A single-minded lesson in love, lust and reality
The Age
Friday February 25, 2011
Cut loose for a week of extramarital sex, Owen Wilson finds being free is not so easy, writes Donna Walker-Mitchell. OWEN Wilson is midway through a hilarious anecdote from the set of his new comedy Hall Pass when he stops, rises to his feet and moves towards the french doors leading to a patio outside his Beverly Hills hotel suite."Is it OK if I open this?" he asks, pointing to the doors. "It's such a beautiful day and I'd like to get some fresh air." He opens the doors, sunlight and a cool breeze flow into the suite and he smiles.It was a little more than three years ago that Wilson, 42, attempted to take his own life at his Santa Monica house but the actor says life is now "wonderful", with girlfriend Jade Duell giving birth to son Robert in Maui on January 14. His film career is also back on track. This year, audiences will see him in the Bob and Peter Farrelly-directed Hall Pass and the Woody Allen comedy Midnight in Paris.Wilson also returns as the voice of racing car Lightning McQueen in Pixar's animated sequel Cars 2.If marriage is next for Wilson, Hall Pass is an unlikely lesson as it has an underlying message about the importance of love and marriage.Wilson plays Rick, a real estate agent in Rhode Island who loves his wife and children but wonders what it would be like to be single. Rick's best friend, insurance salesman Fred (Jason Sudeikis), feels the same way.Their wives, frustrated by catching Rick and Fred ogling and discussing women in public, make the bold decision to hand them a "hall pass" for a week.For seven days, the men are free to have sex with as many women as they wish no questions asked."I think guys have this idea they would be getting plenty of women out there if they weren't married," Wilson says. "That's not necessarily the case."Wilson became involved in Hall Pass when long-time friend Peter Farrelly asked him to read the script and offer some input. There was no plan for Wilson to star in the comedy."Often, when a friend gives you a script, you think, 'Oh gosh. OK, let me take a look at it,' and you make notes while you're reading it so you can tell them some nice things," Wilson says."But this one, it really made me laugh. It was only then we talked about me acting in it."The Farrellys, whose comedies include Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary and Shallow Hal, were keen to cast Wilson as a character moviegoers have yet to see. "We liked the fact he would play a dorkier guy than usual," Bob says.To help transform Wilson and Sudeikis, best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, into bored husbands, the Farrellys ordered them to stay out of the sun and not exercise."We wore our hair differently and they made us wear goofy outfits with pleats," Wilson says.In earlier drafts, the story had Rick and Fred heading off on the week of freedom while their wives stayed home, but when Peter Farrelly's wife Melinda read it, she offered a female viewpoint."My wife read the script and said, 'I hate the f---ing wives'," Peter says. "I said 'Why?' She said, 'If you get a hall pass, then I get a hall pass. Do you think I'd just sit at home and bite my fingernails?"'Thanks to Melinda, the wives, played by Christina Applegate and Jenna Fischer, head off for their own unshackled, week-long adventure.Hall Pass opens next Thursday.
© 2011 The Age
