I immediately responded to it because I love that kind of romantic comedy.
I am always interested in taking black characters in genres that we are not typically seen in.
With Murphy attached, says Hudlin, Paramount Pictures putBoomerangon the fast track.
Credit: Everett Collection
I mean, Eddie Murphy in a romantic comedy?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: One of Marcus quirks is that he cant date a woman if she has unattractive feet.
So I have a very important question: Were those really Lela Rochons feet?REGINALD HUDLIN:No.
Paramount Pictures
Lela Rochon has beautiful feet.
We had our crack makeup department apply corns and all kind of terrible stuff on her feet.
We did not have a foot model we just jacked her foot up for the shot.
We must talk about Grace Jones, who is brilliant in the film.
Was the part of Strange written with her in mind?That was totally written for Grace Jones.
We had to get Grace Jones, there was no Plan B.
On set was she was fun and she took it all very seriously, right?
I was like, Grace, we only have two of those!
I remember Halle being completely unable to hold it together.
I said, So not panthers…well go with people.
I just thought okay, her with these beefcake enslaved men felt right.
That seemed to be the statement we needed to make.
And she started correcting her purr.
Its like this,Arrrrr, arrrr, arrrr!
Its like, Oh my God youre right they are the same persona, but different eras.
I said, This is a false choice.
Theres only one way to go we have to rock the mushroom outfit.
She laughed like, Yes, of course.
So that was not scripted, that was just wardrobe delivering one of the greatest of all movie outfits.
Were there, Eddie sees the suit, and we say, Action!
And we do like three takes.
The two days of shooting the Thanksgiving sequence were probably the funniest two days of my life.
[Laughs]
Eddie and John just came up with that interaction on the spot?Yes.
Its like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, thats what you saw.
You have the funniest people in the world.
If there was a day where it was Eddie and David and Martin?
This is a completely unbearable amount of funny.
We just started talking about that idea on Friday, and I thought about it all weekend.
I would just lay in bed laughing about the prospect of that idea.
Im like, Yes!
We had both been obsessing over it all weekend.
Eddie just free-styled on it beautifully…Spock Jenkins!
[laughs] Its so good.
So [withBoomerang] he could finally be more who he was as a person…
I was one of those people, I knew all those people.
It was like, lets just show the world we live in.
Eddie never wears a tie in the course of the film.
But you know what?
But theres a whole other world of people who dont sit around talking about that all the time.
We wanted to tell stories that hadnt been told yet.
Boomerangis available to stream on Amazon Prime.
