USA: WORLDWIDE PREIMIERE FOR 'BAD COMPANY' STARRING SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS AND CHRIS ROCK HELD IN NEW YORK

Record ID: 392782

  • Title: USA: WORLDWIDE PREIMIERE FOR 'BAD COMPANY' STARRING SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS AND CHRIS ROCK HELD IN NEW YORK
  • Date: 11th May 2002
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA (MAY 11, 2002) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FILM DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER SAYING: "They are both very brilliant and talented as you know. I think in Chris' case it was getting him to understand what a wonderful young actor he is, not just a comic. I think where Tony is concerned it was getting him to find a way to find a way to get their ta
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACQ04VHDQ4Y8ES8YC65QU13BPG
  • Story Text: Odd couple Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock pair up as CIA agents out to foil a nuclear plot against America in "Bad Company," which held its world-wide premiere at the Loews theatre in New York City pm Tuesday (May 04).
    The movie " Bad Company" brings the unlikely pairing of two of Hollywood's top actors Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock, bringing the "odd couple" element to a spy film setting.
    Anthony Hopkins portrays Gaylord Oakes, a veteran CIA agent who must transform sarcastic streetwise punk Jake Hayes, played by Rock, into a sophisticated, savvy spy replacing his identical murdered twin brother.
    As the plot unfolds, Oakes has nine short days to accomplish the "mission improbable" before having to negotiate a very sensitive nuclear weapons deal.
    As it happens, Hayes turns out to be a canny, wise young man, very industrious and equipped to be the perfect spy.
    The film is directed by Joel Schumacher, the man behind hits such as "Batman forever" and, "A Time to Kill".
    The biggest challenge of the film was to successfully combine the distinctive comedy of Chris Rock with the Academy Award- winning skills of Anthony Hopkins.
    "They are both very brilliant and talented as you know.
    I think in Chris' case it was getting him to understand what a wonderful young actor he is, not just a comic. I think where Tony is concerned it was getting him to find a way to find a way to get their talents to blend together. But he did not need a lot of help. They both did not need a lot of help. They can understand themselves very well, " said Schumacher.
    Hopkins said that when approaching the movie, he put his improvisational acting skills to good use. He said, "Chris likes to do a lot of of improve and that's fine. But if you don't have a basic scene, if you don't know that basic scene that's been written you can be all over the place and that wastes time. But once you know your stuff, know the text, then you can improvise in and around it. There are little throwaway lines. He's good at that, and I'm kind of good at that. I like to improvise. I always improvise in films anyway. As long as I know the basic structure of the text then I can -- if I'm confident in that then I'm free to do whatever I want with it."
    For Rock, working with Joel Schumacher was a great learning experience, one Rock enjoyed tremendously. Rock said, "You feel around the characters and -- you know every character is just an extension of you, it's just you if you were a spy. So you just have to find that part of you. O.K.
    If I was a spy, I would act like this, and but you know. Joel pushes here or there. It's looks like he's not doing a lot and then you see the movie and you go, "Oh, that's what he wanted me to do. And he was right."
    The movie opens across the U.S on June 7, 2002.
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