”It`s a brutal business,” says John Cleese. ”Brutal and sadistic.” He pauses and grins. ”And lustful.”
No, the ex-Monty Python player isn`t talking about war but comedy, and specifically, the sort of farcical comedy that runs triumphantly rampant through his new film ”A Fish Called Wanda,” which will open in Chicago Friday.
Written by Cleese and directed by Charles Crichton, one of the most distinguished names in British cinema and a veteran of such Ealing Studio classics as ”The Lavender Hill Mob,” the film stars Cleese as a respected English barrister named Archie Leach who unwittingly becomes involved in the double-crossing skulduggery of some ill-assorted jewel thieves, played by Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and ex-Python comrade Michael Palin.
The result is, quite simply, a tour-de-force of comic invention and timing, and one of the funniest films to come along in recent years.
”But it didn`t come easy,” reports Cleese, who, at 6`5” and with piercing green eyes, is quite an imposing presence in the flesh. ”After 25 years, I`m not sure anymore if I have any totally original funny ideas and writing comedy just gets harder and harder.
”It took me a long time-several years-to write `Wanda` and stumble slowly, though not unhappily, through all the ideas and material before I could solve the puzzle and bring all the elements together so that they logically follow, one from another, in the most concentrated way possible,”
he explains.
”It should be like a spring. You spend the first 30 minutes winding it up and setting all the pieces in place, and then you should be able to press a button and let the whole thing run until the end without having to bring in any new elements.”
That ”Wanda`s” internal spring uncoils so elegantly is not only a tribute to its author`s skills and Crichton`s unobtrusive direction, but also a reflection of the inspired ensemble work between Cleese, Kline, Curtis and Palin.
Cleese himself is full of nothing but praise for his co-stars. ”Filming is a bit like war, and I find it pretty unbearable,” he explains. ”It`s very stressful, and incredibly boring and repetitive most of the time. Then you suddenly have to produce these bursts of energy and adrenalin and pray that you captured something. But on `Wanda,` all the difficulties were transcended because I liked the people I was working with so much.
”It was a very happy atmosphere on the set, with everyone directing everyone else-which naturally drove the director mad sometimes,” explains Cleese, who happily admits to telling Kevin Kline that his performance as the psychotic, Italian-menu-spouting Otto, ”should make Dennis Hopper`s acting in `Blue Velvet` look rather restrained. And I think he succeeded.
”Actually, I wasn`t as surprised by Kevin`s performance as other people appear to have been,” continues Cleese. ”After I saw him in `Sophie`s Choice,` I knew he could do all that crazy stuff, and after we appeared in
`Silverado` together, we became good friends and he was my first choice for the role. It`s just that most people have become used to seeing him play rather understated roles in films like `The Big Chill` and `Violets are Blue,` but I always felt he was perfect as a flamboyant clown. We must have spent about two years talking about the character before we finally got him about three months before we started shooting, and then it all just fell into place.”
The comedian feels equally fortunate in landing Jamie Lee Curtis as Wanda, the other American in the gang. ”I saw her in `Trading Places,` and thought, `Who is this extraordinary girl who is sexy, funny, wicked and likeable?` since the key thing about Wanda is that she is both wicked and likeable. And of course, Jamie and Kevin were invaluable in terms of helping me with their dialogue and making it convincingly American-although my producer, Michael Shamberg, says I have a great ear for American abuse.”
Cleese is similarly generous toward ex-Pythoner Michael Palin, who plays the stuttering animal-lover, Ken Pile. ”Again, his recent roles in `The Missionary` and `A Private Function` have tended to be underplayed, but he knew instinctively the level of intensity needed to portray this character,” comments Cleese. ”As for Charles Crichton, he was wonderful-when you can understand him.
”He`s 168 years old,” continues Cleese (he`s actually 78), ”and he`s got this funny way of mumbling so you have to listen to him very carefully to know what`s going on at all.” (At this point, Cleese launches into a deadly but affectionate send-up of the director.) It turns out that the pair have been discussing the possibility of collaborating on a film for the last 20 years-”but then, the gestation period of an elephant has never caused raised eyebrows in any true Englishman,” points out Cleese.
”We nearly did a film together back in 1969, but it all went wrong and we walked away from it. But I always thought he`d be wonderful to work with, apart from his mumbling. In the meantime, we made a lot of industrial training films together, and I told him, `Charlie, one of these days we must make a film on communication, and when we do, you must watch it endlessly.”
Miscommunication and the clash of cultures between the English and Americans in ”Wanda” are two of the key elements that so effectively tighten the comedy in the film, and they are also subjects dear to Cleese`s heart,
”especially since I`ve been married to two Americans.” (His first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and co-starred in ”Fawlty Towers.” He is currently separated from his second wife.)
”I think it was Winston Churchill who pointed out that the English and Americans are only separated by a common language, and of course that`s true, but I think it also goes far deeper than that,” continues Cleese.
”In England, we have what appears to Americans as a rather stuffy, conventional society, whereas the truth is that we`re totally eccentric and loony. And when we come here, to the home of individualism, we find instead a very conservative, conformist society. There are a lot of paradoxes there.
”Basically, I think that the English and Americans have a lot to learn from each other. I think we can learn from that American openness and receptivity to new ideas-that great enthusiasm. But Americans can also learn a certain skepticism from us, and a sense of ambivalence and irony.
”These ideas and my own love-hate relationship with both cultures were at the back of my mind when I wrote `Wanda`, ” adds Cleese. ”Jamie`s character frees me, and that`s an experience I`ve had in real life, meeting American women.
”At the same time, I make it obvious that America has its absurdities and excesses, as symbolized by Otto. He`s a totally ridiculous figure, bristling with lethal weaponry and without a shred of common sense.
”So it`s a critical view, but then all comedy is critical, isn`t it?”
says Cleese, ”and I really do care about America, you know. I even remember crying in 1968 when they elected Nixon and I lived here for nearly three years at one point in the `60s. Add in my American wives, and you can see there`s even more of a connection.”
Although, for most Americans, the comedian must represent the epitome of English humor, it`s surprising to learn that Cleese himself was largely weaned on American comedians-”I loved Jack Benny, Phil Silvers, George Burns, Danny Kaye. In fact, all my favorites were American apart from Chaplin and Stan Laurel.”
Born in 1939, Cleese grew up an only child in a small, provincial English town, and he readily admits that comedy provided, ”a useful social tool for a child who was very solitary, although never lonely. I wasn`t a good mixer, and my unusual height didn`t help either-I was 6`5” by the time I was 14. Thank God it stopped the same year. Anyway, I made the other kids laugh, that made me popular, and I felt more accepted.”
Over the years, despite his huge successes with the Monty Python troupe and his solo projects, Cleese has voiced increasing doubts about ”the role of comedy in society,” culminating in an announcement earlier this year that he would be retiring altogether from the field.
”I`ve been doing the same kind of comedy for 25 years now, and I`m just bored with it,” he says, ”although it`s only recently that I`ve begun to understand just how important comedy is. In the past, I tended to dismiss it because it didn`t appear to help solve any of society`s problems. Now I realize it does.”
Although the comedian may not now retire prematurely, he is definitely planning to take a long sabbatical from the comedy scene in order to finish a second book with psychiatrist Robin Skynner (their first collaboration was humorously and seriously titled ”Families-How to Survive Them”).
”I also want to write another script but perhaps something other than a comedy, and catch up on my reading,” adds Cleese, ”although that`s not easy. I still go to restaurants and happily sit on my own with a book, but invariably all these very nice people come over and say, `You look so lonely, would you like to join us?` I always want to say, `I`m happier than you are.` ”
