To Be or Not To Be (Funny, That Is)

Steve Coogan on Getting Sexy with Hamlet 2

For actor and comedian Steve Coogan, success in the United States has been a little bit hard to come by. Even though he’s had important roles in films as diverse as Around the World in 80 Days, Happy Endings, Marie Antoinette, Hot Fuzz and A Night at the Museum, it is the double-whammy August releases of Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder and Sundance favorite Hamlet 2 which finally have people talking about the fitfully funny Brit over on this side of the pond.

Steve Coogan, Elizabeth Shue and Amy Poehler in Focus Features' Hamlet 2

“It’s great,” admits Coogan. “I’ve sort of been coming over here [to America] quite a lot and trying this and trying that to get something going, but to me it’s always been something of a little experiment or a hobby. I have a very healthy career in England; I could not bother to come at all and still chug along in England quite merrily. But it’s exciting and [there are] exciting people to work with, not just in terms of the potential to have material success here, but to have creative success as well.”

I sat down with the actor to speak about his staring role in the queer-friendly comedy Hamlet 2 but our conversation touched upon a variety of topics, including his explosively memorable cameo in Tropic Thunder as well as the current state of Hollywood comedy. But no matter what direction our chat traveled it always came back to the material, each of us agreeing that if the project doesn’t work on the page than nine times out of ten it certainly won’t on the big screen, either.

“Isn’t that always the case?” he semi-seriously asks. “Creativity is so important, so very important. As actors, you can only improvise so much because if the script isn’t [there] then nothing you do as an actor is going to fix the problem. Just look at the films released over here this year. I’m not actually sure if I’ve seen a good one. It seems like they’ve been waiting until August to release them all.”

All of which goes along way to explaining why Coogan was so enthusiastically drawn to director Andrew Fleming and co-writer Pam Brady’s screenplay for Hamlet 2. “I liked the fact that it [the script] was so odd, strange, weird and, at the same time, still quite traditional because it still kind of had that kind of uplifting arc to it. It was filled with all these [unusual] people and crazy subject matter in it and yet it still has that kind of inspirational sort of ending that many of those inspirational teacher movies always do.”

While I agree with him in general, I can’t help but point out the character he plays, failed actor and oddly clueless High School drama teacher Dana Marschz, isn’t so much a figure inside an inspirational teacher movie as he believes himself to be a teacher actually living one of those types of films for real. “True,” Coogan chuckles. “I guess you could say that. But it sort of becomes that sort of movie, anyway, even though at first he tells [the students] he’s going to [inspire] them, which, of course, is a sure-fire way to not inspire kids, telling them that you are going to.”

“But, because of that I think [Hamlet 2] works on two sorts of levels. It works as a satire and then it also works as being an actual inspirational teacher movie itself. When I read it I found it to be such a wonderful and odd combination of edgy, spiky comedy with quite risqué things in it, while at the same time it had a good heart. I just loved that tone.”

'Rock Me Sexy Jesus' as performed in Focus Features' Hamlet 2

I ask him if this is the same with the filmmakers, Fleming and Brady. The former was the man behind the hugely underrated political satire Dick, the latter a frequent collaborator of Trey Parker and Matt Stone who helped bring South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut to the big screen, and for the most part as been a signature of both entertainers work for quite sometime.

“[Their] personalities really come through in the script,” responds Coogan. “When I hooked up with them and we talked I realized we really connected on a creative level. We all made each other laugh at the same things, we all had the same tastes and made the same choices, so it was a real creative marriage that I think worked out beautifully.”

It’s a bizarre character, in many ways, leading me to wonder if there is anything the comedian would do in order to get a laugh or to make the character more three dimensional. “No, not at all,” he says unequivocally. “The one thing I’m not encumbered by is that I’m not bothered by looking cool or be appearing a certain way on screen. I really don’t care. It’s actually quite liberating. I’ll do whatever it takes, within reason, if it’s necessary. If I think it’s going to be funny and it’s going to enhance the movie I’ll do it, it’s as simple as that.”

Still, considering just how out of the mainstream and politically incorrect the picture is in many ways, the journey to its inaugural screening at Sundance had to be a bit uneasy. I ask Coogan about that, if he was worried how that first audience was going to respond or if he ever thought a major distributor would take up the challenge and pick up the film for release.

“It’s all a bonus to me,” he answers with a trademark smirk. “I never expect anything wonderful to happen and then everything is a surprise, everything is positive. Even though I really believe the movie is a good movie I always keep my expectations low so that way I’m never disappointed. It’s all upside for me.”

Coogan and Robert Downey, Jr. in DreamWorks' Tropic Thunder

And there has been plenty of upside at the moment for the actor. Tropic Thunder has garnered the most critical acclaim of any comedy released to theaters this year, while the heat on Coogan’s performance in Hamlet 2 is pretty much through the roof. There are those in Hollywood making noises that he’s on the verge of stardom, just don’t expect him to take those noises all that seriously.

“No,” he responds immediately. “I don’t take stock in that at all. As I said, [Hollywood] is an exiting place. What is really great is meeting creative people who I get to collaborate with, people like Pam [Brady], Andy [Fleming], Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Justin Theroux, people who are fresh faces. Meeting and working with them always kind of energizes you and their enthusiasm makes you even more enthusiastic about what you do again, it sort of revitalizes you, and you realize why you do what you do.”

“But, your statement?” he continues with a crookedly mischievous grin. “I don’t listen to that. I just do what I do because I love it, all the rest is a bonus. It’s like, if I didn’t get any work here my life wouldn’t fall apart. I’d just pack my bags and go home. I’m fairly well established there now. There very least you can say is that I’m not a flash in the pan because I’ve been around long enough to disprove that. I don’t think you could say I’m the flavor of the month. At the worst, I guess you could say I’m part of the furniture, but I guess that also means that people like me and they still want to see my shows so maybe being furniture isn’t so bad.”

- Portions of this article reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle