Night At The Museum 2
Night at the Museum was a worldwide smash in 2006 when it grossed over $574 at the global box office. But with a nice tied up and happy ending to hear that Ben Stiller and co were back for a second film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian came as a bit of a surprise.
When the Museum of Natural History is closed for a refit, its exhibits are wrapped up and shipped off to the legendary Smithsonian Institute in Washington - home of Al Capone's mug shot, Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days and a few million other priceless items.
In hot pursuit is Larry Daley (Stiller), who's been sent to keep an eye on his magical museum archive. It's business as usual for the hapless Larry as he tries (and fails) to keep his unruly exhibits under control.
Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais and new boy Hank Azaria all descended on Claridges Hotel to discuss returning to the franchise, new characters and what lies ahead.
- There’s a very sweet line in the film ‘happiness is doing what you love with people that you love’ and I was wondering if the three of you endorsed that and if so why did you still go ahead and make this movie?
Stiller: Yeah definitely that was the idea behind the movie we had to find a way to start the second movie, because everything was so happy at the end of the first movie, we had to figure out the problem to start the next one with. The idea that Larry becomes successful and all the problems that come with success, that has drawn him away from his true happiness, success doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.
Gervais: I did it for the movie.
Azaria: If you are asking me if I’m in love with Ben and Ricky then the answer is yes and I did fall in love with them through the course of filming.
- Ricky I wondered if you had asked Carl Pilkington for his insight into the prospect of the museum coming alive at night, I think the whole surreal premise would suit him.
No he would say ‘it’s a bit weird isn’t it’ and that would be it. We did an audio book recently about the English for St. George’s Day and Carl was annoyed that St George was a saint because that if he was around today and he killed a dragon he would have PETA on at him everyone would say why did you kill that dragon.
And I said to him that the dragon was metaphorical he said ‘What’ and I said that there wasn’t a real dragon and said: ‘you don’t believe in dragons but you believe in dinosaurs?’ Well yeah because there is fossil evidence so it wouldn’t faze him at all.
- Hank I was just wondering how many voices you settled on before going with the one that you did, for the Thinker as well?
The Thinker was definitely written to be stupid and the thing about Abraham Lincoln I did temporary versions on them on set, just so we had something to animate to, and they ended up using them. We tried a bunch of different things and Abraham Lincoln was hard because you had to be reverential but also make him funny so the dignified ones weren’t funny and the funny ones were too silly.
I got kind of addicted to recording Abraham Lincoln I never wanted to stop and I wanted to keep going and Shaun would say ‘no you are cut off that’s enough it worked it’s fine.’
We tried a bunch of different versions of the Kahmunrah I did five or six for a camera test and then right at the end, for a joke, I was like ‘what about Boris Karloff he would have been a good mummy if he was still alive?’ I still can’t believe they actually used that.
- How do you feel about Night at the Museum 3 if all goes well with this does it get any bigger than the Smithsonian?
Stiller: I think, I don’t know, the second one we had to figure out a reason why the movie would happen, and I felt that we really figured that out. The third one, the idea of doing a third one is great it would be really fun, it would just be having to figure out something that would sustain itself and there are a couple of ideas floating around if people want to see a third one. Working with these guys again would be great but I don’t think it’s getting bigger but just different.
Gervais: Just a normal museum where nothing comes to life an it’s all about the admin, just naturalise it a little but more.
- Working in a museum at night is quite a boring job so before you got into acting what kind of jobs did you have that were quite dull or what part-time jobs did you have when you were younger?
Stiller: I was a bus boy and a waiter, a really bad waiter and bad bus boy, I waited on Dudley Moore once and I was really interested in what he was saying and I kept coming over, and I think I annoyed him.
Gervais: Why, because you were hovering? (laughs)
Stiller: I was hovering, it was Dudley Moore and I wanted to hear what he was saying. I worked in a camera store when I a teenager and I worked as an assistant scuba diving instructor in Massachusetts for a couple of summers, and it all helped me in my career.
I was just a bad student, I liked Archaeology and I was interested in maybe being an archaeologist but I was such a bad student with such bad grades that I wasn’t going to get into any good colleges so I fell back on acting.
Azaria: I was a bus boy as well and I was really good one yeah I knew what I was doing, I could clear a table really well, but I was so bored I would try on accents, I noticed that people would look through you if you just sounded like everyone else, but if I went are you finished with this?’ (in an Italian accent) they would take notice and say ‘where are you from?’ So I worked showbiz into the job somehow.
My first was job was a bartender in LA, Ricardo Montalban was my first customer ‘scotch, little water’, but I have been fired from every job I have ever had besides acting.
Gervais: I worked in an office, I took notes.
- Ricky I'm Reading born and bred, still live there, do you come back to Reading often and do you discuss old haunts with the Reading contingent in Hollywood like Winslet.
Winslet (laughs) no no, I think she was born the other side of the tracks. I go back to Reading for funerals, more and more recently. I go back twice a year to see people still dotted around but only to visit family really.
Where did you used to go out there?
I didn't after dark obviously, it was like I Am Legend. We are actually in the middle of pre-production for a movie set in Reading, obviously we are not going to film it there it's too dangerous, we are filming in Hempstead (laughs) it's true. I had good times growing up, I enjoyed Reading and I got out when I was eighteen.
- The three of you are known as funny men so was it a riot on set and secondly were you distracted by Amy in those trousers?
Stiller: Yeah, I enjoyed the trousers I think she looked great in them and I was happy to be in scenes with her everyday she is great. We did laugh a lot and it was great to hang out with people that you admire. Ricky, of course, it's in his contract that he comes in for twelve hours does all of his work and that's it for all the two movies, how long were you there for a day?
Gervais: Two days I think, the first time was two days.
Stiller: It was very exciting, the first time he showed up it was very exciting, for weeks I had acting of nothing, running away from the dinosaur and there's no dinosaur, and there was no people to interact with. Ricky showed up one day and it was like oh my god.
Gervais: So better than nothing.
Stiller: Much better than nothing.
Gervais: Brilliant.
Gervais: On both films all my scenes were with Ben so it was just two days of me trying to put Ben off. And I got crazier on this one I sort of went into the first movie a bit blind and not really knowing how it was going to be from the page and when I saw it I was like 'oh I get it I can just go crazy.
I went over again for a couple of days and the character has just got madder and madder to the point that (laughs) Ben stopped the tape laughing and said 'that's ridiculous' and that is the nicest thing that anyone has ever said about my acting.
Stiller: He had just gone off on this crazy tangent about what my character was probably thinking, and he was doing this crazy cowboy character, and it was so far from reality that I had to say something. So it's always exciting to work with these guys, Hank and I have been friends for a long time.
Then to just sit about in between takes with Christopher Guest and Hank talking about comedy and we all look up to Chris as a comedy god and he's such a sweet guy, and I still don't believe that he is in the movie. So it was very exciting to have this group of people, and Robin too, he cracked me up many many times.
Gervais: No off switch, no off switch it's incredible it's just a machine. And I met Crystal the monkey for the first time, I didn't meet him last time.
Stiller: She is a she.
Gervais: She is the cleverest monkey in the world isn't she?
Stiller: She's not that clever, you know you give her some food. And she gets a little ancy at her time of the month too.
Azaria: Oh I didn't know that. I was honoured to be slapped, all that monkey really does is slap.
And I didn't realise that she was a she until you said that, I thought it was a he, and she really packs a little wallop that monkey no wonder you are over it, we were all delighted by it but you are tired of it.
Stiller: I'm not tired of it I think I resent her. I have a pavlovian reacting to being slapped by this monkey, the monkey is going off on a pavlovian reaction to slapping me by getting food and I get slapped and I want to kill the monkey.
Gervais: And there is your headline.
Azaria: Have you seen Ben working with the monkey have you seen it?
Gervais: Only for one day.
Azaria: He really does look miserable.
Stiller: I really hate the monkey slapping day.
Gervais: He hates children as well.
Stiller: No, no I like animals. It's just not the most exciting day of the shoot for me especially now that there's double, it's one monkey playing two parts.
Gervais: (laughs) He hates this monkey! Christopher Guest, Robin Williams, the monkey yeah whatever.
Stiller: I'm glad I do scenes with you.
Gervais: Brilliant thank you nothing, monkey, Ricky.
- Can I just bring you back to the question about Amy and her trousers.
Gervais: Well I only worked with Ben and the monkey and neither of them were wearing trousers, which is really weird, tiny little hairy legs and the monkey.
- Did they distract you when you watched the movie?
Gervais: I haven't seen the film. I have it's... brilliant. I only read my bit of the script.
Azaria: I was open with Amy about my distraction with her trousers I think I said something really clever like 'Nice pants.' She was like 'Yeah they really hug you from behind, if it works great if not I'm ok with it.' I think it's working!
- Hank there are a couple of scenes with you seated on top of the alleged goodies from the Smithsonian...
Azaria: I didn't know where you were going with that.
- If the three of you had to lift something from any museum to take home what would it be.
Gervais: Well we stole the mummies from Egypt so I would probably up those collections for the British Museum, I would go and steal other thing from other countries.
Stiller: Something valuable.
Azaria: Yeah I would find out what the most expensive thing was.
Gervais: Well I'm really into evolution so I would probably want Lucy the first Hominid.
Azaria: I thought you meant Lucille Ball.
Stiller: I just went to Egypt and I saw a King Tit's mummy I would take something like that, something really cool like that. You said you stole mummies what was that about?
Gervais: The British did we just worked them out and put them in the British Museum, we thought we will have that. If we have left any then it's yours.
It's like the world isn't it? We took what we wanted then America asked and we were like 'yeah have what's left'.
Stiller: Oh I see.
Azaria: I think I would go with the Hope Diamond.
Gervais: Can I change mine? I want a big diamond as well.
- What do you actually think of wax works and being immortalised as a wax work do you find it creepy or are you quite happy to have one made?
Gervais: Yeah I have been asked a couple of times to do thing like that, one was chocolate, and I just couldn't be bothered to sit there for three hours if they can do it from a photo they are welcome.
Azaria: They wanted to do a chocolate thing of you?
Gervais: Yeah, weird isn't it?
Stiller: What a full life chocolate sculpture?
Gervais: Yeah, chocolate wax.
Stiller: Hmmm.
Gervais: you could go round licking me, again. The best ones that I have ever seen are in this film, the first time I walked round they were much much better than the ones you see at the... the eyes looked real didn't they? You could give yourself the creeps looking at them.
Stiller: There's one of Hank because when you see him in the movie for the first time he is frozen so they made for that, and you hadn't yet come on the movie, and I was filming the scene where I was filming the scene where I discovered the frozen you did I email you a picture? It was just the creepiest thing it's my friend Hank but with glassy eyes and he's wax but it was full perfect... and you were bald.
Azaria: Really?
Stiller: Yes because you just had the hat. It's weird but I guess it's an honour.
Azaria: I was creeped out by the image of myself in wax it's really scary but it feels like you can talk to it or something, I tried.
- If you could choose an inanimate object to come to life what would you choose?
Stiller: Wow, that's a broad sweeping question.
Gervais: Give us two and a half hours, just hold on.
Azaria: I would like my car to come to life, a talking car.
Gervais: Yeah, like Knight Rider.
Azaria: Yeah, you could have arguments with it and scheme adventures up together.
Gervais: Do you want a talking car or do you want to just be like David Hasselhoff?
Azaria: I would like to bring David Hasselhoff back to life.
Gervais: (laughs) He would like you too.
Azaria: We would bring David Hasselhoff back to life.
- Ben you shared a scene with George Foreman did you observe his ability to take direction?
He took direction he was great, I was a little bit in awe because it was George Foreman. It was also one of those cool things where we had this idea to do an infomercial with George Foreman and then it happened and all of a sudden George Foreman was there.
- Was he nervous at all?
Stiller: No, he was great and so nice and positive and so big.
Gervais: He is amazing isn't he? He is actually amazing.
Stiller: It was pretty wild and it was great, he is a nice guy too.
Gervais: He was fighting until recently wasn't he? I think he had a world championship when he was fifty four or something, it's incredible. He has got such dignity as well because if it wasn't for Muhammad Ali he would have been the greatest fighter that had ever lived I bet he's thinking 'why were we both around then? How annoying.' He is amazing.
Stiller: And the grill too.
Gervais: The grill I would bring the grill to life.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is released 20th May.
Tagged in Ben Stiller