Paramount Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
‘Tommy Boy’ Director Peter Segal Shares Major Movie Secrets on Beloved Film’s 30th Anniversary
Where has the time gone? Tommy Boy director Peter Segal shared some major secrets from the beloved movie on its 30th anniversary.
The script for the road-trip buddy comedy starring David Spade and Chris Farley was only two-thirds written when filming began, Peter, 62, told ReMind in an interview published on Monday, March 31, three decades years after the iconic flick hit theaters. Fortunately, the men’s comedic skills led them to be fearless and forge ahead.
“I think they had more guts than me because every week at SNL, you’re starting with a blank page, and by Saturday, you have 90 minutes of live television,” Peter said of David, 60, and Chris — who died in 1997 at the age of 33 — as they were huge stars on Saturday Night Live at the time the movie was filmed in 1994.
“So not having a complete script I don’t think phased them that much, because Spade is such a great engine of ideas and improv, and he would serve up a pitch to Chris and Chris would knock it out of the park,” the director continued.
As to how the film came about shooting without a completed script, Peter told the outlet, “[The original writers] went off, it was too big an assignment for them. They had actually sold another show and they went off to do that, and I was sort of left there.”
The Second Act director confirmed that the original screenplay was a mere 66 pages when filming got underway, enlisting the help of comedian and screenwriter Fred Wolf to help complete the project.
“Fred Wolf came in to help me and just the way it worked, we only had that number of pages by the time we started filming,” Peter recalled. “I said, ‘This is insane. We’re going to be making this up.’ It’s like laying out train tracks in front of the locomotive every day, but that was the challenge.”
Because David and Chris were still working on SNL at the time Tommy Boy was filming, their need to go back to New York City for the show allowed Peter and Fred, 60, to work on the script.
“The guys had to fly back and forth and when they were in New York, that gave me and Fred a couple of extra days that week to write. So, by the time they would come back on Wednesday, [Fred and] I might have Monday and Tuesday to ourselves, so also with the weekend, there’s four days right there [to write]. That’s how we inched forward making this,” Peter dished.
The Longest Yard director recalled how David and Chris’ close real-life friendship made them acting gold.
“Their chemistry, you could feel it was palpable,” Peter explained. “They adored each other, but they were also kind of like an old married couple. They would get into arguments. I remember one time, Spade went out to dinner with Rob Lowe, and Farley got jealous. He was a jilted lover, [saying] ‘How was your date with Rob?’ And they argued about it the next day, and I’m like, ‘Guys, let’s get back to work. What’s going on here?’”
“But they absolutely adored each other. I think this was their best work together,” Peter gushed of the comedic duo. In addition to Tommy Boy and SNL, David and Chris costarred in the 1996 comedy Black Sheep. Sadly, Chris’ career was cut short when he was found dead in his Chicago apartment following a drug overdose in December 1997.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Closer Weekly does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
