Happy Holidays! I've been on the road pimping my new movie Walk Hard which opens tomorrow, December 21st. I just returned to Los Angeles and I'm knee deep in holiday preparations. I'm doing all the regular stuff…decorating my house with countless snowmen and Santas, multi-step homemade Christmas cards and baking. (The baking is really just an excuse to wear the cute Christmas apron I bought at Williams Sonoma.)
I noticed today that I've started a bit of a trend. While decorating my tree I watched the Christian Slater movie "Pump Up the Volume". While doing my Christmas cards I watched "Cruel Intentions". While wrapping presents I watched "Terminator 2". Weird huh? It's a 90s Christmas over here.
If you haven't heard about my movie Walk Hard it is AWESOME! I've seen it 3 times and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I'm seriously so proud to be in it. I'm not in the first 30 minutes of the movie and the first time I watched it I was laughing so hard and thinking, "I can't believe I'm going to be in this movie! This is the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. And, I'm in it! God, I hope I don't suck because so far this movie is awesome!" It reminded me of seeing Airplane or This is Spinal Tap for the first time. The humor is played really straight. We all take ourselves very seriously while the world around is ridiculous.
Walk Hard is the story of a fictional music legend named Dewey Cox played by John C. Reilly. This is the story of his life. I play his second wife Darlene Madison. We meet when I audition to be his new backup singer. And…well, we fall in love. But of course our love story isn't easy. It has many ups and downs and fights and reunions. It is sort of a parody of Walk The Line but it is much more than that. We poke fun at every music legend you can think of. Dewey goes through a Bob Dylan phase, a Brian Wilson phase…he even has a 70s variety show like Sonny and Cher.
There is a point where Dewey Cox meets The Beatles played by Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman. AMAZING! I can't even begin to say how awesome that day of shooting was. I was a total groupie. At one point Jack Black and John C. Reilly picked up guitars and started a jam session. Justin Long is a hilarious storyteller and he had us in hysterics telling us stories from his early acting career. It was all very surreal.
I should warn you…this movie is rated R and it is a hard R. It is very raunchy and sexy and the humor is hard core. Think 40-Year Old Virgin but with full-frontal male nudity too. That's right ladies, we have penis. There is a ton of nudity in this movie actually. I mean, it's the story of a rock-n-roll star! I don't get naked in the film. I should probably say that. But I do showcase the ladies quite a bit. I had to be sewn into most of my costumes to make sure they were as tight as possible. My wardrobe assistant's main job was making sure my boobs didn't fall out. It was hilarious. I would see her across the room starring at my chest all day.
Getting to work on this film was a dream come true. I got to access a whole other side of my personality. I'm normally pretty shy when it comes to skimpy outfits and all that. I am certainly more Pam Beesly than I am Darlene Madison but it was cool to channel my inner Darlene for a change. I may not run around in raunchy outfits ( I think you know my uniform of hoodie and baseball cap) but I do have a dirty/dark sense of humor. I loved that I didn't have to censor myself in any way on the set. We were pretty crazy. We basically just made COX jokes all day. I was in heaven.
I had the hardest time not laughing during the scene where John Reilly and I stare and one another while we...um...how do I say this...provocatively eat ice cream? I literally could not walk more than 3 steps without losing it.
Here is a gvery funny video with a bunch of music stars like Sheryl Crow, John Legend and John Mayer talking about their love of COX:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_IUp8GDVxQ
The movie is getting great reviews. John C. Reilly was nominated for a Golden Globe award and everything. I'm so proud of him and sort of in awe. I've never worked with anyone like him before. He is classically trained and he approached this like any other movie. I look up to him a lot. He learned over 30 original songs for the movie. He sings and plays the guitar. I didn't do my own singing by the way. You can hear my voice during some of our rehearsal tapes in the DVD. I'm not bad, but I'm no recording artist. It was still cool to perform in front of a live audience...even though they were paid to cheer. I understand why rock stars love performing live. The soundtrack for this movie is amazing too.
I should also say that John Reilly is a great kisser. He sure knows his way around a lady. His wife is a VERY VERY lucky woman. Wow! And, he has a really nice ass. That is his real ass in the movie. Not a double. You'll see what I mean.
So please go see my boobs, John C. Reilly's ass and a man's penis starting tomorrow night…Walk Hard!
In Office news, the strike is getting really scary. Talks have broken down and they aren't planning to resume until after the New Year. It looks like this is going to last longer than we thought. There is a chance we will be shut down for the entire rest of our season. Jim and Pam finally get together and I don't get to find out what happens! ARGH!
Okay…I should sign off. I ran out of Christmas cards and I have to go to Target. I hope they still have the ones I bought in the first place. I dunno, I suppose it doesn't matter but I like to keep it consistent. Happy Holidays everyone!