During Sundance, Fox Searchlight showed up for two of their films. One is the Tom McCarthy film “Win Win,” and the other was Miguel Arteta’s new comedy “Cedar Rapids.” They went all out with the “Cedar Rapids” promotion, too, installing a Brownstar Insurance office on Main Street, and that’s where I went to sit down and talk to the cast about their film.
I ran a bit of my conversation with Ed Helms about his upcoming “The Hangover Part II” here the day after the interview, but we wanted to hold onto the actual chat with Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Anne Heche, and Helms together until we got a little closer to release.
Well, the movie’s coming out on Friday, so I’d say it’s time, right? You can check out my review of the film if you’d like, and then check out this conversation with these actors, who obviously built a genuine rapport as they shot the film.
From the moment they all showed up in the room, they were chatting, joking, teasing me, kidding the cameramen. I have to assume, having seen the film, that John C. Reilly was sleeping one off somewhere, but these three more than made up for that.
We cover a number of topics in the nine minutes of the interview, including how that “The Wire” joke ended up in the movie, Helms and his exploration of the psychology of the nice guy, and more. When you’ve got three personalities like this in one interview, you don’t really manage them so much as you just try to stay afloat and keep up.
“Cedar Rapids” opens in theaters everywhere this Friday.