Play Ball!
''Fever Pitch'': How Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, and the Farrelly Brothers saved their movie when the Sox pitched them a curve ball -- by winning! by Daniel Fierman
Peter and Bobby Farrelly's loose adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel Fever Pitch � which stars Jimmy Fallon as a Red Sox-obsessed dweeb and Drew Barrymore as the girl who loves him � originally relied on the BoSox doing what they had always done. Losing. But what happened during 2004's World Series, of course, is the stuff of legend. The Sox won. And won. And won. And won. So the movie, which opens on April 8, got a surprise ending during filming in St. Louis during the fourth and final game. How do you come back from that? EW got the twisted brains behind There's Something About Mary and Stuck on You together with their two stars to talk Sox, stardom, and just how you save a movie when life rewrites the ending for you.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This movie seems like a dream job for two boys from New England. How did you end up landing it?
Bobby Farrelly - Well, we actually developed [a movie] two years ago called Curse of the Bambino and never got it made. So we heard this one was in production and we glommed on. We had to lobby to get it, though, because we were not the natural guys to do it. I have these visions of the studio asking, ''You guys know you can't put, like, sperm in Johnny Damon's hair or anything, right?''
Bobby Farrelly - Exactly. They pretty much did say, ''Eh, hey, you guys aren't going to go and do all of that stuff you do, are you?'' And we were like, No no no, we get it. It's a different beast and it called for a different approach. What about you, Drew? How does a nice girl like you end up with guys like the Farrelly brothers?
Drew Barrymore - Well, first of all, thank you for seeing me as a classy broad. Second, Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, and There's Something About Mary are some of my favorite [movies] ever. But the reason that I was really excited is that they're guys from Boston! They get that mentality and they've lived that life. Does that mean you were conscious of this totally insane Red Sox cult? Because I think some people might look at this movie and think Jimmy's character is over-the-top, but he absolutely isn't. Barrymore It's not over-the-top at all. The one thing that I didn't know when I first went to Boston was how defined this city was by their team. I mean, they wear emotional backpacks of pain! Jimmy, you grew up rooting for the Yankees, right?
Jimmy Fallon - Yeah. I grew up in New York, so it was the Yankees. I'm not remotely as obsessed as my character. But for your friends and family, this has to be a little like playing Darth Vader. Fallon - It's just a movie, you know? I think they'll figure it out. It's like, Michael Jordan didn't really play with the Looney Tunes. [Pause] I actually just found that out yesterday. [Laughs] What was the moment like when they won? Because on the one hand, Pete and Bobby, it's something you've been waiting for your entire lives to happen. On the other, it totally messed up the movie.
Peter Farrelly - It was perfect. Just perfect. The movie had this bittersweet ending and suddenly we had a fairy-tale ending! You know, [Red Sox principal owner] John Henry wrote me a Christmas card this year and he said, ''When I first read your script, I thought the ending was just so-so, so I worked to get you a rewrite.'' [Laughs] Did you ever even consider the possibility that they might win?
Bobby Farrelly - There were guys at the studio, people who we respect, who were saying it would be an unmitigated disaster if they won. Because it would screw up the whole movie.
Peter Farrelly - Right, because it's about a guy who roots for a team that never wins.
Bobby Farrelly - But then as it did happen, we were like, Wait a minute. This is awesome! What were we thinking?
Fallon - I don't even think Boston fans thought they could win. We were like, ''Dude, we've got to rewrite the script � what if they win?'' And the Boston guys were like [in pitch-perfect Boston accent], ''Don't worry about it buddy. It'll never happen. Trust me. I've been through this every year.'' How did you manage to get on the field in St. Louis to shoot immediately after Game 4, when the Sox won the World Series?
Peter Farrelly - A total lack of planning. The studio gave us one chance. We went for just Game 4, knowing that no matter what, we were going to come back to the set [the next day] in Toronto. We shot that day until noon and boarded the plane with just eight people.
Barrymore - I was like, We're going to jinx it just by flying down there.
Fallon - We were in costume on the plane, totally ready to go. Drew did my makeup on the way down there.
Peter Farrelly - We didn't even take our director of photography. We had no tickets. No passes. Nothing. Luckily, Fox was broadcasting the game and it was a Twentieth Century Fox picture and we knocked on a trailer outside the stadium and there was this director...
E - ou're kidding me.
Peter Farrelly - No! And we said, ''Listen, we're making a movie, is there any way, I mean, how many cameras do you have for the game?'' And he said, ''Twenty-one.'' And we said, ''Could you spare one at the end?'' And he says, ''Yeah, sure!'' And so he gives us a camera and a three-man crew.
Fallon - Pete was giving us direction by the hot dog vendors and the beer stand. It was like guerrilla filmmaking.
Bobby Farrelly - But we never wanted Fox to show [Jimmy and Drew on the field] that night. It was so unplanned that Drew's boyfriend [Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes] was sitting at home watching it on TV and he was like, Drew and Jimmy have run off together!
Barrymore - That was pretty, uh, awkward.
Peter Farrelly - He called her and was like, What the f--- is going on?
Bobby Farrelly - We had to call him the next day and explain. [Laughs]
DATE WITH DESTINY Fallon wooes Barrymore
There's already a British version of Fever Pitch that hews pretty closely to the Nick Hornby novel. Did Hornby have any role in this adaptation?
Peter Farrelly - Well, to be perfectly honest, Nick didn't get involved. He was basically like, ''Go ahead, God bless ya.''
Barrymore - But having his name on it was this huge imprint of class.
Bobby Farrelly - And this isn't one of those adapted screenplays where you pull the dialogue out of the book. [Screenwriters] Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz just took the concept of a love triangle between a guy, a girl, and a team and completely rewrote it. For you guys, that counts as pretty damn conventional.
Peter Farrelly - Well, we wanted to kill her at the end, but the studio wouldn't go for it. [Laughs] Seriously, though, it wasn't a conscious decision, because Shallow Hal and Stuck on You were both PG-13, and if anything we were looking to go the other way. Until we read the script and then we were like, Awww s---, we gotta do this. You haven't gone soft on us, have you?
Bobby Farrelly - Hell, no. We haven't gone soft, and there has been no growth. This I assure you.
(Additional reporting by Chris Nashawaty)