Interview - Couples Retreat

By Sean Lynch

Interview with Peter Billingsley

Director of Couples Retreat

The role of a director is never easy, especially when you have to juggle the talents of some of Hollywood's most in demand comedians, but that is just par for the course for Couples Retreat director - and Hollywood veteran - Peter Billingsley.

After enduring the ups and downs of a Child Actor in the 1980s, Billingley encountered a young Vince Vaughn in an after-school special which spawned a friendship of more than 20 years and led to producing credits on the hits The Break-Up and Iron Man.

Web Wombat Movies' Sean Lynch caught up with the uber funny Peter Billingsley during his most recent trip to Australia to talk Aussie legends, Coke mixed with Pop Rocks... and Steroid use.

What a way to spend a day, just looking out over Sydney Harbour! Is this your first Australian experience?

I was originally here in 1986, I did a mini-series with Jack Thompson called The Last Frontier.

So your almost an honorary Australian...

Thank you very much. I'd be very, very proud to be. I spent quite a lot of time in Alice Springs actually... I did climb Ayers Rock, right to the top...

I live here and I still haven't done that - you'll have to show me how it's done...

Well, from what I understand, you can't get to the top anymore. I might be one of the very elite few in Australia who have actually gotten access to the top.

My Dad would absolutely love to speak to you about The Last Frontier, because he is a massive nerd for obscure Aussie TV shows...

Really? That was with Linda Evans, and it was about an American family - and she married an Australian. So we made the move out here.

So it was quite an amazing experience for me, to be able to spend time here and to do a film like that where we were in the outback and riding horses.

It was really awesome.

It surely couldn't have been more awesome than being trapped on a tiny tropical island with babes in bikini's for Couples Retreat?

That's not a bad way to spend a month, huh?

It's unbelievable. I mean I could sit here and tell you about all the problems, and how difficult it all was... but cry me a river!

How do you juggle being the director, and being long time friends with Vince & Jon [the writers] and still make sure you get your vision on screen?

It's just not that way with us. It's always "The Best Idea Wins", if that is whats best for the movie. We are all guys with a similar sensibility.

Vince [Vaughn] had the original concept for this, he really thought of having the four guys (Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau and himself) in these lead roles.

Then Jon did the first pass of the script, but then he had to go and do Iron Man 2 - so Vince and Dana Fox took over the writing and then we prep the scenes and improv on the day. We've all worked together on such an intimate level for so long... we just try and make each other laugh.

We know if we're making each other laugh, and we think it's funny - then it probably is.

It always appears like the comedy of these movies live off about 90% improv, is that really the case?

People use the term "improv" like you just throw things in and just make it all up. That's not what it is. You still have to accomplish something in the scene and that is in the script.

But you've got some pretty funny guys working. A guy like Vince Vaughn is such an unselfish guy, that he doesn't need to have the comedy all about him - so he'll often throw out lines [to others].

Like in the Yoga scene, a lot of dinner scenes, in Jon's scene where he's getting a massage... and is hoping to get a little more than a massage... Vince was shouting a lot of those things for Jon to say. Things that we can say after Jon's character gets... uh, caught.

It's not the first time you've officially teamed up with Vince Vaughn...

We have collaborated for a long time, we've been buddies for 20 years.

There is some pretty funny footage on Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show which shows yourself and Vince teaming up when you were quite young.

That's a true story, we met on an After School special. It is one of those things that would come on in the afternoon in the States, and would deal with a social issue like "Teen Pregnancy" or something like that.

And in mine, I played a kid who was on steroids because I'd joined the Track team and wanted to be faster. Vince played my best friend who tried to get me "off the juice".

[Laughs] It's just not the way to go Peter, it's just not the way to go - safety doesn't take a holiday...

[Laughs] I know! That's what I found out - I got the pimples, I had a heart attack, I went on the entire journey! [Laughs]

[Laughs] We never really had those in Australia, the closest we got were episodes of Degrassi...

Well there's not a lot of notoriety or prestige that came from doing them, but Americans remember them fondly because it's a genre that is long gone [Laughs].

It's a very under-rated genre too, because there are Degrassi episodes that still stick firmly in my mind...

As a kid, I liked them, I was a fan of them - because they really did bring issues to life. It was like "Man! Nancy got pregnant" and then you'd be like "Yeah - and I heard Susy got pregnant too". [Laughs].

You could totally relate but they were very extreme and always had to end with the last four pages, it would always be with the doctor - or a person would intervene and explain what the horrors of your life choice were. [Laughs].

The case for me was that I was kind of finishing my acting career and Vince was just starting, so he was just taking any parts in Hollywood that he could. So we met on that and struck up a nice friendship... even then you knew he was going to be a star because he was just so funny.

Which of your own body of work were you most proud of - but didn't necessarily get the credit it deserved?

Well, my road as an actor was a different one because I did so many big movies that you've probably never even heard of. And these were big movies coming out of the States that were real flops.

The one movie I did that was a small movie was called A Christmas Story, and that became one of the more popular movies in America over the last 25 years.

So it was kind of the reverse, where I did Paternity with Burt Reynolds and a movie called Honky Tonk Freeway directed by John Schlesinger. These were movies with a lot of hype, everyone saying "This thing is going to make you a star"... and they did not perform well at all.

Of those, I kind of liked those, but it was cool to be a part of the movie that was really tiny that became the big one.

And the one you're most embarrassed of?

I'm proud of those After School specials, [Laughs], but it's kind of humiliating to watch them. Because I have a scene where I really break down and cry, and I try and fight Vince, but he hugs me and tries to tell me it's going to be ok.

And he still beats you in the fight, even thought you've been on the 'Roids... I think you got ripped off.

[Laughs] Well, he was 6' 5" - and even though I was jucin' I was only 5' 7"... so it's kind of hard for me to get there. [Laughs].

Before we go, we quite like the idea of rumours starting from people being misquoted in interviews - so just for us - is there a particular myth we could perpetuate about Peter Billingsley...

Did you remember hearing the old - I think Mythbusters did it - that I was apparently the kid who had drank Coke and ate Pop Rocks and my stomach had gotten upset.

They actually said that was you?

Yeah! They said it was me for a long time [Laughs]! I had to actually had to debunk a myth that already existed.

That was floating around for a long time, and then it shifted from me and went to another child actor. So I don't know why they were coming after my crew...

For some reason they thought I was the kid who drank Coke, ate Pop Rocks and my stomach had blown up - so, I don't think I could make up anything better than that because I actually had one [Laughs].

COUPLES RETREAT sails into Australian Cinemas October 8th 2009