Part 20 (1/2)

Ben: Well, n.o.body was banging down the door. Let's call it-basically I got a new agent. And he said, ”Okay, you can't do anything for about six months.”

Jim: Hide under the porch.

Ben: And then we'll see where we're at. It's so obvious in show business. When a movie doesn't make a lot of money, people don't call.

Judd: But then you did Zero Effect, and then right into Something About Mary?

Ben: I did-after this, I did Zero Effect, Something About Mary, Permanent Midnight, and Friends and Neighbors. I could keep going, Jim- Jim: No, I'm loving it.

Judd: But I remember when you got Something About Mary, that was big, because your star had not risen- Ben: It was a break. Huge. The Farrelly Brothers gave me a chance because they liked Flirting with Disaster.

Jim: Which is one of the cla.s.sic comedies of all time, by the way. That was a genius movie.

Ben: But it was a weird time, where I didn't know what I was going to- Jim: When you kiss Tea [Leoni] in that movie, did you really kiss her?

Judd: Versus how you kissed her, in Fun with d.i.c.k and Jane?

Jim: It was crazy! It was crazy what was happening outside the frame.

Judd: I just remember once, we were at a restaurant after Something About Mary, and you were saying, ”It's really weird, because people keep walking up to me with their hair gelled up, like with s.e.m.e.n,” and I was like, ”Really? Nooooo.” And then a girl walked up to our table and said, ”Can you come say h.e.l.lo to my friends?” And you walked over and came back and said, ”One of the girls had her hair gelled up, like the-”

Jim: It's a nice thing! That's nice.

Judd: It's nice having catchphrases, visuals, that people yell at you.

Ben: But this was your reality, Jim, when you were making this movie. It had already been like that for a few years. What was it like?

Jim: It was odd.

Judd: I remember being in the mall with you, Jim. We were in a bookstore and suddenly people started walking up to you, and then more people, and more people, and then we realized every single person in the mall is headed to you, and then it got sort of dangerous for us to get out and became a Hard Day's Night moment.

Jim: No, exactly. And that's why I'm a martial artist. That's why I'm a weapons expert.

Judd: How emotional do you get now when a movie does well, or badly? Like after having made a lot of movies, how emotionally connected are you?

Jim: My entire self-worth is wrapped up in it.

Ben: I find it hard to totally disconnect from that stuff.

Jim: I want to go to a place where they hate me personally, and I have to win them back. It's odd, because some of them-when a movie doesn't work, you know, it's because it had something of gravity in it, and actually there was something that was not going to appeal to everybody, and it spirited people away in the other direction.

Ben: It's a complicated thing. Because how do you disconnect from that, but not make it about yourself, too?

Jim: Whenever you try to do something serious, you're gonna lose people. Certain people. Because they want you to be a certain thing and- Ben: There is that thing with comedy. People can take it very personally if you're not there to be funny.

Jim: On Twitter, man, every once in a while, every fiftieth person is like, ”Who do you think you are? You better not be dramatic anymore. Don't you be dramatic!”

Ben: I'll tweet something about Haiti and there'll be someone who'll tweet back, ”Be funny! Who cares about Haiti!”

Jim: ”Who cares about Haiti? Put your p.e.n.i.s in your zipper and shut up.”

Ben: ”I'm unfollowing you, you're not funny. You just care about Haiti.”

Judd: I get that for retweeting your Haiti things! ”Stop retweeting Ben's Haiti things!”

Jim: ”Who do you think you are, funnyman?”

Ben: Judd, how do you feel when your movies come out?

Judd: I have those moments where- Ben: I'm looking for some insight here.

Judd: Where I'm so proud...and it doesn't do well. Like this movie. This blew my mind-I didn't recover like you guys. This one threw me for years because I loved it so deeply. Like, how come-I loved this work so much, what Jim's doing, what Ben's doing, and how come it didn't do well? It threw me because I thought I was in tune with what the audience liked.

Ben: See, I've never felt like I had any idea about what the audience liked. It's always like a c.r.a.pshoot, really. (To Jim) We were talking about it-you only do what feels good to you, right?

Jim: Yeah. Only what feels good.

Ben: Yeah. How can you figure out what twenty million people will like?

Jim: Well, it's the Emerson thing: What's true for one man isn't true for all, and- Judd: I went back to TV after this. I retreated.

Ben: I didn't direct again for four years after this.

Judd: It's true.

Jim: I still marvel at where everybody went. It just blows me away. It's hard for me to even be in the room with you guys.

Ben: (Laughs) Honestly, though, Jim, just to put it in context, when we did this movie, you were giving us a shot-right? I mean, wasn't Jim giving us a shot?

Judd: We were all giving each other a shot, but in weirdly interwoven ways.

Jim: Judd was like pumping me back when I was in the clubs and stuff, and no one was watching me.

Ben: I remember going to your young comedian special, in Phoenix, with David Spade.

Jim: Judd actually opened for me.

Judd: And I thought, I gotta quit. Because I can't do that.

Ben: So what did you think, Jim, when you said to everybody, ”I want Judd to produce it,” and then Judd said, ”I want Ben to direct it”?

Jim: You know, this is the thing- Ben: You had the power to do that.

Jim: No one really knows anything about comedy. We know a little bit about what we're doing, but as far as the industry-the exec branch-they don't know how it happens. It never comes to you prepared and ready to go, you always have to work it to death till the last second, in the moment and whatever. And I don't know what the h.e.l.l I'm trying to say right now.