"Tommy Boy" director speaks on film's significance

ouriel@sanduskyregister.comIn a sense, Peter Segal's start in Hollywood draws parallels to Tommy Callahan's quest in "Tommy Boy," a film set in Sandusky.While Tommy had initial troubles selling brake pads, Segal, the film's director, had difficulties jump-starting the movie.But — just like his protagonist, who sold enough brake pads to retain 300 factory jobs at Callahan Auto Parts in Sandusky — Segal succeeded, helping create what many consider a timeless classic comedy.To commemorate the film's 20th anniversary, Segal recently spoke with the Register in an exclusive interview. He touched on a wide range of subjects, including his deep bond with the film's leading actor, the late Chris Farley, who played Tommy Callahan.Q: How did "Tommy Boy" come to be? What initial challenges did you face?PS: First and foremost, I had worked with Chris Farley a couple of times before this film: once on an HBO special and another time on an episode on "The Jackie Thomas Show," which was a sitcom Tom Arnold and Roseanne produced.When I worked with (Farley), I realized, between that and the stuff I had seen on "Saturday Night Live," that he was literally the funniest man on the planet.I really wanted to have the privilege — after my first film, that if I was going to do a second film — to bring Chris Farley to the big screen in a leading role. He had been in a couple supporting roles but not the leading role.Along comes a script called "Billy the Third: A Midwestern," which, obviously, we had to change the title because at the same time they were making "Billy Madison." We didn't want two "SNL" films with "Billy" in the title.But the script was really not good. The only thing that remained in the final cut of ("Tommy Boy") from the original script was Chris changing in the bathroom on the plane. As much as I loved Chris, I found myself in a pickle (because) we had nothing. We were in the beginning of the summer hiatus from "SNL," and the clock is ticking because if you miss the summer hiatus, then you have to split time shooting your movie with "SNL," and that is more expensive to shoot with the movie and just insanely difficult and tiring for everyone involved.I realized the ship that was sinking. We didn't have a script, and we lost the summer window. I actually tried to leave the movie. I said, "This is a disaster waiting to happen. I think we should just call it a day and try this next summer." I was unfortunately threatened with a lawsuit at the time for attempting to leave, and I said, "OK, I'm staying."So I was shipped off to Siberia, otherwise known as Toronto.We were given at least enough rope to hang ourselves.The studio said, "Thank you for doing this. We appreciate it. We know you are going to be able to work it out, and we are going to pretty much leave you alone because we have already given you enough stress forcing you to do it."But, as I have heard Orson Welles say, when he was forced to do a "Touch of Evil" that "sometimes you do your best work when you have a gun (against) your head," and that is really how we began making this movie, one day at a time.Q: How did you overcome these challenges?PS: I remember the first day of filming was when (David) Spade and (Chris) Farley were driving around in the Plymouth GTX, and the M&M's went down the air vent. I kept thinking (how we were going to film this scene). But all the little pieces of candy did exactly what we hoped they would do, and I said, "Gee, I wonder if this was an omen. That went great." It was funny, and all of the stress of the weeks leading up to the first shot now seemed somewhat calmed. It was one little Band-Aid. I thought, "OK, we have to look at each moment every day as that little Band-Aid and try to piece together this thing."Q: How did you come up with the hilarious material?PS: When I was forced by the studio (to stay), and I had to figure this thing out, I called Fred Wolf, the head writer for "Saturday Night Live" at the time. I told him, "We have to figure this out. We have no script. You have to come over to my house. We have to write down memories of crazy (expletive) that happened to us on road trips."He said, "OK, fine."So we had a stack of index cards. I started. I said, "A couple weeks ago, I was at a gas station. I parked a little too far from the pump. I had to back up my car. I forgot the door was open, and it hyperextended on the pole." He said, "I had one that happened to me recently. I changed the oil in my car. I left the can in, and the hood didn't latch, and it popped up on the freeway in my face, and I almost died." I said, "That's a good one. Write it down."I then wrote down (how) I was on a date in high school in Arizona on a lake, and there was a dead calm, and some kids were heckling me and my date because we couldn't move, and I was screaming at them. I said, "Maybe we'll figure something out with that." We had all these index cards on the carpet of my office and said, "OK, let's figure out if we can string this together in some kind of story."Q: How else did you create a script?PS: If it wasn't things that happen to me or Fred, we would take things from Dave or Chris from their off-camera relationship. They were best pals. They were office mates at "SNL" and sometimes just being around them they would feed you bits.For example, one day Chris just came out of a wardrobe fitting, and he went up to Dave with his new sportscoat on and said, "Hey Dave, does this suit make me look fat?" And Dave said, "No, your face does."I said, "Wait, wait, wait. That's perfect. We got to write it down, and we got to put it in the movie."(The scene when Chris sings) fat guy in a little coat was just some bit that Chris did around the office at 30 Rock, and we said, "OK, let's figure out a place in the story where that can happen." Between our personal stories and their personal bits that they would do together, that didn't even still make up a complete screenplay, but it at least gave us kernels of ideas that we could at least use.Q: Why choose to set the story in Sandusky?PS: I had not been to Sandusky, but I have a lot of friends who live in my neighborhood that did either live there or visited there.The greatest compliment to me was how we captured Sandusky so well.We were such a low-budget film that the studio didn't have enough money to send me on a scout, which normally would have happened to the location that we are trying to fake. In this case, the faking was in Toronto (some filming was done in Los Angeles as well).But I saw enough of the landscape and the town to understand the spirit of it. I studied photographs (taken in Sandusky). Bit by bit, we started assembling our best guess of the town of Sandusky. But we pieced together this homage, and, to our gratification, a lot of people told us it worked.Q: Can you describe your relationship with Chris Farley?PS: At the time we filmed the movie, "Saturday Night Live" was in a slump in the ratings, and the critics were really hard on it. Any product coming out of "SNL" was usually maligned by critics.Chris and I and Dave one day were writing at a friend's house, and we were going to meet with Brian Dennehy for dinner that night to introduce ourselves and talk him into doing the movie.As we were driving, Chris said to me, "Pete, you know the world is against us on this one. No one thinks we are going to succeed." I said, "Yup, you're right."He said, "Our only success is a victory."That is when we linked arms and said, "We are going to give it our all." That was the kind of spirit in our relationship that we had. I often analogize our relationship as coach and player.Chris was an athlete. He played football. There were times when he would get very mad at himself that he couldn't nail a scene.So I literally would sometimes say, "OK, drop and give me 20 (pushups)." I needed for him to get rid of some of that adrenaline and calm down. A couple of times, I told him to take a lap around the courtyard of the college campus that we were shooting at.I idolized him (as a comedian), and he looked up to me, and we really leaned on each other.Off-camera, there was no one funnier. If you go to dinner with him, he will light up the restaurant and have everyone laughing. He was fearless. Even Spade, (Adam) Sandler and Chris Rock, who were his office roommates at "SNL" would say of everyone they worked with at "Saturday Night Live" that Chris was the funniest.(Farley) was a playful soul. He loved to make people laugh. He took his job seriously, but he seemed to have, at least during the filming of our movie, a lot of fun doing it.In between takes, thank God some of that film was burned because Chris would prance around the set naked, and the crew would just be laughing so hard there was no oxygen left in the room.Q: "Tommy Boy" is considered a comedic classic. Did you think it would ever become a film remembered by the masses?PS: We actually began production with only 60 pages. I was so exhausted during the filming that, as we approached the third act climax, we still didn't have any idea of (how it was going to end). I just felt like, "Oh my God. This is going to be terrible."But then, when we put it together, we saw that there was this great heart through the chemistry of Farley and Spade, and that there was this really great and really surprising underdog story that set against the backdrop of this landscape in Ohio. It just had this resonating value, and a lot of people felt like while they expected the film to be funny, because it starred several "Saturday Night Live" cast members, they didn't expect it to have the heart that it had.Q: What were you most proud of 20 years ago, when "Tommy Boy" debuted in theaters? What aspect of the movie are you most proud of today?PS: Then, I would say I was proud of the bits and scenes. The deer scene had got such a huge reaction in the theaters. That was always a great treat.Now, it's the overall vibe that the movie has had over the years. I have had people my age coming up to me as well as kids in elementary school that know about the movie. I have people saying it was their favorite movie in college. There are businesses that have stolen the (Callahan Auto Parts) name and logo and use it.I had a friend of mine who I went to high school with who is in TOPGUN, and he said as the pilots would put on their flight suits, they would all sing "fat guy in a little coat."Over the years, how the film has resonated with young and old has been remarkable, and just this 20th anniversary alone, the amount of feedback online and the people like you that are still interested in asking questions about this movie from 20 years ago, that has become my favorite thing. Q: Since you have never been to Sandusky, would you consider visiting?PS: I would love to. Provided photo / Peter Segal, director of "Tommy Boy" said he's never been to Sandusky but knew plenty of people from there, inspiring him to set the film on the shores of Lake Erie.Provided photo / Peter Segal, director of "Tommy Boy" said he idolized Chris Farley as a comic and had great respect for him.