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Ben
Stiller & Owen Wilson chat with Villanova reporters
Eileen Rafferty ’06 & Elizabeth Solly ’05
To generate publicity for their new film “Starsky
& Hutch,” on Feb. 24 Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson participated
in an executive teleconference with several collegiate newspapers and
radio stations across the nation. Selected participants, including these
reporters—Rafferty and Solly— from Villanova University’s
Office of Communication & Public Affairs, each posed one question
to the popular film actors and listened to the pair’s responses
to questions from other twenty representatives.
The questions the actors answered ran the gamut from the inquisitive details
of the movie-making process to similarities between the actors in relation
to their characters to “if you could invite three people to dinner,
who would they be?” Stiller and Wilson answered each question with
candor and humor, often digressing to playfully mock one another. (And
for the record, Wilson would invite Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and
Picasso, while Stiller prefers the company of Nathaniel West, Elvis Presley
and Richard Nixon, although Heidi Klum was mentioned as a somewhat less
intellectual backup possibility).
These reporters, Rafferty and Solly, asked the celebrity duo to recall
the funniest thing that happened on the set. Stiller and Wilson responded
by recalling Will Farrell’s amusing scene: “He’s just
one of those guys who makes everybody laugh.”
Stiller and Wilson have recently released “Starsky & Hutch,”
a Warner Bros. comedy directed by Todd Phillips and co-financed by Warner
Bros. and Dimesnion Films. The film, a take-off on the 1970s comedy of
the same name, tells the story of two police detective partners, Dave
Starsky (Stiller) and Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (Wilson). With
the aide of an all-knowing street informer Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), the
two struggle with the tough cases their boss, Captain Dobey, assigns.
As a prequel to the television show, they share the tale of their first
big case, which involved a former campus drug dealer (Vince Vaughn) who
went on to become a white collar criminal.
Stiller and Wilson both have a substantial list of Hollywood credits to
their names: this is, in fact, the sixth film they have acted in together.
Other films starring the pair include “Zoolander” (2001, written,
co-directed, and co-produced by Stiller), “The Royal Tenenbaums”
(2001, co-written by Wilson), and “Meet the Parents” (2000).
The two have proven a natural comic duo in the past; in this performance,
Wilson’s dry, relaxed character complements Stiller’s neurotic
one. Their shared on-screen charisma reflects their real-life friendship,
an aspect they discussed during the call-in interview.
Other collegiate reporters were representatives from Berkley College,
Harvard University and the University of British Columbia.
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