Meet Brian Robbins, Meet Dave, Meet Eddie Murphy (Twice)

By Quendrith Johnson
Fancast Movies

It’s hard to meet Meet Dave director Brian Robbins. Actually it takes two days and three tries. First, there’s pre-production on Wild Hogs 2, a follow-up to his wildly admired original Wild Hogs. Plus Robbins, 44, who started as an 80’s TV actor (Head of the Class), is now shooting Eddie Murphy in a new project, A Thousand Words, which makes movie number three together. Meet Dave is movie number two, where usually comic Eddie Murphy disappears as an alien drone character from outer space named Dave Ming Chang, who is not really a humanoid but an IFO (identified flying object) piloted by the prototype of the ship (also Eddie Murphy) in miniature, named Captain. If you got lost in space on that thread, see the poster: a little Eddie Murphy goes a long way… inside a big Eddie Murphy. He’s down with the ship, shall we say, since the premise of the movie is that tiny people, including Eddie Murphy, live in Eddie Murphy’s head telling him what to do. (We should all be so lucky.)

Anyway, writer/producer/director/actor/dude Robbins is one Brooklynite who certainly found his way around Hollywood. In doing so over two decades, he’s made some great movies (see film credits here) and TV shows, as producer and/or director or both. Shows like Smallville, One Tree Hill, and on to Welcome to Mollywood with Demi Lovato coming soon. But Meet Dave, opening July 11, is what we finally meet up to talk about. Brian has 20 crew members standing around waiting for him, because that’s what happens when you get good at Hollywood, you get hit with the most sought-after b-word for the A-list (hint: b-u-s-y):

Brian, can you tell that cool story about how the script came to you?
Brian Robbins: I’ll never forget it ’cause Eddie goes ‘what are doing after this?’ I was like ‘you mean tonight?’ He’s like ‘no. After this movie (Norbit).’ I said ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’m looking at a bunch of different things.’ And he said ‘I got this really cool script about this guy who is sort of a robot. I sort of see him as Peter Sellers in Being There - a very vacant, delayed reaction.’ I said ‘oh that sounds cool.’ He gave me the script, I read it. I thought wow, this is really interesting. I had never seen a human play a robot in a movie before. Usually when we make movies about robots, we build the robots, right? Here was a guy, an actor playing a robot. Which would be interesting, especially if that guy is Eddie Murphy.

Wait, is he a robot or a spaceship?
Well, he’s a spaceship. But I call him a robot. He is sort of like a robot. He’s a spaceship.

So he’s a robot and a spaceship?
He is being controlled by all these people inside of him.

Is that how we all feel, with all the people who control us, like the puppet/master kind of thing?
[Laughs] I don’t fell that way but I guess some people do. What it did was give (Eddie Murphy) the opportunity to play something he had never played before, which was unique. Then he also got to play the captain inside the ship, which is why the ship is in his likeness — because they built the ship in the likeness of the captain.

What’s the ship supposed to be made out of?
Uhhh. Very, very advanced alien technology from another planet that I can’t share with you.

Eddie Murphy has done a lot of these heavy costume pieces; he’s been on this shape-changing thing - you guys did that in Norbit too, right?
Yeah. Heavy make-up movie, yeah. (Meet Dave) wasn’t about the make-up; this was more about the attitude and the physicality. Eddie made an interesting choice early on, which was he decided that he was never going to blink as the spaceship. So his eyes are always open wide and staring.

Ouch. He’s also got that eye-cam happening, where there’s this oval view of everything; was that in the script or did you figure out how to frame it?
It was sort of the concept that myself and the production designer Clay Griffith came up with when we were designing the inside of the spaceship. It was (to) have the command center of the ship being the head, and the eyes being these view screens, which is how he saw out. We would shoot like the eye point of view. We would play those images back on the view screens inside - kind of complicated stuff.

Are you shooting something with Eddie Murphy now? The last thousand words someone says before they die - or something?
Or potentially die. A Thousand Words; basically Eddie plays a fast-talking sort of soulless guy who gets a curse put on him, and someone sends him a Bodhi tree. The tree has a thousand leaves on it; every time he says a word, a leaf falls off the tree. When the last leaf falls off the tree; the tree will and so will he. Unless he figures out how to enlighten himself.

The Bodhi tree is the tree of enlightenment, right?
Exactly.

There’s no good way to ask this, but did Eddie miss the premiere of Meet Dave?
Well, we were shooting. the premiere started at 7:30; we got done at about 7:15. He was in make-up; we were in Hollywood. We were in a location where we had to finish - unfortunately we ran long. I made it there just before the movie started. And unfortunately he didn’t… the movie played great the other night. I was so bummed that he wasn’t there. It played so well. (The premiere) was a great experience. The movie is funny, sweet and heart-warming. It plays across the board.

I know you guys have so much stuff coming up; are you and Eddie Murphy going to be a team?
We’re going to go on the road together — I’m going to be his puppet; he’s going to hold me on his lap. No. This is our third movie together. I just really, really enjoy working with him. He’s so talented. I’ve been such a fan from his SNL days. 48 Hours and Trading Places were movies that changed my life; I mean I knew every line. I would walk around performing them; so the opportunity to work with someone who was my comedic hero is a no-brainer.

Plus, you started out as an actor, Head of the Class, — I don’t know if you want to talk about your acting career at all — but transitioning from being someone on TV to someone who directs TV to someone who directs movies; that is not an easy leap for a lot of people. How did you make that leap to the other side?
I survived. Instead of going to rehab, I got to direct!

You’re not kidding are you?
I’m not. I always wanted to be a writer and a director. Very early on I realized that I wasn’t fulfilled enough creatively, to be honest, when I was acting. So I started writing. From there, I created these shows on Nickelodeon (with others). We basically decided to develop a movie (Good Burger) from one of our sketches. We staged a reading for the executives at Paramount. The studio said ‘we want to make this movie.’ I basically said I was going to direct it; they didn’t question it. That was my lucky leap. I got to make that movie; we did it for like pennies. We made a little money. From there Paramount and [then-Chairman of Paramount] Sherry Lansing gave me movies to direct –

So Sherry Lansing was the champion in your corner?
Absolutely. I mean, I really do owe her everything. She gave me that film and a couple others. She was a big champion of mine. You’re right, it was an amazing lucky jump.

Also, you must have seen a lot of people go down from your generation, actors specifically, like ‘okay, this person has this problem, that person is a problem’ - they were either dead or in jail or MIA. Was there an incident where you went ‘I don’t want my life to detonate like that?’
I never really looked at it that way. But when you’re an actor, in a way, you’re not really in control of your destiny. I know that is a weird thing to say. As a filmmaker, you’ll either succeed or fail; either the highs are really high or the lows are really low. It’s yours to win or lose. By the way, that doesn’t mean making a great movie means commercial success either. Sometimes your biggest commercial success come with not your favorite movies. And the other way around. Now I’m getting to make the movies I want to make. I so love what I do; I love the people I work with. I’ve worked with the same crew for four or five movies now. And to collaborate with someone like Eddie Murphy is a dream come true.

Wild Hogs 2 is in pre-production — can you talk about the Wild Hogs and Tim Allen?
I was making The Shaggy Dog with Tim. My company basically bought Wild Hogs as a pitch and developed it as a movie. It was pitched by Brad Copeland, the writer. As soon as the script came in, I knew that Tim was a big car-motorcycle guy. I told him about it, he said ‘that sounds great!’ I slipped him the script very early on. The project took on a life of its own — we heard John Travolta had read it and was interested. We flew to New York for a meeting with John; he signed on. People kept hearing about the movie. Then the Martin Lawrence thing came along. Martin Lawrence’s people called and said ‘Martin would really like to do this movie’ — we were like ‘really?’ We said (to the other actors) ‘would you like Martin Lawrence?’ They were like ‘yeah, get him.’ Bill Macy was the last guy who came aboard. We lucked out putting that cast together.

Bill Macy is a phenomenal stage actor; he has incredible range - that role was sweet.
He was great. He was the glue that made that movie come together for sure. They all were, but Tim was the first guy.

With a comedian like Tim versus Eddie, how do you work with their strengths - do you let them go organically; how does your process work when you’re directing them?
With Eddie, for me, it is all about setting him in situations where he has a comfort zone; or putting him in situations where I know he is going to score comedically, then letting him do his thing. I think Tim has a little bit more of a different process, more of an actor process — I guess Tim was a stand-up too. They both come at it from a comic sensibility.

Have you noticed with Eddie Murphy lately, a lot of his movies seem to be where he is in discomfort, in costume, or as a character; fighting against himself in the spaceship (Meet Dave); — his comedic personas at odds?
If you’re seeing that way, that’s probably smart. Because the best comedy comes from pain. But I’ll tell you the one thing about Eddie - he is a much more gifted actor than he has gotten credit for. He showed that in Dreamgirls. My gut is that the next chapter of his career will prove how incredible an actor he is. The performance that he is giving in A Thousand Words is a side of him you’ve never seen before.

So your films have only made $900 million worldwide — when are you going to break a billion?

Hmm.

Don’t you laugh at that stat - like no pressure on you, right, to be a billion dollar man?
Who came up with that stat? Do we know who came up with it? I can’t even talk about that — that’s embarrassing!

I know you’re doing a lot of broad comedies, some with Eddie Murphy, but in your next chapter what are your dream projects?
I just like telling great stories. A Thousand Words is totally different movie, it’s not a broad comedy. It’s really smart; it is (deep). But you know it is really about the stories that appeal to me. Like when I read Norbit, I totally saw it as a fairy tale. I know that might sound crazy. But I saw it as Norbit was Cinderella. That’s how I wanted to tell that story. Meet Dave, I thought, was a great movie to make for my kids — same reason I made The Shaggy Dog. I never know. I read a script; I see the movie come alive in my head. That’s how I make my decision. If I read a script and I don’t see the movie; I can’t make it. When I see the movie play out in my head and the scenes com alive, I get turned on; I want to make it.

I know you’re a producer on One Tree Hill; the hundredth episode just came up, what’s the story there?
Mark Schwahn, who is the show creator and executive producer, he wrote a movie I did called The Perfect Score with Scarlett Johansson. We had a great relationship. One Tree Hill started — he had written a script called Raven (to be made as a movie) — but I said ‘you could spend five years with these people.’ So we helped him set it up (as a TV show) at WB. The title of the show changed a million times.

Anyway, back to Meet Dave - when did you actually first meet Eddie Murphy?
For Norbit, I met him. I was scared stiff. I was completely intimidated; honestly he was one of my idols. The first month of Norbit I was scared every day. I was so scared.

Did you think he was going to fire you?
No, no, no. I didn’t think he was going to fire me — I was just in awe. I would walk on to the set, there’s Eddie Murphy. What can I tell him? “Mr. Murphy, uhm…” I have to do this job. As I got more comfortable, and the movie was turning out really well, I would show him edited sequences. He started falling in love with the movie; then we formed a bond — he started trusting me. He realized that I really got him, and shared a similar comedic sensibility.

He was at the cusp of those comedians when he was still in that ‘other’ category - the country was a lot different back then, right?
It’s approaching 30 years; to still be a box office star for 30 years! He’s one of the top five all time, I think. He’s had his highs and lows too, but he has managed to come back every time. He’s survived.