,” says Cook. “This guy would step onto the set with such a distinct, clear, laser-precision idea of how everything should be cut and focused. The benefit was that he knew how to talk to actors, and he knew how to sit down with us and really find value in scenes. By the end of the first few days of filming, I felt very capable, in the hands of Mark. He’s got a very bright future, as a director. Comedy’s all about timing and, if you don’t have that, as a director, you’re in a world of shit. Mark stepped in there and was at the helm, and I’m really proud to say I’m in his first comedy. I’m hoping that it does well enough that we get to do it again.”
{quote_bottom}Alba adds, “I’ve worked with a few first-time directors, and Mark was very excited, every day, about being a director. He was like a little kid in a candy store. It was quite endearing. Every day, he had a ‘pinch me’ moment. He was just happy to be there. He’s been an editor for a very long time and this is something he’s always wanted to do. It was like a dream come true for him.”
Although it was his first time at the helm of a film, Cook says that didn’t deter Helfrich from allowing him to ad lib. “Dan Fogler and I definitely had our share of being let off the leash, so to speak. I’m a performer, especially with the collaborative effort of film, that wants to see it on the page first. I’ve been in situations where somebody says, “Oh, just go in there and make it up,” and when you’re working with a team of people, not everyone is on the same parallel line of thinking. Josh Stolberg wrote a great script that made me laugh out loud, pacing around my house, reading it. So, when we got onto the set, we did it as written, a couple of times, and then we would throw something in there. Having seen the final movie, there’s a big chunk of in-the-moment, spontaneous comedy in there, that you just couldn’t have written. It’s a movie that has a solid script, but also has moments where Dan and myself, and even Jessica, get to let it fly.”
With the possibility of a Fantastic Four 3 and Sin City 2 in her future, Alba is currently filming The Love Guru with comedian Mike Myers. “I’m so excited to work with Mike. The director of this film, Marco Schnabel, is another first-time director. Who’s to say whether this is going to be the greatest director that I’ve worked with in comedy, or the worst. You never know until you go through the experience and it’s finished. But, you have to keep yourself open to other people. I’m definitely more of the straight man in the film, but I do some stuff. I’m the owner of a hockey team and my coach is Verne Troyer. We yell at each other, constantly. It’s pretty funny.”
Currently developing a father-son dramedy with Disney, and filming the comedy Bachelor No. 2 with Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin, Cook is anxious to get back on the road, doing stand-up. “I’m putting together a massive comedy tour that will coincide with my new comedy CD release. I hope to hit maybe 18-25 cities, starting in November. Stand-up comedy is just as crucial to me, 17 years later. I adore it. To this day, I love the idea of standing on a stage, without anybody editing, and without any standards of practice. I can say what’s on my mind, directly to people, for the purpose of laughter.”
