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MICHAEL DOUGLAS:
“I remember seeing The In-Laws in 1979. This was a chance for me to do something goofy, which I why I wanted to do it. I’ve been involved with its development for about three years. I was looking to do something different, and I was so grateful and happy that Albert, who’s pretty picky whenever he steps outside of his own stuff, agreed to do it. .”
ALBERT BROOKS:
“I said (to Andrew Fleming), ‘If you want me to do this movie, I don’t want to drag the first one through the mud. The idea of two guys meeting like this can be done again, that’s not sacrilegious, but we’re not going to go to South America, we’re not going to have the dictator, so The In-Laws premise can live forever.’ The reason I took this role is because of Michael. I call him my virgin buddy, because he’s never done a buddy film and neither have it, so the chemistry was going to be different than Alan Arkin and Peter Falk’s chemistry. That at least sets it off on a different course.”
DOUGLAS:
“Albert is so distinct, so precise in his (comedy) timing. He’s a master at finding the right inflection or expression that makes the difference between getting a smile or laugh. My biggest problem on this picture was trying to keep a straight face, especially when Albert was doing his scenes with David Suchet.”
BROOKS:
“The goal is to get the script fixed so that it is okay before it goes in front of the camera. If you get to a place where you’re comfortable, then you can (adlib). There’s a scene with David Suchet in the hot tub, and one of the lines was said just as the camera was rolling, and it’s in the movie. He says, ‘There are certain things that only men can do together,’ and I say, ‘Like golf?’ But you don’t want to rely on adlibbing to fix something, because it’s too late once the camera is there.”
DOUGLAS on doing the stunts in the movie:
“Albert did everything. I did nothing. I learned my lessons from Arnold Schwarzenegger who has three stunt doubles.”
BROOKS:
“Every minute Jerry spends with Steve is terrible. He’s convinced this guy is a loser, then he’s convinced he’s a criminal and finally, some kind of lunatic.”
DOUGLAS:
”My only issue with my in-laws is that my father-in-law is two years younger than I am, so that’s cause for a unique arrangement. I call him pops, which really pisses him off.”
BROOKS:
“We lucked out on something, timing-wise. It’s very cool to have a French villain (Suchet) right now. Even George Bush wrote us a thank you note.”
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THE CONCEPT:
